June Cleaver - Dead at Age 94

[Dennis Markham]

For many of us "Baby Boomers" it was sad to learn of the death this weekend of actress Barbara Billingsley, TV mother to Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver from the 1950's television show Leave It To Beaver.  Yet another piece of our youth slowly fades into the sunset.

I know I enjoyed the TV show as a kid and even more in later years while raising two sons also.  The times may change but life's lessons often remain the same.

Here's a screen shot of June Cleaver from the first year of the series, 1957 using what appears to be a white Model 500.  The show ran for six seasons.

June, er...Barbara was 94 years old.

A CNN story can be seen here:

http://tinyurl.com/22r5j2g

[mr_a500]

Yes, it's very sad. I've got the entire Leave it to Beaver series on DVD and just a couple days ago I watched her 2005 interview. She looked pretty good for 89.

Of course, she had a long life and you expect somebody that age to die eventually. It's just sad to see another link to the past gone forever.

[benhutcherson]

Although I'm not a baby boomer by an stretch, I still grew up watching Leave it to Beaver. It was a great show, and she was certainly an iconic character. Everything I've read said that her real-life personality was very much like the one we saw on the show.

On a different note, though, here's a clip of what, to me, is one of her most memorable scenes, from the movie Airplane!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymMBEwtRZOg

[Greg G.]

RIP, Barbara.  Proper condolences aside, I'm bracing myself for the emails with all the dumb jokes I've heard over the years.

Hey, look at Ken Osmond's bio on IMDB.  I had heard he was a cop in L.A., but didn't know the particulars.  Wounded three times in the line of duty.  He was even the plaintiff in a Ca. Supreme Court case.  
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652119/bio

[jsowers]

Here's a screen shot of June Cleaver from the first year of the series, 1957 using what appears to be a white Model 500.

Leave it to Beaver looked to me like they had a white soft plastic 500 in the living room, a black straight handset cord 500 in Ward's den and a red (well, it felt red to me) soft plastic 554 in the kitchen. I think this was their first house from fall, 1957. When they moved later in the series, I think the phones may have been hard plastic. You can hear the thud of the handset hanging up and see the thick cord of the white phone, which got used a lot. In some episodes the strain relief is loose from the handset too. It may have been ivory, for all we know. It's hard to tell in black and white.

I always enjoyed looking at Leave it to Beaver when it was on TVLand, but have no memories of looking at it when I was a kid. It went off the air in 1963 when I was in kindergarten and I also have only fuzzy memories of the Kennedy assassination later that year. My TV memories start more like 1964 and 65.

I was reading about Barbara Billingsley in the paper this afternoon. Her life wasn't nearly as bright and sunny as June Cleaver's. I think she divorced her first husband (Mr. Billingsley) after two years of marriage and two children and then her second husband died right before the series started. Her third marriage in 1959 was the charm.

[Dennis Markham]

Jonathan, did you mean to write "HARD" plastic?  I was just watching a few clips today and heard that "thud"....more than likely soft plastic in 1957.

There area lot of good interviews with Eddie (Ken Osmond) on You-tube.  Here's one of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYcqPbpRX9I&p=B6B1A490C756EF80&playnext=1&index=21

I've spent some time watching some episodes and have observed a lot of neat phones.  500's with straight cords (at a neighbor's house), a D1/F1 in Gus' Fire Station and also at the barber shop.   Many phones from that era.

[Dan/Panther]

So sad, all are passing.
D/P

[jsowers]

Jonathan, did you mean to write "HARD" plastic?  I was just watching a few clips today and heard that "thud"....more than likely soft plastic in 1957.

I've spent some time watching some episodes and have observed a lot of neat phones.  500's with straight cords (at a neighbor's house), a D1/F1 in Gus' Fire Station and also at the barber shop.   Many phones from that era.

I shouldn't have mentioned the hard plastic part until after the thud part. Yes, they were soft plastic phones in the 1957 house, and that's where you could really hear the thud when they hung up the white phone. But when they moved later in the series, it being the 1960s, I think the phones were hard plastic and the kitchen 554 may have been the thinner switchhook variety. Sorry I got the cart before the horse there. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a while since I've seen Leave it to Beaver.

They also traded cars almost every year and I can always tell the year the show was made by the car Ward is driving. I think originally he drove Fords in the 50s shows. Then in 1960 he got a Plymouth Fury with those wild fins and a fake spare on the trunk and it was Plymouths from then on. The opening usually featured the cars during those years, with the Beav looking back out the rear window while they said "and Jerry Mathers as The Beaver."

I remember Mrs. Mondello's phone being a black 500 and very few color phones except at the Cleaver house.

[Kenny C]

I hadn't heard she died the show was my second favorite after I Love Lucy

RIP barbara

[Greg G.]

I hadn't heard she died the show was my second favorite after I Love Lucy

RIP barbara

It was just yesterday, the 16th.  I haven't heard about it anywhere other than here.

[bingster]

This is the first I've heard it, too.  Very sad--the show is a great favorite of mine.  Excellent photo, Dennis

[mr_a500]

Jonathan, did you mean to write "HARD" plastic?  I was just watching a few clips today and heard that "thud"....more than likely soft plastic in 1957.

I've spent some time watching some episodes and have observed a lot of neat phones.  500's with straight cords (at a neighbor's house), a D1/F1 in Gus' Fire Station and also at the barber shop.   Many phones from that era.

I shouldn't have mentioned the hard plastic part until after the thud part. Yes, they were soft plastic phones in the 1957 house, and that's where you could really hear the thud when they hung up the white phone. But when they moved later in the series, it being the 1960s, I think the phones were hard plastic and the kitchen 554 may have been the thinner switchhook variety. Sorry I got the cart before the horse there. Please correct me if I'm wrong. It's been a while since I've seen Leave it to Beaver.

They also traded cars almost every year and I can always tell the year the show was made by the car Ward is driving. I think originally he drove Fords in the 50s shows. Then in 1960 he got a Plymouth Fury with those wild fins and a fake spare on the trunk and it was Plymouths from then on. The opening usually featured the cars during those years, with the Beav looking back out the rear window while they said "and Jerry Mathers as The Beaver."

I remember Mrs. Mondello's phone being a black 500 and very few color phones except at the Cleaver house.

No, you're wrong about the phones. I spent some time looking at the phones (after getting a bit obsessed with rotary phones lately). The Mondellos had a black 302. There was also a 302 in the school and at Ward's office (multi-line version). There was no phone in the kitchen in the first house. Upstairs in the first house was a 302, but there was a white soft plastic 500 downstairs. In the second house, there were three phones - a white (cream? pink?) 500 in the living room (hard plastic?) a coloured 500 in the den (blue?) and a 554 in the kitchen - lightly coloured, then changed to green(?). In the early seasons, Mr. Rutherford had a 302, but it changed to a white 500 later.

[Dave F]

June Cleaver -- Absolutely my most favorite TV mom from the 50s.  Until I read about her passing in the L.A. Times, I never knew that Barbara Billingsley lived just about 8 miles from me in nearby Santa Monica.  I'll definitely miss her.

Here's a bit of "Beaver" trivia:

The shell of the house that was used for the later Beaver eposodes was/is located on Colonial Street on the back lot of Universal Studios, in North Hollywood, CA.  That same house was later used as the home of Marcus Welby, MD., and currently is "4352 Wisteria Lane" on Desperate Housewives.

[Dennis Markham]

Awesome, thanks for that tid-bit of information.

I've watched interviews on You-tube in the past with Barbara Billingsley.  She told how they never showed the inside of the bedroom of June & Ward.  There were many times they were seen walking out of their room, but they never showed the inside like they did with Wally & Beaver's room.  As we know at that time such a thing was taboo on television.  Just like Rob & Laura Petry sleeping in separate beds on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

[Holtzer-Cabot]

Wow, this is sad!  I just learned of this now. Even though I am only 15, I enjoy watching older shows such as Leave It to Beaver, and The Three Stooges, just to name a few.