VIVIAN VANCE AND PATRICIA NEAL

Yesterday, in one of the many heartfelt obituaries about Patricia Neal, I read that Pat replaced Vivian Vance in the road tour of The Voice of the Turtle. I was wondering if this was the same company and production that Vivian Vance was in when Desi came down to The La Jolla Playhouse to see her work and plucked her right out to play Ethel Mertz in I Loved Lucy. Lucy had just given birth to Lucie so she stayed behind in Los Angeles and when Desi returned home he announced to her that they had indeed found their Ethel Mertz. Knowing Lucy as I did (not then but decades later) I wonder how she reacted to the news since she in fact had NOT seen her in the play. My sense is she intuitively trusted Desi's instincts as she always did when it came to "Lucy", and of course the rest is TV comedy history. As far as Vivian Vance was concerned Lucy thought she was brilliant. When I'd watch an episode of I Loved Lucy at the house in Beverly Hills, (which in and of itself was surreal) with Lucy, unannounced peering over my shoulder she would invariably say, "If you want to learn about comedy baby, don't watch me, watch Viv". Yeah, well...

55 days until first performance of I LOVED LUCY at The Laguna Playhouse.