Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club(R) [Hardcover]

Jennifer Armstrong (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2010

This book will tell the behind-the-scenes story of how The Mickey Mouse Club paved the way for all that came after, from its humble beginnings as a marketing ploy, through its short but mesmerizing run, to the numerous resurrections that made it one of television's first true cult hits--all through the recollections of those regular kids-turned-stars who made it a phenomenon. It will reveal, for the first time ever, the untold stories of Annette, Darlene, Cubby and Karen, Bobbie and the rest of the beloved cast. It will explore, through the reminiscences of former fans who grew up to be some of television's finest minds, what made the show so special. And it will examine why the formula the creators of the show invented is more relevant than ever, and whether we'll ever see yet another Club for a new generation.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Only a graying segment of the American public will have watched The Mickey Mouse Club (on ABC, preceded by American Bandstand), but they’ll flock to this oral history of the TV show that helped shape the Baby Boomers. So influential was the show that readers may be shocked to learn it only lasted three years (1955–57), albeit with plenty of later repackaging. For the original members of the cast, these few short years cast a long shadow over the rest of their lives, as some succeeded and others faltered badly in their post-Mouseketeer years. All of the A team are represented here (that’s really what they were called), some through interviews but others from previous writings, notably Annette Funicello, who has struggled for 20 years with MS, and Darlene Gillespie, who went to prison for shoplifting. Also present are preteen heartthrobs David Stollary and Tim Considine, who played Spin and Marty, along with lesser-known Mice. How little the Mouseketeers understood their popularity, how hard they worked, how quickly it was over—it all makes for a captivating cautionary tale. --Ilene Cooper

Review

Entertainment Weekly feature writer Armstrong displays a light and deft touch in balancing a strong but unobtrusive narrative of the Mouseketeers' stories....Armstrong's assemblage of tales provides insight into the hard work, daily regimen, behind-the-scenes hijinks, life with the mercurial "Uncle" Walt, and conflicts of the Disney vehicle originally developed to help finance Disneyland. (Library Journal )

"A captivating cautionary tale." (Booklist )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (October 29, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446545953
• ISBN-13: 978-0446545952
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #741,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jennifer Armstrong is a senior writer for Entertainment Weekly and the author of the forthcoming Why? Because We Still Like You, a history of the original Mickey Mouse Club. She has provided pop culture commentary for CNN, VH1, Fox News Channel, and ABC, and her writing has been featured in Salon, MTV.com, Glamour, Budget Travel, and the Chicago Sun-Times. She also co-founded and continues to run SirensMag.com, an alternative online women's magazine. Her essays have appeared in the anthologies Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings, and Coffee at Luke's: An Unauthorized Gilmore Girls Gabfest.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Down memory lane with the Mouseketeers, July 17, 2011

By 

Wayne Engle "Wayne Engle" (Madison, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club(R) (Hardcover)

What wonderful memories of my childhood this book brought back! I was 10, going on 11, when the Mickey Mouse Club first went on the air, and for a long time I don't think I missed a single episode.

I was one of the multitude of little boys who fell madly in love with Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, the "brunette goddess," as Jennifer Armstrong refers to her in one passage in the book. Apparently Annette -- or "Annie" as she was called by her friends -- was as kind and well-liked by her peers as she was adored by her pre-pubescent male admirers. But Armstrong points out something that I noticed myself when watching the MMC, all those many years ago, and which bothered me: Annette, as beautiful and charismatic as she was, was far from being the most talented Mouseketeer. That honor probably went to Darlene Gillespie -- less beautiful, although certainly pretty enough; blessed with a dynamite singing voice, a fine dancer, and a first-rate little actress. She had the drive, the elan, that Annette just didn't possess. But, Annette was Walt Disney's favorite Mouseketeer (he discovered her), and received the lion's share of the fan mail which came pouring in to the show. Thus, it was Annette who was targeted for bigger things -- including at least one acting role on the show that Darlene felt she deserved. That, and a couple of bad breaks that were just nobody's fault, apparently left Darlene with a lifelong hurt that she has never been able to assuage. Sad, for a kid who had so much to offer.

Then there was Lonnie Burr, who always contrived to have his pompadour of blond hair showing in front of his mouse ears, despite the efforts of the director to keep the male Mouseketeers looking like "little monks," as one Mouseketeer remembered many years later. And Tommy Cole, a super singer who was a little two-left-footed when it came to dancing. And Bobby Burgess, with his huge Pepsodent smile, and Sharon Baird, who could flat dance the hinges off a door together. I still remember seeing a segment mentioned in the book in which the Firehouse Five Plus Two, a jazz group, played for the Mouseketeers, and Bobby and Sharon did some of the best "old-fashioned rock 'n' roll dancing" I've ever seen.

And of course there was Jimmie Dodd, the genial, gentle Big Mouseketeer who was the adult chaperone, as it were, and songwriter and singer for the group. And the Big Mooseketeer, Roy Williams, a fat, jovial Disney animator whose talents with crayon and paper were often displayed on the show (and who apparently wasn't above letting fly with an "expletive deleted" or an off-color joke during rehearsals; of course, the kids loved that!)

Armstrong tells us how the show lasted only three years in its original format, with some Mouseketeers being dropped and new ones hired, right along. By 1958, the oldest (Bobby and Darlene) were 17 and were getting tired of their mouse ears and the T-shirts with their names on the front, and all the originals were wanting to move on into true teenhood. But the show never really went "off the air" for years, as re-runs and other treatments of the original material continued to be aired. There was a large segment of the American "kid" audience who loved the wearers of those ears, and who didn't want to give them up.

So, the originals became adults, with marriage, children, and their own careers. Bobby Burgess continued with his first love, dancing, for 11 years on the Lawrence Welk Show, and continues down to the present day with his own dance studio. Tim Considine and David Stollery of "Spin and Marty" fame became a writer and an automobile designer, respectively. Sharon Baird worked for many years playing costumed characters who danced on TV. Doreen Tracy pursued a show business career, including appearing twice, nude, in a men's magazine, much to the horror of the Disney organization. Carl "Cubby" O'Brien, who was a whiz-bang little drummer, made a career out of it with various bands. His partner "Little Mouseketeer," Karen Pendleton, who never felt she was very talented, sadly became a paraplegic in a 1983 traffic accident.

Darlene, with tremendous talent and drive but never able to get the right break (Annette was in the way for too much of her early years), allowed her bitterness over that to affect her whole life, culminating in her arrests for white-collar crimes as partner of her boyfriend and later husband, Jerry Fraschilla. She was sentenced in 1999 to two years in prison in a check-kiting scheme.

And Annette, who all her former Mouseketeers (except, probably, Darlene Gillespie) speak well of, developed multiple sclerosis in the late 1980s, and has been out of the public eye for most of the time since.

Armstrong's book is a quick read, but a very satisfying one, especially for those of us who remember the Mickey Mouse Club because we were there, in front of our TV sets, joining in to sing, "We are the Merry Mouseketeers, Mouseketeers! We've got a lot above our ears, above our ears! ..."

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars BookHounds [...], November 7, 2010

By 

Mary Bookhounds "BookHounds" (Huntington Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club(R) (Hardcover)

This wonderful collection of stories from the original Mouseketeers gives you behind the scenes details and insights. These were the original child stars when television was a new medium and the regulations were probably more strict than today. Though there are tales of underage drinking and shy kisses, I don't think these kids were as wild as today's children stars. I watched the reruns of the shows since I had older brothers and a sister. We went to Disneyland regularly and were very much in tune with that culture.

This isn't a full historical account of the Micky Mouse Show, but more of recollections that probably couldn't have been told before. The updates of each member towards the end of the book is really enlightening. These people had the best and worst of show business. Overall it is just a nice book to quickly read.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Thin Rehash of 50 Year Old Stories, December 31, 2010

By 

Mediaman "TVviewer" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club(R) (Hardcover)

This overpriced, poorly-titled, thin booklet pretends to be an oral history of the Mickey Mouse Club--when in truth it's just a poorly-done college term paper on the subject that uses material from other books written about the show. There is very little new here and is written by a young woman who doesn't appear to know what she is writing about half the time.

The history of the series has been covered in much more detail elsewhere, so it's hard to know why there was a need for this book. The author claims to have talked with some of the Mouseketeers, yet only a couple of them are quote regularly. The way the book is written, it's difficult to know how much of the information is from second-hand sources. She does list some footnotes in the back, but often there are quotes from long-dead people with no attribution given as to where she got the information. And at other times opinion is stated as fact.

The writer (who is a kind of know-it-all in her regular job at Entertainment Weekly) gets some of her facts wrong ("Father Knows Best in the late '60s"--ah, go do your homework and find out the show ended in 1960), claims the Mouse Club was the most popular children's show of all time (sorry--not even close. It was only on for three years!) and seems to like to wallow in the few salacious things she can find. But even then there is little detail and no new original information. She even regularly uses websites as sources without confirmation! And she considers herself an entertainment journalist?

She only briefly mentions the newer MMC incarnations. Instead the author should have taken the time to do her homework, dig into the background of the original show and its sequels, and put together a real tell-all. At about 220 half-pages with double-spaced type and lots of white border, this is nothing more than a very dull college thesis filled with information from other (better) books. It's a waste of time for anyone who has read the other books and won't interest anyone under the age of 60.