What happened to the "Mickey Mouse Club" folks? Aside from Annette....MS?

[KoKo]

Did anyone here watch that show? I had some favorites...but I can't remember all the names.

I know it was all put together to "hype" Walt's CA "Disney World" but there was some good stuff for kids on that show.

I think I might have become an "Environmentalist" from that show. There was one "Mickey Mouser" that I identified with who went camping somewhere...It was a "she."

I can't remember her name. But wondered if there are any other folks here who loved their series on "Mickey Mouse Club" who think "Walt" might have been a "liberal" who set us all up as kids to go out and then eventually to end up here on DU!

And, if that's true, then what shows on TV today are "setting your kids up to be liberals" for tomorrow?

What do your kids watch that you can look at and say: "Yeah! this is good....I remember when I watched TV and thought stuff was going to "move me ahead....I learned some good stuff on that show?"

What are your kids taking forward? :shrug:

[wyldwolf]

1. I enjoyed the seldom mentioned 70s incarnation...

Of course, I was 10 at the time!

[Deja Q]

2. You know what those costumes remind me of?

McDonalds uniforms with ears... :-(

Nice blast from the past though, thanks! :-)

[maveric]

35. Wasnt Kurt Russell a mousketeer?

Don Grady from My 3 Sons fame was one.

[Scurrilous]

3. Bobby Burgess, an original Mouseketeer..

..left the Mickey Mouse Club and danced on the Lawrence Welk Show for years and years.

[KoKo]

5. Wasn't "Bobby" the one who seemed the oldest Mousketeer?

I can see him in my mind.....but he didn't seem to get put into the "Disney Series" like the younger ones.

But, yes I can recall him.......

[mlawson]

9. No, it was "Jimmy"

He seemed MUCH older to me, and I was about the age of the youngest ones. Really, Jimmy seemed too old for that show.

It was boring to me, anyway. And I thought that Howdy Doody was really "dumb"!!! :o

[Xandor]

14. Jimmy Dodd was the "adult" club leader...

What a weird scene. Jimmy, and his sidekick, the fat guy who never said much, if anything. Can't remember his name. Jimmy had the "Mouseguitar" and lead the singing, was the general MC, and was sort of the authority figure.

I agree, Bobby Burgess was the oldest-seeming of the kids.

[oxymoron]

20. Roy! (wave) was the sidekick.

Roy should have had better things to do...

[mac56]

27. Roy Williams was actually one of Walt's animators.

Stepped out of the limelight to become a TV star. He also invented the "ears" hat.

[KoKo]

6. BTW......clueless......here....what is your avatar?

I thought it was a pix of Keph?

[devilgrrl]

34. I wrote him a letter back in the 70's and he wrote back!!!!

Sent a nice letter and autographed postcard.

[KoKo]

4. OMG! as usual I post from my head and don't do internet search! Found her

the one I was talking about!

DARLENE! She was my heroine! But, there seem to be websites......but, I won't deal with them. I just wondered without doing a big search what I asked in my post......what is there today...that competes with what some of us grew up on out of "The Tube?"

[rucky]

12. Darlene Was Arrested in 1997

http://www.eonline.com/News/Items/0,1,2175,00.html

Original Mouseketeer Turns Racketeer

by Daniel Frankel
Dec 3, 1997, 3:45 PM PT

Who's the leader of the club who's charged with conspiracy? And securities fraud. And mail fraud. And obstruction of justice. And perjury.

Don't get too excited. It's not Annette.

It's original Mickey Mouse Club member Darlene Gillespie, 56. The U.S. Attorney's Office says it arrested the 1950s children's television star Wednesday, along with her fiancé, Jerry Fraschilla, 60, on those charges....

[KoKo]

18. That's sad....when good stars go wrong..........

:-(.......makes me really sad......one more hero bites the dust......:-(

[Lydia Leftcoast]

7. Most of them faded into obscurity

but Tim Considine from Spin and Marty ended up on My Three Sons as the oldest son in the early years of the show. David Stollery, who played Marty, but was never a Mouseketeer, ended up as an award-winning automotive designer.

Don Grady, an obscure Mouseketeer, also ended up on My Three Sons as the middle son.

Darlene became a country singer but was arrested for shoplifting or some other kind of petty crime a few months ago.

I was a huge Mickey Mouse Club fan as a kid. I had a pair of ears, a T-shirt, and a subscription to the quarterly magazine.

[KoKo]

8. I think "Tim and Marty" was my "enviro scenario...that's the one.....

Thanks! I couldn't remember it.....

[mlawson]

10. "Robbie" was an obscure Mouseketeer???

I enjoyed My Three Sons, until the last years when the other people moved in. I was the same age as Chip, so I sorta identified with him.

I wonder whatever happened to Don Grady???

[KoKo]

17. sigh.....mlawson......too young.....:-(

too young....even though I was "tail end" I'm older......older.......Geeze.........that old????

[KoKo]

24. BTW! Yes...there were "obscure" Mousketeers. A couple showed up the group

shots on some shows and I wondered....well where are they? They seemed older to me...but they showed up in those early shots.

[alfredo]

11. Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears

are both the evil spawn of the Mickey Mouse Club.

[KoKo]

13. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Too Gross/Obscene! They are the 80's Generation!

Madonna Spawns from Hell! LOL's ;-)

and...on edit......the 80's music was the best! Best! So, this isn't trashing 80's folk, of whom I'm MOST FOND!

On Edit, you must think me really strange.

I know not 80's......but 21'st Century! But, NOT Mickey Mouse Club......Christina and Britanny......I don't know "WHAT" I was replying to! LOL's!

[Yavin4]

21. So Was Justin Timberlake

He was a Mouseketeer too.

[Kenneth ken]

15. Cubby

( I think? one of 'em ) was playing drums in the band when I saw Shirley Maclaine several years ago. She was great!

[KoKo]

16. But, Cubby had blond hair.....a boy....I sorta remember it that way?

Cubby? did he change? Sex that is?

[mlawson]

19. Cubby was a boy.

He would be 48 to 50 now, I imagine.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Older than that

Cubby (who had dark hair) and Karen (who had blonde corkscrew curls) were the youngest Mouseketeers, and they were a few years older than me. I assume that all the Mouseketeers are now between 55 and 65.

:wow:

[KoKo]

23. No....disagree I think Cubby had blonde hair.

I distinctly remember him as one of the young ones. I think he would be 47-50.

[KoKo]

25. Pix of Cubby.....I could swear blonde hair..but pix says dark!

I didn't want to Google this....because I wanted it from DU memory.....so I broke it by "peeking."

Kill this thread.......no faded memories when one can "Google." sigh...... He was 8 years old in 1955 so he would be how old?

Here's a bio.

Mouse in the House
November 25, 2001


In 1955, an agent for Walt Disney discovered an adorable
8-year-old named Carl O’Brien banging on pots and pans at a
charity concert in Southern California. The boy, known as
Cubby–Mom thought lil’ Carl looked like a bear cub–would
go on to be the youngest male Mousketeer on The Mickey
Mouse Club. It was a hit television series, of course, and
Cubby and his fellow Mouseketeers became famous. Later Cubby would play
drums on The Lawrence Welk Show, get a gig in Spike Jones’ band and back a
variety of performers including Jim Nabors, Shirley MacLaine, Andy Williams,
Diana Ross and The Carpenters. And then, in middle age, he’d wind up joining the
second-biggest phenomenon of his life, The Producers.

"It’s actually been a pretty normal life," Mr. O’Brien said on a recent evening
before a Producers performance at the St. James Theater. At 55, he is firmly built
and athletic-looking. He wears wire-rim glasses, and his soft tenor and crew-cut
brown hair make him seem a bit like, well, a middle-aged Mousketeer.

Unlike a lot of former child stars, Mr. O’Brien doesn’t feel cursed by early fame.
And on this night–a short while before Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick
tromped out on stage for yet another sold-out performance–he didn’t sound terribly
philosophic about the impact of The Mickey Mouse Club on his later life.

[BrotherBuzz]

29. Cubby was young, but....

47? MMC was filmed around 1957...you do the math. My guess is he was 8-10ish, which would put his birthdate around 1948, and ~54 years old.

on edit: oops, I was going on memory, too, and didn't read your next post, sorry.

[Kenneth ken]

30. Shirley was great

I don't know enough about drums, drummers or drumming to rate Cubby's performance.

Shirley was ~60 and still a talented singer and dancer. She had funny stories for between songs, etc. I hope I can move that well at 60.

[mitchum]

26. Darlene posed nude in the late 70s...

I think in Gallery? I certainly remember one shot with a white sweater and mouse ears...

[mac56]

28. Actually, Doreen Tracy posed for Gallery.

nm

[mitchum]

31. Damn, you're right!

That'll teach me to start reading the text more carefully.

[mitchum]

32. I dimly remember one of the guys playing vibes/marimba...

in Starbuck. The fine people who brought you "Moonlight Feels Right"

[devilgrrl]

33. A Link to Info on the Original Mouseketeers

http://www.mousestars.com/steve/rollcall.htm



and for some more original Mouseketeer trivia. Did anyone know that Darlene Gillespie's younger sister played the young Joan Crawford character in 'Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?'

[YellowRubberDuckie]

36. Bobby tours with the Lawrence Welk show.

Man. I'm sure he makes tons of money. NOT
Duckie

[RebelOne]

37. Isn't Lawrence Welk dead?