# Weren't the Mertzs rich? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2010, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831 "2010-03-01T05:31:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/21 "2010-03-02T21:42:18Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > And another hijack to the OP; I always thought it would be a cool idea to have a hotel in NYC where all of the rooms looked exactly like the Ricardo’s apartment - even down to the fact that everything (walls, furniture, curtains, etc.) would be in grays so it looked like a black and white set. That’s a great idea, but the rooms should not just be I Love Lucy rooms, but rooms from a variety of TV shows. There are plenty of hotels with theme rooms already, but I’ve never heard of one like this. ---
**Author:** ![Ceejaytee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ceejaytee/32/2956_2.png) [@Ceejaytee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ceejaytee)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/22 "2010-03-02T21:51:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > HIJACK, but I always wondered about Ralph Kramden. I know bus drivers don’t get rich, but- especially then- would they really have to live in the slums with just a bunch of cheap second hand furniture? My dad was a NYC bus driver from the early '60s to the late '80s, raising 3 kids, with a wife who stayed at home until the early '80s when we were all in school. We lived a hell of a lot better than the Kramdens, but we didn’t have a lot of extra money to throw around. My dad’s not known for his great financial skills but he didn’t go in for get-rich-quick schemes, which probably helped. I don’t know about the '50s but my dad was union and had decent pay and benefits and he’s living on a nice pension. ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/23 "2010-03-02T22:30:04Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > And another hijack to the OP; I always thought it would be a cool idea to have a hotel in NYC where all of the rooms looked exactly like the Ricardo’s apartment - even down to the fact that everything (walls, furniture, curtains, etc.) would be in grays so it looked like a black and white set. Dual twin beds? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/24 "2010-03-03T03:20:12Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Actually Ethel owned the building not Fred and Ethel. As was common back then and before, when a home was bought it was put in the wife’s name alone to give her some sort of “Security” over the husband just up and leaving. > > . I never knew this, but it would seem to account for why in so many old stories and films, not to mention factual memoirs\*, there’s a landlady rather than a landlord that the characters have to avoid when they’re late with the rent. Though there certainly are some landlords as well. \*Groucho Marx recounted having to drive a wagon in the Colorado Rockies, and one of the horses looking just like his landlady. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2010, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/25 "2010-03-05T00:31:27Z")
> [@DMark](#): > > I always thought it would be a cool idea to have a hotel in NYC where all of the rooms looked exactly like the Ricardo’s apartment - even down to the fact that everything (walls, furniture, curtains, etc.) would be in grays so it looked like a black and white set. The Ricardo’s [kitchen in color](http://www.hollywood-diecast.com/lucy%20kitchen.jpg), and [the nightclub and living room in color](http://tvfoodanddrink.com/2010/01/i-love-lucy-rare-color-footage-from-1951/). ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/26 "2010-03-08T22:02:28Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > The Ricardo’s [kitchen in color](http://www.hollywood-diecast.com/lucy%20kitchen.jpg), and [the nightclub and living room in color](http://tvfoodanddrink.com/2010/01/i-love-lucy-rare-color-footage-from-1951/). Well obviously, if we’re going to build this hotel, there must be a copy of Ricardo’s night club on street level. ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/27 "2010-03-08T23:03:29Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > The Ricardo’s [kitchen in color](http://www.hollywood-diecast.com/lucy%20kitchen.jpg), and [the nightclub and living room in color](http://tvfoodanddrink.com/2010/01/i-love-lucy-rare-color-footage-from-1951/). Wow. That youtube footage is solid gold. How handsome Desi looks in color beating that conga drum! The colors are kinda hideous – I’d never have guessed that tree branch in the Tropicana was a sickly coral! – but (and you can see this particularly clearly in the apartment footage) they purposely used colors that wouldn’t look drastically different in b/w and would “read” well. Looks like the walls in the Ricardos’ place are a grayish mauve/purple, and the sofa is pale green. William Frawley’s hair is darker than I expected, too. Thanks very much for linking this, **Walloon**. I’ve seen a snapshot of the set, but never live footage. As a tremendous lifelong fan of the show, this is just amazing to see. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/28 "2010-03-09T07:12:33Z")
I’m just really glad that colorization people did not use the actual colors. I just wish I’d gotten my doctor’s copy of the few colorized pieces of episodes. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831/29 "2010-03-09T15:33:31Z")
The Mertzes certainly weren’t poor, but they weren’t necessarily rich. I know it’s hard to believe, but real estate and rents in New York City weren’t always as astronomically expensive as they are today! To give you some idea of how RAPIDLY prices went through the roof… my parents bought the house I grew up in, in a blue collar neighborhood in Queens, for just $75,000 in 1979. A house like ours was quite affordable for a cop, fireman, teacher, barber, nurse or garbage man. Today, that same house would go for a million, easily. Today, a couple who owned an apartment building ANYWHERE in Manhattan would be loaded. That wasn’t necessarily the case in the Fifties, when “I Love Lucy” was set. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/werent-the-mertzs-rich/530831.md?page=1)