Everyone’s favorite Mousketeer — nay, the FIRST true Mousketeer — and star of many an iconic film passed away earlier today. Annette Funicello was 70, and had battled multiple sclerosis for over 20 years.
It’s amazing how many of my fellow robots immediately remembered her from the spoof/reboot of her surf movie franchise career co-starring once again with Frankie Avalon in 1987’s Back to the Beach. Who could forget it? It had ” target=”_blank”>Pee Wee Herman singing “Surfin’ Bird” decades before Seth Macfarlane and Family Guy decided to ruin it forever. One of our robots even remarked on Facebook, “I watched the $#!t out of that movie when I was a kid.” You and me both, sister.
But I was also raised in a house where MTV was not allowed but Disney Channel was always fine. And with several younger brothers and sisters, we watched old episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club featuring Annette Funicello. These often ran back to back with the new, rebooted “MMC”, featuring my childhood crush Keri Russell, that funny guy Justin (Timberlake), that shy, cute kid Ryan (Gosling), and those skanks Britney (Spears) and Christina (Aguilera). So even then I understood the continuum of this entertainment franchise. Is it a stretch to say that without Annette Funicello the Mickey Mouse Club might not have reached its iconic status, and might not have had the resilience as a franchise to stick around and launch the careers of teeny boppers and hearthrobs today? Well, maybe, but you have to give her some credit. Or some blame, if you like.
Further, with all the Disney in our house, it was impossible to not see Babes in Toyland every Christmas ( a movie that I still mostly can’t stand, ironically, as it may be Funicello’s most recognizable role today) in which she was paired with another Disney staple, Tommy Kirk, with whom she would co-star in The Shaggy Dog, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, Pajama Party, and The Monkey’s Uncle, among others.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQG10A-ymtg
Oh, yeah, did I mention she had a singing career? Funicello went to the top of the charts several times with songs by the Sherman Brothers and others, and, as you can see, she sang The Monkey’s Uncle theme with none other than The Beach Boys.
And then there were those beach films with Frankie Avalon, (and Tommy Kirk, again, in several of them) for which she would probably become most iconic and then spoofed in the previously mentioned Back to the Beach.
She continued to tour and make appearances until the early 90’s when she began experiencing numbness and dizzy spells. After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1992, she retired from show business and began the Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders.
Annette was made a Disney Legend in 1992. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in a statement to the Disney fanclub this morning “She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney’s brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent.”
In a 1993 interview, Tommy Kirk referred to her as “A perfect lady, perfect manners, very careful about her career, a very cool-headed businesswoman, friendly. We’ve always been friendly, but never been friends… But nobody can fault her, she’s always friendly and gracious to everybody. People say bad things about everybody in this business, but I don’t know anybody who ever said anything bad about her.”
And that’s saying something.
Annette, we’ll M-I-C, See you real soon. K-E-Y, Why? Because we like you.
