Sunday, October 17, 2010

Eternal June

Although she was probably far too much of a nice lady to have ever done this, I always wanted Barbara Billingsley to show up when someone complained about the ridiculousness of her cleaning her house, cooking, etc., in heels and pearls. I thought she could grab that person's collar, yank him or her in close and say, "I cleaned in heels and pearls because I am that...darn...good. Punk."

Ms. Billingsley is now a part of the place where there are no reruns, passing away at 94. My favorite role she played was "Jive Lady," in the 1980 comedy Airplane!. While it took the comedic genius of the Zucker-Abrahams crew to suggest that June Cleaver "spoke jive," Ms. Billingsley herself made the laugh one of the movie's best just by being her and speaking the words, "Jus' hang loose, blood," and by using the phrase "jive-ass dude."

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