Category Archives: Ricardo’s Bookshelf

Books on I Love Lucy, Ricardo's Bookshelf

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: The Great Events of the Great War

THE GREAT EVENTS OF THE GREAT WAR
THE GREAT EVENTS OF THE GREAT WAR volumes on Lucy’s bedroom shelf

In I Love Lucy Season. 2 episode 13  Lucy Hires an English Tutor  Lucy prepares for motherhood by studying to become “a walking book of knowledge” for her new baby. On her bedroom shelf we see a selection of reference books, among them  a set of decorative hard bound history books.

The Great Events of the Great War Volumes 1-7  Hardcover – 1923, Edited By Charles F. Horne and Walter F. Austin (Author) 7 volume set. “These volumes are an earnest effort to give the reader such frank and full information as will enable him to comprehend clearly this greatest of all wars.”

The Great Events of the Great War Volumes 1-7
The Great Events of the Great War Volumes 1-7 Source:eBay

Detail from the eBay listing: “This copy of The Great Events of the Great War is registered in the name of Captain George Hl Ormrod, the binding design on these volumes is an authorized facsimile of the original art binding on the official French copy of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which was signed by President Poincare and Foreign Minister S. Pichon, and deposited in the Archives of the French Government, gilt decorated front covers and spine, top edges gilt”

Books on I Love Lucy, I love Lucy Props, Ricardo's Bookshelf

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: Lobagola

ricky-ricardo-lobagola-book
Lobagola book on Ricky’s bedroom shelf

In the I Love Lucy episode ” Little Ricky gets a Dog” we see the book Lobagola on Ricky Ricardo’s bedroom shelf. Bata Kindai Amgoza ibn LoBagola (1877 – 1947) was an early 20th-century American impostor and entertainer who posed  as a native of Africa, his real name was Joseph Howard Lee from Baltimore, Maryland.
lobagolabook
“LoBagola” posing as an African “savage” managed a long career in the early 20th century, during which he delivered lectures to institutions and conducted public debates and published articles. This book from publishers A.A. Knopf,1933, a pseudo biography, was an attempt to capitalize on public interest at the time.
References

I love Lucy Props, Ricardo's Bookshelf

Booges: Ricky Reads a Bedtime story


In the I Love Lucy  episode, “Lucy Hires An English Tutor” (Season 2, 12/29/52) Lucy decides she only wants the best English for her baby. When she gives Ricky a book to read aloud, he butchers several words with the “ough” sound.
In this hilarious scene, the writers make fun of Ricky’s English with the words bough, rough, through and cough.
In real life, Desi Arnaz completed high school in Florida and was bilingual, speaking and reading both English and Spanish fluently.

The book that Lucy gives Ricky to read from is actually a “Peter Pan” children’s book published by Wonder Books in 1952. It even had washable covers! The prop department deleted the title “Peter Pan” for the scene but one can detect the characters in the front cover. PeterPan_WonderBook_CVR_52
PeterPan_WonderBook_BK_CVR_52
Click HERE to Find it on eBay

Books on I Love Lucy, Owl Book Ends, Paris, Ricardo's Bookshelf, Travel

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: An Introduction to French

The
Owl Bookends on the set of “I Love Lucy” Lucy Meets Charles Boyer 1956

In the scene pictured above from “I Love Lucy” episode Lucy Meets Charles Boyer we see Ethel speaking to Lucy on the set of Ricardo’s hotel room in Paris. In the background we can see the owl bookends we looked at  before in the Ricardo’s living room, later they moved to a shelf in  Ethel’s living room when she got Lucy’s old furniture, and now the are in the Paris hotel set. The book title appears to be “An Introduction to French” and a possible candidate for this book is:

Books on I Love Lucy, I love Lucy Props, Paris, Ricardo's Bookshelf, Travel

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: Lucy’s Paris Guide Book

lucy-paris-guide
Lucy refers to her Michelin PARIS guidebook

When Lucy promises Ricky in the episode “Lucy Goes to Monte Carlo” that she and Ethel will not go to the Casino, she picks up
a Michelin PARIS guidebook to find a restaurant. Of course she picks “Le Grille” that just HAPPENS to be IN the casino.

parismichelinguide
1950’s Michelin PARIS guidebook seen on Etsy

While maybe not the exact book, these are very close:

Books on I Love Lucy, Ethel Mertz, I love Lucy Props, Ricardo's Bookshelf, Travel

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: Lucy & Ethel’s London Guide Book

ethels-london-guide
Ethel Refers to a Fodor’s Britain 1955 guide book, Lucy Meets the Queen ,I Love Lucy Season 5

In the Season 5 episode  Lucy Meets the Queen the Ricardos and the Mertzes arrive in London, and Lucy and Ethel go to the palace in hopes of seeing the Queen. Ethel is seen referring to a copy of the  Britain 1955 edition of  Fodor’s Modern Guides – Lucy is hoping  to catch a glimpse of the Queen but gets distracted when she tries  in vain to make one of the palace guards smile, and as a result she misses her chance when the Queen does come out.

fodors-britain-1955
Britain 1955 edition of the Fodor’s Modern Guides series.
Fodor's Britain1955
The original dust cover for the book Ethel is holding would have been like this one.

The guide book Ethel refers to is titled Britain 1955  from the Fodor’s Modern Guides series – Fodor’s Modern Guides, Inc was founded in 1949 to provide practical information for tourists, with updated yearly editions . For that era, this was new concept in guides books which  became essential  for the 1950’s traveler.

Find Fodor’s Modern Guides at amazon
Currently there appears to be a copy at :
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=8649948430
Find Fodor’s Modern Guides on eBay

Books on I Love Lucy, I love Lucy Props, Ricardo's Bookshelf

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: Masks of West Africa

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LUCY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL Episode#56, aired January 19, 1953
LUCY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL Season 2  Episode#56,

In the episode LUCY GOES TO THE HOSPITAL which aired January 19, 1953  the show opens with Ricky researching ideas for a mask for a “Voodoo” number for his show. The book he refers to is Masks of West Africa  – 1952 by Leon Underwood

Ricky’s facepaint inspired by African masks

http://www.amazon.com/Masks-West-Africa-Leon-Underwood/dp/B0006DCVHG
http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/masks-of-west-africa/author/underwood-leon/
Update: Scan of the page from the book Ricky is looking at:

Detail of the page rRcky is looking at
Detail of the page Rcky is looking at
Books on I Love Lucy, Golf, Ricardo's Bookshelf

Ricardo’s Bookshelf: My Partner, Ben Hogan

1954 book: My Partner, Ben Hogan I Love lucy episode "The Gold Game"
1954 book: My Partner, Ben Hogan I Love lucy episode “The Golf Game”
MY PARTNER BEN HOGAN by Jimmy Demaret1954
My Partner Ben Hogan
Ricky and Fred refer to the book My Partner Ben Hogan in “The Golf Game”

My Partner, Ben Hogan by Jimmy Demaret who was a three time Masters winner and friend of Ben Hogan, “to the degree anyone can, tries to give insight into the man”. “The inside story of professional golf and its greatest player”. Seen above on the mantelpiece in the I Love Lucy episode “The Golf Game”, this is now a scarce book. Author Jimmy Demaret made a guest appearance on the same show.

Jimmy Demaret and Ben Hogan on the back dust cover
Jimmy Demaret and Ben Hogan on the back dust cover
Jimmy Demaret 2nd from the left.on the I Love Lucy show
Guest appearance by Jimmy Demaret, 2nd from the left,.on the I Love Lucy show