Who played Mrs Willoughby on I Love Lucy?

(S1;E26 ~ April 7, 1952) Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Filmed February 28, 1952 at General Service Studio. Rating: 70.4/90

“The Marriage License” was the first episode of any television show to be viewed by 10 million homes!

Synopsis ~ After taking another look at her marriage license, Lucy is not sure that she and Ricky are man and wife.

This episode is based on episodes of Lucy's radio show "My Favorite Husband" titled "Marriage License Error" aired January 21, 1949 and “Anniversary” aired April 16, 1950. 

On the Ricardos’ marriage license Ricky is accidentally listed as Ricky Bicardi. In real life Desi Arnaz's grandfather was one of the founding partners of the Bacardi Rum Company. Lucy wonders aloud if she might be married to a rum factory. (The writers spell the name slightly different than the company.) Legally, the marriage license probably should have listed Ricky's full name Ricardo Alberto Fernando Ricardo y de Acha, not just Ricky Ricardo (or Ricky Bicardi).

Lucille Ball believed in keeping close to reality so the writers mention the Byram River Beagle Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, where the real-life couple had eloped on November 30, 1940. At the time, Desi was in New York appearing at various nightclubs, and Lucy was busy promoting a film. Just the same way Ricky has to get back for rehearsal, Desi had to perform that night so they went back to the NYC where he carried Lucy over the threshold of his dressing room. He brought Lucy out on stage with him, and the audience threw rice. Lucy and Desi would later have a second wedding ceremony on June 19, 1949 at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in California.

When telephoning City Hall about the error on her license, the operator first directs Lucy to the Tailwaggers, thinking she is inquiring about a dog license. The Tailwaggers Club was an animal welfare organization founded in 1929. Bette Davis was the first president of its Southern California branch. In 1972 it became The Tailwaggers Foundation, which still operates today.

After finding out that their marriage license has been revoked (thanks to Fred's friend at City Hall), Lucy goes on a twelve hour walk to East Orange, New Jersey. “How I ever got through the Holland Tunnel, I don't know.” East Orange and the Holland Tunnel will be mentioned again three years later in “Lucy Learns to Drive” (S4;E11). Reportedly, she tried to make a u-turn in the Holland Tunnel resulting in traffic being tied up to East Orange, New Jersey. 

When Ricky mutters in Spanish after Lucy heads downtown, this is the first and only time that subtitles broadly translate what he is saying. The rather large-sized text says “She's nuts!” but the actual translation is: “Oh, this woman is completely crazy. Married for ten years and every year it gets worse and worse and worse.”

BERT WILLOUGHBY: “We licked 'em in '98 and we can do it again!”

Later in the episode, Mr. Willoughby hears Ricky's Spanish tirade and calls him a spy, thinking he is speaking Russian! Spy paranoia was also the subject of “New Neighbors” (S1;E21) just a few weeks earlier. When Lucy corrects Mr. Willoughby that Ricky is speaking Spanish, not Russian, he says that “We licked 'em in '98 and we can do it again!” He is referring to the Spanish–American War of 1898. Six years later in “Lucy Wins a Racehorse” (1958), Fred will make a similar reference when he compares Ricky's explosive temper to the 1898 explosion of the Battleship Maine, the event that kicked off the war. 

Ricky says it is a 125 mile drive to Greenwich, but we never learn where the car they drive comes from. Much is made of their buying a car to drive cross country in season four, but it is not likely that city dwellers like the Ricardos owned a car in season one. Whether it was rented or owned, it later cost just $3.25 to fully gas up the mystery vehicle.

Why didn’t Lucy and Desi  get married in New York, where they both lived and worked?  

Connecticut then had a shorter waiting time to get married and even that period was waived by the officiant. Greenwich is right over the New York border and the first town you hit driving from NYC. The Byram River Beagle Club was also a favorite hang out spot of Babe Ruth. History has this place as a speakeasy during prohibition days. Other than that it was used originally as a hunt and kennel club and hosted many horse shows. The last few decades it was used as a single family home before being razed. Little did the Ricardos know when they married in Connecticut they would move to the state in 1956. 

Unlike Lucille and Desi, on “I Love Lucy” Lucy and Ricky never reach the Byram River Beagle Club because Ricky forgets to put gas in the car!  Also, Lucy purposely left Ricky’s wallet at home to mirror their first wedding. So there are no scenes set at the Club, just at a bench in a wooded area and at the Eagle Hotel. 

Oops! Actually, it's roughly 30 miles from East 68th Street in Manhattan to the site of the Byram River Beagle Club, not 125. In addition, the location reverted to its original use as a private home around 1950, so by 1952 Lucy and Ricky would be trespassing!  Lucy says they could “stay overnight” at the Club, when in actuality, it was not an Inn. 

This is the first time the series gets out of New York City and we actually see trees and grass - even if they are just scenery on a Hollywood sound stage. Except for a short scene in Central Park during “Lucy's Last Birthday” (S2;E25), we don't see nature again until “The Camping Trip” (S2;E29).

When Ricky bungles his second marriage proposal, Lucy wounds him by saying she wouldn't marry him if he were Xavier Cugat. Although the real-life Latin-American bandleader had employed Desi Arnaz in real life, on the series he was Ricky's professional rival.

When Ricky rushes to follow an angry Lucy, the picnic basket opens, spilling the contents onto the ground, just the way Lucy's suitcase does when Ricky is rushing his pregnant wife out of the apartment in “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (S2;E16).

When Ricky rushes to follow an angry Lucy, the picnic basket opens, spilling the contents onto the ground, just the way Lucy's suitcase does when Ricky is rushing his pregnant wife out of the apartment in “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (S2;E16). Lucy and Ricky stay at the slightly run-down Eagle Hotel managed by Mr. Bert Willoughby. The hotel and its eccentric proprietor are vaguely reminiscent of One Oak, the even more run-down hotel managed by the even more eccentric Mr. Skinner in “First Stop” (S4;E13). Rooms at the Eagle costs $4 a night while cabins at One Oak cost $8 per couple. Although the Eagle Hotel is likely a writers invention, there is an exclusive private school in Greenwich called the Eagle Hill School. 

FOR A LOOK AT ALL THE HOTELS THE GANG STAYED AT, CLICK HERE! 

The calendar behind the Eagle's front desk says 1952, but the month has been purposely taped over. The episode was filmed on the last day of February, and not not aired until the beginning of April. Because Saturday the 1st only happened twice in 1952, it is likely that the month is March. Another redaction at the bottom center of the calendar is likely the logo of the business that distributed it. A photo tacked to the wall has been occasionally reported as a real photo of Lucy and Desi during World War II, but the resemblance to Lucy and Desi is not very strong and it does not match any other known photos of the celebrity couple.  

A not-so-subtle plug for sponsor Philip Morris is worked in when Mr. Willoughby dons his bellboy cap. He shouts out the familiar call of their living mascot Johnny Roventini, but stops short of the full slogan: “Call for Philip --- Gosh, I've heard that a thousand times but I just can't remember what that fellow's last name is.”

LUCY: “The real business in this town is selling hats!”

Irving Bacon (Bert Willoughby) was a minor character actor who appeared in hundreds of films, mostly as bewildered small-town blue collar workers. He appeared in three Best Picture Oscar winners: It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1938), and Gone with the Wind (1939). In 1939 alone he made 35 films. Additionally, he was in a total of seven films with Lucille Ball. He returned to the series as Ethel's father, Will Potter, in “Ethel's Hometown” (S4;E15), despite being only eight years older than Vivian Vance. He died three weeks before his last TV appearance – an episode of "The Dick Van Dyke Show” on February 24, 1965.

MRS. WILLOUGHBY: “I’m the mayor!”

Elizabeth Patterson (Mrs. Willoughby aka “Mother”) returned to the series a year later in the recurring role of Mrs. Trumbull, the Ricardos’ next-door neighbor and Little Ricky’s baby-sitter. The daughter of a Confederate soldier, ‘Patty’ (as she was known) started making films in 1926 with The Boy Friend, in which she re-created the role she played on Broadway the year before when it was called The Book of Charm. From 1913 to 1954 she appeared in 26 Broadway plays. She appeared in the 1941 film Tobacco Road, which also featured her co-star in this episode, Irving Bacon. She died in 1966 at the age of 90.

"I Love You Truly" was written by Carrie Jacobs-Bond and first published in 1901. It was sung in the film It's A Wonderful Life (1946) and was frequently heard on TV (often satirically). It was one of the earliest songs composed by a woman to sell over one million copies. 

FAST FORWARD TO THE VOWS!

Lucy Ricardo pretended to marry Milton Berle to elude Las Vegas jewel thieves in a 1959 Milton Berle special, one of the few times Lucille Ball played Lucy Ricardo outside of “I Love Lucy.”  

In the movie theatres, Lucy got hitched several times. Here are Nicky and Tacy Collini in the film The Long, Long Trailer (1953). 

They were also newlyweds in the 1956 film Forever Darling. 

Lucille Ball was also a bride in the 1968 film Yours, Mine and Ours, but this time she was married to Van Johnson and wore blue!

Mame Dennis wed Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Robert Preston) in 1974′s musical Mame. The marriage didn’t last long. He was killed in an avalanche on their honeymoon!

As Mother Willoughby, Elizabeth Patterson shouts “Weeee!” as she throws rice at Lucy after her wedding ceremony. 

In 1953′s “Lucy’s Last Birthday” (S2;E25) Elizabeth Patterson (now playing Mrs. Trumbull) shouts “Weeee!” as she threw confetti at Lucy during her birthday party.

Viv Bagley (Vivian Vance) sings a few bars of “I Love You Truly” when Lucy’s daughter “Chris Goes Steady” (TLS S2;E16) and it looks like a proposal may be imminent. 

Lucy Carmichael throws a wedding for her sister Marge (Janet Waldo) in a 1963 episode of “The Lucy Show.” 

Lucy Barker and her sister Audrey (Audrey Meadows) help her daughter Margo and son-in-law Ted renew their vows in a 1986 episode of “Life With Lucy.”

To make a few extra dollars, Lucy Carter becomes a wedding arranger to throw a big fat Greek wedding in a 1970 episode of “Here’s Lucy.”

The Franklin Mint commemorated this episode with a 16" vinyl Portrait Doll with articulated arms.

The Republic of Mali commemorated the episode with a sheet of colorized postage stamps. 

In 2001, a Polish remake loosely based on “I Love Lucy” titled “Kocham Klara” (”I Love Clara”), presented “Marriage Revision” loosely based on this episode and co-written with the cooperation of the original “I Love Lucy” writers.  

While cleaning her desk, Clara finds their wedding record and discovers with horror a mistake in her husband's name. Together with Hanna, he wonders if their marriage is important, since, according to the birth certificate, she is not Cuba Zalapski's wife, but Cuba Zapalski's wife. So he goes to the Registry Office to find out. Cuba, who plays down the mistake in his name, decides to make a joke to Clara and calls his friend Jan, who works in the office. Desperate Clara returns home with information that their marriage is not valid. She decides that they must get married again, but before that, Cuba must propose to her again in the same place as before.

#I Love Lucy#Lucille Ball#Desi Arnaz#Lucy#Ricky#Ricardo#Wedding#Marriage#1952#Barbie Doll#CBS#TV#Ricky Ricardo#Lucy Ricardo#Fred Mertz#Ethel Mertz#Vivian Vance#Elizabeth Patterson#Irving Bacon#Byram River Beagle Club#I Love You Truly#East Orange#Tailwaggers#Holland Tunnel

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