Walt Disney Art Classics Convention 2004 - Part 2
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For his audition, Bobby had quite a gimmick. His performance in a barefoot jazz routine to “Rock Around the Clock�? won him a place in the soon-to-be-famous ensemble. “And you did look like a younger version of Jimmie,�? added O’Day.

Bobby laughed, “We both had big teeth and big hair.�?

Bobby with Jimmie Dodd

Sherry began her experience by explaining that she was nine years old when the second season of the Mickey Mouse Club began. She had spent the first season, sitting in front of her TV set every afternoon, wearing her ears and watching the Mouseketeers. A veteran performer since the age of five, her agent had decided she was too young for the second round of auditions held that year. But after Sherry’s older brother was passed over for a part, she was recommended.

She auditioned for director Sid Miller. Sherry was pleased to learn he had begun in vaudeville, since her specialty number consisted of a tap dance and trumpet solo to the old standard “All of Me.�? “I almost knocked out all my teeth,�? giggled Sherry, “but I got the job.�?

Sherry as a Mouseketeer

Tim asked if they had auditioned for Walt Disney himself. Bobby said they had, indeed, as well as for the director and the dance director.

Sherry then spoke of the first time she met Walt Disney. It was on the opening day of Disneyland, in 1955. She was not a Mouseketeeer at that time, but she was an invited guest. She was the Bluebird who had sold the most Thin Mints. Sherry recalled sitting in the heat on an apple crate in the Carnation Ice Cream Parlor, making an ice cream sundae to present to Walt Disney. But the day was so hot, the sundae melted all over his sleeve. She reminded Walt of this after she joined the show, and he chuckled, “So you’re the little girl who ruined my suit.�?

Bobby spoke of going into a back room at the Studio to look at the storyboards to see what routines they would be performing. Sherry remembered that Walt once greeted her, “Hello, Mouseketeer Sherry.�? She was so excited, and told her mother, “He knows me!�? Her mother gently chided her, “Yes honey, ‘cause your name is on your shirt.�?