I Love Lucy (TV Series) The Fashion Show (1955) User Reviews

Hollywood Wives

[richard.fuller1 · 9/10 · 6 September 2008]

Lucy wants an expensive dress. If she appears in the fashion show, she can have the dress. Unfortunately, to get sympathy from Ricky, she overburned herself lounging in the sun, and now she must appear in the fashion show with the painful tan.

Amusing setup, made even more amusing by the alluring lull of the previous Hollywood wives who appeared in this episode, all modeling fashions by Don Loper (a testimony to how 'fashion' will outlive its creator. Who on Earth was Don Loper. Oh, THAT Don Loper. sheesh!).

Anyway, the wives are testimonies as well to their husbands. We see the wives of six actors; Bill Holden, Van Heflin, Dean Martin, Gordon MacRae, Forrest Tucker and Richard Carlson.

What's most noteworthy is how many of these marriages lasted. Martin, MacRae and Heflin all ended in divorce, as well as Holden (apparently this one wasn't much of a marriage to begin with), and all within six years of one another, from 1967-73.

Well, they outlasted Lucille Ball's own marriage, obviously, which ended ten years earlier.

The two unique ones are Carlson and Tucker.

Carlson's union to Mona Carlson lasted, til death they did part.

Tucker's, likewise, lasted til death they did part, . . . when SHE died in 1960.

Also worth mentioning in this episode is yet another appearance by the ubiquitous Amzie Strickland, who appeared in shows and movies for nearly half a century, it seems.

The Five Hundred Dollar Dress

[Christopher370 · 10/10 · 10 July 2023]

The $500 cost of the dress in 1955 would equal over $5,000 in 2023, so it's understandable how Ricky would blow his top when he heard the price. I loved how Ethel kept gasping when she saw the price tags. If I saw a 5k price tag (today's equivalent) on a dress, i'd gasp too.

I thought the dresses on display at the fashion show were gorgeous and I feel it should be viewed on the colorized episode to really appreciate them. It makes me wish dresses like those styles would make a comeback today.

I found them all to be so colorful and feminine....except for the tweed one that Lucy wore, but she needed to wear that to generate the laughs for wearing it on her sunburned body.

It's a fun episode and one of my favorites of the Hollywood episodes, though I thought it was kind of wrong and deceiving of Lucy to keep that $500 check from Ricky in the end, especially after learning $500 was equivalent to 5k today. It makes me wonder just what she had planned to do with all that money?!

Lucy gets to be in a fashion show

[kellielulu · 6/10 · 28 August 2022]

Honestly I can see Ricky and Fred's issue here . Five hundred dollars is a lot of money now to spend on a dress even one hundred is stretching it some . That was in the 1950's when one hundred would be extravagant ( now too) but five hundred is a small fortune. The dress itself is literally nothing special. It looks like something to wear working in an office or to wear to something official it wasn't particularly pretty. Lucy goes to some lengths to even try to keep the dress getting badly sunburned ( ouch!) then actually appears in the show. Ricky even relents leaving her the money for the dress although by appearing in the fashion show. Will she buy a second dress ? We never find out. The wives of some Hollywood actors do appear perhaps actually for charity. It's a bit underwhelming though in black and white.

I don't think the dress itself was much to show off just for that designer label.

A much better episode on the same topic is Lucy gets a Paris Gown.

Sun burned

[angelahptrio · 7/10 · 20 February 2021]

Lucy is sun burned and that is the only funny part. I wouldn't call it a solid episode but it is enjoyable to watch. To showcase the Hollywood wives is a treat.

Fashion episode

[rgxdzrybr · 5/10 · 25 April 2024]

Not a bad episode but not particularly funny either.

Lucy wants a designer dress and Ricky relents on the promise it won't cost more than a hundred dollars. Lucy finds an opportunity to be in a fashion with the wives of movie stars but in the meantime the plainest dress she can find at Don Loper's ends up costing five hundred dollars . She doesn't know the cost until she and Ethel return from the salon and by then it's been altered and therefore can't be returned. In effort to make Ricky sympathetic she is going to get slightly sunburned! But it's far worse she's burned to a crisp. Ricky isn't nearly that sympathetic upon learning the cost of the dress. She learns if she wears a new dress by Loper she can have her dress for free.

In terrible pain she does it with Ethel there to cheer her on and for moral support. She makes it and then finds a check waiting from Ricky to buy the already attained dress. Question is will she return the check ? She's not so sure!

Unlike the Paris Gown episode that stood on its own this one would have greatly benefited from being in color. The dresses shown by the wives were described as to having vivid colors .