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.
Why? Because We Still Like You
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Book Description
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 )
"A captivating cautionary tale." (Booklist )
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More About the Author
Jennifer Keishin Armstrong grew up deep in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, then escaped to New York to live in a succession of very small apartments and write about pop culture. In the process, she became a feminist, a Buddhist, and the singer/guitarist in an amateur rock band. She also spent a decade on staff at Entertainment Weekly, cofounded SexyFeminist.com, and now writes for several publications, including Women's Health, Runner's World, Writer's Digest, Fast Company, and New York's Vulture. Her history of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, will be published by Simon & Schuster in 2013; her collaboration with Heather Wood Rudulph, Sexy Feminism, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2013. She is the author of the Why? Because We Still Like You, a history of the original Mickey Mouse Club published by Grand Central in 2010. She has provided pop culture commentary for CNN, VH1, A&E, and ABC, and teaches article writing and creative writing. To follow her on Twitter: @jmkarmstrong
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Wayne Engle
Format: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! ..."
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! ..."
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I think this book is a "Where are they now?" Book and a "Behind the Scenes" Book of the original Mickey Mouse Club . It is fascinating to learn about the different personalities of the show including the adult members of the cast.
Unfortunately, of what happened to the individual Mouseketeers, I already knew from little pieces of news stories. Some missed the attention from being stars so much that they acted out but others were real success stories later in life.
So what was new for me was what it was like to be a Mouseketeer. The difficult auditions, the scary rehearsals, the friendships and backstage jealousies were all covered.
I was a little surprised at how strict Walt Disney was and unforgiving of childish wishes and desires. Also, I was surprised at how quickly he fired children from the show. If you can sing and dance, must you also act? The kids treated him with great respect but could not bring themselves to call him "Uncle Walt".
The children's' favorite was Jimmie Dodd. I think he was their best grown up friend.
I loved getting to know the background of the kids and how they got on the show. So my quarrel is not with this unauthorized but well researched book but with the way children were treated back in the 1950s. I do remember some regimentation then in public school so it shouldn't be all that surprising.
I am very glad that Paul Peterson, a former Mouseketeer and heart throb from the Donna Reed show runs an advocacy group for child stars. It was sad to read about the fired Mouseketeers who didn't think of themselves as 'good enough'. I hope that Paul Peterson and others will create ways and means to protect young stars.
This book is very well written, there is an appendix in the back with summaries of the different star lives.
'Why, Because we still Like You' brought back so many memories. I remember racing home to settle down in front of our Philco TV set with my mother on the couch. I sang the Mickey Mouse song along with TV and the roll call was my favorite part of the show.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of the original Mickey Mouse show.
Unfortunately, of what happened to the individual Mouseketeers, I already knew from little pieces of news stories. Some missed the attention from being stars so much that they acted out but others were real success stories later in life.
So what was new for me was what it was like to be a Mouseketeer. The difficult auditions, the scary rehearsals, the friendships and backstage jealousies were all covered.
I was a little surprised at how strict Walt Disney was and unforgiving of childish wishes and desires. Also, I was surprised at how quickly he fired children from the show. If you can sing and dance, must you also act? The kids treated him with great respect but could not bring themselves to call him "Uncle Walt".
The children's' favorite was Jimmie Dodd. I think he was their best grown up friend.
I loved getting to know the background of the kids and how they got on the show. So my quarrel is not with this unauthorized but well researched book but with the way children were treated back in the 1950s. I do remember some regimentation then in public school so it shouldn't be all that surprising.
I am very glad that Paul Peterson, a former Mouseketeer and heart throb from the Donna Reed show runs an advocacy group for child stars. It was sad to read about the fired Mouseketeers who didn't think of themselves as 'good enough'. I hope that Paul Peterson and others will create ways and means to protect young stars.
This book is very well written, there is an appendix in the back with summaries of the different star lives.
'Why, Because we still Like You' brought back so many memories. I remember racing home to settle down in front of our Philco TV set with my mother on the couch. I sang the Mickey Mouse song along with TV and the roll call was my favorite part of the show.
I would highly recommend this book to fans of the original Mickey Mouse show.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format: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.
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.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
This book was mediocre at best.
I grew up with the Mickey Mouse Club in the 50s. I had hoped to gain some new perspectives on the show for which I would give up outdoor activities to run into the house and to... Read more
Published 8 days ago by Betsy W.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Memories
I grew up with the Mouseketeers and I recommend this book for the babyboomer's and anyone who is interested in how they all came together to make a hit television show. Read more
Published 20 days ago by TxsChckUsA
3.0 out of 5 stars
NO Pictures?
While the book itself was ok in telling the stories of the original Mickey Mouse Club and the participants, I was VERY disappointed in this Kindle edition - there were NO pictures. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Judy H.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for everybody.
This oral history is just great. It gives the reader a little insight into the relationships among the club members. I would recommend this book to everyone.
Published 2 months ago by jimi
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty interesting but most second hand info.
This was an OK read. It was interesting to get the knowledge of the daily grind of how the Mickey Mouse club was filmed on a 5 day a week schedule. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Redcandies of NorCal
4.0 out of 5 stars
Worth reading for sure
I found most of the materials fascinating. Having known some of the participants it was nice to see how life really was and the inside scoop.
Published 3 months ago by J. Peter Cahn
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poor reading
I was very disappointed with this book it was very basis in who Ms Soltero wrote about and who she talked about. It took all 36 of us to make the show what it was.. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Bonnimous
5.0 out of 5 stars
what memories!
as an eight year old i remember racing home from school with my best friend to change into our little pleated skirts and mouse ears to sing along with our new friends. Read more
Published 15 months ago by teresa
5.0 out of 5 stars
Essential for Disney fans!
Without a doubt, Why? Because We Still Like You ranks next to Paul Peterson's book on the Mouseketeer experience. Read more
Published 16 months ago by J. Arena
5.0 out of 5 stars
Probably the final word
Jennifer's effort is from the heart and probably the last of many Mousekabooks. I THINK I've read them all as well as ancillary stuff such as Disney Wars and The Vault of Walt. Read more
Published 18 months ago by marksutherland
