Do you remember the recurring saxophone gag in this USA TV classic? Charles Benoit shares the story of the I Love Lucy saxophone.
You’ve got a week to learn to play the sax before you join a ten-piece band on stage where you’ll take a solo on a song you don’t know in front of a crowd of 300 and a TV audience in the millions. Ready?
The average person would say no, but comedian Lucille Ball was anything but average.
I Love Lucy’s Saxophone
When the writers for the hit TV show “I Love Lucy” learned that their leading lady had briefly played the sax in high school, they saw a chance for comedic gold. Lucy’s band days (and her high school years) were far from impressive. She often skipped school to cruise the small-town streets with her gun-toting, gangster boyfriend, and she ran off to New York City to attend (and flunk out) of acting school. But the idea was too good to pass up, so the writers, who were already working on the script, asked if she could still play. “No,” she said, “But give me a week.”
The script was quickly finalised, but when rehearsals started that Thursday, there was a problem. Lucy’s playing was too good. For the show to work, she had to relearn the song the wrong way to hit the right worst notes at the best wrong places.
Get 14 Day FREE Trial of Sax School PRO
It was a reoccurring plot for the show: Lucy wants to join her husband Ricky’s nightclub act, and when she hears that he’s auditioning sax players, she breaks out her old instrument and starts practicing the only tune she knows, “The Glow-Worm.” At least that’s what she says she’s playing. Lucy’s best friend Ethel asks Lucy to play “Star Dust.” It sounds the same as “The Glow-Worm.”
Cut to Ricky Ricardo’s red-hot nightclub, The Tropicana!
Lucy’s audition
Ricky’s TV-show band was his own Desi Arnaz Orchestra, and Ralph Brady, the band’s lead sax, played the role of an auditioning musician. The band’s jamming away when in struts Lucy, sax in hand, draped to the nines in a hip, hep and most-righteous Zoot suit. She starts laying down some solid jive, man, parodying every jazz cat that ever beeped a bop. Ricky and the band play along, and when it comes time for her solo, she squawks out a painful chorus of “The Glow-Worm.” Surprisingly, she doesn’t get the gig.
In his autobiography, Desi Arnaz said, “We could’ve had Lucy fake playing the sax, while someone off-camera did it, but it wouldn’t have been as funny as Lucy struggling to do it well herself.”
Watch the full I Love Lucy: The Saxophone episode here.
Lucy played the sax in two other episodes with the same comic effect. While she didn’t make it as a musician, she and Desi turned the company they founded, Desilu Productions, into an industry powerhouse, creating classic TV shows such as Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables and Star Trek.
Lucy’s sax
Despite a childhood filled with tragedy, gossip and financial ruin, Lucy loved her hometown of Jamestown, NY, recalling her time there as some of the happiest days of her life. Today, Jamestown is the home of The Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz Museum – part of the National Comedy Center – which provides an in-depth look at their lives and ground-breaking careers. The exhibits include costumes, props, rare photos, and full-size replicas of the show’s New York City apartment and California sets. But the crown jewel exhibit is Lucy’s now-vintage Buescher 400 Big Bell alto saxophone.
Get 14 Day FREE Trial of Sax School PRO
August “Gus” Buescher was a master craftsman who began working at the Conn band instrument factory in the legendary music capital of Paris, France Elkhart, Indiana in 1876. By 1894, Gus had his own ideas about saxophones and founded the Buescher Manufacturing Company. Over the next half-century, the company released several different models, including the True Tone, New Aristocrat and the legendary 400 series, considered by some to be the best vintage saxophones out there. (Yes, even better than that other vintage sax.)
In 1963, Buescher was bought out by Selmer, who used the Buescher factory, equipment, and personnel for their “Bundy” student line model. In 1983, Selmer retired the Buescher brand forever. Was it a case of “if you can’t beat them, buy them out and bury them,” or just a normal business consolidation? Whatever the reason, the Buescher 400 has a well-deserved place in the saxophone pantheon.
Lucy’s sax is in rough shape. Pads are crumbling, springs have sprung, and that Ab/G# spatula key should not look like that. The good news is the museum is continually restoring and preserving its collection and there are plans to refurbish Lucy’s sax soon. It’s on display at the museum, so book your trip to Jamestown now!
Advice from Lucy
Lucy’s performance is a comedy classic, but it offers sax players of all levels a real opportunity to improve. Mastering simple songs like “The Glow-Worm” allows you to experiment with rhythm, grace notes, articulation and overall improvisation. Jam along with The Mills Brothers, Chet Atkins, Swingadelic or work the melody into a solo with the Desi Arnaz Orchestra and you’ll see why Lucy loved “The Glow-Worm.”
If you find yourself struggling with any song you’re playing, keep this bit of advice from Lucille Ball in mind: “One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn’t pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”
Dreaming of playing sax in a band like Lucy? Get access to the best lessons, resources and support to supercharge your saxophone progress with Sax School PRO. Get started with Sax School