Beaver's baby picture popped up elsewhere in Sixties television

Baby Beaver was also… Baby Davy Jones?!

In "The Picture Frame," a 1967 episode of The Monkees, the boys in the band head to Mammoth Studios for what they think is a casting call. Only these phony "movie" folks are criminal masterminds who want to hire the Monkees to "play" bank robbers. As part of this "casting," the two shady fellows in berets and turtlenecks ask for headshots. Davy Jones hands over a photograph — and it's a baby photo of him in the buff.

Astute TV viewers might have recognized the naked baby. It was none other than Beaver Cleaver!

Nearly a decade earlier, on Halloween evening in 1959, the same photo appeared in a fan-favorite Leave It to Beaver episode, "Baby Picture." If you recall, Beaver and his classmates have to bring in baby pictures for a class project. The kids have their baby snapshots pinned to a corkboard. Judy Hensler claims her baby pic looks just like Shirley Temple.

June Cleaver submits a shot of Beaver in the nude, much to his embarrassment. Ward eventually steps in and cuts out a headshot, removing the bare bum, saving his son. 

As you can see above, the Beaver baby photo held in Wally's hand is the exact photo carried by Davy Jones in The Monkees. (Oddly, the same exact shot would appear again, six episodes later, in the opening scene of "Monkees Marooned," held by Peter Tork.)

So the big question is: Who is that baby?

Unfortunately, we have no definite answer. Television junkies have spotted the picture in other shows, and have speculated that it might indeed be Jerry Mathers. Leave It to Beaver did use real photographs of its other cast members, so it is possible. It does kind of look like him.

Have you spotted this baby picture in other shows? Do you know who it is? Who do you think it might be?

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26 Comments

Oldracer27 32 months ago
Remember the George Costanza, from TV's Seinfeld, in his "Timeless Art of Seduction" pose. That had to be inspired by the Beaver’s baby pose.
Mommom57 43 months ago
I seen this picture on a old greeting card before.
denny 43 months ago
Mathers has done promos for METV, I'm sure someone could contact him and get an answer.
43 months ago
I could swear there was another sitcom with that same baby picture. I doubt Jerry's mother would bring a baby picture of him naked. I would have embarrassed him. I certainly wouldn't want a baby picture of myself in the nude.
Ann 43 months ago
I don't know who the body belongs to in the picture. The head is Edgar Buchanan, who played Beaver's Uncle Billy. He also played Uncle Joe on Petticoat Junction.
Peggy0022 Ann 38 months ago
Also let's not forget Edger Buchanan(Uncle Billy) played Captain Jack(season 1 episode 2. That one is one of my favorites..
CouchPotato19 43 months ago
Hey! That's not appropriate showing a baby naked!
ruswilinc CouchPotato19 43 months ago
Worse than anything that Pepe, Speedy or Dr. Seuss ever did. Ha
Mitchell 43 months ago
I kinda thought it was Micky's baby pic. Looks like him, certes.
Lillyrose 43 months ago
I remember this picture on the episode of "Leave it to Beaver."
DeborahRoberts 43 months ago
The photo looks so familiar, but it doesn't ring bells from "Beaver" or "The Monkees." Watched both shows repeatedly as a kid, so that's probably where I saw it. But for some reason, I'm thinking it was somewhere else. I'd be interested to know if anyone can place it in another series.
Pacificsun 43 months ago
So you don't think this question has already been asked of Jerry Mathers at a hundred conventions? The response would've been all over the internet by now, if he knew.

Actually the photo looks like stock, and either had to do with baby food back in the day, or some kind of ultra soft detergent. I remember seeing it in magazines. I doubt that any mother (even a stage mother) would permit a personal photo of their child to run in perpetuity on a syndicated TV series.
Greg 43 months ago
Looks like Red Skelton to me
ruswilinc Greg 43 months ago
Remember people claiming the Gerber baby was John Wayne?
Wiseguy ruswilinc 43 months ago
Many people thought the Gerber baby was Humphrey Bogart, but he was actually the model for a competing brand of baby food.
justjeff 43 months ago
It was probably a stock photo available for purchase... and it earned its purchase price many times over...
MrsPhilHarris 43 months ago
Looks like Edgar G. Robinson.
EDWARD was his first name. One of the great gangster characters, "Little Caesar" (1931). Also known for "Mr. Nurdlinger" in my first view of him in "Good Neighbor Sam" (1964) with Jack Lemmon and Romy Schneider. 2nd-to-last film "Soylent Green" (1973), before he died in Jan. 1973, at 79. "Is this the end of Rico?" [it was, he dies at the end] --"LIttle Caesar (1931)
You are correct!
CurleyGirl1018 43 months ago
Jerry still walks among us....ask him!
Deleted 43 months ago
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CurleyGirl1018 43 months ago
I love that too! Barbara B was great with her reaction to the ‘do
RetroMountaineer 43 months ago
That jazz riff really did add to the scenes. I still crack up when Lumpy sports one too.
43 months ago
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43 months ago
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MadMadMadWorld 43 months ago
As if Barbara never sported a crazy 'do when she was young and a rambunctious teen! Can you imagine her at 15?
MadMadMadWorld 43 months ago
Definitely one of the funniest musical scores ever heard on LITB, or in any tv series!
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