I’m always interested in the odd connections Hawaii people and places have with something or someone famous.

For instance, Kalaupapa has had a special relationship with the Battleship Missouri since 1907 when an earlier Missouri paid a visit to the residents there.

Recently, I found out that Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz and Hilo High School had a special connection.

It began when the seniors put on an “I Love Lucy” play at the school in 1954.

“I Love Lucy — The Play” was written by Hollywood dramatist Christopher Sergal in 1953. Act 1 opens in their messy living room, based on the TV show’s eighth episode, “Men Are Messy.” Lucy (Ball) and Ricky (Arnaz) argue over finances.

Lucy changes the subject by wanting to look up Ricky’s horoscope, from episode seven, “The Seance.”

She does this to encourage Ricky to ask Mr. Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana nightclub, for a raise (from episode 35, “Ricky Asks for a Eaise”).

Later, Mr. Littlefield comes over to the messy apartment and wonders how Ricky can manage the Tropicana if he can’t manage his own wife.

I hope Acts 2 and 3 were funnier than that, but I have a hard time imagining the show without its stellar cast.

It’s also interesting to me that the school chose this play in 1954 because television didn’t come to Hilo until a year later.

“I Love Lucy” went on the air in 1951 on the mainland, but it wasn’t until December 1952 that television began broadcasting in Honolulu. It spread to Maui and the Kona Coast two years later.

Several students in the 1954 play had to drive to a home in Waimea to watch the show for the first time.

“I Love Lucy” was a family comedy about Lucy and Ricky Ricardo, played by real husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. It quickly rose to the top of the Nielson ratings.

It was the first Hollywood show filmed in front of a live studio audience. It also pushed boundaries because she was American and he was Cuban.

“I Love Lucy” was also the first TV show to have a visibly pregnant star, although they didn’t use that word.

The episodes where she was “’specting,’” as Lucy called it, were supervised by a priest, rabbi and Protestant minister to guard against controversy. All three clerics approved the scripts, including the term “pregnancy,” but the network censor said no.

In 1953 the couple signed the largest TV contract up to that point: $8 million for the 1953-55 seasons. The Arnazes had to pay the production costs out of that money.

Back at Hilo High, plans were put in motion to stage the play.

The sister of a Hilo High School teacher living in Hollywood met with the publicity manager for Lucy and Desi and told them about the approaching production.

Lucille Ball was reportedly “thrilled,” and asked for pictures of the Hilo High School cast.

The “I Love Lucy” senior play had four daytime student performances and one night showing for the community. It was also staged at the Kilauea Military Reservation.

The Arnazes sent them a congratulatory telegram.

Reviewer Thelma Olival in the Hilo Tribune Herald wrote, “If you want to laugh until tears run down your cheeks and your sides ache go see ‘I Love Lucy,’ the hilarious comedy production by Hilo High School’s senior class. The cast literally had its audience rolling in the aisles.”

I asked Hilo native Ken Fujii about television in Hilo.

“Historically, television was not introduced to the territory of Hawaii until late in 1952,” Fujii said, “but in Honolulu only, with only one TV station, KGMB.

“They needed a transmitter atop Haleakala which caught the signal from Oahu for Maui County and the Kona side of the Big Island, and then later a transmitter on Mauna Kea to relay the signal to Hilo.

“KGMB first signed on the air on December 1, 1952, as the first television station in the then-territory of Hawaii. KONA-TV (now KHON) was on the air second.

“So the ‘I Love Lucy’ show was not an established cultural icon in Hawaii as it was on the mainland during the early years of its existence.

“In 1954 I don’t think that many Hiloans even knew of the program. I remember that during the early years of TV in Hilo, I used to sit and watch the test pattern, since there were no broadcast programs during the late night through the early morning.”

In April 1955 KHBC began rebroadcasting the signals in Hilo.

A visit to Kona

In 1957 Lucy, Desi and their two young children vacationed in Kona. Students at Hilo High School sent them lei and a corsage to the Kona Inn.

Principal Harry Chuck said that these gifts were sent as a token of appreciation to the Arnazes since they were the only “outsiders” who had ever sent a good-luck message to the school prior to a student production.

Skip Lambert remembered seeing them when he was 12 at the Kailua pier.

“My dad’s company, Hawaiian Cruises, operated a coastal boat tour from Kailua Pier to Kealakekua Bay, where they had a glass-bottom boat moored.

“Lucy had walked from the hotel to the pier to greet Desi after a day of sportfishing, with her two small kids in tow.

“There was nothing ‘movie starish’ about them, but I remember Lucy was the palest Caucasian woman I had ever seen!”

The Don Ho show

The family came to Hawaii many times. Daughter Lucie Arnaz said her mother, Ball, took her to the Don Ho show when she was 10 or 11.

“Don Ho was a very good-looking singer to a girl just budding into adolescence,” Arnaz said in Don Ho’s book, “My Music, My Life.”

Don Ho had a television show in 1976, and Lucie Arnaz was a guest on it. Part of the fun of doing the show, she said, was a week in Hawaii for two; a couple of round-trip, first-class tickets; and a beautiful hotel.

“Since my mother, Lucille Ball, had brought me over there so many years before to see him at Duke’s, I thought I’d return the favor and bring her.

“Mom was my second ticket, and she appeared on the show, too. When the week was over, they asked if I could I stay another week.

“And then for a third week, I actually moved in with Don Ho, Patty Swalley and Liz Guevera and their kids. I became a Hawaiian person for about two months.”

The Honolulu Star- Bulletin’s Lois Taylor interviewed her mother. She asked, was Lucille Ball her real name?

“Yes, of course, it’s my real name,” the star said. “Who would ever pick a name like that intentionally?

“When I was modeling in New York, I took the name Diane Belmont — Belmont for the racetrack and Diane from something I’d read. It’s a nice name.

“But when I came to Los Angeles to sign a contract, I gave my real name. I thought I had to, to make it legal. So that was it, but the people in New York called me Diane for a long time.”

Desi Arnaz Jr. also had a Hawaii connection. In the 1960s he was the drummer in a rock band named Dino, Desi & Billy. Dino was the son of actor Dean Martin. Their best-known hit was “I’m a Fool” in 1965.

On Aug. 6 and 7, 1965, when Desi Jr. was 12 years old, Dino, Desi & Billy performed at the Waikiki Shell as the opening act for the Beach Boys. Also on the show was singer Barbara Lewis. Tom Moffatt and KPOI brought them back again in 1967.

Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.