Jimmie Dodd, the MC of the popular 1950s Walt Disney television series The Mickey Mouse Club, was born 104 years ago today. Dodd was the writer of the show’s well-known theme song, The Mickey Mouse Club March. A slowed-down version of this march, with different lyrics, became the alma mater that closed the show. Dodd had some early film roles in The Three Mesquiteers series of westerns. Coincidentally, he performed in two unrelated series whose names were plays on musketeers. Dodd made his first screen appearance in the 1940 William Holden film Those Were the Days! in a minor role. He also played the taxi driver in the MGM film Easter Parade starring Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Dodd had a small role in an early episode of Adventures of Superman titled Double Trouble.” He also appeared in many theatrical films in the 1940s and 1950s, often uncredited. Two of his films were biographies of baseball players: The Jackie Robinson Story, in which Jackie Robinson played himself, and The Winning Team, in which future president Ronald Reagan portrayed pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander. Dodd had a small, but important, part in the Mickey Rooney hit Quicksand. He also appeared with John Wayne in the film Flying Tigers. The Mickey Mouse Club aired each weekday. Dodd always wore Mouseke-ears, played his Mouse-guitar, and sang self-composed songs. His tunes contained positive messages for kids. In addition, among his other musical contributions is a song that a generation of kids has used for nearly a half century to spell encyclopedia. Dodd also wrote some themes for Zorro and performed songs in several of his movies. The original Mouseketeers, frequent guests at the Dodd home for backyard barbecues and sing-alongs, said that Dodd treated them as part of his extended family. Dodd died of cancer on November 10, 1964, in Honolulu, Hawaii. He was 54 years of age. Cheryl Holdridge was the last Mouseketeer to see Dodd alive. Holdridge visited Dodd in his final hours because she and her new husband Lance Reventlow had flown to Hawaii for their honeymoon. They came to the hospital before Dodd died. Here, Dodd speaks on the concept of creative “vision” on The Mickey Mouse Club.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 06:49:07 +0000
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