On February 18, 1954, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios released "The Long, Long Trailer," a feature film vehicle for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, stars of CBS TV's "I Love Lucy." The picture, based on the 1951 Clinton Twiss novel of the same name, was directed by Vincente Minnelli and featured Marjorie Main and Keenan Wynn.
A fictional Trailerite couple, Nicholas Collini, and wife Anastacia (or "Tacy"), purchase a 35-foot New Moon "mobile apartment home" for a whopping $5,345.00 (a brand-new "Levittowner Number 1" tract house could have been had for $10,990 at the time). The Collinis spend their honeymoon on the road and, as one might expect, several side-splitting scenes ensue.
Original VHS cover from MGM Studios (1990) [See Media Fair Use Rationale at end of article]
A circa-1954 newspaper advertisement promotes the rig portrayed in "The Long, Long Trailer." New Moon Homes marketed it as their "I Love Lucy" model. Viewed today, "The Long, Long Trailer" is vastly entertaining. The movie is also an historic record of the Trailerite culture, a facet of mid-20th century Americana relegated -long ago- to misty, Technicolored memory.
Advert From The Beaver County Times (Beaver County, Pennsylvania)
Tacy and Nicky Collini's 8-wide rig extended 35 feet & 3 inches from stem to stern (in the film, the trailer's length was quoted as being "36" and even "40"). The single bedroom unit depicted featured a sunken living room, doorbell chime and shower bath.
You might want to make a favorite or bookmark of the following URL. Clicking on it will take you to a destination on the Internet Archive where you may read a pdf file of the entire 1951 Clinton Twiss novel...free of charge.
https://archive.org/details/longlongtrailer001201mbp
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