Leave It To Beaver is widely considered to be one of the most wholesome and iconic television
sitcoms ever filmed.
The series, which aired for six seasons, followed the exploits and shenanigans of Theodore 'The
Beaver' Cleaver, his brother Wally, and their two loving, albeit strikingly traditional,
parents in the sleepy little town of Mayfield.
Although Beaver's antics and his coming-of-age story was the primary focus of the series,
a lot of viewers tuned in weekly to see June Cleaver as well.
June, played by Barbara Billingsley, was dripping in period-appropriate 1950s style.
She wore her signature pearls, looked great in an apron, and always had these delightful
little nuggets of wisdom to share with her two children.
While June Cleaver was quite the iconic character, did you know that there was a very practical
reason for a majority of her wardrobe choices?
Join Facts Verse as we give you a unique insight into the making of Leave It To Beaver that
you likely never heard of before.
We proudly present to you the real reason for Barbara Billingsley's costume on Leave
It To Beaver.
Barbara Billingsley Was The PERFECT Casting Choice
June Cleaver, portrayed by the late-great Barbara Billingsley, was a fan favorite addition
to the Leave it to Beaver cast.
Throughout the 1950s, Barbara worked fairly consistently before landing her role on the
beloved family-friendly sitcom in 1957.
The role ended up being the most defining one of her career, and later on, she reprised
the role repeatedly in the various Leave It Beaver spin-offs, reboots, and reunions.
Barbara Billingsley and Jerry Mathers, the actor behind the titular role of The Beaver,
were the only two members of the show's cast to appear in each and every episode of the
mainline series.
IMDB reports that Tony Dow, who portrayed Beaver's brother Wally Cleaver, and Hugh Beaumont,
the powerhouse seasoned veteran television actor who played Ward Cleaver, appeared in
234 of the series' 235 episodes.
Before we tell you a few more captivating behind-the-scenes Leave It To Beaver facts,
take a moment to show Facts Verse a little love by giving this video a like and subscribing
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June's Pearls Made Filming Easier
Several sources seem to suggest that Billingsley chose to start wearing pearls in order to
cover up a surgical store, but that explanation doesn't' seem in be in line with an interview
that the actress gave in 2003.
Reportedly, Barbara said that the real reason why she wore pearls was because she had what
she referred to as a 'deep hollow' in her neck.
This spot on her anatomy made it very difficult to film around, seeing as how it would cast
this peculiar shadow whenever the cameras were rolling under the studio's lighting conditions.
What the pearls managed to do evidently was cover up this problematic area perfectly.
Fans of the show might recall that June wore pearls frequently, but they didn't appear
hanging around her neck in each and every scene she appeared in.
This would seem to be in line with the explanation that Billingsley gave back in 2003 since not
every scene would have involved lightning that would draw attention to that spot on
the actress's neck.
According to the website Women's History, alternative coverage options were occasionally
employed to cover up or lessen the attention drawn to this area of her neck.
Sometimes, the show's stylist would have June wear things like scarves or high-cut blouses
to cover up Billingsley's neck hollow.
June's Heels Served A Purpose
The pearls that Barbara Billingsley would frequently wear while in character as June
Cleaver weren't the only noteworthy wardrobe choices that were used for a practical purpose.
June's footwear was another wardrobe choice that was made to make filming that much easier
for the cinematographers.
Fans of the show might remember how June wore flats during the early seasons of the series
but later switched to heels in later seasons.
Evidently, her footwear switch-up was made to adjust to the growth of Mathers and Dow
as they advanced in age.
Obviously, as an adolescent gets older, especially after puberty, they tend to grow in height.
This fact of life doesn't usually cause any issues in real life, but on a studio set,
while filming a sitcom such as Leave It, Beaver, it can create some problems when framing scenes.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that when Billingsley started wearing heels, the
costume choice was made so that she would always appear taller than her two growing
boys.
According to other interviews that Billingsley gave over the years, toward the end of the
series' run, even those heels weren't enough to help her appear taller than the two boys.
As such, she was often asked to stand on the Cleaver family home's staircase.
Jerry Mathers Previously Played Little Ricky on I Love Lucy
Before being cast as little Theodore Cleaver, actor Jerry Mathers appeared uncredited in
one scene of the I Love Lucy episode Ricky's Old Girlfriend.
In the scene in question, Mathers sat on Lucy's lap when she dreams that her husband left
her for his flame, Carlota Romero.
More like a nightmare, Lucy's dream sees her and little Mathers begging for change outside
of a theater as Ricky and his new boo stop to plop a few spare coins into their cups.
The episode appeared in the third season of the iconic Desilu Productions offering.
It aired in 1953, just four years before Leave It Beaver made its debut.
Speaking Of Costumes
When Jerry Mathers auditioned for the part of the Beaver – something that he did several
times before landing the role – he showed up to the casting call on one of those sessions
wearing his Cub Scouts uniform.
Mathers was eight years old at the time and reportedly told everyone that he was more
interested in getting to his den meeting than actually doing the audition.
The casting team evidently found his frank sincerity so endearing that it convinced them
that he was the perfect choice for the part.
A Growth Spurt Forced A Recasting
It's hard to imagine Leave It To Beaver without Tony Down, but for the series' pilot episode,
the role of Wally was originally played by an actor named Paul Sullivan.
While Sullivan seemed to be a very capable child actor who likely would have played the
role of Wally quite well, he was reportedly replaced after going through a significant
growth spurt shortly after filming the first episode.
Incidentally, Tony Dow never intentionally sought to bag the role of Wally.
He only showed up at the studio during auditions to accompany a buddy of his who was vying
to score a role.
When producers saw him, however, something just clicked, and they knew then and there
that they had their Wally.
Saved From The Network Ax
In some alternate universe, Leave It To Beaver never made it past its first season.
In fact, that was nearly the fate that the show faced in our universe.
Despite the fact that the series is now considered to be a legendary classic, Leave It To Beaver
wasn't a very big hit with critics or viewers when it first debuted.
In a world where heartwarming sitcoms taking place in a white-picket fence American household
were a dime a dozen, Leave It To Beaver initially wasn't seen as being anything all that special.
After the first season wrapped up in 1958, CBS decided to pull the plug on the series.
Fortunately for classic television fans everywhere – not to mention the careers of all of the
actors and actresses involved in the project – ABC decided to step in and rescue it from
the chopping block.
The series would continue to air on ABC for the remainder of its six-season run.
It Still Never Broke Into The Top 30
I often wonder what modern television series will be looked back on as being the 'classics'
of this generation forty or fifty years from now.
It's really hard to tell what shows are going to have that special little something that
makes them click with audiences for the long term.
Betting on which shows will seep into the collective consciousness and become long-standing
classics is a difficult task, to say the least.
Leave It to Beaver, as we already established, is one of those shows that just seemed to
have all the right ingredients for it to endure many decades of fan appreciation.
The casting was top-notch.
The scripts were light-hearted but lovably humorous.
And the setting had this almost surreal feel to it.
Younger viewers might assume that American life really was as it was depicted in Leave
It To Beaver, but in reality, the world was already in a state of flux by the time that
the show aired.
Things were changing.
Society was evolving, but Leave It To Beaver stood as this sort of last vestige of an idealized
vision of America that is probably akin to what people are really referring to when they
invoke slogans like 'Make America Great Again'.
Did the world of Leave it to Beaver really exist as it was depicted?
Well, no.
But the show succeeded in delivering that almost Utopian view of US culture that resonated
with people that were nervous about the socio-politcal changes that were afoot.
For this reason, Leave It To Beaver continues to deliver the goods in syndication even all
these years later.
That being said, throughout its initial run, Leave It To Beaver never managed to crack
into the top 30 list in the Nielson ratings.
Lesser remembered shows such as The Ford Show, The Ann Sothern Show, and The Garry Moore
Show consistently performed better than it did, but all of those series came with an
expiration date of sorts, while Leave It To Beaver remains a timeless classic.
It Delivered One Of TV's First Intentional Series Finales
Back in the day, the vast majority of TV shows were rather unceremoniously cut from the weekly
schedule without much warning.
But Leave It To Beaver was different.
In the show, Wally was gearing up to enter college, and Jerry Mathers was eager to start
attending high school in real life.
Because of these two factors, the show seemed to reach a very natural ending point.
The series finale, 'Family Scrapbook', proved to be a fitting farewell to Leave It to Beaver
while looking back at the previous six years through a nostalgic lens.
Plus, the audience finally got to learn why little Theodore was called Beaver.
With a few exceptions like The Fugitive and Howdy Doody, most shows in the 1960s didn't
give fans a very satisfying ending.
Fortunately, Leave It To Beaver did, and perhaps this is yet another reason why it has remained
such a long-standing favorite among classic television fans.
With that, we should probably go ahead and wrap this one up, but we'd love to hear what
you have to say.
Did you know that Barbara Billingsley wore pearls while she was in character as June
Cleaver to cover up a peculiar and hard-to-film hollow mark on her neck?
And were you aware that as Wally and Beaver grew, June had to wear heels so that she always
appeared taller than her two sons?
Let us know in the comments, and don't be afraid to share with us any other Leave it
to Beaver trivia that you're aware of.