Before Lucy

They kicked Vivian Vance out of town. And that was a good thing.

It happened after August 16, 1932. She was performing with the Albuquerque Little Theatre for nothing, and some people got together with the idea that she should be on Broadway. So a special performance was held that day and every cent from the box office was handed to her to pay for a trip to New York.

The Daily News related this in its September 15th edition, adding Vance hadn’t found work yet. Within a month, she had signed for a chorus part in Music in the Air at the Casino Theatre. She sang in cabarets and eventually made it to Broadway in a show starring Ed Wynn.

Newspapers across the U.S. picked up syndicated Broadway columns. It seems rather odd as someone reading, say, in Kansas, would likely never see a show on the Great White Way. Nonetheless, here’s a syndicated column about Vance that appeared around December 9, 1937.

Albuquerque Sent Her To New York; Now Vivian Vance's Name Is In Lights
As Singing Girl—Chance Came She Was Hired
By EDD JOHNSON
NEW YORK, Dec. 9.—If you go to see "Hooray for What!" take an especially long look at the blonde with the accent who plays the part of the international spy.
There, in the elongated person of Vivian Vance, you will see a dream walking—and singing. She's the dream of the sun-baked Albuquerque, N. M., and the fact that her name is up in lights on Broadway is the most exciting news out there since the murder of that snake-in-the-grass who was fooling around with the rich rancher's young wife. Four years ago the town opened up the old opery house and turned out for the event of the season—the benefit performance to raise money to send Vivian Jones to Broadway.
Off for Broadway
The play was "The Trial of Mary Dugan," presented by the Albuquerque Little Theater, with Vi playing Mary. It was such a success that before the cashier added up the receipts from the gala performance Vivian was on the train, bound for Broadway and stardom.
She reached Broadway on schedule, but then there were several detours. In private life, Vivian Jones became Mrs. George Kock, of Jackson Heights, wife of a violin player in a dance band.
Professionally, she became Vivian Vance, who sang in a couple of choruses, moaned into the mikes of some of the swankier east side night spots, and understudied Ethel Merman in "Anything Goes" and "Red Hot and Blue."
Name in the Lights
Miss Vance was to have been one of the singing girls in "Hooray for What!" but on the second night of the Boston tryout Kay Thompson stepped out—and presto, there was Vivian Vance with her name in lights.
Those wise to Broadway's ways will tell you that when a girl gets her name in lights it does things to her. and that a few years will find Miss Vance with a Pekingese, an English accent and temperament.
But today, positively giggling with excitement, she talked about herself in an accent that was strictly Alf Landon. She says she guesses she got to talking that way when she lived in Independence, Kan., before the family moved to Albuquerque. She was cheer leader of I. H. S., she said.
"Gee, I guess I got to be glamorous," she said, shaking out her blond hair. "My hair was really this color until I was 16, then it started getting ash blond—you know, just like a mouse."
Likes Plain Food
And while the subject of glamour was up for discussion. Miss Vance added that her favorite meal is one comprising mashed potatoes and gravy, meat, pie and cawfee.
"I'm a good cook, too," she says, "but that's not very glamorous. Say, can I make fried chicken and beaten biscuits and gravy. Boy!
"My car's glamorous, though. It’s cream-colored, a convertible. Boy, I've been crazy about cars ever since I was 11 and that darned old horse threw me. My hip still hurts sometimes.”
The other actors in the company say "Viv's a trouper," which is higher praise than colossal or terrific. They swear she's going places, and for that reason it might be interesting to set down a few facts about her as she appears, after her first night of Broadway success, in case she goes upstage on Albuquerque.
Not a Drinker
She chews gum and wears her hair done up like an Apache squaw at rehearsals. She doesn't like to drink. If she ever approaches Louella Gear as a singer she'll be satisfied.
Her favorite colors are red and blue, and she kids herself about the hump in her nose. She says "Volp" when she takes her cue in a song and dance number, and doesn't argue with the director about anything, or try to tell her partners what to do.
She doesn't go in for massages, and doesn’t have any trouble nowadays keeping her weight at 120—although she admits weighing 154 when she left Albuquerque. She calls her mother "mamma" most of the time, and her father “papa.”
She has no use whatever for “fancy” cooking and thinks the people she works with are just the grandest ever. Albuquerque historians of the future, please note.

The Associated Press put out a squib on Vance’s performance as well.

Varied Reaction
NEW YORK, Dec. 2 (AP) — New York reviewers were generally favorable today although some critics were not overly impressed in their reception of Miss Vivian Vance, Albuquerque, N. M. singer, in her performance in Ed Wynne’s [sic] musical comedy, "Hooray For What."
Miss Vance, said the World Telegram, "has beauty and did her big number, 'Night Of the Embassy Ball,' with impressive naughtiness.
The Herald-Tribune writer found Miss Vance "a blues singer of the Ethel Merman school, handsome and lively as a beautiful international spy.”
Not so enthusiastic was the New York Sun, which said: "June Clyde and Vivian Vance ornament the scenes, if neither of them gives their songs their due.”
"June Clyde and Vivian Vance sing as well as they can, which is nothing remarkable,” was the opinion of the Times.
Jack Whiting, member of the "Hurray For What" cast, was unable to appear last night because of illness.

And the New York Daily News said “Vivian Vance is the torch lady, hailing, I suspect, from the night club circuits. Her voice is a night club voice, at any rate. You get used to it after awhile.”

Despite the write-ups, real fame didn’t come for Vivian Vance just yet. She had to wait 14 more years when she met up with a redhead and a Cuban bandleader on the small screen.