Researching Joe Connelly

He is the son of international quartet medalist Mike Connelly, baritone of "The Roaring 20's". Joe directed the Southern Gateway chorus from 2008 until 2014. He is the director of Canadian Showtime Chorus in Ottawa, Ontario, since May 2018. He coaches men's and women's barbershop quartets and choruses around the world full-time, becoming one of the few barbershoppers who has managed to turn his hobby into a profession. He currently performs around the world with his quartet, Old School, which took the silver medal in international competition in 2009 and 2010, before winning the gold in 2011.

Connelly had a stint in the merchant marines before landing a job at the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency in New York City, where he met Mosher, a fellow copywriter. Mosher left the agency in 1942 and moved to Hollywood to write for the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy radio show. Connelly soon followed him. In the mid-1940s, after writing for the Frank Morgan and Phil Harris radio shows, they began a 12-year run writing for The Amos 'n' Andy Show including the early 1950s TV version of the popular radio show. Their first solo effort in television was developing a short-lived anthology series for actor Ray Milland, an experience that taught them, Connelly said, to focus their writing instead on "things we know".

Connelly and Bob Mosher were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for The Private War of Major Benson, a 1955 comedy that starred Charlton Heston as a hard-nosed Army major who takes command of the ROTC program at a children's academy. It was inspired by an incident Connelly witnessed while driving one of his sons to parochial school.

Leave It to Beaver took their dictum of writing about "things we know" to a new level. Connelly, the father of seven children, and Mosher, the father of two, had to look no further than their own homes for inspiration.Connelly's 14-year-old son, Jay, served as the model for Beaver's older brother, Wally; and Connelly's 8-year-old son, Ricky, was the inspiration for Beaver, the nickname of one of Connelly's merchant marine shipmates. Connelly reportedly followed his children around with a pad of paper writing down funny situations and lines that were later used in the show.

Connelly is buried in Culver City's Holy Cross Cemetery. He died of a stroke while in the Motion Picture Country Home nursing home in Newport Beach, California after suffering from Alzheimer's disease for years. Connelly outlived both of his wives, Kathryn and Ann and was survived by his 7 children, 12 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.