Happy New Year. Congratulations to us all. We made it out of 2020.
There’s no looking back now!
Every new year brings hope — and a fresh start — to Westport.
That’s the same thing Lucy Ricardo and her friend Ethel Mertz wanted 60 years ago. “I Love Lucy”‘s stars had just moved to the country.
And this is what the country saw, on the top-rated comedy show:
I’d heard about the photo, and searched all month for it — to no avail.
Providentially, late yesterday, Wendy May emailed me. She figured I already had it, but figured what the heck.
Amazing! 2021 is already starting out on the right foot.
Over 30 Westport 4th through 12th graders perform with the Norwalk Youth Symphony. They did not miss a beat this fall. Despite the pandemic, the 65-year-old institution added chamber music ensembles, master classes and lessons in music theory, to its regular program of 5 orchestras.
This month, the NYS offers new seminars for high school students and adults. Topics include “Women and the American Sound,” “The Roaring Harlem Renaissance,” “1,000 Years of Music in 60 Minutes,” and “Alma Mahler and Her Times.”
Ahead: a seminar for parents on motivating young musicians.
Young musicians now play remotely from their homes in sections by instrument. It’s different — but they and their instructors have risen to the challenge.
For more information on Norwalk Youth Symphony click here, call 203-866-4100, or email nysed@optonline.net.
And finally … “Do You Love Me” like you’ve never heard it before!
First of all, Happy and Healthy New Year to all and hopefully this year will be better than last for all.
Not like Dan, I’ve been searching for the house that Lucille Ball lived in Westport and used for her show for about a year. I’ve searched using her name, her husbands name, their company name, the network name, and asked many Westport historians, architects, developer all to no avail. So if anyone knows the house, please tell me the address, so that I can record it at the Westport Museum for History and Culture.
Bob, I don’t believe there was any filming of a house in Westport. The show at that point was filmed at their studio in LA to the best of my knowledge.
I think the only area residence you might be able to track down is the one of the writer for the show who, I believe, lived in Westport at one time.
Also, great photo of the New Year’s poster. I had never seen that before.
Dring the time that she lived in Westport, there was production of several shows in Westport. I knew about the producer since he introduced the idea of filming in Westport but his presence didn’t yield an address for her. I did have two contractors that gave me addresses but neither seemed to fit.
Bob, here is some background on what I have read previously about the filming: https://ilovefc.com/2006/12/01/when-westport-loved-lucy/
I had never heard or read that Lucille Ball ever lived here during filming of the show because, again, to the best of my knowledge, it was filmed out in LA.
That video made my day! It is clever and FUN. Thanks, and btw Dan, I love you – mashed potato and twist and all!
Bob, I believe Fred is correct. The only connection between Westport and the show was that the Ricardos “moved” here. There was no filming. However, I do believe that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s daughter Lucie Arnaz did live in Weston, at one point.
Many years ago, someone who had lived in town for a very long time said that the kitchen in the white house with the fence on northbound North Compo, (directly opposite Evergreen Ave intersection with North Compo Road) and a few other kitchens in town each provided elements resulting in the kitchen on set for the Ricardos’ Westport house.
I’ve read many articles about Lucille Ball being in Westport. So I thought I would provide the URL for a article in 2006. This article was in a Moffly Media publication at https://ilovefc.com/2006/12/01/when-westport-loved-lucy/. The last paragraph in this article is as follows: “Over the final three seasons, the fatuous foursome would have thirteen further misadventures, though only six of them would be set in Westport, with the very last, “Lucy Meets the Mustache,” co-starring Ernie Kovacs and his wife, Edie Adams, filmed on March 2, 1960…” I also recall seeing one at the Westport Saugatuck Train Station.
Dan, Thanks so much for featuring the Norwalk Youth Symphony! NYS was a major formative experience for me growing up in Westport, from my first tentative performace with the ‘Reserve” Orchestra in 1964 (with Robert Genualdi, long-time orchestra conductor at Staples HS) at the podium — my first chance to play with him, to graduating as confident first-chair in the “Principal” orchestra in 1970. The repertoire was the “real deal”: Beethoven symphony movements and the Choral Fantasy, Brandenburg Concertos, Sibelius’ “Finlandia”, the Saint-Saens cello concerto with Aldo Parisot as soloist, Bizet’s L’Arlesienne suite… Many NYS musicians have gone on to major careers, and many more a lifetime of enthusiastic amateur music making — I still play with some of them from time to time. Best wishes to NYS for 2021 and beyond!
That video made my day too! Loved it! Thanks Dan for keeping us on the cutting edge always!
I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but that poster actually said “Yankee Doodle Day Celebration”. It’s been altered.
No wonder I couldn’t find it!
It’s from the season 6 episode “The Ricardos Dedicate A Statue”! You can see the original poster here: https://bit.ly/359eYMJ
It was supposed to take place at “Jessup Green” (sic).