'Don Defore''s final feature film performance.
A UPI news item dated July 3, 1960 reports that while preparing to film a scene on a boat, Lucille Ball fell, struck her head and was knocked unconscious. She was taken to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital for a possible concussion and severe face and leg bruises. Her ex-husband Desi Arnaz rushed to the hospital from his ranch at Corona to be with her. Fortunately, preliminary x-rays of the head, neck and spine showed that the beloved star was not seriously hurt.
Hope and Ball unsuccessfully tried to talk Desi Arnaz into making a guest appearance in the film.
The Facts of Life was indeed a problematic picture. The injury to Lucy was not the films only mishap. Don DeFore injured his back requiring hospitalization, director Melvin Frank broke his ankle playing golf and had to hobble around on crutches, the film's publicist came down with a two week case of the mumps, Bob Hope smashed his finger, and even the delivery man from Lucy's pharmacy fell into the same tank that the star had. To top things off, a few days after Lucy referred to her Desilu soundstage as a "firetrap," it partially burned down.
This was Louise Beaver's last film appearance, she died two years later.