December 06
Wallace Maynard Cox's Birthday

Marlon Brando (left) and Wally Cox (right)

If you remember Wally Cox in Mr. Peepers on TV, you are either an aging baby boomer or a collector of DVDs of old TV shows. Wally was also a frequent panelist on the TV game show "The Hollywood Squares" from 1966 until his death in 1973 which was erroneously reported by some of the media as a result of an accidental overdose of sedatives. However, his close friend and former roommate Marlon Brando later quoted the coroner's report to the press that Wally died of heart attack. Allegedly, Marlon kept Wally's cremated ashes in his closet for nearly thirty years because of their close friendship and the fact that Marlon was always a little nuts. There were reports that Marlon would sometime spend hours talking to Wally's ashes. The Los Angeles Times on September 22, 2004, quoted Marlon's' son, Miko, that both his father's and Cox's ashes were scattered at the same time in Death Valley, California, following Marlon's' death. Who said that Hollywood friendships were shallow?

Wally and Marlon were roommates in New York 1940s while studying acting with Stella Adler and became near inseparable friends.
Apparently the only thing that ever affected their lifelong friendship was Marlon's pet raccoon who wasn't potty trained and eventually so disgusted Wally that he moved out of their apartment because he couldn't put up with Marlon's (raccoon's) shit.

Wally got his first major break In 1949,on the CBS network-radio show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts., That led to a series of acting roles in which he was generally cast as the classic milquetoast with his slender frame, glasses, and high- pitched voice. He played variations of this character in more than 20 motion pictures and worked frequently in guest-star roles in television in the 1960s and early 1970s. His most popular role was in the NBC sitcom, Mr. Peepers, in which Wally played junior high school science teacher Robinson J. Peepers. In 2005, the first 26 episodes of Mr. Peepers, were released on DVD. In 2008, the second boxed set of Mr. Peepers was released with a tagline at the bottom of the box: "America's Favorite Science Teacher, Underdog and All-Round Nice Guy."

Wally once commented on his somewhat misleading appearance in an underwear commercial saying, "I may look like Wally Cox, but, inside, I'm Tyrone Power." So to celebrate Wally's birthday, we suggest making a batch of Pillsbury's famous Lemon Coconut Peepers and renting out a DVD of some of the episodes of Mr. Peepers.

Lemon Coconut Peepers

Ingredients

1(18.25 oz.) package Pillsbury Lemon Cake
1/3 cup Crisco Pure Vegetable Oil
2 large eggs

1 cup flaked coconut
24 pastel yellow petite mints
48 miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Heat oven to 350°F. Combine cake mix, oil and eggs in large bowl; beat until well mixed. Place coconut in shallow bowl.
Shape dough into one 1 1/2-inch ball and one 1/2-inch ball for each cookie. Roll each ball in coconut; place on ungreased
cookie sheet with smaller ball touching larger ball. Place cookies 1& 1/2 inches apart.
Bake1 0 to 12 minutes or until coconut just begins to brown. Immediately press 1 yellow mint for beak and 2 chocolate chips
for eyes into smaller part of each cookie. Remove from cookie sheet.