Get reacquainted with brothers Wally and Beaver Cleaver from Leave it to Beaver in this charming promotional reel for the 1960 Ford line.
We are on pretty safe ground here in asserting that everyone in the USA and much of the western world is familiar with the classic television comedy Leave it to Beaver, either from its original network run from 1957 to 1963 or from its perpetual reruns. (An evergreen, the show is currently available on cable or streaming on multiple outlets, we see.) A true piece of Americana, the show featured the Cleaver family, including big brother Wally (the late Tony Dow) and little brother Theodore, better known as the Beaver (Jerry Mathers) as they navigated their way through childhood and adolescence in 234 funny and heartwarming episodes.
The show enjoyed a series of presenting sponsors, including Chrysler and General Electric, but from 1957 through 1959 the Ford Motor Company provided the backing, which enabled this entertaining promotion introducing the 1960 Ford product line. The boys are especially impressed with the glamorous Thunderbird, though Wally notes that “One of the guys says the new Starliner is the hottest car Ford’s ever made.” The nine-passenger Country Sedan wagon is featured, and the new Falcon compact also takes a bow. Throughout, Beaver and Wally are true to their lovable little brother/big brother dynamic, and lookng back now, it’s easy to understand the show’s appeal. Video follows.
If you were lucky enough to have a TV in the 60s, Leave it to Beaver was a must watch show. I don’t recall any pitches for Ford, as Ward always drove Plymouths. Like most shows then, it depicted what Hollywood determined was a “normal” family. It portrayed the stereotypical family, dad went to work, mom stayed home, kids went to school, and all the eclectic characters we encountered, that somehow were always from some other family, except for me. For the most part, it’s how it was. I just don’t understand how we got to such dysfunctional families as being the norm today. Compared to these great shows, TV sucks today, and more of an advertisement venture, than anything. A new show called “Everythings Trash” has an upbeat title,,,Apparently, Jerry Mathers( Beaver) is still alive. I don’t think he or Dow did anything else with their lives, and the funniest thing, Ken Osmond( Eddie Haskell) the trouble maker, became a L.A. police officer. So many great shows, and Leave it to Beaver was one of them.
Actually, Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow did quite a lot with their lives, but a great deal of it was not in the entertainment industry.
Jerry Mathers left show business in his late teens, served in the US Air Force Reserve, graduated from UC Berkeley, worked in banking and real estate development, reentered the entertainment industry, and became a spokesperson for Type 2 diabetes. Jerry and his parents supposedly also managed his childhood income very well and he lived responsibly, which is why you probably don’t see him much in the news.
I covered Tony Dow in my comment below. Tony became a noted sculptor, and an advocate for clinical depression.
As I’m writing this it’s been 10 days since Tony Dow lost his life to liver cancer. May he rest in peace.
As a young adult, Tony worked in the construction industry while pursuing his studies, as well as taking on acting and directing work. In his later years he earned notoriety as a sculptor.
A connection between lTony and old cars is found on YouTube. He was reunited with his first car – a 1962 Corvair – in 2016, and got it running again!
While 1960 wasn’t exactly a banner year for Ford styling, the Falcon has stood the test of time very well, still lots of them around. On the other hand, the better looking Starliner is rarely seen today. Would love to have one with the big at the time V8 and four speed transmission.
Every time I see a 1960 4 door Galaxie, I see Andy and Barney in Mayberry keeping the peace. A much simpler time.
I read somewhere, may have been here, that sales were down for Ford in 1960 because customers disliked the tail lights. Ford listened and soon went back to round tail lights on the big cars.