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them.
    I wasn’t the only one working without a contract that day.The lawyers, agents and businessmen had been trying since December to getCBS’s deal with Lucy and Desi down on paper, but the contract was still unsigned as the actors took their places in Studio A on that evening.Lucy was already onstage, waiting for the curtain to rise, but Desi and Hal Hudson from CBS were still arguing over contract terms. With only moments until curtain, Hal finally gave Desi an ultimatum: “Sign the contract right now, as is, or the show will not go on.”
    Desi was furious. “How much does the kinescope cost to shoot?” he demanded to know.
    Hal consulted some papers he was holding. “Nineteen thousand dollars.”
    “Okay,” Desi yelled at him. “I’ll pay for it myself, and it will belong to us.”
    With his bluff called, Hal immediately backed down. “No no no, that’s all right, Desi. We’ll go ahead and shoot it now and thrash out the contract details later.”
    •   •   •

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    Photo caption (next page):
    Lucy and Desi rehearse the opening scene of the I Love Lucy audition. Lucy was five months pregnant and showing quite a lot, even after we camouflaged her in baggy pajamas and a big bathrobe.

    The following Wednesday, Don Sharpe boarded a plane for New York, carrying a completed kinescope of I Love Lucy, and we all anxiously waited and hoped it would sell. In the meantime we had another episode of My Favorite Husband to rehearse and tape by Friday.
    I arrived late at the office that Friday morning. As I walked into my office, the telephone on my desk was ringing. It was the head of programming at CBS in New York. He later remembeedr things a littledifferently, claiming that he loved I Love Lucy from the moment he first saw it. But on that Friday morning he wasn’t bearing such glad tidings.
    “What are you sending me, Jess?” he said. “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. How can I possibly sell this?”
    It wasn’t exactly the reaction I had been hoping for.
    Two weeks later we taped the final episode of My Favorite Husband. There was still no buyer for the TV show, and none of us knew what we would be doing come fall. At the close of the program Lucy came on gave a little speech:
  MUSIC. (My Favorite Husband Theme. )
    LEMOND. You have been listening to My Favorite Husband, starring Lucille Ball with Richard Denning. Lucille—did you want to say something?
    LUCY. Yes, Bob. Sad things are best said simply, so I’ll just say, tonight is our last show. It’s been a wonderful two and a half years, and I hope we’ll all be able to come back on the air in the not-too-distant future. But now I’d like to thank everyone connected with the show: General Foods and Jell-O for being such wonderful sponsors; Richard Denning, my favorite radio husband; Bea Benaderet, and Gale Gordon, Ruth Perrott, and all the others who have acted with us. And of course, our director… (Starts to break down.) Jess Oppenheimer. (Little sob.) (Regains composure.) And Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. who wrote the scripts with him. Marlin Skiles, who wrote the music; Wilbur Hatch, who conducted it so beautifully; Lucien Davis, our assistant director; Ray Lithgow, our engineer; Dave Light, our sound effects man; Adele Sliff, our secretary; and thanks to you, Bob LeMond.
    LEMOND. Thank you, Lucille. 
    LUCY. Good night.
      (Applause.)
     
    Exactly one month after Lucy’s emotional farewell, we gotthe news that we had all been waiting for. Don Sharpe had succeeded in selling the show to The Milton Biow Agency for Philip Morris cigarettes. And Biow sent word that he was on his way to Europe, and he would contact us on his return.
    In the meantime, Bob and Madelyn and I rethought the pilot and realized that we had written it for Lucy and Desi only, omitting anyone for our stars to speak to, plot with, as we had had in the radio show. At first we toyed with the idea of having a lot of interaction between Lucy and Ricky