Mickey Mouse Club, 1955

 

 

Come along and sing a song

 

And join the jamboree!

 

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Humans are pack animals; we like to join things. From the bowling league to the PTA, it can be comforting to be a part of a group and to feel included. It’s no wonder that fan clubs abounded when we were kids.

The best of these by far was the Mickey Mouse Club, especially in its original 1950s incarnation. It was everything you could want in a club: spacious club house, enthusiastic roll call, the coolest club headgear ever. Most of all, they seemed to be having so much fun. The kids were well-mannered and friendly. Everyone was so talented and attractive. Nothing at all like clubs in real life. They never once bickered about unpaid dues or blackballed club officers. Here was a club where it was always fun, all the time.

Of course, that kind of consistency is easy to achieve when it’s fictional – those kids, though they used their real names on the show, were professional actors after all, and their clubhouse a TV studio.

But each day the Mouseketeers invited you to join them in their adventures through music and stories. They welcomed you as warmly as they welcomed their visitors on Guest Star Day (Tuesdays) – and why? Because they liked you!

Even as adults, we could all use a club like that!