Lucille Ball:Password with kids and Gary Morton

What led me to this was Dick Cavett interview with Lucy, Carol Burnett and Lucy Jr. In itself, this is amazing. Not sure this was discussed in earlier threads. I was never an I Love Lucy fan, but I am totally a Lucy fan!!

That has to be the ugliest dress Carol ever wore.

The kids look terrified. Especially Lucie. They seem closer to Gary.

Can't have been easy to come in as a step father to those kids, especially. And they both turned out pretty great. I don't get the hate for Gary. Also, did I mention the BDE??

I remember another show where Lucille was wearing a jacket with a marabou collar that kept getting in her mouth. Dick asked her if she wanted to take the jacket off and she said no. Obviously didn't want her neck to show.

This was the maribou collar interview.

Are we sure Lucie wasn't "special"?

Lucie Jr. really did seem to be a little "slow" in this. OK, I mean she looked retarded!

Yes, r6, thank you!

Let's be honest. It took a while for Lucie to bloom, but bloom she did.

Lucie had the misfortune of being videotaped at the age of 13. She's doing that pre-teen thing of being exasperated over absolutely nothing. If it were up to me, all photos of anyone from the ages of 11 to 15 would be destroyed when they turn 21. No one should have to witness themselves in that condition. There's a couple snapshots of me at that age that made me question whether my DNA was 100% human.

Lucie looks like she’s trying to mimic her mom with the exaggerated facial expressions.

R12 Lucie did comment somewhere on that Password episode. She acknowledged she was making faces and trying to be funny, to be "on". She's embarrassing. From what I recall on that or another episode, Desi was pretty smart and did a great job for a kid his age.

I guess "they both turned out pretty great", but didn't Desi impregnate someone at age 14?

Lucie has addressed this Password Show by saying she was going through her dramatic actress phase

Lucie has fully admitted it took a while for her to come into her own. She was a very shy and nervous kid, while her brother was very confident from a young age.

Lucy was almost old enough to be Gary's mother but it's amazing how that was covered up at the time. She was a very attractive woman, though.

Not a fan of Lucie the kid. She’s always “on” like she’s auditioning or something.

Wonder if Gary took a nasty dump between shows and the studio had to be aired out.

You would wonder that, r18.

[quote]Lucy was almost old enough to be Gary's mother but it's amazing how that was covered up at the time.

She was 13 years older.

A Dler once said that Gary Morton was one of those 70s guys in a cheap toupee and polyester pants who just finished up stinking up the bathroom so awful the paint was peeling.

Lucy was at least six years older than Desi Sr.

How many Dutch ovens did Gary subject Lucy to?

Once a week, Lucy made Lucie burnish her stepfather with a vigorous rub of Lemon Pledge.

R21 - Jack Klugman also had that vibe.

Just random speculation… but were there any gay rumors about Gary Morton? After watching OP’s clip, I got curious about him. His first marriage was annulled. His third marriage was to a golfer who looked super dykey.

Very rarely if ever were there gay rumors about a third rate comic in 1960, R26.

Lucie had the bad luck to be at the most awkward age (pre teen/very early teens) during one of the most awkward fashion/hairstyle eras (early mid 60s)...that hair....

She seemed as bright and funny as ever, her gestures have not changed at all though she did grown into them more as an adult.

Gary seemed like a good guy, sweet, easy going but masculine.

Lucille as always, remarkably beautiful. One of the few cases were she seemed to grow almost more beautiful with age. And she seems happy here.

After this embarrassing appearance, Gary learned to start talking Lucy out of things.

What did Gary do besides play golf all day?

I don't think this Password appearance is embarrassing. They obviously practiced at home. Lucy loved backgammon or.something. had tournies at her house.

I read how Lucy was very vocal in disapproving about Desi Jr.'s relationships with Patty Duke and Liza Minelli. Now that's a bold move for a mother only.a young adult! It worked eventually though.

R30, he essentially was Lucy's informal manager. She ran all of her decisions by him and always took his advice. Whether or not that was a good thing, depends on your perspective. Are you happy that she's still the most beloved comedienne of all time or would you rather have seen her challenge herself with roles in such films as The Manchurian Candidate, The Graduate, Don't Look Now, Dressed to Kill and Agnes of God?

[quote]Liza Minelli.

Oh, dear.

@r30, "What did Gary do besides play golf all day?"

Um, I'm still thinking... Oh, he gave me "the big one" and for that I'll always be grateful

Lucie's mugging is insufferable and Desi Jr. looks so natural and seems to be having a lot of fun.

R33 alot of those roles Lucille would have never taken regardless of advice...she seems to have been fairly "proper" and not one to be interested in risque things. Would have loved to see her though.

Lucy was too big a name to end up as Miss Ellie or one of those.

I loved Desilu more than anyone, and still think their love will forever be unequaled, but I don't get why people trash Gary. He made Lucille happy, her kids all speak glowingly of him, he didn't cheat on her and she could depend on him. I'm glad she found him.

Lucy and Gary had hot eldersex, that's for sure.

[quote]Can't have been easy to come in as a step father to those kids, especially. And they both turned out pretty great. I don't get the hate for Gary.

The public was initially angry at Lucy for divorcing Desi. "The Ricardos" were a very beloved couple in America and when they separated, many Americans saw the disillusion of a happy couple and couldn't understand why. Not to mention divorce was still very controversial back in those days. (Vivian Vance would go on to play the first divorcee on TV in The Lucy Show two years later.)

Gary was seen as an interloper. Desi largely retreated from the public eye, so Lucy got the brunt of the criticism.

It's interesting Lucy almost divorced Desi in 1950 before the TV show and the kids. So you know their relationship was tumultuous. Desi was a philander and a gambler (and a boozer). I am sure Lucy had her fun but would in the end not abide his disrespect.

Thank you, Lucie (R28)

One of the reasons that she wanted the show was so Desi would be involved with the show and not sleep around so much.

Then having guest stars like Barbara Eden and Joi Lansing was probably not a great idea.

Gary Morton was a standup comedian, Lucy said he made her laugh and these wedding photos seem to prove it. Later he was a behind the scenes producer of some movies through Lucille Ball Productions, like All the Right Moves, with Tom Cruise.

R20 Okay then she was almost a decade and a half older.

Lucy was 50 in those wedding photos and looked like a modern 70. Gary Morton was only 36 and looked a modern 55! Crazy how much older people looked back then.

R48 You think she looks 70? Did you watch The Lucy Show? (Made around this same time.) She did not look 70 on The Lucy Show.

I sometimes watch these old shows with the original ads and see all the ads for aspirin, etc., and think we didn't even have Advil, Aleve, or Tylenol over the counter. When I had a headache my mom would give me a Bufferin. If we had a cut it was mercurochrome, which is banned, now. Not as many prescription meds, either. If people looked older, no wonder. Basically had to self-medicate with booze and cigs.

Advertising of prescription drugs was banned. Same for lawyers, doctors, etc.

Gary's third wife was married to him for about 4 or 5 years until his death. 23 years his junior. She never remarried. Is now 76. Mannish-looking golf pro.

R51. True. But otc drug ads were ubiquitous (Contac, Excedrin, Anacin, St. Joseph's children's aspirin, Campho-Phenique, Vick's Vaop-Rub).

Those wedding pics are great! They both look very happy. Good for them!

Vapo-Rub

Lucy probably looks a little older because she didn't have a wig on, or the rubber band across the head thing on, with the wig over it. She'd started to use that on TV, by then (unless she had to do a stunt involving water, or where she needed not to have a wig on).

^Rubber band to pull the face up.

I wonder what the kids thought of a third rate borsch belt comic taking Desi's place?

I am sure they had to adjust, but Gary seems.fond of them in the Password video.

Lucie said they kept making their mom and dad watch The Parent Trap (I guess they owned a copy of the film?--since there was no home video then). Hoping their parents would get the hint and not get divorced.

Desi towards the end of the marriage was falling-down drunk a lot of the time, and Lucy and Desi were fighting constantly, so it was probably tough for them to see their parents get divorced but probably also more peaceful when they did and Gary came into the picture.

^Maybe she meant after the divorce, they made Lucy-Desi watch the movie. Desi was still around a lot -- a LOT -- he produced-directed the first season or two of The Lucy Show.

R60- That’s not true. The Parent Trap was released in 1961 . Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were divorced in 1960.

It’s that damned dated wig that aged Lucy. It’s ridiculous.

Lucie is a mouth breather.

Carole Cook said on a Dean Martin Roast of Lucy:

"Then she married Gary and he brought something to her life she had never had before - boredom!"

R62, see R61.

Lucie was quoted as saying this in the Coyne Steven Sanders book, Desilu, iirc. I assume the parents were already divorced and they took them to the film or made them watch it separately.

(Took them to it separately or otherwise made them watch it separately.)