Leave It to Beaver S04E33 - Community Chest, 1961

Directed by Norman Abbott, written by Raphael Blau, Joe Connelly & Bob Mosher and starring;

Hugh Beaumont as Ward Cleaver

Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver

Tony Dow as Wally Cleaver

Jerry Mathers as Beaver Cleaver and

Stephen Talbot as Gilbert Bates

Also starring Dorothy Neumann, Lee Merriwether, Claudia Bryar and Bruno VeSota.

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It’s that time of year again for the community chest to be collected and this year it’s June’s turn. The only problem is that it falls on the same day Wally’s school is holding an open house and June is expected to show on Wally’s behalf. Beaver offers to stand in for June and collect the money for her. Ward and June are only a little reluctant but give in to Beaver’s suggestion.

Beaver asks Gilbert to accompany him on his rounds and afterwards they get ice cream as reward from June for their help. They sit down on a street bench and without noticing it the can of money falls out of Beaver’s back pocket. It is only when they are close to returning home that they notice the can has gone missing and they start back-tracking to where they might have lost it.

Beaver finally musters up the courage to tell his parents about the lost money that same night. They take it surprisingly well as Ward comes up with the solution that he’ll replace all the money Beaver’s lost on the condition that Beaver and Gilbert go around the neighbourhood again to ask everyone how much they contributed. To Beaver and Gilbert’s surprise the neighbours all give the same amount of money they gave the previous day.

That same night June receives a phone call from the drug store owner informing them that someone had found Beaver’s lost can of money and returned it to the drug store. Beaver suggests they can now donate twice as much as he initially collected but Ward explains to him that the honest thing to do is to give the money back to the neighbourhood people so Ward gets on the phone with all the people only to have them all tell him that they can donate the extra money after all.

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Frank Sinatra - On the Sunny Side of the Street, 1961