In Memory: Annette Funicello (October 22, 1942 – April 8, 2013).

Annette Funicello, was one of the best-known members of the 1950's "Mickey Mouse Club" and a star of the 1960's "beach party" films, died Monday at a California hospital. Funicello, who was 70, "died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease she battled for over 25 years.

Funicello, was 13 when she was selected by Walt Disney himself to be one of the original Mouseketeers of the "Mickey Mouse Club," the 1950's television show

She remained with Disney after leaving the "Mickey Mouse Club," appearing in TV shows: "Zorro" (1957), "The Nine Lives of Elfego Baca" (1958) and starring in the Disney feature films "The Shaggy Dog" (1959), "Babes in Toyland" (1961), "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" (1964) and "The Monkey's Uncle" (1965).

Some of my favorite Funicello's performances was when she co-starred with teen idol Frankie Avalon in beach party movies in the 1960's. These included "Beach Party" (1963), "Muscle Beach Party" (1964), "Bikini Beach" (1964), "Beach Blanket Bingo" (1965), and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" (1965).

Funicello had Top-40 hits including: "Tall Paul," "First Name Initial," "How Will I Know My Love," and "Pineapple Princess." Along with the singles, she recorded several successful albums, including "Hawaiiannette" (1960), "Italiannette" (1960) and "Dance Annette" (1961).

Funicello reunited with Avalon in 1987 to star in, "Back to the Beach," in which the two former teen idols played as parents of a pair of troublesome teenagers.

Avalon and Funicello followed the movie with a concert tour in 1989 and 1990, singing their hits from the 1960's.

She will always be remembered as one of  Walt Disney's brightest stars...

Beach Party(1963). The one that started it all!

Beach Party (1963), was the first of seven beach party films from American International Pictures. Director: William Asher and written by Lou Rusoff. Cast: Robert Cummings, Dorothy Malone, Frankie Avalon, and Annette Funicello.

The film is about, a group of fun-loving teenagers who live on their own terms in summer houses along the beach.

An anthropologist, Professor Robert Orwell Sutwell, is secretly studying the "wild mating habits" of Southern California teenagers who hang out at the beach. He temporarily paralyzes Eric Von Zipper, the leader of a motorcycle gang. Who makes unwanted advances on Dolores, who in turn develops a crush on the professor.

Her boyfriend Frankie, the local Big Kahuna, becomes jealous and begins flirting with Hungarian waitress, Ava.

Von Zipper and his gang plot to get even with Sutwell.



For me this movie is pure Summer fun! With plenty of sand, surfing, rock 'n' roll. A wonderful supporting cast: Morey Amsterdam, Harvey Lembeck, John Ashley, Jody McCrea, Eva Six and even Vincent Price.

Although, a stunt surfer was used for long-shots, Robert Cummings was already a surfer by the time he starred in Beach Party. Films of him surfing in Hawaii on the Ken Murray's Hollywood television show a fit young Bob surfing on an old style long board.



Candy Johnson, is a singer and dancer who performed in several films in the 1960's.

Her best known films are the Beach Party films, in which she played Candy, the barefoot girl who could dance so hard it would literally knock the guys off their feet.

In the first film in the series, Beach Party, she is credited as the "perpetual motion dancer."