Guilderland library books 'The Beaver': TV legend to help mark 1957
founding of Guilderland facility
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By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
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First published: Saturday, June 9, 2007
GUILDERLAND -- At 59, crow's feet frame the eyes, a paunch rings his
midsection and salt is overtaking pepper in his hair.
But if you listen closely when Jerry Mathers speaking on the phone and
focus on the crinkly timbre of his snigger, as unruly as a boy's
cowlick, you can imagine you're back in 1957, plopped in front of your
black-and-white console, watching the antics of one Theodore Cleaver.
Aw, Wally, dad's gonna be awfully sore when he hears about what you
and Eddie did today. ...
Get ready for a trip down Mayfield's memory lane. The Beav is coming
to town Monday for a meet-and-greet to help celebrate the 50th
anniversary of the Guilderland Library.
Who better to conjure that bygone era of innocence and to feed baby
boomers a heavy dose of nostalgia?
"The funny thing is we all grew up with the Beav, so we think we know
him," said Barbara Nichols Randall, the library's director.
The freckle-faced, wide-eyed, chubby-cheeked Everyboy in a green
baseball cap put the title character in the hit TV sitcom, "Leave it
to Beaver." The show went immediately into re-runs after its final
season in 1963 and it's never been off the air since. It also plays in
120 countries and has been dubbed into 90 languages.
"I still look a lot like the Beaver, so I can go anywhere in the world
and people are happy to see me," Mathers said.
The show also made him comfortably wealthy. His parents were sharp
negotiators and made sure their 9-year-old son signed a contract that
offered him a cut of merchandising for life.
Mathers receives 10 percent of gross on all licensed "Leave it to
Beaver" memorabilia sold.
"I've been compensated very well," he said.
His close friend and investment adviser is Frank Bank, who played
Clarence "Lumpy" Rutherford on the show.
"People laugh when I say Lumpy handles my money, but he advises some
of the top people in Hollywood and made me a lot of money," Mathers
said.
He doesn't need the cash from appearances, he insisted, but enjoys the
fans.
"I like to get out, meet nice people and sign a lot of autographs,"
Mathers said by phone from his apartment in Manhattan's Times Square,
where he joined the Broadway cast of "Hairspray" on Tuesday.
He makes his Broadway debut as Wilbur Turnblad, Tracy Turnblad's
clueless father in the musical set in segregated 1950s Baltimore.
"I worked with a dance and vocal coach in L.A. for several weeks and
everyone says I'm doing pretty well," he said. "The hardest part was
the speed of the dancing."
The frenetic energy of the show is helping him burn calories. At 5-
foot-8, he struggles to maintain his weight and control Type 2
diabetes.
Mathers has become an advocate for diabetes education and is a
commercial spokesman for a glucose monitoring system. He also uses his
appearances to talk about limiting TV.
"I don't believe in censor****p, but I don't think some of the shows in
reruns during the afternoon are appropriate for children," Mathers
said, without singling out any shows. "I also think kids shouldn't be
watching so much TV."
He watches very little TV himself and would rather read a book.
His favorite author is Kurt Vonnegut and he's currently reading
Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy" and books on string theory and
quantum physics.
Other hobbies include restoring vintage furniture and jamming once a
month -- he plays guitar -- with friends at a potluck. He's enjoyed
making music since he fronted a high school cover band, Beaver and the
Trappers.
Mathers has battled dyslexia since childhood. "I remember being
ashamed in school sitting in a circle reading 'Dick and Jane' books
and the other kids laughing at me because I switched the words."
To compensate, he'd take the books home at night and his mom would
help him memorize the text so he could read it correctly in class.
"That's why it was so easy for me to memorize my lines," he said.
Even now, he'll get a note from a stage manager about a botched
"Hairspray" line.
"I have to be careful because my brain jumps ahead, I don't see the
words correctly and it doesn't come out right if I'm not really
focused."
Mathers earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University
of California, Berkeley. He used part of his "Leave it to Beaver"
savings to pay tuition, and there was plenty left over to buy his
first car, a 1967 ****sche 912, and a house.
His late father, Norman Mathers, was a high school principal and
superintendent. His dad and mom, Marilyn Mathers, who turned 80 last
month, instilled in Mathers and his four siblings a strong work ethic
and a groundedness that helped him avoid the pitfalls of other child
actors, he said.
"I've tried to do the same with my kids," he said.
Mathers, who is twice-divorced, has been dating Teresa Modnick for the
past two years. Their sisters set them up on a blind date.
As for the urban legend that he was killed in Vietnam, Mathers did
serve in the Air National Guard in the late 1960s, but never left the
States. A Jerry Mathers was killed in Vietnam in 1969, and it was
re****ted on the wire services that it was the actor who died. Shelly
Winters mentioned it on the "Tonight Show" and the legend grew. His co-
star, Tony Dow, sent flowers to the Mathers family.
"I don't know how the rumor started, but it kept going for awhile
because I didn't have a press agent at the time to stop it," Mathers
said.
TV executives tried to sign him to another series after "Leave it to
Beaver," but he decided he'd had enough and quit the business with his
parents' blessing.
"I wanted to be a regular kid," Mathers said. "I was lucky that I
could walk away without any pressure. A lot of the child actors I knew
couldn't quit because their entire family counted on that income."
Mathers banked the few thousand dollars he earned each week for the
show and invested it wisely. He was a millionaire by age 13.
He has remained friends with his co-stars.
"They all did well," Mathers said. "Tony Dow is a successful
developer. Barbara Billingsley had a nice career. Hugh Beaumont was a
Methodist minister who used what he earned from acting to sup****t his
ministry in poor neighborhoods. Ken Osmond (Eddie Haskell) was a Los
Angeles police officer," he said.
When he wants to get away, Mathers escapes to London.
"Even though it's in 120 countries, 'Leave it to Beaver' never showed
in England," Mathers said. "The BBC thought it was unrealistic."
Grondahl can be reached at 454-5623
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