Lucille Ball flew to London (on a much missed Pan American, a great Airline) to star in "Lucy In London". Pan American was the original worldwide airline with non stop flights from Los Angeles and New York to London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Rio, Buenos Aires, among many many other cities. Pan Am also had a thriving domestic network LA-NYC, LA-Honalulu, Chicago-NY, Miami-NY etc
Lucy carefully emphasized a conservative appearance on her smash hit Desilu comedy series The Lucy Show and its successor Here's Lucy.
I always felt there were 3 Lucy's". Lucy Ricardo a madcap comedienne, which was an act; Lucy admitted she herself was not funny; Lucille Ball, Star and Lucille Ball Morton a brilliant business woman. The 'Business' Lucy bet her fortune on Mission Impossible and Star Trek. Both of these shows were expensive to shoot, and lost money in their initial broadcast but made millions in syndication. , but Lucy persevered and had a 3rd hit TV Show Mannix.
Lucy In London shows Lucille Ball with a great sexy figure and shows a different side of the fabled Lucy.
This was a Desilu Production. The only Desilu production filmed overseas. Lucy had am exec Peter Cary who ran Desilu International selling series such The Untouchables,
GreatestShow On Earth, and Mission Impossible and Star Trek and Mannix.
Lucy wanted Desilu to be a "comedy factory" and had pilots such as " Hey Teacher". Ethel Merman's "Maggie Brown" and a TV version of the famous "Frank Merriwell" books and a Wally Cox comedy "Alfred Of The Amazon" but alas they did not sell etc etc. . Desili packaged all of these failed pilots into a summer replacement series called "Vacation Playhouse where Desilu could amortize the costs of these failed pilots.
Two pilots "Police Story" starring Steve Ihnat and "The Long Hunt Of April Savage, a Western did not sell either. The Long Hunt Of April Savage is a curious story: It was placed on the ABC schedule bu from what I can develop its creator Sam Rolfe refused to proceed with the series and ABC dropped it, incurring the wrath of Lucille Ball and Executive Vice President Herb Solow.
Paramount has the beautiful "Lucy. Bark" on the site of the Desilu Gower property. A great tribute to a Great Star.
