Duffy's Tavern - "Special Guest Is Lucille Ball" (11-09-43)

"Special Guest Is Lucille Ball" (Aired November 9, 1943)

Duffy's Tavern, an American radio situation comedy (CBS, 1941-1942; NBC-Blue Network, 1942-1944; NBC, 1944-1952), often featured top-name stage and film guest stars but always hooked those around the misadventures, get-rich-quick-scheming, and romantic missteps of the title establishment's malaprop-prone, metaphor-mixing manager, Archie, played by the writer/actor who co-created the show, Ed Gardner. In the show's familiar opening, "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," either solo on an old-sounding piano or by a larger orchestra, was interrupted by the ring of a telephone and Gardner's New Yorkese accent as he answered, "Duffy's Tavern, where the elite meet to eat. Archie the manager speakin'. Duffy ain't here — oh, hello, Duffy."

THIS EPISODE:
 
November 9, 1943. "Special Guest Is Lucille Ball" - Program #26. Blue network origination, AFRS rebroadcast. Archie's going to be listed in, "Who's That?" Johnny Johnson (vocal), Lucille Ball (guest), Ed Gardner, Florence Halop, Peter Van Steeden and His Orchestra, Howard Duff (AFRS announcer), Eddie Green, John Brown. 27:47. Episode Notes From The Radio Gold Index.