Lucille Ball – Cinema Sips

In an effort to watch more of trailblazing female director Dorothy Arzner’s work, I decided to check out the Lucille Ball-Maureen O’Hara showbiz farce Dance, Girl, Dance (Disc/Download). In this movie, there really is no star or stooge; only women trying to use whatever gifts they possess to get ahead in the cutthroat business of entertainment.

Even before the world fell in love with Lucy, Lucille Ball was already well on her way toward being the queen of physical comedy. As burlesque dancer Bubbles (later, Tiger Lily White), she uses her body to simultaneously turn men on and make them laugh. She has something special the other girls in her troupe don’t have, and whether you think her “oomph” should be overly valued or not is irrelevant. Society (read: men) have decided to place a high price on what Bubbles has. Even though Maureen O’Hara’s character Judy is technically more skilled, her skills don’t matter in this world where sex appeal is the currency. The same analogy could be made for all sorts of art forms (literary vs. commercial fiction, prestige drama vs. lowbrow comedy), and that’s how the movie stays relevant today. Creators either have “oomph” or they don’t, and if they don’t, they must carve out a niche where success comes from within, instead of from external validation. As someone who lacks “oomph”, I’ve learned this lesson the hard way.

A prime example of the difference between Ball and O’Hara’s characters occurs during the infamous hula scene. Their dance troupe is auditioning a for a New Jersey nightclub, and let’s just say the two women have very different interpretations of “hula”. The scene makes me want a Tiki beverage, but I can’t ignore the champagne cocktails imbibed throughout the rest of the movie. Let’s combine the two with this Tiny Bubbles cocktail!

Tiny Bubbles

1 sugar cube

6-7 drops Tiki bitters

5-6 oz champagne

Place a sugar cube in a coupe glass and soak with Tiki bitters. Top with Champagne.

Maureen O’Hara has a great scene at the end where she finally gets fed up with a dance gig that isn’t bringing her an ounce of joy, and she tells off the leering men shouting during her performance. It’s a rare thing for a film of this time to call out misogyny and sexism, and I have to think this was Arzner’s influence. Surely this was the speech she wished she could give in person to studio heads and general audiences. Lucky for us, she put it on film so generations of women could sit back and applaud. Cheers!

Image Credit: *Yours, Mine, and Ours*, 1968

Lucille Ball is having a moment. From podcasts to documentaries to feature films, it seems the whole world is in love with Lucy again. Thanks to Nick-at-Nite reruns in the mid-90s, I’ve seen every episode of her iconic television show (including several spin-offs), so imagine my delight in discovering a more earnest side of Lucy in the hilarious romantic comedy, Yours, Mine and Ours (Disc/Download).

Don’t get me wrong—as Helen North Beardsley, Lucille Ball is still extremely funny. But it takes more than wacky facial expressions and slapstick physical comedy to handle a brood of eighteen (yes, EIGHTEEN) children. In a tale that is basically The Brady Bunch on steroids, widowed nurse Helen meets cute with widowed Naval officer Frank in the commissary, bumping their overflowing shopping carts into one another. It isn’t until later, when they finally go out on a date, that they reveal their true number of offspring- eight for her, ten for him. Setting aside all my thoughts about birth control and smart family planning, it becomes obvious that these two are made for each other. Blending their family proves a challenge, as does finding a big enough house, but as Frank and Helen prove, with enough love and a little discipline, anything is possible.

Of course with families this large, it’s not all smooth sailing. Before they can make it to the altar, Frank’s kids spike Helen’s drink so she’ll make a fool out of herself at the initial meet-and-greet. She asks for a light screwdriver and gets a mouthful of gin, scotch, vodka, and a tiny splash of OJ. Ball’s face is priceless, as is Fonda’s description of the sabotage as “the alcoholic Pearl Harbor”. Let’s come up with a tastier version of this abomination, hopefully one that won’t cause you to dump mashed potatoes onto a little girl’s lap. While watching Yours, Mine and Ours, I recommend drinking this wonderful-wonderful Screwball cocktail.

Screwball

1 oz Orange Gin

1 oz Vodka

½ oz Cointreau

½ oz Lemon Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

1 oz Fresh-squeezed Orange Juice

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake until chilled, then strain into a glass filled with fresh ice.

If you’re celebrating the Academy Awards this year, this is a great drink to make because it references two nominees—Being the Ricardos and Licorice Pizza. Paul Thomas Anderson doesn’t specifically reference Yours, Mine and Ours in his script for LP, but Gary Valentine’s role was inspired by his childhood friend Gary Goetzman (who played Henry Fonda’s son, and one of Lucille Ball’s drink spikers in this classic film). And once you’ve gotten Nicole Kidman’s Lucy out of your system, treat yourself to the real thing. You won’t regret it. Cheers!

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