Larry's Sister

[Scrabjan1]

Let's mention everything we know about Larry's no name sister.

In Beaver's Bus we find out that the bus driver, Mr. Crawford, gave Larry's sister guitar lessons.

[stevea]

She keeps a diary, and has a picture of "Kookie" from "The TV Show".

[Scrabjan1]

His sister went to a wedding and her mother was upset at her for eating and not mingling.

[stevea]

Mrs. Mondello thinks, if she were more like Larry, she would have a husband by now.

[stevea]

Let's not forget Larry has a big brother, too. He punched Larry in the arm a lot.

[Scrabjan1]

Larry's sister wore curlers like in Larry Runs Away. She went to museums to meet boys. She took a course in oceanography or navigation to meet rich men. Her mother said if her daughter would only get a husband there would be someone around to give it to Larry when his father wasn't home.

[tdr]

When Larry showed Beaver all the cosmetics she has in her room, Beaver said "It sure is a lot of trouble being a girl." Larry responded, "It is if you look like my sister."

[Scrabjan1]

LOL In one episode Larry and Beaver went to the store for his sister to buy her pimple cream.

In the diary she mentions how a boy asked her out and she told him he was fresh. She must have been a real looker after using the pimple cream, hairspray, creams and perfumes.

[Hazel Anyday]

These are all really funny lines and situations. It reminds me how really good the writing was in the first few years of the series. By the 4th and last seasons Beaver acted like a total moron and June got neurotic.

[Scrabjan1]

That was funny "a total moron." It's a lot easier to write for young kids and make it sound genuine than to write for teenagers. The show is so dated when we watch now but I remember those times. The one when Beaver goes to buy his own skates and gets scammed by that sleazy guy is typical of today. The only difference is how kids of today are more sophisticated, no wrong word, they are more aware or more pushy than in my day.

[Torgo]

Originally Posted by stevea

Let's not forget Larry has a big brother, too. He punched Larry in the arm a lot.

In one episode Larry even mentioned having a little brother.

[stevea]

It's funny how they decide in various sitcoms, who's to be seen and who's not. In the case of LITB, the Mondellos were a major part of the first half of the series, yet Larry and his mom are all we see of them--we once briefly saw his father and never saw his sister or brothers. Arguably, the adults were minor in this show, but even with Beaver's friends later, we see none of their siblings...we hear about them, but never see them.

[Mr B]

Back in the 50's and earlier decades unwed mothers were ostracized.....IMO Larry's sister was his mother! Mrs Mondello looked too old to be Larry's mother. Back in the day I had a cousin who claimed her mother was her sister!! It was a hush hush thing back then

[stevea]

Now THAT's interesting! In another thread I made a big deal how, in general, many of the parents of young children are TOO old in LITB (this happens in other sitcoms of that era, too)...Whitey's parents (who only appeared once) looked too old, too. Mrs. Mondello in particular stands out...she's way too old. I went on wiki and found her (Madge Blake's) age...hang on...rechecked and her real age when LITB started was around 58...meaning she would have had Larry when she was 50 (unbelievable).

So the theory above is really plausible. She was probably, in reality (???), Larry's grandmother, and Larry's unnamed sister's mother. Ah! This really makes sense. The prize of the day goes to Mr. B! We had people across the street who had this situation (with more kids), although (as stated above) no one talked about it.

[Torgo]

I don't need some theory to enjoy Madge Blake as Larry's mother. She was fantastic, and they played off each other perfectly. Besides, Blake was playing a character, no different than Sean Connery playing Harrison Ford's dad in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade despite there only being a 10 year age difference in real life.