Marc Shapiro - Annette Funicello: Americas Sweetheart

Annette Funicello: AmericasSweetheart

Copyright 2013 by Marc Shapiro

Riverdale Avenue Books

5676 Riverdale Avenue, Suite 101

Riverdale, NY 10471

Smashwords Edition, License Notes:

This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this book with anotherperson, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Ifyoure reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was notpurchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

All rights reserved. No part of this book maybe reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, withoutpermission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States ofAmerica.

First Edition May 2013

Cover by Scott Carpenter

Cover photo: Globe-Photos

Formatting by www.formatting4U.com

ISBN: electronic 978-1-62601-033-8

ISBN: print 978-1-62601-034-5

www.riverdaleavebooks.com

To my wife, Nancymy fantasy come to life. Mydaughter Rachael. Granddaughter Lily. Ian (DFIU). Mike, Brady,Fitch. All the good humans and animals. Lorias always number onein my book. Louise. Riverdale Avenue Books. As always the goodbooks, the good music, and the good art. Its there if you lookhard enough. Karma, do unto others and everything in your head andheart that gets you through the day. And finally to the memory ofAnnette. They dont make lives like yours anymore. Mores thepity.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with most biographies, AnnetteFunicello: Americas Sweetheart was a book that drew from manysources.

First and foremost a big thank you toAnnettes excellent 1994 autobiography, A Dream Is a Wish YourHeart Makes, which brought to light many wonderfulmoments.

I would like to thank Carl Gardner of thegroup The Coasters, Freddy Boom Boom Cannon, Tommy Sands, andRichard Sherman for their time and their memories ofAnnette.

Sam Arkoffs lively autobiography, Flyingthrough Hollywood by the Seat of My Pants, brought entertaininginsights into Annettes Beach Movie period. Keith Kellers book,The MickeyMouse Club Scrapbook likewise answeredmany questions regarding Annettes first show business steps. JerryBowles fascinating book, Forever Hold Your Banner High,brought to light a lot of the reality behind the fantasy, as didLonnie Burrs entertaining autobiography Confessions of anAccidental Mouseketeer. I would also like to thank Mike Kirby,creator of the website Way Back Attack (WayBackAttack.com), theauthoritative look at all pre 1970s music, for the supercomprehensive list of Annettes recording career.

The following newspapers and magazines helpedthis author down the long and winding trail: People, LosAngeles Magazine, Interview, Ladies Home Journal, TheNew York Times, TheSanta Monica Evening Outlook,Los Angeles Herald Examiner, The Disney News, LosAngelesTimes, Look, Mirror News,Ladies Circle, The National Enquirer, TheBakersfield Californian, The St. Petersburg Times,USA Today, Associated Press, In Style, Animation andNortheast Woman.

And a thank you to the following websites thathelped the cause: CNN.com, E Online, CTV News, WT5.com,Variety.com, TMZ.com, D23.com, The Star.com, About.com, MajorSmolinski.com, News Journal.com, TCM Biography.com andNewsMaxHealth.com.

AUTHORS NOTES

THIS IS WHERE THINGS GET INTERESTING

You want strange and unusual? Well, try thison for size.

I turned in the original draft of themanuscript for Annette Funicello: AmericasSweetheart in 1997. Legal went over this puppy with theproverbial fine-tooth comb. Editing was done and done. Galleyproofs had been issued and, likewise checked to within an inch oftheir lives. So far so good. Except for one minordetail

There was not an actual releasedate.

The publisher in question, who shall remainnameless because Im not in the habit of throwing people under thebus, had his own agenda when it came to releasing the book. Theadvance check cleared, so this writer could wait. But the yearswent by, the book was still nowhere to be found on the publishersschedule and, most importantly, Annette was still very much aliveand, by association, making the manuscript as it stood at thatpoint woefully in need of an update.

So all concerned parties waited andwaited.

Flash forward to April 8, 2013. After a 26year battle with multiple sclerosis (MS), Annette passed away dueto complications from her disease. A quick call by my agentdiscovered that after holding the manuscript for 16 years, thepublisher now has no desire to publish it.

Now this is where things get reallyinteresting.

Back in the stone age of publishing (alsoknown as 1997), electronic publishing was just a gleam in theliterary communitys collective eye. It was such an abstractconcept that most publishers had no interest in the pipe dream asa way to turn a book into mad profit and, consequently, did nothave an e-book clause in their contracts. But when Riverdale AvenueBooks jumped into the breach and indicated they would publish thebook, the publisher in question had an official letter written thateffectively returned all rights to the manuscript, includinge-rights, to the author, who immediately passed them on toRiverdale. It all seemed fine until

That old devil technology delivered a suckerpunch.

Nobody had a full copy of the manuscript. Notthe original publisher. Not the agent and not the author. Becauseagain things were done differently back in 1997. Manuscripts werestill being mailed to agents and publishers. People changedlocations. Packing boxes got lost.

Annette Funicello: Americas Sweetheartwas a phantom that existed but, in that all important completedform, was nowhere to be found. A frantic search of my office andfiles (a true journey into hell) miraculously produced fragments ofthe original manuscript. Some completed chapters, some fragmentsand, sadly, whole sections still missing.

But I was not about to let this odyssey endbadly. I slightly re-edited the chapters I had and did some lightspeed research to fill in the blanks. And you know what? The resultof all this madness is now a much better book.

Why? Because now it had an all-importantending.

Annette had fought this disease in much theway she lived her life. She fought adversity to the bitter end.Living with MS for 26 years had not dampened her spirit. She wenttoe to toe with the disease and was a public advocate for researchand, hopefully, a cure in her lifetime. But if that was not to be;maybe those who came after her would have a chance.

Unless you are a certain age, Annettes lifeis probably just a nostalgic blur. Annettes storythe Mouseketeerdays, the Beach Party romps were all a reflection of wherewe were as a society. Post-war, conservative, and long heldtraditions and a reflection, most certainly, of a more innocenttime when happily ever after, the white picket fence and 2.3children in every family was the order of the day.

The generation that revered Annette and thegoodness she came to personify had dreams and fantasies. Nothingtoo daring or out there because thats not where America was at inthat smooth sailing ride from the 50s to the early 60s. Therevolution was still some years off, but nobody was champing at thebit for it to come.

Because they were quite content to live in theMiddle American dream that was most certainly reflected byAnnette.