Seen on eBay: this set of maracas with a letter of provenance to Desi Arnaz Sr
Link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/I-LOVE-LUCY-GENUINE-MOVIE-PROP-DESI-ARNEZ-SCREEN-USED-SET-OF-MARRACAS-/391884810439
Category Archives: Musical Instruments
Lucy Plays the Washboard
In the episode, “Tennessee Ernie Hangs On” (S3, 5/10/54), the Ricardos and the Mertzes join Ernie on Milikan’s Chicken-Mash Hour. Lucy plays a wooden and brass washboard.
Manufactured by the National Washboard Co., it is trademarked The Brass King. Lucy is playing the brass parts and we can see
that this side is labelled “Top Notch, Soap Saving Sanitary Front Drain, Do Not Rub Hard, The Board Will Do The Work! It appears that the prop department painted out the trademarked logo on the left, upper side.
Upright Piano Like Ricky and Lucy’s
This week on eBay there is a vintage Story & Clark Upright Piano like the one on I Love Lucy –see it on eBay here – we looked at a similar one before in a previous post HERE
Ricky’s Toy Drum
In another famous episode, “The Young Fans” (Season 1, 2/25/52) where teenagers, Peggy and Arthur have crushes on the Ricardos, Lucy and Ricky take action and dress up as octogenarians. At one point, Lucy hands ‘old Ricky’ a toy drum to show Peggy that he is indeed Ricky Ricardo.
It appears that Lucy actually hands it to him upside down, but that’s how the prop was sitting waiting for her to use.
The toy drum was made by the Ohio Art Company (still in business) and looks to be vintage 1930’s or 1940’s by the artwork.
See Ohio Art Drums on Etsy (US)
The Ohio Art Company was founded in 1908. Based in Bryan, Ohio, the company is known for toys including the Etch A Sketch, and Nanoblock. Their Diversified Products segment makes custom metal lithography products for food containers such as food tins, enclosures, DVD cases, and nostalgic signs.
Credit: Special Thanks to Rick for this post.
Lucy & Ricky’s Upright Piano
Recently on eBay I came across the same model piano as the upright piano on the set of the Ricardo’s apartment on the “I LOVE LUCY” TV show, for sale by eBay seller “909jordan“. It is a Story & Clark Spinet piano serial # 207633 circa 1950 pictured below.
The spinet piano was made smaller than the traditional upright piano using a different mechanism to produce the sound due to the smaller size, resulting in some loss of sound quality and dynamics. Continue reading Lucy & Ricky’s Upright Piano