“Be A Pal”, Season 1, Episode 3, Filmed 9/21/51, Aired 10/22/51

Laughter Therapy, doesn’t mean it has to be YOUR laughter, sometimes the therapy can be the ability to make other people laugh. Well, I just had a lovely therapy season with my aunt Jodi. Jodi has one of those belly laugh guffaws that is contagious, and when she laughs, nothing makes you happier. Dinner with her is always therapeutic.
Lucy is sick of Ricky ignoring her in the mornings. In “Be A Pal”, Ethel and Lucy scheme different ways for Ricky to try to notice Lucy. The first try is to make Lucy look irresistible, first try fails and she ends up lighting his paper on fire. Second try, Lucy tries to act like Ricky’s “Pal”, however she ends up ruining his poker game with his friends. Third and final trial Lucy and Ethel turn the apt into little Havana and Lucy dresses up like Ricky’s mother (or Carmen Miranda). In the end Ricky of course tells Lucy he loves her because she was like no one else he had ever known.
When Lucy makes herself irresistible in the first trial, she puts on a floor length black sequin dress, diamonds and smokes a cigarette in a long thin black holder, she looks amazing. One of Lucille's first jobs when she moved to New York City was to be a model for a formal gown designer. All afternoon, Lucille would model on her feet while people talked about the dress and poked and prodded her. Supposedly, the women seamstresses would hit Lucille in the shins with a ruler to make her stand up straight. She would come home bleeding.
A classic picture of Lucy is her dressed as Carmen Miranda. In “Be A Pal” she lip syncs to a record of Carmen Miranda singing “Mama Yo Quiero”, which means “I Want my Mama” it’s suppose to be a lullaby, No one feels like falling asleep with this rendition of the lullaby.