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The Story Behind the Photo:
Part
2
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Before the 1978 live shows at Disneyland,
there was a smaller core group of fans who were able to attend the Mouseketeer
appearances. Karen Blackburn, who was the first one to start a Mouseketeer Fan
Club, was at many of the events and first met the Mice at the live Easter Week
'77 shows at Disneyland. Back then (and still to this day) Karen taught a group
of talented singing and dancing kids called "Karen's Kids" who would perform at
various functions and at schools. She must have seen the Mice perform many times
because she learned the songs and dance routines well enough to teach them to
her group of kids. She organized a whole show based on their songs, created a
live show "Salute to Mouseketeers" and invited the Mouseketeers and their
families to attend. On August 10, 1977, eight of the Mice attended the show
which was a lot of fun for everyone. It was held at a school auditorium, I
believe. After Karen;s Kids performed (in trademark rainbow suspenders and Mouse
ears), the real Mice were brought on stage and performed a song (I think it was
"Friends") which is what they're doing in the above photo.
This photo was taken at "Charlie's Summer of 1978 Reunion Beach
Party" that I believe Dale W. and Tim C. organized. Charlie was a beloved guard
at Harbor House, the Disneyland employee entrance guard shack. I think the
gathering was held at Bolsa Chica State Beach. Besides Kelly, other Mouseketeers
who attended were Pop, Nita and Scott. Can you tell in this shot that she wrote
her name in the sand?
The story that goes along with this photo is that Missy Sutton
(was she a Disney publicist?) called me looking for a photo of Kelly that Disney
could print up for her to autograph for an appearance. I thought that was
unusual because wouldn't Disney have publicity photos that they could print up?
Anyways, I picked the best photo of Kelly that I had taken recently and
Missy sent a messenger over to where I was working back then to pick up the
negative. I thought that was quite cool. A Disney Studios messenger! They
printed up a bunch of 5x7 photos. I wish I could remember the appearance the
photo was used for.
This photo was taken May 22, 1977 at Josephina's, an Italian
restaurant. This is where some of the Mice and their families went after the
taping of "All-Star Anything Goes" at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks,
CA. Todd, Shawnte, Pop and Allison competed against the cast of "Little House on
the Prairie." I remember also seeing Kelly, Scott, Julie, Curtis and Nita who
were also there to cheer them on.
What's funny about this photo (similar to a shot in Photo
Gallery #13) is this ... Notice the hands in the photo holding the two candles.
Julie's also holding a tiny flashlight (remember they sold them at Disneyland
back in the '70s?). The reason they were doing this is because the restaurant
was so dark I couldn't focus the camera properly (manual focus camera). Don't
remember who belonged to the arms reaching out to light the photo.
As a side note, it's unfortunate that there wasn't somebody
working to better promote the Mice appearances. This was years before the
internet, of course. I'm sure there were many kids who would have loved to have
attended events like All-Star Anything Goes and the numerous charity events,
just to meet or see the kids. Disney didn't do such a hot job in promoting their
appearances. The only way I found out at this point in time was through Karen
B., who ran the Mouseketeer Fan Club. Later, I would hear about appearances
directly from Todd's mom.
Mike Montgomery recently reminded me about this photo. It was
the Christmas card the Turquands sent out in 1980. (Dee sends out a photo card
every year.) That year, I took the photo for them. Dee's friend wore the Santa
suit and posed in the background swiggin' a beer. Quite the jolly Santa!
This shot was taken at Todd's house on 8/12/77. We went over
for a visit and to see Julie and Jeanette off at the airport for their flight
back to St. Louis. Two of the guys on the couch are Jeff and brother Rod. I hung
out with Rod before I met my buddy Gregg Woodward. The blonde guy was their friend but I don't
recall his name.
I found this photo by accident on the internet. It's from the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma's Sapphire Ball in 1988 at CSUN (California State University, Northridge, also my alma mater). Mindy has said that she attended CSUN and the time period is right. I'm 99.9% sure that's Mindy in the middle. What do you think?
