Let's meet Vivian Vance

Our favorite next-door neighbor seems destined to always take a back seat to Lucy Ricardo, but not hear, not today. We're gonna give her all the space she deserves.

Here you go, everything you ever wanted to know about Vivian Vance!!

Name: Vivian Roberta Jones

Born: July 26, 1909 Cherryvale, Kansas

Died: August 19, 1979 Belvedere, California of Cancer

Parents: Robert Andrew Jones and Euphemia Mae Ragan Jones

Siblings: Venus; Dorothy; Maxine (Mickey); Robert, Jr.; Lou Ann

Married: Joseph Danneck, Jr. (divorced)

George Koch (divorced)

Philip Ober (divorced)

John Dodds

Film Appearances: The Secret Fury (1950, RKO)

The Blue Veil (1951, RKO)

The Great Race (1965, Warner Bros.)

Stage Appearances, Broadway: Music in the Air (opened November 8, 1932)

Anything Goes (opened November 21, 1934)

Red, Hot and Blue! (opened October 29, 1936)

Hooray for What! (opened December 1, 1937)

Skylark (opened October 11, 1939)

Out from Under (opened May r, 1940)

Let's Face It (opened October 29, 1941)

It Takes Two (opened February 3, 1947)

The Cradle Will Rock (opened December 26, 1947)

My Daughter, Your Son (opened May 13, 1969)

Television Appearances, Series: "I Love Lucy" (1951-1957, CBS)

"The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour" (1957-1960, CBS)

"The Lucy Show" (1962-1965, CBS)

Television Appearances, with William Frawley"Stars in the Eye" (November 13, 1952, CBS)

"The Milton Berle Show" (May

"Toast of the Town" (October 3, 1954, CBS)

"Show of Stars" (episode titled "High Pitch") (May 12, 1955, CBS)

"The Bob Hope Chevy Show" (October 24, 1956, NBC)

"The Desilu Revue" (December 15, 1959, CBS)

Other Principal Television Appearances: "The Lucy Show" (episode titled "Viv Visits Lucy") (January 9, 1967, CBS)"

The Lucy Show" (episode titled "Lucy and Viv Reminisce") (January 1, 1968, CBS)

"The Lucy Show" (episode titled "Lucy and the Lost Star") (February 26, 1968, CBS)

"Here's Lucy" (episode titled "The Matchmaker") (December 16, 1968, CBS)

"Here's Lucy" (episode titled "Lucy and Lawrence Welk") (January 19, 1970, CBS)

"Here's Lucy" (episode titled "Lucy and Viv Visit Tijuana") (January 26, 1970, CBS)

"Here's Lucy" (episode titled "Lucy Goes Hawaiian, Pt. 1") (February 15, 1971, CBS)

"Here's Lucy" (episode titled "Lucy Goes Hawaiian, Pt. 2") (February 22, 1971, CBS)

"Here's Lucy" (episode titled "With Viv as a Friend, Who Needs an Enemy?" (February 14, 1972, CBS)

"CBS Salutes Lucy: The First 25 Years" (November 28, 1976, CBS)

"Lucy Calls the President" (November 21, 1977, CBS)

Awards: Best Series Supporting Actress Emmy Award, 1953

Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actress in a Regular Series Emmy nomination, 1954. Best Supporting Performance by an Actress Emmy nomination, 1956. Best Continuing Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Dramatic or Comedy Series Emmy nomination, 1957.

An eerie, little known "I Love Lucy Fact"

The cast of "I Love Lucy" died in the order of their casting call. First Fred then Ethel, Ricky and finally Lucy.

Mertz and Kurtz.....Oh by Jingo?

Mertz and Kurtz—I Love Lucy season 4, episode 102, originally aired October 11, 1954



This is the episode when we finally get to meet Fred's old vaudeville partner, Barney (although he is referred to as "Ted" in a previous episode) as Lucy pretends to be the Mertz's maid to help Fred and Ethel keep up with all the accomplishes Barney has told them he has made since leaving the act. As it turns out, Barney hasn't really done to well, he's just a cook in a diner, and now his grandson is coming to visit so the gang arranges for him to headline in a show at Ricky's club.....also starring Fred, Ethel, Ricky and of course Lucy! Among some other musical numbers, at the dinner table....Fred and Barney treat us all to one of their oldies but goodies....."Oh By Jingo". I found the Lyrics for this song on line the other day and was flabbergasted. Here they are! Enjoy!

Song lyrics to ‘Oh, by Jingo’ - words by Lew Brown, music by Al Von Tilzer

In the land of San Domingo Lived a girl called Oh By Jingo
From the fields and from the marshes
Came the young and oh by goshes
They all spoke with a different lingo
But they all loved Oh By Jingo
and every night, they sang in the pale moonlight
Oh by gee by gosh by gum by Jove Oh By Jingo won’t you hear our love
We will build for you a hut
You will be our favorite nut
We will have a lot of little Oh By Gollies
And we’ll put them in the follies
By Jingo said “By gosh by gee
By Jiminy please don’t bother me”
So they all went away singing
Oh by gee by gosh by gum by Jove By Jingo By gee,
you’re the only girl for me.
Oh by gee by gosh by gum by Jove
Oh By Jingo won’t you hear our love
We will build for you a hut
You will be our favorite nut
We will have a lot of little Oh By Gollies
And we’ll put them in the follies
By Jingo said “By gosh by gee
By Jiminy please don’t bother me”
So they all went away singing
Oh by gee by gosh by gum by Jove
By Jingo By gee, you’re the only girl for me.

Lucy and her friend Mary Wickes

A great picture of Lucy, Viv Vance, Mary Wickes, Mary Jane Croft, Hazel Pierce, and Carole Cook in an episode of The Lucy Show.

Mary Wickes was a veteran character actress and comedienne of numerous stage and film performances. Some of her most memorable rolls include:
Emma the housekeeper in the holiday classic White Christmas
Nurse Preen in The Man Who Came to Dinner
and Sister Mary Lazarus in Sister Act

but, one of my favorite roll of hers was that of Madame LeMonde, the dance instructor who attempted to teach Lucy Ricardo the basics of ballet in a first season episode of "I Love Lucy". Lucy's antics opposite Mary were hilariously memorable (I can still see her hanging off that bar up-side-down!). From that first show together, Lucy and Mary remained life-long friends.

Mary's last roll was that of the voice of gargoyle Laverne in the animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame. She completed taping only 3 days before she died, with over 50 years of acting under her belt. We miss her, but happily have her wonderful legacy to remember her by.

Lucy and Ethel on a new postage stamp

Looks like sometime this year, maybe late summer, the US Postal Service will be putting out a set of black and white stamps....one of which will be honoring our two favorite girls (in the candy factory no less!) Since there will be an expected rate increase this May, I can't tell you that this stamp will be 42 cents or not....but the other stamps in this salute to black and white TV will be a Joe Friday from Dragnet stamp and a Groucho Marx stamp, all on the same sheet with Ethel and Lucy.

Managing your money like Lucy in 2009?

With all the grim financial news we are hearing for the 2009 year, it's kind of scary to think about money and what lies ahead. I prefer to leave the money issues to those who know a lot more about it than myself. I still live (much to my husband's dismay!) in what I call my "Lucy Ricardo" world of money.

Remember her way of deciding which bills get paid and which ones don't? Throwing the whole stack up into the air and only paying the ones that land face up? That makes sense to me! Hey, Lucy couldn't bypass a beautiful new hat just because their were bills to pay. I can sympathize. Sometimes there are just some items that reach out of those shop windows and grab me....forcing me to buy them.

Maybe I need a business manager like Mr. Hickcox. He worked well for a little while until Lucy outsmarted him too with her own little grocery shopping business. I would have loved that little side business. In fact, "The business Manager" is one of my favorite episodes. I wish Lucy Ricardo were my neighbor. I'd love to share a freezer with an entire cow's worth of beef to save money I think she had some great ideas!

Van Johnson, actor and friend of Lucy's passes on

With sadness, we report the passing of Mr. Van Johnson who died Friday of natural causes in an assisted living center in Nyack, NY. I Love Lucy fans will remember Mr. Johnson for his performance in one of the California episodes when Lucy got to dance in his show at the hotel to prove to her friend Carolyne Applebee that she "hob-nobbed" with the celebritties. She got to perform "How About You" with him and it was one of the few times Lucy didn't do anything silly but did a wonderful job! Mr. Johnson was an accomplished actor and dancer and was 92 years old when he passed away.

Mr. Johnson also appeared with Henry Fonda and Lucy in the hit movie Yours, Mine and Ours. He will be missed.