On November 26th, at 6 pm the 86th Christmas Parade featuring Marine Toys For Tots Foundation will be presented in the streets of Hollywood. The Parade will be preceded by an All-Star Concert starting at 5 pm.
Dr. Oz will serve as Grand Marshall and Eric Estrada, Laura McKenzie, Dean Cain and Montel Williams will serve as Parade Hosts. The All-Star Concert performers will include: The Village People, CeeLo Green, Tom Dixon, American Idol Season 14 Winner – Nick Fradiani, Reuben Stoddard and many more.
This year’s parade will include stars from Batman, The Young and the Restless, Mike & Molly, Cash Cowboys, The Big Lebowksi, This Just In, The Riveras, Masters of Illusion, La Bamba, Leave It To Beaver, The Simpsons, Days of Our Lives, The Mick, The Starter Wife, and Grey’s Anatomy.
A press conference was held by Council Member Mitch O’Farrell, Television stars, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Kate Linder on Monday, November 20th at the Hollywood Highland Center to announce the latest information about the upcoming parade. A special performance was presented by PAVA World Environmental Foundation Korean Traditional Band. Representing Toys for Tots Foundation were Captain Thomas Dudro and a Marine Color Guard consisting of Corporal Daniel Jagers, Sergeant Matthew Kile, Sergeant Sean Ibarra, Sergeant Guillermo Amador.
The Hollywood 360 interviewed Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow after the Press Conference.
The Hollywood 360: Please tell us your thoughts regarding The Hollywood Christmas Parade.
Jerry Mathers: I think the parade just gets better and better every year. I consider it a privilege to participate in it.
Tony Dow: I think there will be about 70 different floats. It’s quite a parade. I’m looking forward to participating. I’m even bringing my dog.
The Hollywood 360: You both have been a big part of the Hollywood Scene as child television stars. You grew up in Hollywood. Please talk about how that has influenced you.
Jerry Mathers: I started when I was two years old. We had a welfare worker on the set with us always. We had one on one tutoring. We got to meet a lot of interesting people and working on the show, Leave It To Beaver, set us up for the rest of our lives.
Tony Dow: We didn’t grow up in Hollywood. We grew up in the Valley.
The Hollywood 360: Talk about your relationship as friends. (Kidding around to Tony Dow) Do you like Beaver?
Jerry Mathers: We’ve been friends all of our lives. Basically when Tony and I were doing Leave It To Beaver for six years, we were pretty much the only people around our ages that were around. There were a few other people that came in, but every day, we saw one another. Tony was in high school so he had a different welfare worker and teacher. We had one on one tutoring so we had some of the best education and it was really a fun time.
Tony Dow: We spent more time with each other than we did with our actual families. We spent 8 hours a day, five days a week.
The Hollywood 360: I interviewed Mr. Eddie Haskell (Ken Osmond) some years ago because he had written a book.
Jerry Mathers: He turned out to be a motorcycle police officer.
The Hollywood 360: Of course, Eddie Haskell had the worst reputation on Leave It To Beaver … but Ken was a really nice guy.
Jerry Mathers: That probably meant he was the best actor. Tony was a great athlete in high school and he was pretty much like his role. I was just a regular kid. But Ken Osmond was nothing like Eddie Haskell.
The Hollywood 360: Did you guys ever get into trouble on the set:
Jerry Mathers: Not too much. We basically had 60 parents with the camera crew, the sound crew, the actors.
Tony Dow: You forgot about when we were playing baseball out of the sound stage and we broke Steve McQueen’s Ferrari car window. We ran away …is what we did.
Jerry Mathers: Actually Steve McQueen was very nice about it. He told us, “I was a kid too …” So he excused us. We went through the same things all kids go through.
And with that Wally and the Beaver wished everyone Happy Holidays.
The 86th Hollywood Christmas Parade will take place on November 26th and it will also premiere as a two-hour prime-time special on The CW Network, Friday, December 15, 2017 at 8:00 pm.
Jerry Mathers (Leave it To Beaver), Sheryl Aronson (The Hollywood 360 Journalist), Linita Masters (The Hollywood 360 Editor), Tony Dow (Leave It To Beaver)
For more information about the Parade you can call 1-866-727-2331
www.thehollywoodchristmasparade.org
Photo Credit: Sheryl Aronson / The Hollywood 360