Customer Reviews

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

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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! ..."

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 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.

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.

Still another visit with the Mouseketeers who are now in that group of aging baby boomers that are looking at social security and all those other things people do when they reach retirement age.

This book superficially looks at the show and the goings on in front of and behind the camera and includes stuff like innocent kissing, some teenage rivalry, and a little teenage drinking. It recalls the production values and crew members and some anecdotal information on the kids during the three years that the show was in production. It also looks at the Mouseketeers' lives post-Disney and updates some of their lives to date.

While this book was informative and I enjoyed the youthful recollections of the people interviewed, it really seemed to graze over the phenomena that was The Mickey Mouse Club and was not comprehensive in any sense. It will probably be of interest to anyone who experieced the MMC first run or in reruns.

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. we knew the words to all the songs and danced the best we could. i dreamed that i was Karen and my friend was Darlene. these are childhood memories i cherish. this book took me back to 1963 when i was watching those reruns (i didn't realize or care that they were reruns). this book was a joy to read!

Without a doubt, Why? Because We Still Like You ranks next to Paul Peterson's book on the Mouseketeer experience. Jennifer Armstrong gives a thorough understanding of what it was like pre and post the Disney life for these kids we so admired. Of course, as an adult, I was not so surprised that Uncle Walt and his company was not as benign as I would have loved to beleive. Life can be pretty darn tough, and mouse ears did not present a shield from that unhappiness. It often made the unhappiness so much more severe. Was Mickey a rat? Decide for yourself...

There's a great deal of food for thought here about childhood, in general. The presentation is very fair, balanced and detailed. I enjoyed every page of this book!

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. I rank this as runner-up to Paul Petersen's "Walt, Mickey and Me" although more than three decades split the two. It a beautiful update and coda, Jenny, ...and, hey, there was only ONE Mooseketeer, big or otherwise. Check it out.

I wasn't alive when the original Mickey Mouse Club debuted (neither were my parents), but I was still interested in reading about the creation of this pop culture phenomenon and the nostalgia that came with it. I can tell that Jennifer Armstrong was a fan, but I felt she skimmed the surface and could've put a lot more into this book than what she did. One reviewer said it may be "boring" to a younger reader who wasn't around when MMC was in its prime, but I found it boring not because of my age but because I wanted to know more than what was mentioned and wasn't satisfied with what was there.

Armstrong stated that some Mouseketeers were children of immigrants---who? She didn't say. She also said some were raised in the projects---only one was mentioned. I wanted to know more about these kids than their auditions. She also said there was a darkness to Walt Disney, but other than him going on firing whims, nothing was really mentioned. Shoot, even Annette Funicello's rise to fame wasn't touched upon as much as I thought it would've been.

Armstrong should've (and could've) delved deeper into this book. From what I've heard, she relied on old interviews and recycled stories. There were a lot of conflicting stories from different Mouseketeers with differing memories, but nothing was researched more. With the original MMC going on in a time of continuing segregation (and as far as I know, Mary was the only minority Mouseketeer but she only lasted a season and didn't get much screen time), that could've been touched on. Did Disney want to take a risk by putting more minorities in its Mouseketeer roster but just didn't act on it, or was he just as prejudiced as others during that time? We'll never know.

Also, I'm sure there is a strong, die-hard fanbase from the show's original run and a chapter could've been devoted to them. I just wanted to know how MMC made a larger impact on American culture than Armstrong described.

Lastly, the two MMC spinoffs are mentioned but in brief detail. The latter, which debuted in the late 80's (Armstrong calls it a 90's show, though) has enough interest and stars spawned from it to have its own stand-alone book.

Believe it or not, I felt I learned a lot more from the Original Mickey Mouse Club website, whose webhost has painstakingly showcased every Mouseketeer, from the obscure to the most popular, as well as the actors from the show's serials. If you want a thorough look into MMC, go to that site. I also learned more from watching whatever videos I could find on YouTube.

All said, the interest in reading this book was there, the substance to continue that interest wasn't.

I thought it would be fun to have one of my parents read this book and write a review, as they grew up with original the Mickey Mouse Club. Below is my mom's, Maureen, review. Thank you mom for reading and writing this review.

WHY? BECAUSE WE STILL LIKE YOU reveals 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. Readers will discover the real story behind this classic show and just what made it so special.

I looked forward to reading this book as I remembered my childhood and watching the Mickey Mouse Club whenever I got the chance. If you're not that familiar with the original Mickey Mouse Club TV show, you may find this book very hard to follow and perhaps a bit boring.

There have been dozens of books written about Disney's phenomenon, some by the Mouseketeers themselves. Jennifer Armstrong primarily uses quotes from these books and other media to put together a book trying to take the reader through the process from the beginning auditions to the present lives of the more than 30 Mouseketeers that were involved in the 3-year run in the 1950's.

I found myself getting lost as she jumps from performer to performer. It was interesting to learn than Walt Disney pitched the show idea to ABC solely to raise money and awareness for his new theme park, Disneyland. It was also interesting to read about the actors' lives after Mickey Mouse. Perhaps Armstrong tried to cram too much information into one quick read.

Nevertheless, it is an easy read and has many interesting behind-the-scene stories that most people have probably not heard or remembered. So if you're a Mickey Mouse Club fan, definitely get this book and enjoy.

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* Disclaimer / Disclosure: I received a free sample to facilitate my review. This post reflects my honest, personal opinion and experience with the product which may differ from yours. Product information courtesy of the sponsor. No monetary compensation was provided for this post.