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Previous episode: Ethel's Home Town Next episode: Don Juan and the Starlets

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Plot[]

Lucy and the the gang are excited to finally be in Hollywood! Ricky has to go to the studio, so Lucy and the Mertzes are on their own. Lucy suggests going to the Brown Derby for lunch to hunt celebrities. While there, Bill Holden sits in the booth behind Lucy. She can't stop staring at him all googly-eyed. Bill Holden decides to turn the tables and show Lucy what it's like to be constantly stared at. So, embarrassed Lucy has to try and eat her lunch with her favorite movie star gawking at her every move. Totally flustered, Lucy rushes out of the restaurant, and on her way out, she bumps into a waiter carrying a tray of pies. The pies spill all over  Holden.

Ricky runs into Holden at the MGM studio. Bill offers Ricky a ride home, and Ricky asks if he could come upstairs and meet Lucy. When Ricky tells Lucy Bill Holden's in the living room, she panics and pretends to not want to see him. Ricky says that, after Bill Holden was nice enough to come meet her, she was going to meet him!  Lucy stalls by saying she wants to fix her face a bit. When she comes out to meet Bill, she is disguised with a pair of rhinestone-studded glasses, her hair up in a kerchief, and a huge putty nose. When Bill Holden goes to light her cigarette, Lucy's nose catches on fire! The ruse is up, so Lucy reveals who she really is. Bill Holden surprises her by not telling Ricky what happened, only that he saw Lucy at the Brown Derby today at lunch. Lucy is so excited by Bill Holden's nice gesture that she kisses him. When she realizes who she just kissed, she faints in Holden's arms.

Trivia[]

  • Lucy decides to go to the Brown Derby because it is like the "local watering hole" for celebrities. No sooner had they arrived did Lucy and Ethel get to see Cary Grant walk by for a telephone call. They also see Gregory Peck the same way. Cary Grant was the first of over 100 movie stars Lucy would get to see in Hollywood.
  • Ricky's studio was chosen to be MGM, because that's the studio that Lucy and Desi had a real-life contract with. The Long, Long Trailer was an MGM production.
  • Lucy knew William Holden from starring opposite him in the 1949 movie Miss Grant Takes Richmond.
  • To make Lucy's putty nose catch fire safely and easily, make-up artist Hal King put a wick at the end.
  • Lucy dipping her burnt putty nose into her coffee cup was an adlib. The script said for Lucy to pull off her putty nose and put it in the coffee cup to extinguish the fire.
  • The original script had an extra scene where we get to see Lucy frantically looking for a disguise to make Bill Holden not recognize her. She penciled on "thick, Audrey Hepburn-style eyebrows" and got the putty nose and other make-up out of Ricky's make-up kit.
  • The "pie" that William Holden got hit with was really apple sauce.
  • Eve Arden gladly made a cameo on this episode, as she was currently starring in the Desilu show Our Miss Brooks. She is the first on-camera celebrity Lucy and Ethel get to meet. .
  • At the Brown Derby, Fred ordered the veal cutlet Marco Polo. Lucy got spaghetti and meatballs with extra meat sauce, along with a Derby Tossed Salad and Ethel ordered the same. William Holden got a Cobb salad and coffee. Interestingly, either these meal orders were made up or the Brown Derby has changed their menu since 1954 as their menu only contains gourmet food. Items like veal cutlets and spaghetti are not available to order. The Cobb Salad was originally created at the Brown Derby.
  • Note that Lucy's stand-in, Hazel Pierce, is seated next to Bill Holden in the booth at one point. In the colorized version of the episode, Hazel is shown as blond; however, she was actually a brunette.
  • William Holden had just finished making The Country Girl with Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly.
  • Almost every celebrity on the show after Bill Holden mentioned the infamous pie incident at the Brown Derby. Many were scared to meet Lucy because of it, others wanted to know if the story was true.
  • The Ricardos are staying in room 315 at the Beverly Palms Hotel and the Mertzes are staying in room 317.

Quotes[]

  • Lucy: Wasn't that Van Johnson who got in the elevator?

Bobby the Bellboy: No, ma'am, that was the house detective.

  • Lucy: (to Ricky) At least I know ONE movie star- I know you're you!
  • Lucy: Well, that's the way the ball bounces!

Ricky: Well, honey, you're not goin', either.

Lucy: Why not?

Ricky: Well, he just invited me.

Lucy: Oh, darn it!

Ethel: Well, that's the way the ball bounces!

  • Lucy: Although, trackin' [movie stars] down one by one takes so much time. I wonder if there's any place where they get together in a big herd?

Fred: Well, maybe at sundown they all gather at the same watering hole.

Lucy: That's it! That's where we'll go!

Ethel: Where?

Lucy: The watering hole! Fellow hunters, we're going to the Brown Derby!

  • Lucy: There's Cary Grant!

Ethel: Where?!

Lucy: Right there, right there!

Ethel: It IS! Oh, you finally saw one. Congratulations!

Lucy: Thanks! I have a feeling we've run into a whole nest of them!

Fred: Ethel, will you sit down and stop gawking? You're acting like a tourist!

Ethel: Well, I AM a tourist!

  • Lucy: Look at the salads [on the menu]!

Ethel: Look at the pastries!

Fred: Look at the prices!

  • Ethel: Oh, isn't [Gregory Peck] handsome? Look- he's smiling!

Lucy: AW!

  • Ethel: (sees waiter walk by with dessert) Oh, boy! I'm gonna have a piece of that!
  • Announcer: Telephone for Ava Gardner.

Fred: Where?! Where's Ava?!

Ethel: Fred! Fred, sit down! Remember? She's "just people, like you and me."

Fred: Yeah, she might be people, but she's not like you and me!

  • Lucy: What is a Derby Tossed Salad?

Fred: Anybody knows that, Lucy. You just take some salad and toss it in a derby!

  • Ethel: (about Eve Arden) OH! What she must think of me!

Lucy: You TOUCHED her!

  • Lucy: Let's get outta here!

Fred: Well, I'm not through!

Lucy: I don't care! Waiter, check please!

Fred: I'm not gona leave all this good food!

Lucy: I can't help it. Put it in a sack, and take it with you!

  • Ricky: Well, if I ever kiss a girl in this [suit of armor], I'll cut her nose off!
  • Bill Holden: One day on location, it rained, and on the way back, I rusted shut [in the suit of armor].

Mr. Sherman: When they got back, they called me and said, "Come down to wardrobe. We're opening a canned ham!"

  • Lucy: Well, [Bill Holden] never did appeal to me very much. He just doesn't send me.

Ricky: What are you talkin' about? All I heard all the way across country was, "Bill Holden, Bill Holden, Bill Holden!"

Lucy: Yeah, well, I'm fickle?

  • Lucy: You have to excuse my appearance. I just washed my hair, and I can't do a thing with it.
  • Lucy: (about putty nose) This California sun certainly makes your skin soft!
  • Lucy: I KISSED BILL HOLDEN! (swoons/faints in Holden's arms)



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