A personal tribute to Barbara Billingsley
Most people knew her as "Mrs. Cleaver" or the "jive talking" lady in the 1980 movie, "Airplane", but I had the honor and privilege of simply knowing her as "Barbara".
I first got to know here 18 years ago this month.
I met Barbara in 1992 shortly after I was contacted by two of the officials who were arranging the, "Floating Light Parade", in San Pedro Harbor. The boat owners compete in having the most decorative boats and float in procession through the harbor while people line up on shore, or watch from their homes, cars or restaurants along the way. They always have a, celebrity as the "Grand Marshall" of this parade of boats. Since I represent and know, "celebrities", they thought that maybe I could help them.
I immediately thought of Tony Dow, who played "Wally" on TV show, "Leave It To Beaver". I called him and asked him if he would be willing to participate. He was willing to do it, and he wondered if he could ask a couple of friends to join him. That seemed a bit
irregular, but I said "Sure, who are he suggesting?” He said that he wanted to ask Ken Osmond, who played "Eddie Haskell", his best friend on the T.V. series and Barbara Billingsley, who played his mother, "Mrs. June Cleaver". I think I have discovered the shortest pause in history (I need to contact the Guinness Book of World Records people)…that was the amount of time that it took for me to say "Great"!”
The regular, "Leave It To Beaver series”, lasted from 1957-63. Now they were performing in a spin-off TV series called "Still The Beaver". The "Beaver kids" had all grown up now, and had started their own families. "Mr. Cleaver", Hugh Beaumont, had died (he passed away before the new show started), as explained in the series, so June Cleaver was now running the roost and also trying to ‘get her life together’. Shortly after Barbara and Ken Osmond agreed to join Tony in this “gratis” venture, Ken wanted to know if his real sons, who were now playing his sons on this new TV series could come along and I of course agreed. Why not, we now had a Celebrity Entourage for the Floating Light Parade!
We all met, and got to know one another, the day before the parade and I immediately fell in love with Barbara. She was just like, “June Cleaver”, but without the pearls and with a bit of a sense of humor that rarely showed up on the series. Tony and I grew up together on Catalina Island; so, I had known Tony, literally since I was born. Additionally, I was relieved to know that that Ken and his sons were really down to earth and fun to be around.
By the way, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, it may be bad for this television image, however, Ken is NOTHING like the Eddie Haskell part that he played in both of the TV series. He was probably the best actor in the cast and he was a really nice guy, he was a Christian and he went on to become a police officer. Did I say he was a real NICE guy?
I first got to know here 18 years ago this month.
I met Barbara in 1992 shortly after I was contacted by two of the officials who were arranging the, "Floating Light Parade", in San Pedro Harbor. The boat owners compete in having the most decorative boats and float in procession through the harbor while people line up on shore, or watch from their homes, cars or restaurants along the way. They always have a, celebrity as the "Grand Marshall" of this parade of boats. Since I represent and know, "celebrities", they thought that maybe I could help them.
I immediately thought of Tony Dow, who played "Wally" on TV show, "Leave It To Beaver". I called him and asked him if he would be willing to participate. He was willing to do it, and he wondered if he could ask a couple of friends to join him. That seemed a bit
irregular, but I said "Sure, who are he suggesting?” He said that he wanted to ask Ken Osmond, who played "Eddie Haskell", his best friend on the T.V. series and Barbara Billingsley, who played his mother, "Mrs. June Cleaver". I think I have discovered the shortest pause in history (I need to contact the Guinness Book of World Records people)…that was the amount of time that it took for me to say "Great"!”
The regular, "Leave It To Beaver series”, lasted from 1957-63. Now they were performing in a spin-off TV series called "Still The Beaver". The "Beaver kids" had all grown up now, and had started their own families. "Mr. Cleaver", Hugh Beaumont, had died (he passed away before the new show started), as explained in the series, so June Cleaver was now running the roost and also trying to ‘get her life together’. Shortly after Barbara and Ken Osmond agreed to join Tony in this “gratis” venture, Ken wanted to know if his real sons, who were now playing his sons on this new TV series could come along and I of course agreed. Why not, we now had a Celebrity Entourage for the Floating Light Parade!
We all met, and got to know one another, the day before the parade and I immediately fell in love with Barbara. She was just like, “June Cleaver”, but without the pearls and with a bit of a sense of humor that rarely showed up on the series. Tony and I grew up together on Catalina Island; so, I had known Tony, literally since I was born. Additionally, I was relieved to know that that Ken and his sons were really down to earth and fun to be around.
By the way, I probably shouldn’t tell you this, it may be bad for this television image, however, Ken is NOTHING like the Eddie Haskell part that he played in both of the TV series. He was probably the best actor in the cast and he was a really nice guy, he was a Christian and he went on to become a police officer. Did I say he was a real NICE guy?
Back to the Floating Light Parade:
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