Why did June Cleaver on Leave It To Beaver wear pearls and high heels while vacuuming?

Until the 1960's people dressed in a more formal way. Women, at least well-groomed women, never left the house without hat and gloves. Men also wore hats and suit and ties were more common than blue jeans.

Early TV programming also showed a more idealistic American family, not just the Cleavers but the Andersons of Father Knows Best and the Nelsons, as in Ozzie and Harriet. Life may not have been quite that perfect but in the 1950's that's what was on TV.

But according to her obituary in the NY Times, Barbara Billingsley wore the pearls to cover a hollow in her neck (which other sources attribute to surgery) and that "in the beginning of the show, she wore flats; the heels were an attempt to stay taller than the growing boys."