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Vivian Vance was born 100 years ago today
The great Vivian Vance was as integral to the success of I Love Lucy as Lucille Ball was in my opinion. Would we have enjoyed or understood Lucy Ricardo the way we did without her best friend and neighbor Ethel Mertz?
No way!
The funniest scenes almost always involved Lucy and Ethel whether they were shopping for dresses at the Don Loper salon in Hollywood, pretending to be martians on top of the Empire State Building, freaking out after spotting William Holden at The Brown Derby, trying to eat 25 pounds of cheese on the plane ride home from Europe, or sharing a car ride to Florida with a woman they suspect is a murderer.
During a 1986 interview, Lucille Ball talked about watching I Love Lucy reruns and her reaction to Vance’s performance: “I find that now I usually spend my time looking at Viv. Viv was sensational. And back then, there were things I had to do—I was in the projection room for some reason, and I just couldn’t concentrate on it. But now I can. And I enjoy every move that Viv made. She was something.”
So true.
Miss Vance was born 100 years ago today in Cherryvale, Kansas, and was a successful Broadway stage actress (Anything Goes, Skylark, Red Hot and Blue, and Let’s Face It!) for many years when Desi Arnaz spotted her in a play and hired her to play Ethel.
Vivian won the first Emmy Award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series and was nominated three times afteer that. In hindsight, it’s a crime she didn’t win for every single season of the show since she was the very definition of the most oustsanding supporting actress – ever.
After nine seasons as Ethel Mertz, Vivian joined Miss Ball on her follow-up sitcom The Lucy Show as divorcee Vivian Bagley. The ladies still had their magic and the sitcom suffered greatly when Miss Vance left the show after three seasons because commuting from the East Coast had become too burdensome. She returned for annual guest spots and continued the practice on Ball’s next series Here’s Lucy.
Her last TV special with Miss Ball came in 1977 in the special Lucy Calls the President. Miss Vance died two years later of bone cancer at the age of 70.
She is still missed.
Comments
(All comments are reviewed before being published, and I review submissions several times per day.)
Paul says:
Oh, this is so weird. I recently purchased “The Lucy Show” DVD set. Late this morning I went to the library and while there, I picked up a book. The name of the book is “The Other Side Of Ethel Mertz” – The Life Story Of Vivian Vance. I thought it would be interesting to read her biography since I am now watching her daily. Late this PM, I go to your blog and see Vivian. How strange is that? On a side note, you show her star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. This came about because a newsprogram noted that she was the only member of “The I Love Lucy” team that did not have a star. Ater a deluge of angry protests the Hollywood Chamber Of Commerce gave Vivian her star after Lucie Arnaz paid the $5,000 fee required.
Bruce Wayne says:
My favorite Ethel scene was when they were trying to make money to go to Europe, with the raffle…Lucy was about to be arrested for fraud, until an old lady came up, representing the ‘charity’ they made up. Lucy tells Ethel to give her the money…Ethel looks confused and says, ‘Give her the money?’ She looks at the woman, turns back to Lucy and, sheepishly asks, ‘Is She going with us?’
I laugh every time I see it!! She was fabulous!
^^X^^
Tinky says:
I made Second Banana Bread for her birthday!
http://www.ourgrandmotherskitchens.com/?p=3936
Happy VV Day……….
Geoffrey Gordon says:
Vivian Vance did not need to speak, her expressions on her face would say it all. Such as Lucy dressing up as a hot dog vendor at the baseball game to speak to Bob Hope. When Ethel calls out to the vendor for a hot dog Lucy eyes her and Vivian’s face said it all.
Lou says:
I agree with Bruce Wayne. I too love that scene. The look on her face and the way she says, “Is she going with us?” is too, too, cute.
andibrennab@Ymail.com says:
Ethel Mertz, was Lucille Ball’s foil.
She was on of the best things about I Love Lucy, that I loved, was Ethel’s ability to go along and to do whatever Lucy wanted, the episode rhat I wull always rememer, actually two episodes, are the one when Lucy and Ethel, said goodbye to each other when Lucy moved to West Chester, New Yorkand the next one where she Ethel and Fred moved to where the Ricardo’s were living, those were the best episodes that I ever say, Vivian Vance, was a great comedic actress, and she performed greatly in her rolrs with Lucy!