The Fifties

by David Halberstam

But Desi went to Alfred Lyons, the head of Philip Morris, and suggested that if he and Lucy could not control the content, the show, then number-one, might slip. Lyons was so impressed he sent a note to Jim Aubrey, the president of CBS: “Dear Jim,” it began. “Don’t fuck around with the Cuban.” But they were not to use the word pregnancy. CBS held the line on that. Lucy instead was an expectant mother. That was more genteel. The first show on Lucy’s pregnancy aired on December 8, 1952. It was a typical episode: Lucy wanted to tell Desi in the most romantic way possible, but he did not seem to have time to listen. “I want to tell you something,” she says. “Uh-oh, how much are you overdrawn?” he replies. There are endless interruptions. In the end she shows up at his club, passes him a note that a member of the audience is about to have a baby, and asks him to serenade her. As the crowded nightclub audience watches, he realizes that he is the father, and his wife the expectant mother. CBS lined up a priest, a minister, and a rabbi to review all pregnancy scripts to be sure that they were in good taste. “It looked like a revival meeting around the place,” Lucy once said.