Kurt D

I read Paul Mavis's DVD review of Walt Disney Treasures: The Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette - 1957-1958 Season at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=35383 and...

I had such a crush on Annette's '50s Mouse Club persona in the '70s, especially when she sang 'Don't Jump To Conclusions,' although looking at Mavis's screencaps, I now wonder if my judgement wasn't somewhat clouded (or just unformed).

Of course Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake from the '90s cast might beg to differ with your assertion that Annette is the most famous of the Mousketeers ...

Paul Mavis

Well, she is just a little girl in the Annette serial.
And Annette herself always said that the key to her early success was the fact that she looked liked her audience: the "girl next door." She wasn't threatening in any kind of unattainable, impossibly pretty or glamorous way. Girls identified with her sweetness and personality, boys wanted her for a sister or nice girlfriend, and parents wanted her for a daughter. By the time she made it to the AIP Beach Party pictures, though, she was gorgeous:








It's pretty much an apples and oranges comparison. Even though, technically, those three were "Mouseketeers," that later incarnation of The Mickey Mouse Club didn't come close to garnering either the attention or the ratings that the first one did, which was a global phenomenon back in the late '50s. Everybody knew who Annette was in 1958 -- including parents, grandparents, and kids (something that could not be said about Spears, Aguilera and Timberlake during their stint on The Mickey Mouse Club, or possibly even today -- I would imagine quite a few older people might know Spears' name, but not the other two). Plus, the above three may sell millions of discs, but so did Annette, and she had a successful TV and movie career for over a decade, to boot -- something the above three haven't achieved (Timberlake's been in a few movies, but he's certainly not "box office" like headliner Annette was in her heyday).

Annette's a true pop culture icon; her image alone can suggest an entire segment of cultural associations (and a positive icon, as well; literally no scandal associated, ever, with her name). The other three...."famous," but I'm not sure "iconic."

Kurt D

Spears is well on her way to being iconic as a train wreck, however.