Walt Disney Art Classics Convention 2004 - Part 2
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O’Day asked if the last days of the Mickey Mouse Club were sad ones. Bobby pointed out that the cast began the program just as most of them were entering puberty. So, he concluded, they all grew on the show. It was sad, he said. They knew that something special was coming to an end, and there was uncertainty over what the next job would be.

Sherry said that she was luckier than the others, as she did not have to go through those last days. She left the show at the end of the second season. She had been hired by Lou Costello to appear in the film Dance with Me Henry (1956, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello’s last film together). She went from the Mickey Mouse Club on Friday to work on the feature film on Monday. She also appeared in The Three Worlds of Gulliver, spent seven years at Columbia, then went on to television, including five years on Family Affair. After movies, episodic television, and commercials, she went to Viet Nam with the USO. When she got married, pregnancy only slowed her career; she added voice over work to her skills.

Bobby next supplied his post Mickey Mouse Club resume. He was a regular on the Lawrence Welk Show for 21 years, from 1961 to 1982. He proudly mentioned that the Welk program was still doing specials, 51 years after it started. The first special on PBS was projected to earn $2 million, but ended up making $7 million. Now, he said, they were producing new introductions for reruns of the original series, as well as running a ballroom in Long Beach.

Sherry laughed as she recalled “a good Bobby story.�? She told of a tour that was going quite well. They had signed autographs, been treated well by everyone, and one night in the elevator a woman was so excited she kept repeating his name, “Bobby! Bobby!�? over and over. Bobby was looking very pleased with himself, until the woman enthused, “I just can’t wait to tell my husband I was on an elevator with Bobby Darin!�?

As the laughter subsided, Bobby told of riding in a parade at Disneyland. Someone on the sidelines said, “The original Mouseketeers? I thought they were all dead!�?

As the curtains on the stage slowly closed, Tim O’Day asked Bobby and Sherry to share a little about Annette Funicello.

Annette and Jimmie Dodd

Sherry began by saying that, since she was nine years old when she started on the Mickey Mouse Club, she worshipped the older girls. They were like big sisters, so sweet and kind. Every working day, she went on, he father would drive her over to Annette’s house. They would then drive her to the studio. Sherry and Annette would take the back seat, playing with dolls or coloring.

Bobby said he was often paired with Annette as a dance partner. Often, in doing a lift, Annette would fall, and then laugh over the accident. Bobby told of an incident that occurred when he was living in the Hollywood Hills. He was stopped by a traffic cop who had tracked him with radar. After eying the young man in the sports car, the policeman asked, “Say, aren’t you Mouseketeer Bobby?�? After being told it was indeed him, the cop offered to forgive the ticket, but only if Bobby would tell him all about Annette.