"Laughs, Luck...and Lucy" by Jess Oppenheimer

Laughs, Luck...and Lucy

We needed a theme song. I immediately thought of my friend Eliot Daniel, Rudy Vallee's pianist before and during the war. After getting out of the Coast Guard, Eliot had spent several years as a composer, conductor, and arranger for Disney, where his work included the Oscar-nominated song "Lavender Blue," I called Eliot at his office at Twentieth Century Fox, explained that Lucy was doing a TV audition program, and asked him if he'd write a theme for us.
     "I'll do it for you, Jess," he said, "but you'll have to keep my name out of it."
     "Why?"
     "Because my exclusive contract with Fox doesn't run out until next year."
     "That's no problem. Your name won't appear anywhere."
     "Fine. When do you need it?"
     "Friday."
     There was a second or two of silence.
     "Okay. What's the name of the show.?"
     "I Love Lucy."
     "I'll get back to you in a day or two."
     A couple of days later, Eliot came over to the studio and played the theme for me and Desi and a few others. We all loved it. He told us that he had ben looking for an opening musical phrase that said I Love Lucy, and that as soon as he settled on the first four notes, the rest of the song practically wrote itself.

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Laughs, Luck...and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time
by Jess Oppenheimer with Gregg Oppenheimer
© 1996 by Gregg Oppenheimer. All Rights Reserved
www.lucylibrary.com