I LOVE LUCY

Lucy needs her birth certificate if she intends to apply for a passport; and the Jamestown Bureau of Statistics has no record of her being born. However, passport officials assure Ricky that if Lucy can produce two people willing to sign affidavits swearing that they have known her since birth, they will waive the birth certificate requirement.

Consequently, Lucy heads straight for her former baby-sitter Helen Erickson Kaiser, who now lives in Manhattan. Helen is about to put her signature on the paper when her lawyer-husband Sidney arrives. He takes one look at the document and refuses to allow his wife to sign it. It seems that Helen has apparently lied about her age to Sidney and couldn't possibly have been Lucy's baby-sitter.

Lucy's frantic and even threatens to stow away in a steamer trunk. Trying one on for size, she promptly gets locked in. When Dr. Peterson, the McGillicuddy family physician, arrives to identify Lucy for the passport people, he is unable to see her to make a positive identification.

But when Lucy recalls a song that she and the old doctor used to sing years ago, "Skip to My Lou," Peterson is certain that the girl inside the trunk is Lucille McGillicuddy. Lucy later learns she was born in West Jamestown when a special-delivery letter from her mother arrives with the needed birth certificate.

Special Notes: According to the Postal Service, there is no "West" Jamestown, New York. This episode is based on Lucy's radio show, My Favorite Husband episode #120, "The Passports".

Lucille Ball's birthday is 6 August 1911 and was born in Jamestown, New York. Lucy Ricardo's birthday was August 6, 1921 and was born in West Jamestown, New York, (a fictitious town used in this episode). Lucy Ricardo's birth year was always kept secret as a running gag on the show, but it was revealed in this episode.

The episode was based on Jess Oppenheimer's dad James who couldn't find his passport nearly causing his wife to be sent back to Germany! James was born in Sacramento not San Francisco as the family thought.

Bloopers: Desi was so busy laughing at Fred's joke that he misses his next line and the following cue to pick up the phone. Lucy has to remind him to answer the phone, which he does, but then after picking up the phone he goes back to the line he missed. What results is Ricky answering the phone but then immediately asking Fred about his trunk before actually talking on the phone.

In the scene where Ricky and his pianist Marco Rizo rehearse in the Ricardo's apartment, Ricky begins drumming on the trunk with Lucy inside, upon finishing the song Marco says "I have to leave now Desi" using the actor's name and not the character's name.