Betty Wesley

Betty Ann Bayer(Later Wesley)was born in Cleveland,Ohio on June 7,1935. During her early life,she lived with both her parents and Czech grandparents in an ethnic neighborhood on Cleveland's West side.Radio was then all the rage,and she grew up listening to news of World War II,"Kate Smith," "Ma Perkins",and "Let's Pretend." By the age of five, Betty already knew exactly what her future would be. Marriage to a man just like beloved "Grandpa" and a job in radio, (Later changed to television). Both predictions came true. When her engineer father,Lad Bayer,purchased a home in suburban Fairview Park, Betty attended local schools, wrote for the school paper,and graduated from Fairview Park High, on a Friday in May 1953. On Monday she entered the local NBC affiliate as a summer temp and never turned back. Following a year at Flora Stone Mather College in Cleveland, Betty was accepted at U.S.C. and moved to Los Angeles. While in school, she worked part time as a script typist at NBC for two years until she was offered an opportunity to work full time in the NBC Production Department. Later she would complete her degree in 1979 at George Mason U.in Fairfax,VA. Her first production assignment was a 15 minute daytime show called "Mr. Peepers" starring Charlie Ruggles. For the next 16 years she was part of the production team on many of the great dramatic shows and musical specials starring Bing,Bob,and Frank. Later for several years she was Assistant to the Producer on "Days of Our Lives"and Production Associate on "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. On June 26,1965 Betty married computer marketing executive, Gerald (Jerry) Wesley in Hollywood. Jerry was often transferred to other parts of the country forcing the family to move several times. This along with with two children and a step son at home disrupted her TV career. But whenever possible, Betty worked as a free lancer until Jerry left Unisys in 1980. Returning to L.A. at last, Betty founded "Via Vision Productions", a small full service editing and production studio in Hollywood. Today the site is home to "The Citizens' Brigade Improve Theater". In addition to serving many show business clients,V.V.P. was devoted to developing in-house TV projects of its own.(See Other Work) When Jerry Wesley retired five years later in 1988,the Wesley's decided to establish a home base in Washington, D.C. and the studio was closed. They purchased a 57 foot house boat anchored in the Washington Channel and were soon videotaping a series of adventures abroad. Eventually they sold a video travel series called: "New Beginnings" to the start up cable network,"Prime Life" founded by retired CBS executives and "On the Road's" Charles Kuralt. A series pilot and two episodes were produced in Europe before the network folded. During the swinging 1960's,Betty wrote and produced "In Search of Our Heritage", an hour and a half documentary on her extensive search into her family tree. With family permission,the show is now being re-edited for the cable market. Returning to Los Angeles in 2010, Jerry and Betty began working as actors, individually and as a team, appearing in short films,infomercials,music videos, game shows and internet comedy.(See Other work and posted Acting Reels) Betty lives in Hollywood and is writing two books, an autobiography on her own eventful life,and a BBC style historical drama based on a true story. Other active projects are: a political game show,a family based sitcom, and a reality series.