Mouseketeer Roll Call.

Ask not for whom the roll calls.
The roll called for the Mouseketeers.
As did the bells toll.
Career and life-longevity wise.
With the death this week of Annette Funicello, it only adds to the premature ends of most of the Mouseketeers.
Beginning with Jimmie Dodd, the Head Mouseketeer, who died at age 54.
Annette made it to 70, but spent the last twenty years confined to a wheelchair with MS.
The Mousketeers have completely wreaked havoc with the actuarial tables..
A life insurance salesman would be better off selling his product to the Navy Seals.
The list is staggering:

Don Grady, who did have some career success as one of "My Three Sons", died of cancer at age 68.

Bonnie Lynn Fields died of throat cancer at age 68.

Cheryl Holdridge died of lung cancer at age 64.

Tim Rooney, one of Mickey's boys, suffered from a muscle disease known as dermatomyositis, and died at age 59.

Karen Pendleton, following an automobile accident in 1983, was paralyzed from the waist down.

That's it as far as I know of for death and physical deterioration.

As far as career and life problems in general:

Mickey Rooney Jr., who suffered the general misfortune of being Mickey Rooney Jr., which in his case, meant a nonexistent career.

Paul Petersen, best known as Jeff, the sassy funny son on the Donna Reed Show, whose career went so far south that he, in a burst of masochism, decided to work as a Limo Driver to the stars.
He then became very active in an organization designed to protect child actors and support former ones.
Ya think he was traumatized?

Darlene Gillespie, who, in December 1998, was convicted in federal court of aiding her third husband, Jerry Fraschilla, to purchase securities using a check-kiting scheme. She was sentenced to two years in prison,but was released after serving only three months. In 2005, she and her husband were indicted on federal charges of filing multiple fraudulent claims in the settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
Just couldn't keep herself clean.

Doreen Tracy, who was only heard from after her Mousketeering when she posed bare-breasted, with the mouse ears on, in a spread in Gallery Magazine in 1976. Her way of celebrating the Bicentennial I suppose.
They were quite impressive.
The breasts, not the ears.
The kind that little boys always imagined that Annette had.

Quite a litany, wouldn't you say?

I suppose the most successful and most visible has been Bobby Burgess, who hooked up with the Lawrence Welk organization, and has appeared on that show and still appears at the Lawrence Welk Theater in Branson.
I SUPPOSE that's a step up from the rest.
I SUPPOSE..........

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My books ,"Show Runner" and it's sequel,"Show Runner Two", can be found at the Amazon Kindle Store.
Along with the newer ones, "The Man Is Dead", and "Report Cards".
You can search by typing in my name, Cindy Williams, Laverne & Shirley, The Odd Couple, or Happy Days.
Check them out.
You don't need a Kindle machine to download them.
Just get the free app from Kindle, and they can be downloaded to an IPhone, IPad, or Blackberry.
The paperbacks, "Mark Rothman's Essays" and my new novel, "I'm Not Garbo" are not
e-books. But they are available for people without Kindle.
I have many readings and signings lined up for those, and the thing about Kindle is you can't sign one. If you'd like one of the paperbacks, personally autographed, contact me at macchus999@aol.com.
And now, we've got my reading of my "Laverne & Shirley Movie" screenplay on YouTube.

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