I met John through that. At the time, he was married to— always was married to Vivian Vance of I Love Lucy. They lived here and then in Tiburon; they had a place in Connecticut, went back and forth. They went everywhere. They were constantly going to shrinks about him being gay or not.
DL icon Vivian Vance married a gay man ... and tried to "convert" him
by Anonymous | reply 68 | October 14, 2021 12:12 PM |
Did Viv have thyroid issues?
by Anonymous | reply 1 | September 11, 2021 8:39 PM |
He died of cancer in 1986 at only 64 years old.
So young.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | September 11, 2021 8:51 PM |
I didn't realize how much younger than her he was r2
by Anonymous | reply 3 | September 11, 2021 8:54 PM |
r1 Sanpaku eyes
by Anonymous | reply 4 | September 11, 2021 10:50 PM |
Iirc, John Dodds was in a long-term relationship before, during, and after his marriage to Viv. In fact, Viv left nearly her entire fortune to John, who in turn left it to his partner.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | September 12, 2021 1:13 PM |
OP, I'd love to know more about Dodds and his marriage to Viv. And all about his partner.
by Anonymous | reply 6 | September 12, 2021 1:39 PM |
He was an odd looking guy.
by Anonymous | reply 7 | September 12, 2021 1:43 PM |
WWVVD
by Anonymous | reply 8 | September 12, 2021 1:43 PM |
MARY!
by Anonymous | reply 9 | September 12, 2021 1:52 PM |
What is your native language, OP?
Interesting story
by Anonymous | reply 10 | September 12, 2021 1:54 PM |
r10 the quote at OP is from an oral history provided by Warren Hinckle
by Anonymous | reply 11 | September 12, 2021 1:58 PM |
That’s just sad for both of them.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | September 12, 2021 1:58 PM |
This is why we just blurt out her name when we are asked to choose but don’t like any of the options.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | September 12, 2021 2:00 PM |
She wanted him to become Protestant.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | September 12, 2021 2:59 PM |
... but Gary talked him out of it, r14.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | September 12, 2021 3:05 PM |
Did they buy a zoo?
by Anonymous | reply 16 | September 12, 2021 3:28 PM |
Was he younger than her than Gary Morton was to Lucy?
by Anonymous | reply 17 | September 12, 2021 4:50 PM |
I think the age difference was the same, r17 -- 13 years.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | September 12, 2021 4:52 PM |
I suspected she wanted a sexually non-threatening guy. She knew he was gay, but I wonder if she really believed she could "cure" him
by Anonymous | reply 19 | September 12, 2021 6:14 PM |
Gay face for days
by Anonymous | reply 20 | September 12, 2021 6:18 PM |
I wish they'd publish her memoirs. They exist, somewhere.
by Anonymous | reply 21 | September 13, 2021 9:20 PM |
Remember, our Viv was quite nutty herself.
Maybe this guy, gay or not, made her happy.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | September 13, 2021 10:05 PM |
Ah, fags and their hags. They bring balance to the universe. Like the ying to my yang.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | September 13, 2021 10:12 PM |
[quote]and tried to "convert" him
To what religion?
by Anonymous | reply 24 | September 13, 2021 10:38 PM |
The Church of Swishy, Rose!
by Anonymous | reply 25 | September 13, 2021 10:41 PM |
She looks like a potato.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | September 13, 2021 11:09 PM |
Weren't ther rumors of Viv and Lucy having a lesbian affair?
by Anonymous | reply 27 | September 13, 2021 11:13 PM |
She looks a little like Charlotte Rae in OP's photo.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | September 14, 2021 12:34 AM |
I frequently ask that, R5. Sometimes it’s WWEMD.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | September 14, 2021 12:37 AM |
I have a renewed interest in her history now. I hope he wasn’t a total grifter. That’s shitty. She deserved better; but maybe she knew, and loved the friendship.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | September 14, 2021 12:46 AM |
He looks like Charlotte Rae too.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | September 14, 2021 12:55 AM |
r27 Viv's third husband, who was almost pathologically jealous of her success, tried to convince her that such rumors existed. I don't think they did, however.
by Anonymous | reply 32 | September 14, 2021 12:24 PM |
I just listened to Lucy's interview with her on that just-released "Talk with Lucy" podcast. It was probably from 1964 or '65, when they were co-stars on "The Lucy Show."
You can tell theirs was a congenial professional relationship, if not a close friendship, and that Viv had long ago learned how to handle Lucy and to put up boundaries. Lucy seems to really respect her.
If that interview is any indication, it sounds like Viv was happy with her husband. She spent a lot of time flying cost-country to see him, attended his lectures and the like. So, if nothing else, it was an amiable companionship, and really, that's the most anyone can realistically ask for in a marriage.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | September 14, 2021 3:52 PM |
Didn't Viv fly back to the East Coast every weekend to be with her husband (Dodds)?
by Anonymous | reply 34 | September 15, 2021 12:49 AM |
Yes, r34. I read somewhere she liked to "keep an eye on him" because she knew he had flings when she wasn't around.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | September 15, 2021 12:51 AM |
Vivian tried to get me to say ‘I LOVE POOSEY’.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | September 15, 2021 12:56 AM |
Vivian tried to get me to say "I HAVE HAD SUFFICIENT DICK."
by Anonymous | reply 37 | September 15, 2021 12:58 AM |
Thanks for the insight r33
by Anonymous | reply 38 | September 15, 2021 9:27 AM |
She had a kind of weird career. She was really great on I Love Lucy, in my opinion. But if she hadn't done it, she'd have been almost unknown. She was in a production of The Voice Of The Turtle when she was discovered. At the La Jolla Playhouse, or somewhere like that (?)...Became famous at 40. I saw her in a small part in a movie that was made just before she was on ILL. It was one of her few movie parts.
I read a story in a biography of Kay Thompson. I'll probably get it wrong because it's been a while. Kay was playing the lead in a stage musical, still out of town, directed by Vincente Minnelli. (May have been Hooray For What.) It was going to be her big break. Vivian was apparently sleeping with one of the songwriters (Yip Harburg?) -- she was also in the show, I guess. Then they replaced Kay with Vivian. Kay was devastated. She felt she wasn't pretty enough, to begin with. Just thought it was interesting.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | September 16, 2021 3:21 PM |
Also read that Viv used to say things to Lucy, when ILL took off, like "Now that we're famous", or "Now that we're stars..." Drove Lucy nuts, apparently. She was already a star, and was the star of ILL, and gave Viv her break, but Viv wanted to equate their stardom.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | September 16, 2021 3:50 PM |
[quote]"Now that we're famous", or "Now that we're stars..." Drove Lucy nuts, apparently.
That's why I said it, bitches!
by Anonymous | reply 41 | September 16, 2021 3:58 PM |
Had Lucy not come along, I wonder if Viv would've returned to legitimate theater, r39. She semi-retired after her nervous breakdown.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | September 16, 2021 6:50 PM |
I would love to see an alternate universe in which Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet had been cast as Fred and Ethel.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | September 16, 2021 8:30 PM |
We have heard the Lucy/Desi (and Lucy/Gary) stories ad infinitum, but I've read relatively little about Viv and her third and fourth marriages. I have always suspected, though, that her third husband contributed significantly to her mental health problems.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | September 18, 2021 5:54 PM |
There's relatively little about Viv, period. Her starring career basically began and ended with Lucy. The same can be said for Desi (though at least pre ILL and Desilu, he was a famous bandleader) -- and his starring career ended even sooner. Kind of weird. Like Audrey Meadows. She was basically Alice Kramden and that was it. (Because she didn't want to move to Miami to do the 1960s Honeymooners musical version.)
by Anonymous | reply 45 | September 18, 2021 8:52 PM |
*But that was also Alice Kramden
by Anonymous | reply 46 | September 18, 2021 8:53 PM |
True, r45, but Desi did publish his memoirs
by Anonymous | reply 47 | September 19, 2021 3:04 PM |
When is Being The Ricardos coming out?
by Anonymous | reply 48 | September 19, 2021 10:30 PM |
[quote]Philip Ober, who played the ill-fated “Lester Townsend” in Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” (1959), was married at the time to Vivian Vance, who was playing “Ethel Mertz” in “I Love Lucy”
by Anonymous | reply 49 | September 21, 2021 6:55 PM |
No one affiliated with "Lucy" liked Phil Ober. Lucille herself despised him, which I feel seeped out a bit in the Dore Shary episode
by Anonymous | reply 50 | September 21, 2021 7:49 PM |
Interesting that she didn't despise him enough not to employ him.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | September 21, 2021 9:33 PM |
He could have appeared in far more episodes than he did, r51. He showed up very early in the series ("The Quiz Show") and then in the Dore Schary episode a few years later. He could have played a number of additional parts, but they used other actors instead. I think he stepped into the Schary role at the very last minute when the real Schary backed out. Phil was frequently at the studio and, I assume, had watched the rehearsals. I doubt he was Lucy's first choice to replace Schary.
Years later, Lucy claimed she found him scary to be around.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | September 22, 2021 8:52 AM |
Compared to Lucy, Vivian aged damned well.
Here she is talking about John around 11:05:
by Anonymous | reply 53 | October 7, 2021 7:36 PM |
Unlike Lucy, she was never a beauty, or considered sexy.
by Anonymous | reply 54 | October 7, 2021 9:33 PM |
R55 Not saying she wasn't attractive. But Lucy was a famous, beautiful leading-lady movie star, considered a sex symbol at one point when she was younger. When was that ever Vivian Vance? Get real.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | October 8, 2021 3:03 AM |
Lucy looked good for a long time, anyway. I was watching The Facts Of Life (1960) the other day, she was 49, She wasn't even wearing a wig in that, she looked very good. It was only later in her late sixties and 70s she started to look old, and why not?
by Anonymous | reply 57 | October 8, 2021 3:12 AM |
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour would like a word, r57
by Anonymous | reply 58 | October 8, 2021 12:21 PM |
Lucy was no great beauty herself
by Anonymous | reply 59 | October 8, 2021 6:28 PM |
r57 She was fresh from her first face-lift when she made The Facts of Life. She did look marvelous.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | October 8, 2021 7:59 PM |
I'm going to rewatch The Facts of Life this weekend
by Anonymous | reply 61 | October 8, 2021 10:26 PM |
[quote]She was fresh from her first face-lift when she made The Facts of Life. She did look marvelous.
Just curious, if she had a face lift, as you say, why did she wear her face pulled up with an elastic hair band, under wigs, on The Lucy Show? There are scenes on The Lucy Show where she has her natural face - because she couldn't wear a wig in some scenes - like if she got hit by a lot of water - and she looks fine, but older or just not as "pulled up."
by Anonymous | reply 62 | October 9, 2021 3:46 PM |
I never knew she had a face lift.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | October 10, 2021 11:00 PM |
Lucy still looked good at age 52, three years after The Facts of Life.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | October 11, 2021 2:29 AM |
When did she start with the wigs and tape r64?
by Anonymous | reply 65 | October 11, 2021 12:12 PM |
Back to the point at OP ... given that Viv was very into analysis in the 1940s and 1950s, it makes sense she tried to get him into therapy to change him -- as that was the prevailing idea about homosexuality in the psychiatric community then.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | October 12, 2021 11:07 PM |
[quote]When did she start with the wigs and tape [R64]?
I'm not the one you asked, but according to the book, Desilu, she started during the hour-long shows (later called The L:ucy-Desi Comedy Hour). She was still trying it out and didn't do it on every show. I think the first appearance of it may have been on the show that guest starred Fred MacMurray nad June Haver. At first, she didn't want to do it, because she thought the mobility of her face was essential to her comedy.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | October 14, 2021 3:17 AM |
Fascinating. Thanks r67
by Anonymous | reply 68 | October 14, 2021 12:12 PM |