Latest news with #LeaveIttoBeaver
Chicago Tribune
6 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Peter H. Schwartz: Why nostalgia for the 1950s of ‘Leave it to Beaver' persists in America's religious right
Anyone looking to drench themselves in the 1950s nostalgia currently favored by the religious right in America should consider watching 'Leave It to Beaver' stoned. Which is what I did with an old friend in the 1980s while attending graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley. Nostalgia for the '50s — that land beyond time where Catholic traditionalists such as Notre Dame political theorist and post-liberal prophet Patrick Deneen dwell — idealizes imaginary communities of yore such as Mayfield, the setting for 'Leave it to Beaver,' where the values of faith, family, friends and flag all flourished. According to this narrative, late-stage liberalism and the globalization of markets, with their characteristic rootlessness, dissolve this communal existence. When I was at Berkeley in the 1980s, a large number of my childhood friends from Princeton, New Jersey, somehow found their way to the Bay Area. One afternoon, one of my Princeton buddies was house-sitting for an uncle in a Bay Area suburb. The uncle, whom I'll call Uncle Jim, had been my Cub Scout pack leader in Princeton when I was in elementary school. One sun-drenched afternoon, my friend and I settled into a couch, he rolled some joints and we flipped the TV to 'Leave It to Beaver' reruns. The series, on the air from 1957 and 1963, is a resonant symbol of '50s nostalgia, one to which conservative Catholics have returned as a template for modeling natural law. To Catholics who moved to the suburbs in the '50s and '60s, 'Leave It to Beaver' was a 'medieval morality play,' as Jerry Mathers, the Catholic actor who played young protagonist Theodore 'Beaver' Cleaver, put it. The show was a guide for young souls more tethered to television than to the suburban church. Michael De Sapio, writing in the online journal The Imaginative Conservative in 2017, states that, according to Mather, Beaver Cleaver 'repeatedly succumbed to temptation, suffered the consequences, and was guided back on the path of virtue.' In other words, these archetypal storylines and characters represent a moral imagination that 'elevates us to first principles as it guides us upwards towards virtue and wisdom and redemption,' in the words of American philosopher Russell Kirk. De Sapio continues: 'The emphasis on decorum and good manners in the Cleaver family conveyed a vision of the good, true and beautiful.' Mathers shared that the casting directors for the show selected him to play Beaver when they asked where he would prefer to be after they noticed he was uneasy at the audition. His guileless reply: his Cub Scouts den meeting. Notably, the mission of the Scouts is to 'prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.' Which returns us to Uncle Jim, my former Cub Scouts leader. He was an electrical engineer who ended his first marriage and moved to California in the 1970s, where he married a woman several decades younger and shed the trappings of his formerly decorous identity. 'Leave It to Beaver' mirrored and shaped the aspirations of millions of Catholics moving to the suburbs after World War II, and it has lingered as an idealized — and exclusive — depiction of the American Dream. The only nonwhite characters to appear in the show's 234 episodes were a Black man exiting a dairy truck in the episode 'Eddie, the Businessman' (1962) and a Black actress who plays a maid in the 1963 episode 'The Parking Attendants.' Within months of its final episode in June 1963 — following the March on Washington, D.C., in August led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the November assassination of President John F. Kennedy — 'Leave It to Beaver' had become a charming artifact of midcentury optimism, more a product of nostalgia and romantic imagination than a realistic model for America's future.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
L.A.-based agent Mark Measures indicted in Manhattan, accused of stealing from actor clients
Mark Measures, a longtime Los Angeles-based talent agent, has been indicted along with his agency, Kazarian/Measures/Ruskin and Associates, after authorities alleged he stole more than $1.8 million from 160 actors and about $26,000 in wages from employees at the agency's New York City office. New York County Dist. Atty. Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said in a news release on Tuesday that many of the actors who lost money were "balancing other jobs to stay afloat while pursuing their acting careers." The money Measures allegedly stole from his employees were wages that were meant to be invested in their retirement accounts, Bragg said. Read more: Ye continues to sound off after alleging sex acts with a male cousin. But this time it's about his kids 'Rather than pay the actors and employees, the defendants used their hard-earned money to fund [Measures'] lavish lifestyle. This alleged conduct is egregious," Bragg said. Measures — whose client list includes Elizabeth Perkins of "Big" and "This Is Us," Merrin Dungey of "Alias," Jerry Mathers of "Leave It to Beaver" and TV personality Bob Eubanks — did not reply immediately to The Times' emailed request for comment. Prosecutors allege Measures spent the money at Arena and a Four Seasons Hotel spa and bought luxury goods from brands including Stuart Weitzman and Ermenegildo Zegna. The agency gave actors excuses including earthquakes, blackouts, sick employees and bank and mail delays to justify the missing funds, the district attorney's office said. "Measures personally called or emailed many actors, assuring them that they would be paid and never disputing the amounts owed," the district attorney's office said. "He ultimately ceased communications with the actors altogether." Read more: SAG-AFTRA reaffirms 'unwavering commitment' to DEI as Hollywood studios scale back The 40 counts against Measures and KMR include one count of first-degree scheme to defraud, three counts of second-degree grand larceny, 28 counts of third-degree grand larceny, five counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and three counts of petit larceny. The alleged crimes happened from June 23, 2021 to March 22, 2024, court records show. The majority of the alleged thefts involved hard-to-track residual payments and holding fees earned by actors in New York City who filmed commercials, voiced ads and appeared in TV shows like "Law & Order," according to prosecutors. The district attorney's office said in its release that Measures, who was president of KMR, diverted the money to cover business expenses, creditors and personal expenditures. "When actors inquired about their payments, Measures made excuses, blaming the 'bank' or 'slow mail,' and promised to send out checks that either bounced or were never sent," and many of the victims still haven't been paid, the release said. As a SAG-AFTRA franchisee, KMR — which is now permanently closed — was required to hold funds from production companies in trust and disburse the money to the actors 'promptly,' meaning within seven business days. Agents were to deduct a 10% commission before disbursement. Read more: SAG Awards 2025: 'Conclave' crashes the party Deceased clients of Measures listed on IMDbPro include game-show hosts Wink Martindale and Gene Rayburn and legendary deejay Casey Kasem. The money allegedly stolen from KMR employees between September 2023 and March 2024 was intended to go into their 401(k) retirement accounts, the district attorney's office said. KMR's Instagram account, which has not posted anything new since March 2024 when it ceased to be a SAG-AFTRA franchised agency, is full of comments posted last year that allege money was being stolen by the agency and advise actors to get paid directly by production companies instead of via KMR. "Prospective actors steer clear of Mark Measures. He is a con artist," actor Kate Amundsen wrote in a comment posted last July. "He stole from me and many, many others for YEARS. Do not go anywhere near this scam artist. Shame on you Mark." Amundsen has credits dating to 2013 that include appearances on shows such as "Criminal Minds" and "9-1-1: Lone Star." Get notified when the biggest stories in Hollywood, culture and entertainment go live. Sign up for L.A. Times entertainment alerts. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
L.A.-based agent Mark Measures indicted in Manhattan, accused of stealing from actor clients
Mark Measures, a longtime Los Angeles-based talent agent, has been indicted along with his agency, Kazarian/Measures/Ruskin and Associates, after authorities alleged he stole more than $1.8 million from 160 actors and about $26,000 in wages from employees at the agency's New York City office. New York County Dist. Atty. Alvin L. Bragg Jr. said in a news release on Tuesday that many of the actors who lost money were 'balancing other jobs to stay afloat while pursuing their acting careers.' The money Measures allegedly stole from his employees were wages that were meant to be invested in their retirement accounts, Bragg said. 'Rather than pay the actors and employees, the defendants used their hard-earned money to fund [Measures'] lavish lifestyle. This alleged conduct is egregious,' Bragg said. Measures — whose client list includes Elizabeth Perkins of 'Big' and 'This Is Us,' Merrin Dungey of 'Alias,' Jerry Mathers of 'Leave It to Beaver' and TV personality Bob Eubanks — did not reply immediately to The Times' emailed request for comment. Prosecutors allege Measures spent the money at Arena and a Four Seasons Hotel spa and bought luxury goods from brands including Stuart Weitzman and Ermenegildo Zegna. The agency gave actors excuses including earthquakes, blackouts, sick employees and bank and mail delays to justify the missing funds, the district attorney's office said. 'Measures personally called or emailed many actors, assuring them that they would be paid and never disputing the amounts owed,' the district attorney's office said. 'He ultimately ceased communications with the actors altogether.' The 40 counts against Measures and KMR include one count of first-degree scheme to defraud, three counts of second-degree grand larceny, 28 counts of third-degree grand larceny, five counts of fourth-degree grand larceny and three counts of petit larceny. The alleged crimes happened from June 23, 2021 to March 22, 2024, court records show. The majority of the alleged thefts involved hard-to-track residual payments and holding fees earned by actors in New York City who filmed commercials, voiced ads and appeared in TV shows like 'Law & Order,' according to prosecutors. The district attorney's office said in its release that Measures, who was president of KMR, diverted the money to cover business expenses, creditors and personal expenditures. 'When actors inquired about their payments, Measures made excuses, blaming the 'bank' or 'slow mail,' and promised to send out checks that either bounced or were never sent,' and many of the victims still haven't been paid, the release said. As a SAG-AFTRA franchisee, KMR — which is now permanently closed — was required to hold funds from production companies in trust and disburse the money to the actors 'promptly,' meaning within seven business days. Agents were to deduct a 10% commission before disbursement. Deceased clients of Measures listed on IMDbPro include game-show hosts Wink Martindale and Gene Rayburn and legendary deejay Casey Kasem. The money allegedly stolen from KMR employees between September 2023 and March 2024 was intended to go into their 401(k) retirement accounts, the district attorney's office said. KMR's Instagram account, which has not posted anything new since March 2024 when it ceased to be a SAG-AFTRA franchised agency, is full of comments posted last year that allege money was being stolen by the agency and advise actors to get paid directly by production companies instead of via KMR. 'Prospective actors steer clear of Mark Measures. He is a con artist,' actor Kate Amundsen wrote in a comment posted last July. 'He stole from me and many, many others for YEARS. Do not go anywhere near this scam artist. Shame on you Mark.' Amundsen has credits dating to 2013 that include appearances on shows such as 'Criminal Minds' and '9-1-1: Lone Star.'
