When the syndicated version of the Mickey Mouse Club was re-released in 1975, I was glued to the TV every weekday after school (Match Game '75, Mickey Mouse Club, and Batman, all in a row...how could going outside to play possibly compete with that?). I already had a couple of Little Golden Books and some View-Master reels featuring the Mouseketeers, but this was the real deal!
Thusly, I was inspired to create this piece on some sort of paper that I can't identify-- the texture is somewhere between a thin paper towel and crepe paper. I don't know if I transcribed the entire "Mickey Mouse Club March" on the missing part of the sheet, or whether it just petered out. Note that in the drawing, "me" takes top billing over "you". It's actually a pretty fair self-portrait, given my rendering skills at the time. I don't think the girl is any particular Mouseketeer, though it might be Karen. Of course, Annette was the one I thought was the cutest (which has caused me to watch some truly dismal movies in my life), but Karen was my age (well, at least at the time they filmed the show...she's a year older than my father), so I felt a certain kinship with her and Cubby.
I was thoroughly displeased when the reruns were withdrawn in favor of the wretched New Mickey Mouse Club, and was gratified to see it crash and burn, though not before it give us the always-annoying Lisa Whelchel. And as for the '90s incarnation, I never knew that it happened until it had already laid its eggs of evil in our culture.
