Livin’ la vida Lucy

Young Chang

Kim Pennachio stomped Monday the way Lucille Ball did in Episode 150

during the fifth season of “I Love Lucy” -- the grape-stomping segment in

which Lucy tries to win a part in Vittorio Philippi’s film by crushing

grapes.

Pennachio also sped through a 30-second Vitametavegamin spiel, just as

Lucy did in Episode 30 of the show’s first season, and stood along a

chocolate-packing conveyor belt throwing as many candies as she could

into a hole.

Just as Lucy did. Except in this episode -- No. 39 during the show’s

second season -- Lucy resorted to stuffing chocolates in her pockets,

blouse, even her mouth.

Giving new meaning Monday to the adage that imitation is the greatest

form of flattery, visitors to the Orange County Fair’s “I Love Lucy”

interactive exhibits reveled in three Lucy activities that blasted them

for a few fun minutes back into the 1950s.

“They get to live a little bit of TV history,” said Joe Thompson, tour

manager of the exhibits. “They get caught up in the whole spirit of the

experience.”

The chocolate game has proven the most popular so far, he added. The

game harkens back to the episode in which Lucy and friend Ethel want to

prove that housekeeping is harder than having a job. They get hired at a

chocolate-wrapping factory and, in true Lucy fashion, cause a slew of

comical mishaps trying to keep up with a speedy conveyor belt.

Shirley Piper, a self-proclaimed Lucy fan, yelled “Speed it up a

little bit!” and “Let it roll!” Monday at the prompting of an exhibit

staff member while her friends had a go at the belt.

That’s what the candy boss yelled on the show, Piper said.

“We’ve been through the exhibit but keep coming back again,” she said

with a laugh.

Pennachio and her crew of six also kept coming back, loitering for

more than an hour at the same three exhibits.

They each stumbled through the “I’m your Vitametavegamin girl. Are you

tired, rundown, listless . . .” speech, some clocking in under the

required limit of 30 seconds and some not finishing in time.

In the episode, Lucy tries out for a commercial promoting a vitamin

product but gets tipsy on the alcohol that the mixture contains.

Lucy barely gets through her tongue-twisting lines. Modern-day

fairgoers have been trying to fare better for the last three days.

“It’s the allure, the long-term endurance of Lucille and the show and

her persona,” said Maureen Tierney, a staff member at the fair.

In Pennachio’s group, son Andrew proved the biggest winner. He scored

850 points on the stomping game -- where you stomp and get measured on

the number of stomps and the one who stomps most wins -- and got his

score put up for passersby to see.

“But my favorite is the candy one, because it’s the most Lucy-like,”

the 12-year-old said.