The first rule of Mayfield is that you never utter the words: “been there, done that.” No sir. When you get a chance to bask in the presence of actors from Leave It to Beaver, you jump on it and you relish it. So even though I had met both Ken Osmond, who played the world’s greatest slimeball friend Eddie Haskell, and Tony Dow, who was the All-American perfect older brother Wally Cleaver, in the past, there was no way on earth that I was going to let an opportunity to meet them again slip by. So when these two television treasures made an appearance at the Hollywood Show on January 12, 2013, I made sure that I was there to greet them.
Sadly, Frank Bank, who had played Wally and Eddie’s friend Lumpy Rutherford, had to cancel his appearance due to an untimely and unfortunate fall just the night before. It was a shame that he wasn’t there to complete the trio.
The last time I had seen Ken Osmond in person was way back in 1997 when I met both him and Frank Bank at the Hollywood Collectors Show (seen here). Since that time both he and Lumpy had been special guests at one of the Way Out West tent’s banquets. I might have thought to discuss that with him during this encounter, but he frankly didn’t look like he was feeling all that well. I was just satisfied to pick up a new photo for $20 and get a couple of free pictures with this TV icon.
It had taken me years to catch up with Tony Dow either in person or by mail, but I finally did it back in 2008. That was almost five years ago and Tony’s prices had changed since then. But they had gone down! Not that I would have quibbled over a few bucks anyway, but now he was only charging $10 to sign your item. This is almost unheard of in this day and age of celebrity greed, and it made me love him even more. I had him sign the photo at the top of the posting that I had just purchased from Ken, as well as the shot below from The New Leave It to Beaver. He was rather impressed that I had this one and showed it to his wife.
The photo with him was free and he was even happy to move over to Ken Osmond’s table so that fans could get a joint photo with both, being mindful to tell Ken to just stay seated, as he could tell that he wasn’t feeling well also.
Words just can’t do justice to describe how much I admire Tony Dow, one of the nicest guys you’d ever encounter in addition to being one of the most important television icons in both entertainment history…and my life. Here’s to Wally!
Now if someone could just talk Jerry Mathers into getting out there and meeting the fans…
Celebrity encounters from the Winter 2013 Hollywood Show will continue…
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