The former Mouseketeer and star of beach party movies chronicles her career, offering recollections of Walt Disney, Frankie Avalon, and many others, and honestly discussing her recent struggle with multiple sclerosis
New stories! New photos! New reasons to love Annette! When Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse Club debuted on October 3, 1955, the world fell in love with Annette Funicello, the Mouseketeer whose shy smile captivated the show's young viewers. After she outgrew her Ears, her fans followed her acting and singing career as well as her personal life as a wife and mother. When Annette passed away from complications of multiple sclerosis on April 8, 2013, the world mourned. There have been many testimonials given about Annette from her family and show business associates. In this book, former Annette Fan Club president Rita Rose offers an in-depth look at Annette's character from the perspectives of lesser-known people in her life, and how her kindness, generosity, and sense of humor impacted them. Several Mouseketeers and other performers offer their insights, too. What you'll see inside this book: Annette's professionalism as she worked with directors, choreographers, and other actors. Assessments of her music and how it indirectly helped to build Walt Disney World. Her empathy toward a fan whose mother was very ill. A touching moment between Annette and a friend heading for boot camp. The poignant interactions between Annette and a dedicated friend who accompanied her to treatments after she became ill. Her lifelong friendship with actress Shelley Fabares: Their years of laughter, and the painful moments in the hospital room where Annette took her last breath. Rare family photos and other images with fans and friends. This unique look at Annette's relationships behind the scenes is a must-read for all of her fans!
From popular TV correspondent and writer Rocca comes a charmingly irreverent and rigorously researched book that celebrates the dead people who made life worth living.
In Wally Lamb’s pitch perfect new novel, it is 1964. LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone’s turntable, and ten-year-old Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy. But there are several things young Felix can depend on: the birds and bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he’s never going to forget.
A teen idol of the 1950s who virtually invented the singer/songwriter/heartthrob combination that still tops pop music today, Paul Anka rocketed to fame with a slew of hits-from "Diana" to "Put Your Head on my Shoulder"-that earned him a place touring with the major stars of his era, including Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Buddy Holly. He wrote Holly's last hit, and just missed joining the rocker on his final, fatal plane flight. Anka also stepped in front of the camera in the teen beach-party movie era, scoring the movies and romancing their starlets, including Annette Funicello. When the British invasion made his fans swoon for a new style of music-and musician--Anka made sure he wasn't conquered. A rapier-canny businessman and image-builder who took his career into his own hands-just as he had from the very beginning, swiping his mother's car at fourteen to drive himself, underage, to his first gigs in Quebec-Anka toured the world until he could return home in triumph. A charter member of the Rat Pack, he wrote the theme music for The Tonight Show as well as his friend Frank Sinatra's anthem "My Way". By the 1970s, a multi-decade string of pop chart-toppers, including "Puppy Love" and "(You're) Having My Baby", cemented his status as an icon. My Way is bursting with rich, rollicking stories of the business and the people in Anka's life: Elizabeth Taylor, Dodi Fayed, Tom Jones, Michael Jackson, Adnan Khashoggi, Little Richard, Brooke Shields, Johnny Roselli, Sammy Davis, Jr., Brigitte Bardot, Barnum & Bailey Circus acrobats, and many more. Anka is forthcoming, funny and smart as a whip about the business he's been in for almost six decades. My Way moves from New York to Vegas, from the casino stage to backstages all over the world. It's the most entertaining autobiography of the year.
Surfers loathed them, teenagers flocked to them, critics dismissed them, producers banked on them--surf and beach movies. For a short time in the 1960s they were extremely popular with younger audiences--mainly because of the shirtless surfer boys and bikini-clad beach girls, the musical performers, and the wild surfing footage. This lavishly illustrated filmography details 32 sizzling fun-in-the-sun teenage epics from Gidget to the Beach Party movies with Frankie and Annette to The Sweet Ride plus a few offshoots in the snow!) Entries include credits, plot synopses, memorable lines, reviews and awards, and commentary from such as Aron Kincaid of The Girls on the Beach, Susan Hart of The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, Peter Brown of Ride the Wild Surf, Chris Noel of Beach Ball, and Ed Garner of Beach Blanket Bingo. Biographies of actors and leading actresses who made their marks in the genre are included.
From the bestselling author of Sienfeldia, a behind-the-scenes history of the Mickey Mouse Club that is a treat for anyone who grew up with Walt Disney's television classic. Full of nostalgia, this book gives you the never before told story of how The Mickey Mouse Club paved the way for all that came after, from its humble beginnings as a marketing ploy, through its short but mesmerizing run, to the numerous resurrections that made it one of television's first true cult hits--all through the recollections of those regular kids-turned-stars who made it a phenomenon. It will reveal, for the first time ever, the stories of Annette, Darlene (and her famous rivalry with Annette), Cubby and Karen, Bobbie and the rest of the beloved cast. It will explore, through the reminiscences of former fans who grew up to be some of television's finest minds, what made the show so special. Finally, it will examine why the formula the creators of the show invented is more relevant than ever, and whether we'll ever see yet another Club for a new generation. Take a trip down memory lane with the original Mickey Mouse Club cast and creators, through drama and unexpected fame, to see how an television institution came into being.
From original beachcomber personalities like the Waikiki Beachboys to the rise of Venice Beach as a creative center for music, art, and film, Pop Surf Culture traces the roots of the surf boom and explores its connection to the Beat Generation and 1960s pop culture. Through accounts of key figures both obscure and popular, the book illustrates why surf culture is a vital art movement of the 20th century. Pop Surf Culture includes essays about the popular "beach” movies of the fifties and sixties, which featured such stars as Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon and the music of Dick Dale & His Del-Tones, Brian Wilson, the Pyramids, Gary Usher, James Brown, and Little Stevie Wonder. Sixties art figures Michael Dormer and Rick Griffin--as well as the surf magazines which promoted their art--are featured alongside the progenitors of "surf music,” from the little known (the Centurians) to the wildly popular (the Beach Boys). Duke Kahanamoku, the Gas House, Gidget, surfing on television, the bohemian surf aesthetic, surf music hot spots, Mickey "Da Cat” Dora . . . the entire spectrum of pop surf culture is covered within these colorfully illustrated pages.
"They say the last straw was when Jennifer Lopez asked Ben Affleck to tell her honestly, 'Why do people always take an instant dislike to me?' and he said, 'It saves time.'" The bigger they are, the harder they fall . . . and the more they pounce on one another. That's the message that comes through in Boze Hadleigh's celebrity gossip collection, Celebrity Diss and Tell. Goodness, they have something to say about everyone! Luckily for those who relish insider information and star dirt, Hadleigh is right there to capture their spicy quotes. Celebrity Diss and Tell includes hundreds of quotations, snipes, and off-the-cuff remarks. The author divides the book into six sections, covering everything from fellow celebrities and stars' families to lost loves and celebrity slugfests. All of this makes for riveting reading: Open to any page and you're instantly stuck in the down and dirty world of off-screen frankness, such as "How difficult can it be to fly an airplane? I mean, John Travolta learned how." --Graham Chapman of Monty Python They're all here, from Robin Williams to Halle Berry. If anyone has anything good to say about anybody . . . you won't find it in these pages. But that's what makes Celebrity Diss and Tell such a good and cathartic read. These stars are only human, after all, and nobody can sparkle all the time.
This first-ever history of Disney television is perfectly timed to coincide with the return of "The Wonderful World of Disney" to Sunday night prime time on ABC.From the much-beloved Disneyland and That Darn Cat to recent hits like Ellen and Home Improvement, Disney televisions a cultural institution that has added joy and laughter to the lives of millions of Americans from the 1950s to today. The Wonderful World of Disney Television is a fascinating, comprehensive history of all the Disney television shows ever produced, from the ones we loved to watch as children to today's top-rated programming. Rich with photographs, little-known details, anecdotes, and vital statistics, this fascinating collection fully describes each of the Walt Disney television shows, including complete schedules of aired episodes, seasonal highlights, production details, behind-the-scenes stories, full cast and crew listings, and plot synopses -- and shares important moments in Disney's television history such as how Walt got into television in the first place!A treasure trove of nostalgia, coinciding perfectly with the primetime return of The Wonderful