‘M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E’

FAN FAVORITES. “Our 6-year-old son, Mike Kessler (in brimmed hat) was a big fan of the Mouseketeers, as were all of his friends,” writes Nancy Thurmond of Everett, Washington. “This photo was taken in the summer of 1957 on a trip to Disneyland, in California. What a delightful surprise it was when he was able to get the autographs of two of his favorite Mouseketeers, Cubby and Karen. It was the highlight of his young life!”

Mom didn’t worry where the kids were when The Mickey Mouse Club came on TV.

Copyright Infringement

IN 1957, when I was 10, The Mickey Mouse Club was my life. Every day, I could be found huddled dangerously close (according to my dad) to our little Muntz television set, singing along with the Mousketeers.

I had the good fortune of looking so much like Mouseketeer Doreen Tracey that strangers in my hometown of Hollywood, California would ask for my autograph.

Of course, the fact that I wore a white T-shirt with “Doreen” in bold, black letters across the front didn’t hurt.

I hosted my own branch of The Mickey Mouse Club among the hollyhocks in the backyard of our duplex. Cleverly, I made a rule that whoever looked most like a Mouseketeer got to be president, ensuring my lifelong position.

My mother, a bit of a stargazer herself, was always urging me to wear a beret to Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church. I refused until one Sunday, when I saw Doreen a few pews up sporting a red beret. After that, I wouldn’t be seen without one.

Later, as I was about to enter fifth grade at Selma Avenue School, in Hollywood, word got out that Doreen was attending Blessed Sacrament School, just a few blocks away.

I begged my parents to get me transferred. They did, but my joy didn’t last. Soon after starting school, a girl came up to me on the playground and said she had been “commissioned” by Doreen to tell me to stop parading around as her.

I was crushed, and thinking back, I doubt it was true. But 3 weeks later, I was back at Selma.

CELEBRITIES ALL AROUND. “Here I am, at age 9, getting autographs from Mouseketeers Darlene (my favorite), Bobby and Sharon,” notes Richard Tatoyan of Modesto, California. “It was 1956, and my family had taken a trip to the newly opened Disneyland. Another highlight of the trip was when my sister, Kathy, noticed a man resembling Walt Disney hanging around in the crowd watching the Autopia ride. She talked me into approaching him, and yes, it was Mr. Disney! He didn’t want to give autographs, but he asked me if I would be happy with a handshake. What a thrill to meet my hero!”

—Cassandra Thrift Adams
Burbank, California

Getting Their Ears On

EVERY YEAR, my sister Toni and I (below) took a trip to New York City at Christmastime with our grandfather Fred Cartisano, traveling by car from Connecticut. The first trip I remember was in 1956, when I was 7 and Toni was 8.

With our little hands warm and secure in our grandpa’s, we’d walk to Rockefeller Center to see the tree and the skaters, walk around the streets to see the window decorations and attend the Radio City Music Hall Christmas show, before going to dinner.

One year, Grandpa said, we got especially excited on one of the streets when we saw someone selling Mickey Mouse ears. We gad to have them! Our grandfather, having had only sons, seldom denied his first two granddaughters anything, and this time was no exception.

Not only did we get our Mickey Mouse ears, but we had our names embroidered on them. There was no amount of money he could have spent to buy us anything that would have thrilled us more.

Every weekday, we sat in front or our black-and-white TV watching The Mickey Mouse Club, as we always had. But now we had our mouse ears on. Of course, we knew the whole cast. Cubby and Karen were our favorites, as they seemed more our size, and we like Annette and Bobby, too.

We waited with great anticipation for the opening of the “cartoon vault.” Now, when they said to wiggle your mouse ears to help open it, we could! Mickey, as the wizard, may have done his magic, but we helped, too. We were now true members of club.

UNDIVIDED ATTENTION. “My mother, Ann Belfiore, took this 1956 photo in the living room of our Philadelphia home as we kids watched The Mickey Mouse Club,” relates Linda Formelio of Frederica, Delaware. “I’m on the left, at age 5, and I always wore my mouse ears to watch the show. With me are neighbor Joseph Zirilli, age 4, and my brother Armand Belfiore, who was nicknamed ‘Bobby.’ There was a Bobby on the show, so I was glad when a Linda was brought to the show. As you can see, I still have my mouse ears and my Mousegetar-Jr.”

—Judy Cartisano
Xenia, Ohio

What Kind of Club? On Television?

ON A VACATION to southern California, around 1956, we stopped for gas in the Los Angeles area; I believe it was a Texaco station.

A nice young man helped us service our car, and as usual, conversation was the order of the day. The man told my husband that his daughter was one of the Mouseketeers on the television show The Mickey Mouse Club.

My husband didn’t know what he was talking about, as he seldom ever watched TV. The man happened to be the father of Annette Funicello, and I’m sure Mr. Funicello must have been crestfallen that my husband had no knowledge of the show.

While my husband was not impressed, I sure was. My children and I knew who Annette was, as we were avid fans of hers and the show, one of the most popular children’s shows on the air at the time. Mr. Funicello had a very good reason to be proud of his daughter.

—Peggy Bergland
Moreno Valley, California

Perfect to Be a Mouseketeer

WHEN The Mickey Mouse Club began, in October of 1955, I was in the first grade, about to turn 6. I absolutely loved the show. I so much wanted a pair of black Mickey Mouse ears with a little bow on them.

I used to wear my roller skates and rhythmically swing up and down the sidewalk singing the Wyatt Earp theme song. I had to practice my singing, and I thought roller-skating was pretty close to tap dancing, keeping the rhythm and all. I just knew, deep down inside, that one day someone was going to find me and say I was perfect to be a Mouseketeer!

MOUSEKETEER MEET AND GREET. “Meeting Mouseketeers Bobby and Cheryl was a thrill, in 1957,” says Jody Church of Sacramento, California, who is on the far left. “My parents, Max and Lila Northern, had taken my younger sisters, Kerry and Maxi, and I to Disneyland. Dad drove all night from Sacramento to the Disneyland Hotel. He was exhausted, but he still enjoyed giving us a thrill by swinging the Tom Sawyer rope bridge when we crossed it. Kerry and I sang all the songs and just knew we were the next Mouseketeers.”

And boy, when I found out you could order a blue pleated skirt and get a white shirt with your name imprinted on it, I really wanted that!

Well, the Disney people never discovered me, and I never got the ears, skirt and shirt. I did take tap-dancing a couple years later, and I got my ears from my husband (although they were pink) when we first visited Disney World, in 1982.

Now I’m content to be a collector of MMC media items. I have all 10 VCR episodes, and 2 DVDs with the Mouseketeers. I have sheet music and a few books written about the Mouseketeers and their lives as they grew up, and I hope if they read these musings, they realize how much enjoyment they gave many of us.

—Mary Ellen Werner
Risingsun, Ohio