My mother’s memories… THE DAY I MET GENERAL MacARTHUR!

In the early 1950’s General Douglas MacArthur resigned his command of the Pacific Forces.  In New York City there was a big ticker tape parade and then the five star General addressed Congress in Washington D.C.  He ended his speech with the phrase “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away”.  Jerry was fascinated by this event and glued to the TV screen for every minute of this dramatic moment in history. 

Fast forward a few years when Jerry had finished the first season of Leave It To Beaver, had a vacation break, and was into the second season.  Jerry and Tony went to New York City for a few days to do publicity for the new season and we were staying in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.  Jerry went down to the lobby to get a snack and came running back to the room all excited.  He told me that he met a man in the elevator who lived at the very top of the building…”He lives at the very, very top of the building and he likes my show and his wife also likes the show and he wants you to bring me up to his floor to meet her!”  Jerry was so excited and he said, “He’s that guy, you know that guy who said, ‘Old soldiers never die, they just fade away’.”   

We were very busy and on our way to a dinner interview and going to leave very early the next morning to go back to Los Angeles. I didn’t think anymore of Jerry’s story at the time until sometime later when I read that Douglas MacArthur did live in the penthouse of the Waldorf Astoria!  So Jerry actually did meet him in the elevator!  However, there’s an even greater coincidence because General MacArthur was the Chairman of the Board of the Sperry Rand Corporation, a huge conglomerate which owned Remington Rand typewriters, and they were one of the original sponsors of Leave It To Beaver.  And even more interesting was that the name of the show was originally “Wally and the Beaver” but Remington Rand insisted on renaming the show “Leave It To Beaver.”  ….Marilyn Mathers