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The Almighty Peso


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I thought I had started a thread that dealt with what dollar amounts mentioned within Lucy's shows actually mean in current dollars:

 

Cost of fix Viv's car in the opening of the 2nd season: $50.  2015 equivalent: $375

 

Ricky's estimate of what it will cost Lucy and Ethel to each fund their own Europe trip: $3000.  $26,275 today!  No wonder Ethel was skeptical they could raise the money.

 

Don Loper original in 1955 $500.  Today: $4,380.

 

Amount Lucy spent on furniture with Betty Ramsey: $3,500  (also amount Ricky was paid for his guest spot).  Today: $29.200. 

 

Cost of plane fare from Europe to NYC in 1955:  $300.  Today: $2,600!

 

Cost of the dinette set Lucy covets in "bags a Bargain": $99 (plus tax).  Today: $717

 

Amount "the men from Las Vegas" offer the team of Burns and Carmichael: $10,000.  Today: $72,000

 

Per episode price paid to William Frawley and Vivian Vance in 1956.  $3, 500.  Today: $30,230.  Assuming they got paid only for the episodes produced, their individual takes for the 6th season:  $786,000.  The 6th season was the shortest: 26 episodes, a paltry amount considering many shows were still doing 39.

 

I've often wondered what entity determined how many episodes would be produced for any season. The Lucy Show's 1st season produced 30 episodes but it went down from there.  The 5th season was the shortest: 22 episodes.  I would think the cost of "London" factored into this.

 

Vivian Vance's per episode price for The Lucy Show: $8,000.  Today:  $61,300.  I remember reading the $8,000 figure somewhere but don't know which season it was for; OR if it was what they were offering her to return for the 4th season.

Assuming this what she was getting per episode, for the 1st season Vivian would have grossed $1,839,000 in 2015 dollars!  Not bad!

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I'm always amazed at the prize of clothes, hats, etc back then. When I hear Lucy spent $50 on a dress I'm thinking that is what I spend now days. Hats back then must have been like $700 Loubatans today. Shows what cheap foreign labor and synthetic material will do to these prices.

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Cost of Lucy's negligee purchased wholesale from Eddie (in today's dollars): $1,025.

Ethel's: $764

 

Amount of rent the Ricardos were charging the Williams for the house: $1,624

Amount they were charging the Mertzes for the quest house: $610

Amount FRED wanted to charge the Williams: $1218

(Assuming I got the numbers of the rent right: $200, $75 and $150)

 

Amount the Ricardos were paying in rent for their Manhattan apartment circa the Mr. Beecher episode: $1,091

To anyone living in NYC today: what would $1000 a month get you?

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Cost of Lucy's negligee purchased wholesale from Eddie (in today's dollars): $1,025.

Ethel's: $764

 

Amount of rent the Ricardos were charging the Williams for the house: $1,624

Amount they were charging the Mertzes for the quest house: $610

Amount FRED wanted to charge the Williams: $1218

(Assuming I got the numbers of the rent right: $200, $75 and $150)

 

Amount the Ricardos were paying in rent for their Manhattan apartment circa the Mr. Beecher episode: $1,091

To anyone living in NYC today: what would $1000 a month get you?

Ricky just told Lucy her wedding ring cost him fifty bucks, how much is that in current dollars?

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I think in the production notes for the DVDs it said that the furniture Lucy bought with M Croft was somewhere around $40,000. No matter who was right (Neil or the DVD) that's literally insane. 

Mary Jane CROFT?  Lucy and Mary Jane bought furniture together, never even knew they lived together, so, what furniture?

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I think in the production notes for the DVDs it said that the furniture Lucy bought with M Croft was somewhere around $40,000. No matter who was right (Neil or the DVD) that's literally insane. 

According to the inflation calculating website I visited, prices are 8.35 times what they were in 1957.  (translated, today it would take 8 dollars and 35 cents to buy what you could buy for 1 dollar in 1957).

Some items and goods have kept pace with inflation, some have not.  I was looking through some old newspaper archives and when "The Sound Of Music" was in its first release, you bought RESERVE SEAT tickets, the top price being (in 2015) $22.35!  

My first copy of the Wildcat LP cost the equivalent of $27.35 today.

I remember the days when finding a dime on the street was like winning a jackpot.   2 more cents and I could buy a Gold Key Lucy Show comic book.  Kids today can't be bothered with what we from the Stone Age considered a treasure trove, returning bottles for their deposit.   Deposit in Oregon is currently 5 cents.  I think when I was a kid it was 3 cents and that was more like 20 2105 cents (this is PER BOTTLE, mind you).  People yearn for the days when prices were more inline, but they tend to forget that salaries were much lower.  

In 1970, Mary Richards' total annual salary was $8,000 which I thought was paltry, but it's over $48,000 today.   Murray is livid when he finds out that Ted is grossing $30,000 a year, almost $160,000 today.

I don't understand economics AT ALL, but for whatever reason inflation went wild in the 70s, so much so that President Gerald Ford distributed WIN buttons which stood for "Whip Inflation Now".  I don't know what that was supposed to accomplish.

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According to the inflation calculating website I visited, prices are 8.35 times what they were in 1957.  (translated, today it would take 8 dollars and 35 cents to buy what you could buy for 1 dollar in 1957).

Some items and goods have kept pace with inflation, some have not.  I was looking through some old newspaper archives and when "The Sound Of Music" was in its first release, you bought RESERVE SEAT tickets, the top price being (in 2015) $22.35!  

My first copy of the Wildcat LP cost the equivalent of $27.35 today.

I remember the days when finding a dime on the street was like winning a jackpot.   2 more cents and I could buy a Gold Key Lucy Show comic book.  Kids today can't be bothered with what we from the Stone Age considered a treasure trove, returning bottles for their deposit.   Deposit in Oregon is currently 5 cents.  I think when I was a kid it was 3 cents and that was more like 20 2105 cents (this is PER BOTTLE, mind you).  People yearn for the days when prices were more inline, but they tend to forget that salaries were much lower.  

In 1970, Mary Richards' total annual salary was $8,000 which I thought was paltry, but it's over $48,000 today.   Murray is livid when he finds out that Ted is grossing $30,000 a year, almost $160,000 today.

I don't understand economics AT ALL, but for whatever reason inflation went wild in the 70s, so much so that President Gerald Ford distributed WIN buttons which stood for "Whip Inflation Now".  I don't know what that was supposed to accomplish.

So the fifty bucks Ricky paid for her wedding ring means about 400 something today?

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According to Herb "venomous fishwife" Kenwith, he was aghast to learn that Mary Wickes was paid a mere $600 for a part on Here's Lucy.    Judging by the years he was with Here's Lucy, this is about $4047 today.

 

Amount Lucy was paid to appear on the NBC's  "The Danny Kaye Special WITH LUCILLE BALL" ( the official title...without the caps)  $777,500.

 

In the 1967-68 season, for each half hour of The Lucy Show, CBS paid Desilu (then Paramount/ Gulf and Western)  $632,484.

(The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy consistently had the highest budgets of any half-hour sitcom on television).

 

Tab for 4 cheese sandwiches (plus entertainment tax) at Skinner's One Oak Diner/Motel  $41.16

 

One night at Skinner's One-Cabin Motel: $70.08 a couple.   So the room actually cost  $140.16.   I can't imagine Fred being tired enough to say "$70, $140, what's the difference?"

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What year did he mention he bought the ring?

It's the one where she wants to remind him of their upcoming anniversary so he tells her at breakfast that the ring means a lot to him as he paid fifty bucks for it.  The one where Grace Foster supplies the pearls.  Beginning of second season maybe?  1952?

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If it's the wedding ring he's referring to, it would have been purchased in 1940, for a 2015 price of  $838.

 

2015 amount Desi earned (grossed?) traveling the country playing band dates in the year previous to I Love Lucy: $1,460,000.

 

2015 amount Columbia paid Lucy per picture for the 3-picture deal that included "Miss Grant", "Fuller Brush" and "Magic Carpet". $828,000 for a total of $2,484,000 over a 3-year period (1949-51). 

 

Don't know what Lucy was earning for "Husband" on radio, but it seems Desi made more annually than Lucy.  Of course, this $150,000 1950 amount may have included paying the band members and travel expenses.

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Dang... she made a lot of money from the word go... Hell pay me that much and Id be a loyal studio gal too lol

I know.  I didn't really think of the Arnazes in the 40s as being RICH rich.  The Chatsworth ranch was nice but certainly no palace.  Maybe Desi's gambling took a chunk.  If Lucy was making that much, what must the A stars of the day have been making?: Gable, Crosby, Hope, Crawford, Davis.

 

Price of the Roxbury house when they bought it (in 2015 dollars)  $481,700.  Beverly Hills real estate has obviously outstrip inflation.

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I know. I didn't really think of the Arnazes in the 40s as being RICH rich. The Chatsworth ranch was nice but certainly no palace. Maybe Desi's gambling took a chunk. If Lucy was making that much, what must the A stars of the day have been making?: Gable, Crosby, Hope, Crawford, Davis.

In 1944, Barbara Stanwyck was the highest paid woman in the United States. She made $400,000.

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