Figure 1.--Larry Mathers played the Beaver. When the began he was a second grader and often wore plaid shirts and blue jeans.
|
Figure 1.--Larry Mathers played the Beaver. When the began he was a second grader and often wore plaid shirts and blue jeans. |
Jerry played the Beaver in "Leave It to Beaver"(1957-63). I have very little information on Jerry Mathers before he began the "Leave It to Beaver" series. The only early role I know was is that Jerry played a little boy in Hitchcock's "The Trouble with Harry". I don't know much about the film at this time. When Jerry tried out for the role as Beaver, he had to act as if he were crying for his audition. He was having trouble crying on cue, and Hugh Beaumont, yet to be cast as Ward, nicely suggested that he pretend to be laughing - the motions are apparently somewhat similar. It worked; Jerry was hired, and that night he prayed that Hugh Beaumont (who was a Methodist lay minister, and a genuinely good man), who'd been so kind to him, would be chosen to be his TV dad. The rest, as they say, is history. He began as a little chap about 6-7 or so and continued into his early teens. The clothing shown was a good representation of what American boys wore at the time. Boys in primary (elementary) school often wore dtripped "T"-shirts or plaid shirts with blue jeans or slacks.--almost always long pants. Clothing was not normally worked into the plot lines. There was one episode in particular where his aunt takes care of him for a while and makes him wear a shorts pants suit and the other children tease him. He grew into an adult that looked nothing like the boy on television. Jerry rather grew up on television as the program had such a long run. I don't knowof any other program he did. Nor do I know of any movies. Apparently once he outgrew his little boy cuteness he could no longer find roles. I'm not sure how hard he tried.
Navigate the Boys' Theatrical Pages:
[Return to the Main child actor page]
[Return to the Main movie page]
[Return to the Main play page]
[Return to the Main television page]
[Child actors H]
[Child actors I]
[Child actors J]
[Child actors K]
[Child actors L]
[Child actors M]
[Child actors N]
[Child actors O]
[Child actors P]
[Child actors Q]
[Child actors R]
Navigate the Historical Boys' Clothing Website
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glosaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]