Most everyone, Boomer or not, can recall the first time they fell in love. I certainly do.
I was five years old, and watching the Mickey Mouse Show when Annette (I didn't know her last name) appeared on our black-and-white television. What a beautiful young lady.
The Mickey Mouse Show is a strong memory in the minds of a wide range of Boomers. That's because it was rerun after its initial life, so youngsters like myself who missed its original 1955-59 run could enjoy it after school like their older brothers and sisters did.
Walt Disney, who had already scored big in movies and amusement parks (well, just one amusement park in those days), proved to be a television genius as well. His Sunday night show, whose name kept changing, was a strong, long-lived hit. His second shot at a series was this one. And its immortality is its legacy, even though the show itself ran a mere three years. A fourth season was produced by re-airing earlier episodes.
Walt Disney insisted the Mouseketeers be regular kids, not actors. And they were, when they were discovered by scouts who combed schools looking for kids who had magnetism and talent. Of course, many of the Mouseketeers went on to bigger and better things afterwards. But when they first appeared on TV, they were unknowns.
The show was classic low-budget genius. Host Jimmie Dodd was asked to write a theme song. He penned the immortal "M-i-c! k-e-y! m-o-u-s-e!" Roy Williams, promoted from staff artist to costar, was asked to come up with clever headwear. He recalled an old Mickey Mouse cartoon where Mickey doffed his ears and hair like a fedora. The effect was recreated into one of the most purchased novelty hats in history.
And like many low budget efforts, it was absolutely brilliant. The show was an excellent mix of personalities. The writing was above par. And so many of its routines were burned indelibly into our young minds!
Who can forget the roll call? Talent Round-Up? Circus Day? The serials?
The show was canceled after four short years. One account has Walt Disney protesting ABC's wanting to cut show time to add commercial slots. Another has the show's high costs simply making it unprofitable. High costs? The castmembers did creative work too, ferpetesake!
Anyhow, an unfriendly parting of ways took place. Disney sued ABC and won, but also lost the rights to shop the show around to other networks.
Many years later, Disney and ABC are both fabulously wealthy. The Mickey Mouse Club was recreated multiple times. For better or worse, new Mouseketeer stars emerged, notably Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and Christine Aguilera.
But we Boomers remember the original show. And we all know it was the best one. After all, it was the one that featured (sigh) Annette. And one last memory: Jiminy Cricket taught me how to spell encyclopedia and thereby blow away my first grade teacher. Priceless.
Comments (4)
"Anyhow, an unfriendly parting of ways took place. Disney sued ABC and won"
Walt sure got even; his company owns the network.
And I was in love with Annette, too. *wiping drool from keyboard*
Posted by David S Paleg | August 1, 2007 1:34 AM
Posted on August 1, 2007 01:34
Funny, but when you think about it, the MMC
is about the time when
Disney took the leap into the big time. Disney was simply known as a children's movie studio, with great animators and occasionally great live
movies(Song of the South
actually combined both,
though we must credit
Gene Kelly's incredible
dance sequence in "Anchors Aweigh" for the first combination).
The only outside stuff
was merchandise(long before the disney store,
the brand sold everything from watches
to furniture), and comic strips. In the Mid-50's, Uncle Walt took a quantum leap into the future with a triple salvo assault
(Mickey Mouse Club, Sunday Disney, and Disneyland). Disney has never been the same since. The power of television allowed a synergy that let Walt sell Disneyland weekly on Sundays with many mini-docs of the park.
The park sold the show as well. Eventually, TV
was the force that made Disney into one of the top media companies in the world. Personally, I think it long ago lost its magic. Post Eisner, it was the bottom line or else. Now the company is virtually indistinguishable from FOX and the rest of the studio conglomerates.
For a special time, however, say from '30-'70, Disney truly was special and magic.
And, to cap it off, MMC was prob the finest PR
for the changing of the guard at Disney that ever was. You can almost see it as a perfect bridge between the old and new eras.
Maybe that's why we wax so nostalgic about it...."Why? Because we like you!" INDEED!
Posted by scott | August 1, 2007 4:51 AM
Posted on August 1, 2007 04:51
Annette's last name is Funicello. Yeah, my first love, too! ;-)
MMC stuff is deeply lodged in my brain, and sometimes, it will pop up out of nowhere. Just this week, someone in earshot said, "...today is Tuesday...", and immediately, I started absent-mindedly singing, "Today is Tuesday, you know what that means... we're gonna have a special guest!"
Great blog, thanks! I stumbled onto it via a link from http://soccerdad.baltiblogs.com
Best regards,
SteveR
Posted by Steve Rosenbach | August 24, 2007 9:40 AM
Posted on August 24, 2007 09:40
I remember the MMC from way back. I wasn't much into it, but it was a classic for kids! I do remember all the MMC ears that were everywhere! And I watched most of my early Disney shows on Sunday evening with Walt! I see that Mouseketeer Cheryl just passed away! Who was the big guy on that show Jimmy??? Is he still with use? How about Cubby? And to bad guys, Frankie got Annette! Hubba Hubba Surfs Up!
Posted by Rivers End | January 21, 2009 10:03 PM
Posted on January 21, 2009 22:03