In this cartoonish fantasy sequence from Here’s Lucy, Lucille Ball and sidekick Vivian Vance are trapped in a haunted castle by her boss Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) who is actually quite believable as a scary vampire. Along the way they are accosted by a malevolent Morris chair, a gorilla, a lab assistant who is a mummy for some reason (probably because that’s what costume was available), a werewolf and a skeleton. A machine turns the ladies into witches for some reason. Lucy is excellent in the role, much funnier, and much less disturbing than she is in her ordinary persona (the woman was in her sixties at this point). In the end of this absurd little sequence, everyone is doing a square dance, being called by a decapitated head that is hanging on the wall. Much better to stay in this dream than go back to the reality of Here’s Lucy, I should think.
To learn out more about show business history consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.
And don’t miss my new book Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, just released by Bear Manor Media, also available from amazon.com etc etc etc
(Travalanche) 