From: helen@nomad.urich.edu (Helen C. O'Boyle)
Subject: Re: Mickey Mouse Club (1970s)
Organization: University of Richmond
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 23:22:17 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.160714.160@ncsu.edu> swimmer@catt.ncsu.edu (Jennifer Bouck) writes:
>I was wondering if someone else remembers a Mickey Mouse Club back in 
>the 1970s.  I remember watching it when I was little, and I think I 
>might have even had a lunch box with the mouseketeers on it.  I believe 
>Lisa Welchel (from Facts of Life) was one of the mouseketeers.  Does any 
>one else rememebr this?  And if so, do you rememeber who any of the 
>mouseketeers were?  
>
>			-Jennifer

Sure.  The "New MMC" ran from January, 1977 through late 1978.  There were
twelve "New Mouseketeers", seven girls and five boys.  The lists are
APPROXIMATELY in decreasing order by age.

(boys)	Curtis Wong (from Vancouver)
	Scott Craig
	Angel Flores
	Todd Turquand
	Billy (Pop) Attmore

(girls)	Lisa Whelchel (from Lake Worth, TX)
	Julie Piekarski (from St. Louis)
	Kelly Parsons (from Coral Gables, FL)
	Shawnte Northcutte
	Allison Fonte
	Nita DiGiampolo
	Mindy Feldman

Here's what I've heard/seen about what a few of them since then:
Lisa Whelchel - was on Facts of Life, and between that and the MMC,
	had done a bit of gospel singing (I vaguely recall a Grammy
	nomination, but am not sure) and a couple theatrical and
	made-for-TV movies
Julie Piekarski - was on Facts of Life first season and later Taco Bell
	commercials; attended UCLA
Allison Fonte - went on to Stanford in (I think) Fall, 1982... don't
	know if she finished
Mindy Feldman - sister of Corey Feldman

Further 1970's MMC misc:
Days of the week:
	Monday - Who, What, Why, Where, When and How Day
	Tuesday - Let's Go Day
	Wednesday - Surprise Day
	Thursday - Discovery Day
	Friday - Showtime Day (held at Disneyland Plaza Gardens stage)

Serials:
As far as I remember, only one ORIGINAL serial was made for the New MMC,
which was "The Secret of Rustler's Cave" (with Kim Richards, Christian
Juttner and misc other late-1970's pre-teen types).  "The Monkey's Uncle"
(a theatrical release) was shown in parts as another serial.  I vaguely
recall one other theatrical release was broken up into a serial, but don't
recall which it was.  Anyone know?

Uniform:
Each day had a different one, three of which (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday)
were variations on a cross between a leisure suit and something else (warmup
suit, etc.), one of which was a vintage late 1970's jumpsuit (Monday), and
one which was relatively normal (blue sweater and pants on Thursday).  The
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday uniforms were different colors for each person
(uggghh... don't know why, but I actually REMEMBER who wore which color).
The Friday uniforms were royal blue with (most people didn't get this) the
Mouseketeer's first and last initials appliqued on the left side of the
jacket, in a style so "artsy" that they were rather unrecognizable,
especially since few people knew the Mousketeers' last names.  Disney
changed the definition of "Mouse Ears" for the "New MMC", making them look
like more of a baseball cap with a black visor and ears.

Guest appearances by 1950's Mouseketeers:
	Annette Funicello, Tim Considine (NOT!! a Mouseketeer, but instead
	"Spin" of the "Spin and Mary" series), Darlene Gillespie and one
	more (I think it was Cubby O'Brien).

What else did the 1970's "New Mouseketeers" do:
	Superbowl half-time show (1977 or 1978)
	Walt Disney World (the subject of a *truly strange and ridiculous*
		"Wonderful World of Disney" sometime in 1977)
	Mickey Mouse 50th birthday celebration at Disneyland, and 
		short movie made out of it which was shown along with
		Davy Crockett and Steamboat Willie at movie theatres as
		an official Mickey's 50th release in November, 1978 (this
		was done without Lisa Whelchel who was pursuing other
		projects at the time)

I still have the songbook from the show, some Disney press releases, and
such.  And in the attic, the t-shirts, warmup suit, etc. ;-)  (If anyone has
a video of any of it, please let me know where you got it.  As long as I seem
to have ended up with a rather complete collection of information/stuff about
the show, it'd sure be nice if I had a video of it to explain to people what
it was!)

From what I recall, critics and kids were mostly pretty negative on the
show.  Probably at least in part for good reason.  At that time, Disney
was into copying existing formats, not blazing bold new trails.  In the
case of the 1970's MMC, the origin of at least some of its "look" was a
PBS TV series called "Zoom", an early-1970's kids show that could best
be described as a lower-budget, less polished, non-Disney version of the
1970's MMC.  Personnel in common between the two shows included (if I
recall correctly) at least one director.  Disney combined the format of
the old MMC with the look of Zoom, disco music and a bit of money and
fancy video techniques, and got the 1970's MMC.  And the rest is history
(or lack thereof).
-- 
* Helen *
Newsgroups: rec.arts.disney