Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz in "Stars in the Eye" with Jack Benny 1952

CBS special 'STARS IN THE EYE' (Nov. 11, 1952). This show contains mostly all of CBS's stars to help celebrate the dedication of CBS Television City in Hollywood. Lucy is seven months pregnant at the time, and has already retired from performing to await the birth of Desi Jr. on January 19th. Since the show is live and their biggest star (Lucy) isn't going to be available, the producers of I Love Lucy came up with a great solution. During the filming of three diffferent I Love Lucy episodes in the fall of 1952, an additional scene is shot featuring Jack Benny as an interfereing nudge, trying to get the Arnazes to appear at the CBS studio dedication. Desi does appear as himself LIVE on this special centered around Jack Benny. ~ Historically, this footage is an archival wonder! It is the only existing example of the cast, in costume and on the set, breaking character. (Synopsis from 'The Lucy Book' by Geoffrey Mark Fidelman). Note: Gale Gordon (who later played 'Mr. Mooney' on The Lucy Show in the 1960) also has a part in this special.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Lucille Ball
• Desi Arnaz
• Jack Benny
• Gale Gordon

[Dakotanjulie]

there these takes or something?

[sbmsalz2]

@Dakotanjulie ...This is a live show with an additional filmed portion from the 'I Love Lucy' set. They show Jack Benny visiting the set and upseting the filming trying to get them both do be on his tv show. It was all scripted of course.

[fromthesidelines]

Bob Sweeney is "Harry Ackerman", who was the real-life head of West Coast programming for CBS at the time (he later became an executive at Screen Gems/Columbia, serving as executive producer on several of the studio's sitcoms {"BEWITCHED", "THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER", "HAZEL", 'GIDGET", "THE FLYING NUN", et. al.}); Gale Gordon is "Hubbell Robinson", another prominent CBS West Coast executive. Gordon and Sweeney later co-starred in Desilu's "THE BROTHERS" (1956-'57).

[fromthesidelines]

Jack could not appear on "I LOVE LUCY" because of sponsor conflicts- he was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes, while SHE was sponsored by Philip Morris. A shame....

[K5678]

Where Can I get the outtakes

[bigred997]

i have the entire show. jack benny hosted it and it was a running gag with him throughout the spectacular to put together a guest list.

[yetdynamic]

agree, an incredible find!

[YELLOW42758]

This is phenomenal. Thank you so much.

[dannyrose55]

nice