as The George Gobel Show, The Eddie Fisher Show, and The Milton Berle Show, before auditioning for the role that made him a star. In June 1958, Columbia Pictures's television division Screen Gems was holding a nationwide search for a boy to play the title character in their television adaptation of the popular Dennis the Menace comic strip by Hank Ketcham, and 6-year-old North auditioned. After receiving news that his first audition had not gone well, agent Hazel MacMillan pressed the studio to see him again. The studio agreed and was impressed with his second audition. After hundreds of other boys' auditions, North was asked back to screen test with Herbert Anderson, Gloria Henry, and Joseph Kearns. A pilot was filmed later that summer. The season passed, and North heard nothing more from Screen Gems, but continued to work, appearing in a Christmas-themed episode of the CBS Western series Wanted: Dead or Alive titled "Eight Cent Reward". In the episode, he portrayed Laddie Stone, a young boy who pays bounty hunter Josh Randall (Steve McQueen) eight cents to find Santa Claus. Over the next several months, North made television appearances on such shows as 77 Sunset Strip, Rescue 8, Cheyenne, Bronco, Colt .45, and Sugarfoot, and broke into feature films with roles in The Miracle of the Hills and The Big Operator until, in early 1959, almost one year after he had first auditioned, MacMillan contacted North's mother to tell her that her son had been chosen to play the role of Dennis "The Menace" Mitchell. Dennis the Menace Dennis the Menace premiered on CBS on Sunday, October 4, 1959, and quickly became a hit with audiences. North was paid per episode, his strawberry red hair was bleached platinum blonde for the role, and the 8-year-old was instructed to "shave" a year off his age when speaking with the press. His mother continued to work at AFTRA full-time, and hired business managers to invest his earnings. In a 1993 interview with Filmfax magazine, North spoke highly of his mother, saying: "I want to make it very clear about one thing. I never supported my mother during [Dennis the Menace]. She earned her own money from AFTRA. She never lived off my earnings. I know that sometimes happens with child actors, but it was not true in my situation." While his mother worked, her sister Marie Hopper and brother-in-law actor-composer Hal