Walt Disney was reportedly a fan of 1950s pop star Teresa Brewer and tried to pattern Funicello's singing on the same style.
#GOLDEN HEARTS BINGO SERIES#
In an episode of the Disney anthology television series titled " Disneyland After Dark", Funicello can be seen singing live at Disneyland.
Anka's song " Puppy Love", is said to have been inspired by his hopelessly unlikely romantic crush on Funicello. Paul Anka was said to have a crush on her though she was only a year younger, Walt Disney "protected" the underage actress from Anka's advances. She also recorded "It's Really Love" in 1959, a reworking of an earlier Paul Anka song called "Toot Sweet". They were released by Disney's Buena Vista label.
Īlthough uncomfortable being thought of as a singer, Funicello had a number of pop record hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, mostly written by the Sherman Brothers and including: " Tall Paul", "First Name Initial", "O Dio Mio", "Train of Love" (written by Paul Anka) and " Pineapple Princess". The film was a success at the box-office. įunicello made her feature film debut in the Disney-produced comedy The Shaggy Dog (1959) with Fred MacMurray and Tommy Kirk. She had a multiple-episode guest arc on Make Room for Daddy as an Italian exchange student. This role was reportedly a 16th birthday present from Walt Disney, and it was the first of two different characters she played opposite Guy Williams as Zorro. She had a role on the Disney television series Zorro, playing Anita Cabrillo in a three-episode storyline about a teen-aged girl arriving in Los Angeles to visit a father who does not seem to exist. Disney ultimately replaced this film project with a new adaptation of Babes in Toyland (1961), which starred Funicello as Mary Contrary.įunicello and Richard Tyler on The Danny Thomas Show (1959)Īfter the Mickey Mouse Club, Funicello remained under contract with Disney for a time. Theories on why the film was abandoned include Disney's failure to develop a satisfactory script, and the positive reception of the MGM film's television screening. By then, MGM's The Wizard of Oz had been shown on CBS Television for the first time. Preview segments from the film aired on September 11, 1957, on Disneyland 's fourth anniversary show. Ī proposed live-action feature Rainbow Road to Oz was to have starred some of the Mouseketeers, including Darlene Gillespie as Dorothy and Funicello as Ozma. The studio received so much mail about "How Will I Know My Love" (lyrics by Tom Adair, music by Frances Jeffords and William Walsh), that Walt Disney issued it as a single, and gave Funicello (somewhat unwillingly) a recording contract. In several scenes in the Annette serial, she performed the song that launched her singing career. These included Adventure in Dairyland, the second and third Spin and Marty serials – The Further Adventures of Spin and Marty (1956) and The New Adventures of Spin and Marty (1957) – and Walt Disney Presents: Annette (1958) (which co-starred Richard Deacon). In addition to appearing in many Mouseketeer sketches and dance routines, Funicello starred in several serials on The Mickey Mouse Club. In 1958, at the finale of the show, she had to say goodbye to each of the members of its cast, and, in her own words, "I never cried so hard in my life". She had a crush on fellow Mouseketeer Lonnie Burr. įunicello proved to be very popular, and by the end of the first season of The Mickey Mouse Club, she was receiving 6,000 letters a month, according to her Disney Legends biography – more than any other Mouseketeer. In 1955, she signed a seven-year contract with Disney at $160 a week to rise to $500 a week if all options were exercised. She was the last to be selected, and one of the few cast members to be personally selected by Walt Disney himself.
Disney cast her as one of the original Mouseketeers. In 1955, the 12-year-old was discovered by Walt Disney when she performed as the Swan Queen in Swan Lake at a dance recital at the Starlight Bowl in Burbank, California. Funicello as a Mouseketeer on The Mickey Mouse Club (1956)įunicello took dancing and music lessons when she was a child in order to overcome her shyness.
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