Radio: Lucy’s $8,000,000

In Los Angeles, Lucille Ball and her husband Desi Arnaz last week put their signatures on one of the biggest TV contracts ever written. For $8,000,000, to be paid them by CBS and Sponsor Philip Morris cigarettes, Lucille and Desi agreed to give their top-rated I Love Lucy show weekly for the next 2½ years, the production expenses to be paid by them. Besides the money, they keep all the rights in their films, which had a higher Nielsen rating (71.7%) than the TV coverage of President Eisenhower’s inauguration (67.6%). Said Lucille happily: “It couldn’t happen to a nicer pair of kids—I mean our two children, of course.”