Set in New York in the 1890s, Life With Father was based on Clarence Day’s wonderful reminiscences in The New Yorker, and Leon Ames played the blustery banker and autocratic father of four sons who could not adjust to change in the world.
His soft-hearted and loving wife, Vinnie, was played by Lurene Tuttle.
The couple’s four sons were Clarence Jr, Whitney, Harlan and John.
Mrs Clarence Day Jr, the wife of the show’s author, was a special consultant on the series and insisted that all the actors who played the Days’ sons actually had red hair, as her real-life husband and his brothers did – even though the series was broadcast in black and white and nobody could tell what colour the actors’ hair was! The show’s producers, however, honoured her demand.
The CBS series premiered on 22 November 1953 and closed on 5 July 1955.
Clarence Day Sr Leon Ames
Vinnie Day
Lurene Tuttle
Clarence Day Jr
Ralph Reed (1)
Steven Terrell (2)
Whitney Day
Ronald Keith (1)
B G Norman (2)
Freddy Ridgeway (3)
Harlan Day
Harvey Grant
John Day
Freddie Leiston (1)
Malcolm Cassell (2)
Margaret
Dorothy Bernard
Nora
Marion Ross
