Now You See It, Now You Don't!

TellZall's object for October is the Mickey Mouse Club.

The Mickey Mouse Club was a television series on the ABC network, originally shown during the 1950s. The program first aired on television on October 3, 1955. The half-hour show ran five days a week, eventually airing 360 episodes. The last new show ran in September 1959. The Mickey Mouse Club was a very popular children's program, competing with the Howdy Doody Show. Show founder Walt Disney chose talented children to be part of the series. Members of the original Mickey Mouse Club included Sherry Alberoni (1956-1957), Sharon Baird, Bobby Burgess, Lonnie Burr, Tommy Cole, Johnny Crawford (1955-1956), Annette Funicello, Darlene Gillespie, Don Grady (1957-1958), Cheryl Holdridge (1956-1959), Tommy Kirk (1955-1956), Robert Klosterman (Bob), Julius Sumner Miller (Professor Wonderful), Cubby O'Brien, Karen Pendleton, Paul Petersen (1955), and Doreen Tracey. A number of other children and adults appeared on the show over the years as well. Roy Williams, the Big Mouseketeer and former Disney animator, and Jimmie Dodd were the show's co-hosts.

Although the series ended in 1959, the Mickey Mouse Club continued in syndication for many years, allowing new generations of children to grow up with the show. Viewers knew that the show followed a regular format, with a theme for each day of the week. Monday was "Fun With Music Day," Tuesday was "Guest Star Day," Wednesday was "Anything Can Happen Day," Thursday was "Circus Day," and Friday was "Talent Round-Up Day." In addition to song and dance performances, the Mickey Mouse Club presented serial stories such as Spin and Marty and the Hardy Boys. There were also short animated cartoons. The Mouseketeers, as the club members were known, wore distinctive hats with black mouse ears. Children across the United States owned their own mouse ears and wore them during the show. Viewers could also purchase books and records related to the program. Some of the Mouseketeers used their fame to move on to other endeavors in the world of entertainment. Annette Funicello, probably the most famous of the original Mouseketeers, starred in a number of beach movies during the 1960s with teen heartthrob Frankie Avalon.

Probably one of the most recognizable elements of the show was its theme song.
The words go like this:

Mickey Mouse Club! Mickey Mouse Club!
Who's the leader of the club That's made for you and me? M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!
Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho, there! You're as welcome as can be! M--I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Mickey Mouse! Donald Duck! Mickey Mouse! Donald Duck! Forever let us hold our banners high! High! High! High!
Come along and sing a song And join the jamboree M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

At the end of the show, the Mouseketeers would sing:

Now's the time to say goodbye To all our company Through the years we'll all be friends Wherever we may be M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E
Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mouse
Forever let us hold our banner high
M-I-C - See ya real soon!
K-E-Y - Why? Because we like you!
M-O-U-S-E!!

In 1977, Disney introduced the New Mickey Mouse Club. Unlike its predecessor, whose cast was made up entirely of white Americans, the New Mickey Mouse Club represented Americans from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds. Although the cast had changed, the show's format remained the same. The Mouseketeers still sang the original theme song during each episode. Unfortunately, this version of the show was not nearly as popular as the original, and the New Mickey Mouse Club was cancelled after only two seasons.

When Disney established its own cable channel, The Disney Channel, in the 1980s, company executives once again recreated the Mickey Mouse Club. This third version began airing episodes on the Disney Channel in 1989, and the show's creators updated its content to appeal to a new generation of children. The newest New Mickey Mouse Club became known simply as MMC. MMC stopped airing new episodes in 1994, after future pop stars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake had taken turns as Mouseketeers.