Character mistake: After Ethel chooses the ladies who'll play instruments for their own orchestra, Fred enters the Ricardo apartment with muffs over his ears as off-key plucky piano is heard in the background, indicating Ethel is playing very badly, when in all prior episodes she played fluently for any of their show warm-up numbers.
The Million Dollar Idea - S3-E12
Character mistake: When Ricky sits down to calculate by hand how much Lucy and Ethel have spent on supplies to make and sell their salad dressing, he adds $7.21 for the groceries, $1.20 for the jars, and 10 cents for the labels. He says his total is $8.31. He miscalculated; the correct total is $8.51. Ironically, his profit calculation is correct at 3 cents a jar. (00:15:10)
Character mistake: When Fred, Ethel, and Ricky confront Lucy on what she wrote about them in her novel Ricky states "I'm so hammy I should go lie down between two slices of rye bread." This is incorrect. Lucy wrote "He turned into such a big ham you could stuff him with cloves."
Answer: There is no reason. It's a just a silly plot device, typical of the era. Women characters were often portrayed as making uninformed assumptions or decisions.
raywest ★