Annette Funicello

If you were a girl in the 1950s, Annette Funicello was the ideal of feminine goodness, your fantasy best friend forever. If you were a boy, she was your dream date, demure, doe-eyed and just different enough to set hearts pounding. The most adored of Walt Disney's original 24 Mouseketeers, Funicello later exchanged her mouse ears for a swimsuit in a series of 1960s beach movies, but she remained a reassuring figure, fun-loving yet chaste in an era of rapidly shifting social values.

Re "'America's sweetheart,'" Obituary, April 9 When I was a girl, my parents had a birthday brunch for me at the Pump Room in Chicago. The waiter came to our noisy table of 9-year-olds and said Annette Funicello was nearby and could meet the birthday girl. She was with three or four dull grown-ups. Funicello was wearing a purple wrist corsage, which she took off and gave to me. I suspect I was too elated and too stunned to say much, and I don't even know if I got out a proper thank you. Over the years, especially as I heard about her illness, I often meant to write her and tell her what a sweet memory she gave me. But I never did. I have had many run-ins with celebrities, but none has left me with the sense of wonder as when Funicello tied those flowers around my wrist.

As a merry Mouseketeer and then as a big-screen beach bunny, Annette Funicello, who died Monday at age 70, was the first love for a couple of generations of young Americans. (Perhaps not exclusively male Americans, but people were more tight-lipped about these things in those days.) In her own, small way, she is as memorable a monument of mid-20th-century American womanhood as Marilyn Monroe or Doris Day. Teenage stars, especially those who come out of television, or whose recording careers are presided over by professional hitmakers, are often and often unfairly described as "manufactured," however many records they sell or lives they enliven.

After the coffee. Before seeing if a palm tree hit my car last night. The Skinny: Driving during that windstorm Monday night was pretty scary. While the palm trees looked cool swaying in the wind, I didn't need any hitting me. Also, traffic lights were out all over my neighborhood. Tuesday's stories include Fox's threat to take its broadcast signal to cable, and the latest luxury for the rich film buff. Also a look at the effects Annette Funicello and Margaret Thatcher had on redefining women.

Annette Funicello, the dark-haired darling of TV's “The Mickey Mouse Club” in the 1950s who further cemented her status as a pop-culture icon in the '60s by teaming with Frankie Avalon in a popular series of “beach” movies, died Monday. She was 70. Funicello, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987 and became a spokeswoman for treatment of the chronic, often-debilitating disease of the central nervous system, died at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Walt Disney Co. spokesman Howard Green said.

I was a star-struck 9-year-old when I saw Annette Funicello in person. Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Morey Amsterdam and Jody McCrea were promoting American International Pictures' sun-and-surf musical comedy “Muscle Beach Party” and had stopped by a parking structure at the Hillsdale shopping center in San Mateo, Calif., as part of their whirlwind publicity tour. Hundreds of teenagers, kids and their parents screamed as Funicello appeared wearing a full-length mink coat that the press said was given to her by her mentor, Walt Disney.

Re "'America's sweetheart,'" Obituary, April 9 When I was a girl, my parents had a birthday brunch for me at the Pump Room in Chicago. The waiter came to our noisy table of 9-year-olds and said Annette Funicello was nearby and could meet the birthday girl. She was with three or four dull grown-ups. Funicello was wearing a purple wrist corsage, which she took off and gave to me. I suspect I was too elated and too stunned to say much, and I don't even know if I got out a proper thank you. Over the years, especially as I heard about her illness, I often meant to write her and tell her what a sweet memory she gave me. But I never did. I have had many run-ins with celebrities, but none has left me with the sense of wonder as when Funicello tied those flowers around my wrist.

The longtime Encino home of actress and singer Annette Funicello , which was damaged in a fire in March, has sold for $714,250, the Multiple Listing Service shows. Sold as a tear-down, the once 3,376-square-foot house had four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Listing details described the 1960s home as "burnt to the studs. " Funicello, 68, appeared on "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955-57) as one of the original Mouseketeers and went on to became a teen idol with Frankie Avalon in a series of beach-based party films including "Muscle Beach Party" (1964)

While former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton considers the pros and cons of trying, once again, to become this nation's first female president and Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns as the bumbling but pencil-skirt-rocking fictional vice president in HBO's "Veep," a strange day took from us two women who helped a generation redefine what it meant to be a woman. It's difficult to imagine former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Mouseketeer and pop music star Annette Funicello sharing much beyond today's obituary page - Thatcher died Monday, at 87, of a stroke; Funicello, at 70, of complications arising from multiple sclerosis.

People who claim there's no creativity in music packaging anymore might want to look at the new boxed set collecting some of the late '50s and early '60s recordings of pop icon Annette Funicello. One side of the booklet inside the box is cut in the shape of an hourglass figure, a.k.a. the one Funicello modestly showed off in a celebrated series of silly beach movies in her post-Mousketeer, pre-Skippy days. Funicello, a still-youthful 50, claims that she never had "sex appeal."

If you were a girl in the 1950s, Annette Funicello was the ideal of feminine goodness, your fantasy best friend forever. If you were a boy, she was your dream date, demure, doe-eyed and just different enough to set hearts pounding. The most adored of Walt Disney's original 24 Mouseketeers, Funicello later exchanged her mouse ears for a swimsuit in a series of 1960s beach movies, but she remained a reassuring figure, fun-loving yet chaste in an era of rapidly shifting social values.

While former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton considers the pros and cons of trying, once again, to become this nation's first female president and Julia Louis-Dreyfus returns as the bumbling but pencil-skirt-rocking fictional vice president in HBO's "Veep," a strange day took from us two women who helped a generation redefine what it meant to be a woman. It's difficult to imagine former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Mouseketeer and pop music star Annette Funicello sharing much beyond today's obituary page - Thatcher died Monday, at 87, of a stroke; Funicello, at 70, of complications arising from multiple sclerosis.

Annette Funicello, who died Monday at age 70, will be forever remembered as the child performer from the "Mickey Mouse Club. " And it was on this program, which aired in its original incarnation from 1955 to 1959, that the broadest range of the young star's talents were displayed. She was first discovered by Walt Disney during a ballet performance for her school in Burbank, and later on "The Mickey Mouse Club" she was allowed to showcase those ballet skills. She also acted in several of the show's serials and even got her own serial, "Annette," in which she played a country girl who moves in with her city-dwelling and sophisticated aunt and uncle.

Walt Disney's daughter said the nation lost a consummate professional and one of the loveliest people she has ever known with the death of Mouseketeer Annette Funicello. Funicello, the longtime Disney and beach movie star, passed away Monday at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield at the age of 70.  She died peacefully from complications due to multiple sclerosis, a disease she battled for a quarter-century. "Everyone who knew Annette loved and respected her. She was one of the loveliest people I've ever known, and was always so kind to everyone.

Annette Funicello, the dark-haired darling of TV's “The Mickey Mouse Club” in the 1950s who further cemented her status as a pop-culture icon in the '60s by teaming with Frankie Avalon in a popular series of “beach” movies, died Monday. She was 70. Funicello, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987 and became a spokeswoman for treatment of the chronic, often-debilitating disease of the central nervous system, died at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Walt Disney Co. spokesman Howard Green said.

I was a star-struck 9-year-old when I saw Annette Funicello in person. Funicello, Frankie Avalon, Morey Amsterdam and Jody McCrea were promoting American International Pictures' sun-and-surf musical comedy “Muscle Beach Party” and had stopped by a parking structure at the Hillsdale shopping center in San Mateo, Calif., as part of their whirlwind publicity tour. Hundreds of teenagers, kids and their parents screamed as Funicello appeared wearing a full-length mink coat that the press said was given to her by her mentor, Walt Disney.

America's sweetheart Annette Funicello already knows what her favorite birthday present will be Sunday: the CBS airing of a movie based on her autobiography, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story." "I couldn't think of a better birthday gift than this one," says Funicello via fax. "My 53rd will be one of the most memorable!"

Wondering what Metallica's latest video really meant? Need help with your lyrical deconstructions of the Ozzy Osbourne canon? Ask an expert: Annette Funicello. "It's about someone in a hospital who's nothing but a torso," the former Mouseketeer said of the Metallica anthem, "One." "He's come back from Vietnam so terribly injured, so it really is a very, very poignant song."

As a merry Mouseketeer and then as a big-screen beach bunny, Annette Funicello, who died Monday at age 70, was the first love for a couple of generations of young Americans. (Perhaps not exclusively male Americans, but people were more tight-lipped about these things in those days.) In her own, small way, she is as memorable a monument of mid-20th-century American womanhood as Marilyn Monroe or Doris Day. Teenage stars, especially those who come out of television, or whose recording careers are presided over by professional hitmakers, are often and often unfairly described as "manufactured," however many records they sell or lives they enliven.

The longtime Encino home of actress and singer Annette Funicello , which was damaged in a fire in March, has sold for $714,250, the Multiple Listing Service shows. Sold as a tear-down, the once 3,376-square-foot house had four bedrooms and three bathrooms. Listing details described the 1960s home as "burnt to the studs. " Funicello, 68, appeared on "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1955-57) as one of the original Mouseketeers and went on to became a teen idol with Frankie Avalon in a series of beach-based party films including "Muscle Beach Party" (1964)