MOUSEKANEWS>>>>>>>>>
DISNEY IS OFFERING A LIMITED EDITION (1,955) OF OUR "FIRST SEASON" MOUSEKA-EARS, BUT THEY ARE REALLY FROM THE SECOND SEASON.
THE FIRST SEASON, 1955-56, ALL THAT WAS ON THE FRONT OF OUR EARS WAS A LARGE M.
CO-INCIDENTALLY, THE PHOTO IN THE NEW Special Offers SHOWS ME WEARING THE FIRST YEAR EARS: a sneak peek
THE MICKEY LOGO DID NOT
APPEAR UNTIL
SEASON TWO: 1956-57.
I have been an inveterate library patron since the stacks at UCLA for my first graduate degree: 1962-64. On the road with a play or any appearance as well as where I live, I have always sought museums and discovered wonderful things, like a rare Bosch triptych and a very good sculpture by Kahlil Gibran in a small artifact preservation site in Norfolk, VA. As a way of acknowledging these institutions, I chose to make some specific gifts.
Of course, both of my books, Confessions of an Accidental Mouseketeer and TWO FOR THE SHOW: Great 20th Century Comedy Teams (an overview of the birth, life and end of comedy teams from 1898 to 1985( updated to 2000 in paperback) are available in libraries across the country.
Expanding on that, and in addition to charities and non-profit contributions, there are nine museums and libraries in the U.S. that have other donated materials, most of which are accessible in person - some online.
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The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. has over 50 items from my 60+ years in theatre, film, television, radio, live performance, commercials, voice-overs and industrial films. The majority are from the original Mickey Mouse Club (1955-59). My Mouseketeer EARS from the 1980 25th Anniversary TV Special, in which I served as a WGAw writer and one of the hosts, 25 Years of Mouseketeers, were put on display with a Dumbo car from the Disneyland Ride in 2009. My poetry collection, books and DVD are also part of this collection. |
| The Paley Center for Media in New York City (for 31 years this was known as the Museum of Television and Radio) has my writing and DVD. |
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The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA has my first produced play, the two act comedy Over the Hill, which had its world premiere in Hollywood, CA in the early '80s. |
| Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications has a viewable DVD from the early 1980s, which may also be purchased, original MMC clips and the second version of the show, followed by a Q & A with me and Allison Fonte, who was one of the stars of the short-lived 1970s version. |
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The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA has much of my over thirty year epistolary -- meaning written, mailed correspondence as opposed to email -- relationship with the late novelist, short story author, poet, composer and translator Paul Bowles from 1968-1999. Tangier was the home of the expatriate but he taught an English Literature course in the “Existentialist Novel” that I took while working on my Ph.D. in California. Our communications continued until his death, whether he was back home in Tangier or elsewhere. The Huntington has one of the best collections of American authors in the world. They also have my poetry, books and DVD. |
| UCLA Film and Television Archive in the classic Powell Library on the campus in Westwood (Los Angeles, CA) has my writing and DVD. I achieved my MA in Theatre Arts from UCLA and a print interview for the Industry segment of their website is accessible at http://www.tft.ucla.edu/profiles/industry/lonnie-burr_mouseketeer/ |
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Do the lights remind you of anything? |
Thousand Oaks( CA) Library Foundation - Special Collections - has copies of my 23 half- hour radio drama scripts as a staff member of the long running drama Heartbeat Theatre, heard on over 500 stations in America, as well as two of my plays, which I cut and rewrote for one hour presentations for American Radio Theatre, hitting over 300 stations. All of these performances have been translated to CDs that may be heard. I included one rewritten script with notes and changes for anyone interested in the writing format and style of this medium. Thousand Oaks has one of the largest collections of radio scripts and performances in the U.S. |
| Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of Boston University in MA has my decade long epistolary exchange with “new” critic, novelist, non-fiction book writer, essayist, educator and occasional film actor the late Leslie Fiedler, along with my memoir and DVD. Leslie and I never met in person and he thought it peculiar that I was a part of what he called the “mythic” original Mickey Mouse Club. We discussed his writing and mine. |
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. . . DO
YOU KNOW. . . . ?
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Do you know how Jimmie Dodd ended up as
the adult leader of The Mickey Mouse Club?
The story...................... Bill is known by all as a creator of the first caliber and a
very agreeable, jovial man. Among his many lively raconteur accounts, Bill explains
that he thought his buddy and tennis partner, songwriter/actor Jimmie
Dodd, would be the perfect person to be the adult leader of our series. So, when Walt asked for a kids' song about a pencil, Bill asked his friend Jimmie to write one of his hundreds of tunes, titled "The Pencil Song", and then brought Jimmie to Walt’s office to strum his guitar and sing for Walt and others involved in our soon-to-be children’s program. Walt liked Jimmie’s song and singing and said, “He’s our host!” Everyone present but Walt knew that this one discovery was nudged along by Bill! The “Pencil Song” was performed on a segment of our series later and Jimmie wrote the majority of our songs, too. & & & & & Just in case you don't know Bill's work, he animated THUMPER in guess-what-movie, all of CHIP ‘N DALE's antics and he also created and directed the animation opening of the original Mickey Mouse Club. He designed audio-animatronics for the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, to name just two that he worked on, for Disneyland as well as conceiving the now defunct “Mickey Mouse Revue”. At WDW he painted the character mural in the Exposition Hall.In addition to many other works, he began stop-action animation in the ‘50s which brought him and his partner three Oscar Nominations and used the same style for titles on the original film The Parent Trap as well as for the the musical number “A Spoon Full of Sugar” in Mary Poppins. Bill was named a Disney Legend in 1996, achieved the ASIFA-Hollywood/Winsor McCay Award in 2001, and authored the book JUSTICE FOR DISNEY. I have been lucky enough to know Bill for years and talk about him in my memoir: CONFESSIONS OF AN ACCIDENTAL MOUSEKETEER, which includes the photo above that Diane took at WDW in 1995 during the 40th Anniversary celebration of the MMC. [ In the book it's b/w.] |
