8 Myths About I Love Lucy Star Vivian Vance Debunked (EXCLUSIVE)
There is no question that Vivian Vance is an icon of classic television, and that's largely because of her role of Ethel Mertz besides Lucille Ball's Lucy Ricardo on I Love Lucy . Yet as beloved as she is for that 1950s sitcom, over the decades there have been a number of myths and legends that have sprung up regarding her private life, her relationship with Lucille Ball and her feelings about the show as well as her most famous character.
To debunk some of these myths, Woman's World has turned to pop culture historian and human encyclopedia Geoffrey Mark, who is also the I Love Lucy biographer in that he has written The Lucy Book: A Complete Guide to Her Five Decades on Television
Myth #1: Vivian Vance's contract called for her to be overweight, dowdy and unattractive
GEOFFREY MARK: Vivian Vance, who was a very attractive woman and known for her sexiness, bleached her hair, leaving dark roots. She did not wear false eyelashes or any glamor makeup, and everything they bought for her was a size too small — her dresses, her bras, her panties, her stockings, even her shoes weren't quite right so that Ethel Mertz would walk clunkily. But it was never in a contract and it was something she was happy to do, because is what the part called for.
Myth #2: Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance did not get along and actually hated each other.
GEOFFREY MARK: The idea that they hated each other came from two things. One was three or four weeks in when one of the production assistants said to Ms. Vance, "Gee, she's kind of hard to work with," and she said, "If this thing is a success, I'm going to learn to love that b—h!" Which she did, because they did become close. And the other one was during one of the pregnancy episodes. Ms. Ball was given a temporary portable dressing room right on the stage so that she didn't have to go to her regular dressing room and make costume changes and makeup changes, because she was pregnant. Well, for one cue Vivian showed up late and Ms. Ball kind of snapped at her and Vivian said to her, "I would tell you to go f–k yourself, but I see your husband's already taken care of that." Ms. Ball laughed; it was a joke, but those two things have been repeated over and over again and it got twisted into them hating each other, which just wasn't true.
Myth #3: Lucille Ball never truly appreciated what Vivian Vance brought to the table creatively
GEOFFREY MARK: It took several months of filming for Ms. Ball to realize what she had with Vivian, which is why, as the show goes on, the Ethel Mertz character gets more and more prominent, because she realized that as well as she and Desi Arnaz worked together, actually the team was Lucy and Ethel.
Myth #4: Vivian Vance was a complete unknown when she was hired for I Love Lucy
GEOFFREY MARK: Hardly. Vivian Vance was doing professional show business as far back as the late 1920s. She was a nightclub singer, she made her mark on Broadway by being Ethel Merman's understudy in two Cole Porter musicals, by the early 1940s she was starring on Broadway in musicals and plays. She was a very well known New York theater actress.
Myth #5: Vivian Vance's marriages ended because she was mentally ill
GEOFFREY MARK: She made a guest appearance on Rhoda in the episode "Friends and Mothers," and it could have represented the start of a new chapter for her, because it didn't have her being Ethel Mertz. She was damn funny, because she w==as standing up to Rhoda's mother [Nancy Walker] on Rhoda's behalf and it gave a whole new dimension to the show they could have gone places with, but Vivian was too sick. In the early '70s, unfortunately, she was diagnosed with cancer, which she conquered for a while, but then she developed Bell's palsy on her face.
Vivian Vance Fast Facts
This story was originally published October 6, 2024, 7:00 AM.
