Wally Cleaver - Wally's Teen Romances

Wally's Teen Romances

Wally's age permitted the writers to place him in dating situations with his school friends. Wally's first girlfriend on the show is Penny Jamison, a New York girl he meets during ballroom lessons at Miss Spencer's School of the Dance. Penny has danced with college boys and thinks Wally dances just as smoothly as they do. She wraps Wally around her little finger, and even has him going to the library to fetch a copy of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm for her. The romance ends when Beaver sends Penny a toad in a nicely wrapped box. Wally then becomes romantically involved with Mary Ellen Rogers, though the viewer often hears about her rather than sees her. In a first season episode, Mary Ellen cultivates Beaver's friendship in order to get to Wally, then maneuvers Wally into going to a dance against his will. In another episode, Wally takes cha-cha lessons to enter a dance contest with Mary Ellen. Even though Mary Ellen was Wally's principal romantic interest, Wally dated several other girls during his high school years. In one episode, he declines a vacation trip with his family to stay at home near his current flame, then discovers she has left town with her parents for a vacation trip. In another episode, he falls for a tennis playing "older woman" who uses him to make her estranged boyfriend jealous. One high-school friend who made five "romantic" appearances was Julie Foster. In one episode, Wally grows a moustache, thinking Julie will be enchanted with his debonair look, and then the poor boy is humiliated when she laughs at it.