 |
Bobby Burgess | |
|---|---|
 Burgess in 1969 | |
| Born | Robert Wilkie Burgess May 19, 1941 Long Beach, California, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, dancer |
Robert "Bobby" Wilkie Burgess (born May 19, 1941) is an American dancer and singer. He was one of the original Mouseketeers. [1] Later, he was a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show . [2] [3]
Growing up in Southern California, Burgess started performing at age five, which included dancing, singing and playing the accordion. At the age of 13, in 1955, he was selected as one of the original Mouseketeers by Walt Disney to appear on his new ABC television series, The Mickey Mouse Club , giving young Burgess his first taste of celebrity. [4] He also guest starred on The Donna Reed Show as a suitor of Mary Stone (Shelley Fabares). Burgess attended Southern California Military Academy in Long Beach for his elementary and junior high school. By the time Burgess turned 11, he had appeared in at least 75 television programs. [5] [6]
When the series ended in 1959, Burgess returned to a normal teenager's life, and graduated from Long Beach Polytechnic High School. [7] He then began attending Long Beach State University where he became a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. While there, he and his childhood friend (and dancing partner) Barbara Boylan entered a Calcutta dance contest held by Lawrence Welk and his orchestra based on the hit song of the same name. They won the contest and first prize was an appearance on The Lawrence Welk Show , which appeared on ABC. [8]
After their initial appearance, Burgess and Boylan continued to guest on Welk's show for the next few weeks, either dancing to Calcutta or to the orchestra's next hit song Yellow Bird . The positive fan response led to Welk hiring the dance couple as permanent members of the show, which was described by the bandleader as having created a job for themselves. Over the course of the show's run, first on ABC and later in syndication; Burgess had three dance partners: Barbara Boylan from 1961 to 1967, who was also a temporary fill-in for a few shows in 1979, Cissy King (1967–78), and Elaine Balden (1979–82). He did song-and-dance numbers with Arthur Duncan and Jack Imel and co-hosted, with Mary Lou Metzger, wraparound segments on The Lawrence Welk Show's PBS reruns in 2010. [9]
Burgess still dances when he is touring with Elaine Balden, and at his own dance studio, where he instructs young students. [10]
Burgess married Kristie Floren, the daughter of Welk accordionist Myron Floren, on Valentine's Day (February 14), 1971. The couple live in Hollywood Hills and are parents to four children. [8]
The Mickey Mouse Club is an American variety television show that aired intermittently from 1955 to 1996 and returned to social media in 2017. Created by Walt Disney and produced by Walt Disney Productions, the program was first televised for four seasons, from 1955 to 1959, by ABC. This original run featured a regular, but ever-changing cast of mostly teen performers. ABC broadcast reruns weekday afternoons during the 1958–1959 season, airing right after American Bandstand. The show was revived three times after its initial 1955–1959 run on ABC, first from 1977 to 1979 for first-run syndication as The New Mickey Mouse Club, then from 1989 to 1996 as The All-New Mickey Mouse Club airing exclusively on cable television's The Disney Channel, and again in 2017 with the moniker Club Mickey Mouse airing exclusively on internet social media. It ended in 2018.
Mickey Mouse is an American cartoon character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime icon and mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves. Inspired by such silent film personalities as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks, Mickey is traditionally characterized as a sympathetic underdog who gets by on pluck and ingenuity in the face of challenges bigger than himself. The character's depiction as a small mouse is personified through his diminutive stature and falsetto voice, the latter of which was originally provided by Disney. Mickey is one of the world's most recognizable and universally acclaimed fictional characters.
Lawrence Welk was an American accordionist, bandleader, and television impresario, who hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. His style came to be known as "champagne music" to his radio, television, and live-performance audiences.
Annette Joanne Funicello was an American actress and singer. Funicello began her professional career as a child performer at the age of twelve. She was one of the most popular Mouseketeers on the original Mickey Mouse Club. In her teenage years, she recorded under the name Annette, and had a successful career as a pop singer. Her most notable singles are "O Dio Mio", "First Name Initial", "Tall Paul", and "Pineapple Princess". During the mid-1960s, she established herself as a film actress, popularizing the successful "Beach Party" genre alongside co-star Frankie Avalon.
The Lawrence Welk Show is an American televised musical variety show hosted by big band leader Lawrence Welk. The series aired locally in Los Angeles for four years, from 1951 to 1955, then nationally for another 16 years on ABC from 1955 to 1971, followed by 11 years in first-run syndication from 1971 to 1982. Repeat episodes are broadcast in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations. These airings incorporate an original program—usually, a color broadcast from 1965 to 1982—in its entirety. In place of the commercials, newer performance and interview clips from the original stars and/or a family member of the performers are included; these clips are occasionally updated.
Myron Floren was an American musician best known as the accordionist on The Lawrence Welk Show between 1950 and 1980. Floren came to prominence primarily from his regular appearances on the weekly television series in which Lawrence Welk dubbed him as "the happy Norwegian," which was also attributed to Peter Friello.
James Wesley Dodd was an American actor, singer and songwriter best known as the master of ceremonies for the popular 1950s Walt Disney television series The Mickey Mouse Club, as well as the writer of its well-known theme song "The Mickey Mouse Club March." A different version of this march, much slower in tempo and with different lyrics, became the alma mater that closed each episode.
Sharyn Eileen "Sherry" Alberoni is a former American child actress. She got her start as a Mouseketeer on the weekday ABC television program The Mickey Mouse Club. As an adult, Alberoni became a voice artist for Hanna-Barbera Productions. Besides providing voices for numerous incidental characters in series such as Jeannie, Alberoni is best known as the voice of nasty rich-girl Alexandra Cabot from Josie and the Pussycats; "superhero-in-training" Wendy from the first season of Super Friends; the heroic robot Bo in Mighty Orbots; and Glumdalclitch in The Three Worlds of Gulliver. In 1971, she starred alongside Patty Andrews in the Sherman Brothers stage musical, Victory Canteen.
Karen Anita Pendleton was an original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer on the ABC television series from 1955 to 1959. She was one of only nine Mouseketeers who were on the show during its entire original run.
Claire Yvonne King professionally Cissy King, is an American-born singer and dancer best known as a featured performer on The Lawrence Welk Show television program.
Darlene Faye Gillespie is a Canadian-American former child actress, most remembered as a singer and dancer on the original The Mickey Mouse Club television series from 1955 to 1959. After her career in entertainment ended, she became a nurse.
Doreen Isabelle Tracey was a British-born American performer who appeared on the original Mickey Mouse Club television show from 1955 to 1959.
"Calcutta" is a German pop song. An instrumental version by American bandleader and TV host Lawrence Welk on the 1961 Dot Records album Calcutta! was a Number One song in the United States, and the most successful hit of Welk's career.
Barbara Boylan is an American dancer and former television personality who was featured on The Lawrence Welk Show from 1961 to 1967, and briefly for a few months in 1979.
Southern California Military Academy (SCMA) was a private, all male military academy from 1924 to 1987, for both daily and resident students, located in Signal Hill, California at the corner of Cherry Avenue and 21st Street, In greater Long Beach, California. It had classes from kindergarten through 9th grades. The school was known for a highly educated teaching staff and a cadre of experienced former military officers. SCMA stressed high educational standards with military discipline and religious values. The school was not a facility for troubled students, but rather provided an advanced and diverse educational environment for those seeking greater achievement, while grooming them for future leadership. The local hallmark of SCMA was its World War I field artillery pieces displayed out on Cherry Avenue in the then oil town of Signal Hill, overlooking the Port of Long Beach.
Leonard "Lonnie" Mark Burr is an American actor, entertainer and writer best known as one of nine of the original thirty-nine Mouseketeers who remained under a seven-year contract for the complete filming (1955–1959) of Walt Disney’s children’s television show the Mickey Mouse Club. The Mickey Mouse Club was the first national TV show to star children who appeared primarily as themselves as well as acting as characters in scenes and musical numbers. The original show aired in syndication in the 1960s, reran again in 1975, then on the Disney Channel in the 1980s through the early 2000s.
The fourth wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released December 7, 2004. This is the only wave that comes in White cases, and is the final wave that is in double DVD cases. Starting with this wave, the side strap was replaced with seal wrap with stickers and the back was no longer printed on the tin but included as a card glued to the back.
Carl "Cubby" Patrick O'Brien, better known by his nickname Cubby, is an American drummer and former child actor. He is known as one of the original Mouseketeers on the weekday ABC television program The Mickey Mouse Club from 1955 to 1958.
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