Georgia Holt appears on I Love Lucy and even those who are aware of the identity of pop superstar Cher’s mother may have missed her. The classic CBS sitcom I Love Lucy had many celebrity guest stars. Rock Hudson, Harpo Marx, and John Wayne all took time out of their impressive and busy careers to appear on the show, a testament to its ubiquity and wide appreciation. Throughout I Love Lucy’s six seasons, it was inevitable that there would also be appearances by actors who were not famous yet, but would one day find stardom.
So, when Georgia Holt appeared on screen in an episode of I Love Lucy, most fans would not have thought twice about the actor. Holt may be best known at this point as Cher’s mother. Cher, the movie star, pop star, and world-famous entertainer, has a mom who was also a talented performer before she passed. Holt married seven times but had Cher with her first husband, John Sarkisian (via People). It took Holt longer than it did her daughter to find success and I Love Lucy was one of her earlier roles before entering the mainstream.
Georgia Holt Played A Jacques Marcel Model In I Love Lucy (As Georgia Pelham)
Holt Also Had A Similar Appearance In The Lucy Show
Georgia Holt appears in I Love Lucy season 5, episode 20, “Lucy Gets a Paris Gown”, where Lucy and Ricky go to Paris. Lucy wants her husband to buy her an expensive Parisian gown, but Ricky devises a cheaper scheme to sew burlap potato sacks together and pass that off as a dress.
At the end of the episode, Lucy gets wise to the ruse and Ricky promises to buy her the real French garment she’s after. While Lucy and Ricky are speaking, they’re suddenly stunned to see two Jacques Marcel models striding down the street, sporting dresses in the same style as Ricky’s potato creation.
An eagle-eyed fan on TikTok spotted that one of those two models is Georgia Holt, via filmsbykaitlyn. In the episode, she’s credited as “Georgia Pelham”. Georgia was born Jackie Jean Crouch but later adopted the stage name Georgia Pelham (via Encyclopedia of Arkansas). She changed her name again to Georgia Holt later when she tried to break into films under the name of her last husband, Hamilton T. Holt.
Georgia Holt reappeared in another Lucille Ball-related production, The Lucy Show, for season 5, episode 11 “Lucy and Pat Collins”, where she again appeared as a model, still without any lines. In the episode, Lucy sends her friend Mr. Mooney to be hypnotized by a real-life hypnotist, Pat Collins, to cure his insomnia.
Holt’s Last Screen Appearance Was As A Guest Judge On RuPaul’s Drag Race
Georgia Holt’s post-I Love Lucy career mainly saw her appearing as herself on talk shows and reality programs. She passed away on December 10, 2022, at the age of 96, and her final performance before then was as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race in season 6, episode 9, “Queens of Talk”.
Though she did have small appearances on shows like I Love Lucy, Georgia Holt spent much of her young life trying to support Cher and the rest of her family, and it wasn’t always easy. However, she did enough to put her daughter in a position to succeed, and their loving relationship never faltered, with duets on shows like Ellen, as a testament to their bond.
