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Plot[]
Lucy begs Ricky for a Don Loper original, so she can look stylish while in Hollywood. Ricky agrees, much to Lucy's surprise, since he knows this might be the only time Lucy ever gets to be in California. Ricky warns her that she can only spend $100 on a dress, though. While at the Don Loper dress salon, every dress Lucy looks at costs $500. She asks next to see the simplest dress available, thinking it will be the cheapest.
While the attendant goes to get the simple dress, Lucy overhears Mrs. Sheila MacRae telling Don Loper that they are one woman short for the upcoming celebrity wives' fashion show. Lucy loudly makes a fake phone call to the MGM studio, asking for Ricky, so Loper and MacRae will notice she's an available wife of a celebrity. The plan works, and Loper whisks Lucy away to get fitted in her basic black dress.
With the excitement of the fashion show, Lucy didn't have time to ask for the price of the dress, but it's so basic- how could it possibly cost more than $100? To her shock, it, too, costs $500. Lucy should have known that, sometimes, "less is more" in fashion, and seemingly simple outfits cost a bundle. How is Lucy going to break the news to Ricky? She plans to sit out in the sun and get lightly burned, so that Ricky will feel too sorry for her to yell.
When Ricky comes home, he finds Lucy with an excrutiatingly sore sunburn. She fell asleep in the sunshine, and her plan went awry. Naturally, Ricky rants and raves about the dress's price, ordering Lucy to take it back. Lucy then gets a call from Don Loper, who says that he really needs Lucy to wear a tweed suit for the fashion show, and that, if she agrees to wear the tweed suit, he'll give her the basic black dress for free. Everything is working out for Lucy.
But Ethel warns Lucy that she is too sore to do the fashion show. Lucy goes ahead with the fashion show anyway, barely able to walk down the runway. When she returns home from the success of the fashion show, she finds a note from Ricky, saying that he felt badly about yelling at her, and that he wants her to take a $500 check to Don Loper's to buy any dress she wants. Ethel says that Lucy IS going to tell Ricky about getting her black dress for free, right? Lucy says she wouldn't deprive Ricky of the pleasure of giving her the check. Ethel pretends to laugh with Lucy, and punishes her by smacking her hard on her sunburned back.
Trivia[]
- While at the salon, Lucy asks the attendant to see dresses that are size 12. However, in the previous season, Lucy says she weighs 129 pound and in season one, she had to get down to a weight of 120 pounds to fit in a size 12.
- Lucy planned this episode's plot to tailor it of her friend Sheila MacRae. Sheila was very upset about a recent miscarriage, so Lucy wanted to give her this episode to do as a way to cheer her up.
- With the appearance of Don Loper, I Love Lucy made another television first. According to fashion show participant Sheila MacRae, Loper was posibly the first-ever openly gay man to ever appear on TV as themselves, and not pretend to be straight.
- The celebrity wives who appeared in the show were Sheila MacRae (Mrs. Gordon MacRae), Mrs. William Holden, Mrs. Dean Martin, Mrs. Van Heflin, Mrs. Forrest Tucker, and Mrs. Richard Carlton.
- MacRae also notes that two of the wives in the fashion show were supposedly drunk the night of filming.
- Don Loper asks Lucy to wear the tweed suit, because, in the fashion show, Mrs. Alan Ladd wants to wear her copy of the black dress Lucy bought. But we never end up seeing Mrs. Alan Ladd in the fashion show.
- Lucy replaces Frances McCrea (Mrs. Joel McCrea) in the fashion show, because Frances was vacationing in Europe at the time.
- The money from the fashion show is going to the charity SHARE, Inc.
Fashion Show Outfits[]
We get to see six celebrity wives' outfits that were shown in the fashion show. All were part of Don Loper's new collection called Facade. Loper's role in the fashion show is reading the details of the dresses' colors, materials/fabrics, and accessories. Curious about the outfits' details that Loper reveals? Read below!
- Mrs. Bill Holden is wearing an outfit called Heathcliff, "a street suit of beige" that has cashmere wool with taffeta. The suit's jacket is lined in brown silk to match the blouse.
- Mrs. Dean Martin wears a dancing costume called Baldini. It has re-embroidered lace on it, and the coat is made of Italian satin.
- Mrs. Van Heflin has on Parma, another dancing costume. This dress also has re-embroidered lace, but this time, the lace has sequins on it. The coat is violet satin that is lined with fuschia and purple stripes.
- Mrs. Forrest Tucker is wearing Sonata, a gorgeous ballgown made in Loper's new color that he dubbed "pink mink." The dress has chantilly lace, and it is re-embroidered with sequins. (To see how lovely Sonata is, look at the middle picture at the very top of the page.)
- Mrs. Richard Carlton wears a ballgown called Royal Scandal. Its color is Kelly green, and it is made of French peau de soie. There are pink roses on the back.
- Lucy (Mrs. Ricky Ricardo) is dressed in French Dandy, a suit made of imported Irish tweed.
Quotes[]
- Ricky: Honey, why don't you give up tryin' to get a suntan? You always get burned with your fair skin.
Lucy: My "fur skin"?
- Lucy: It was embarrassing [not having a tan]. Ethel and I looked like a couple of marshmallows.
Ethel: We sure did!
Lucy: Gee, I'd love to get a tan! You know what I'd like to look like?
Fred: A TOASTED marshmallow.
- Ethel: it would just set you up for life if you could open your closet door and see one Loper lable Eh, what's the sense of dreaming?
Fred: Well, now, wait a minute, honeybunch- maybe we can figure somethin' out.
Ethel: Who said that?
Lucy: It sounded like Fred, but I don't believe it!
Ethel: Fred, do you really mean it?
Fred: Sure. What do you think he'd charge for one label.
- Lucy: (to Ricky) Oh, you agreed so fast [to buy a Loper dress], my brain blew a fuse!
- Fred: $100 for one dress?!
Ethel: The reason he almost choked to death is because $100 is all I've spent on clothes ever since we've been married.
- Ethel: (about Don Loper's salon) Boy! Fancy-schmancy!
Lucy: Ethel!
Ethel: What?
Lucy: Why do you have to act like a rube?
Ethel: Because I AM a rube! And so are you.
Lucy: I know it, but let's try and act at home here at Don Loper's.
Ethel: Well, it's kinda difficult when your permanent address has always been "Gimball's basement." Hey, where are all the racks of dresses?
Lucy: There aren't any.
Ethel: Well, what do you paw through?
Lucy: You don't PAW through anything. Get your mind out of that basement!
- Ethel: Jane Sebastian will be absolutely green! Of course, she'll pretend she doesn't notice it.
Lucy: Listen- she'll notice this Don Loper label if I have to wear the dress wrong side-out!
- Amzie the Saleswoman: (showing dress) And the simple neck that's designed to be worn with dozens of strands of beads.
Lucy: Oh, yes, I could wear that with my...
- Lucy: Ethel, you don't ask the price in a place like this.
Ethel: You don't?
Lucy: Of course not. You wait 'til they turn their back, and then you sneak a look at the price tag.
- Lucy: I think I'd like to see something simpler and plainer.
Ethel: And cheaper!
Lucy: She means "deeper," deeper in the neckline.
Amzie the Saleswoman: Deeper than THIS?
- Ethel: [Sheila MacRae] was an actress, and she gave up her career to have a family.
Lucy: That's right, just like me!
- Lucy: Doesn't Loper know any other numbers but "5-0-0"?!
- Ethel: Well, you can't take [the dress] back. It's been altered.
Lucy: Yeah, and when Ricky finds out about it, I'LL be altered!
- Lucy: Aren't you gonna stop me [from jumping out the window]?
Ethel: Why? I can't think of a better way out!
- Ethel: He wants to sell our apartment house in New York and buy an orange grove out by Pomona!
Fred: So, what's the matter with that?
Ethel: You don't know antyhing about raising oranges, that's what's the matter with that!
Fred: So what? The oranges know what to do!
- Ethel: You can't be in a fashion show in that [sunburned] condition!
Lucy: Oh, yes, I can!
Ethel: What are you gonna wear? A coat of Unguentine?