Hgeocities.com/club77nmmc2/photostory.htmlgeocities.com/club77nmmc2/photostory.htmldelayedxG[J OKtext/htmlHNj b.HTue, 24 Jan 2006 22:12:45 GMTMozilla/4.5 (compatible; HTTrack 3.0x; Windows 98)en, *G[J  1977 New Mouseketeers

The Story Behind the Photo:
Part 1
Prior to the Summer of '78 shows, Gregg W. and I noticed Todd was getting some fan mail directly at his house and some was forwarded by Disney. We offered to start a fan club for him. We took the addresses of those who wrote him and sent them information regarding the fan club. We also passed out flyers I think at the Summer shows. Some time during the Summer shows, Kelly's mom asked us to run Kelly's fan club, too.

In October 1978, I made arrangements for a day of shooting photos for the fan club. Back then, in Van Nuys where I lived was Busch Gardens, a sort of mini amusement park/beer brewery/bird sanctuary (see above photo). It had a lot of beautiful greenery and so I thought it would make a great place to shoot some photos for the fan club. The main problem was we were in the midst of gas rationing back then and there was a chance I wouldn't be able drive to Northridge to pick Kelly up to take the photos. (Remember, you could get gas only twice a week, according to the last couple of digits on your license plate.) It all worked out though.

Meanwhile, a friend of mine had a younger brother who watched NMMC. He wanted to meet Kelly so I told them to be at Busch Gardens on the day we were going. So we "accidentally" ran into my friend and her little brother just so he could meet her. Don't know if she ever caught on that it wasn't an accidental meeting. BTW, Kelly was always a good sport about posing for pictures.




Who wouldn't want one of these? I don't recall exactly how I got a backstage pass, but I'm sure it was via Kelly. During the Easter Week '80 shows, I was able to go backstage with Kelly before one of the shows and take some photos. They're posted in the photo galleries. Shortly before the Easter Week shows, I drove Kelly to D-land one day for rehearsal. The Mice Moms stayed in the rehearsal hall that day but I didn't. I was told the Mice Moms sometimes would leave rehearsal to walk around Disneyland and so I did the same thing. My friend, Gregg W., had bought a ticket to the park and met me at a pre-assigned spot (an opening in the fencing that divided the back area from Disneyland park). We ended up walking around the behind-the-scenes area near the rehearsal hall looking around with the idea that we would then walk around Disneyland park until Kelly's rehearsal was over. Uh oh, bad idea. The guards spotted us, we were taken to some holding area and they had to call the rehearsal hall to confirm that my story that I was Kelly's guardian was true. (There's more to the story but I'll save that for the chatroom.) I went back to the rehearsal hall and I think they just escorted Gregg back to a spot at Disneyland because he had proof that he had bought a ticket to the park.




When I ran Kelly's fan club, people would send things to me to give to Kelly. There were several fans that sent many, many items. One fan, Al, sent Kelly the T-shirt that she's holding. I think he also sent an audiotape of himself talking to Kelly (others did that too; I thought that was pretty clever). The largest thing a fan sent to me to give to Kelly was a gigantic brown stuffed bear (size of a real bear cub). Anyway, the Kelly fan gifts got out of hand and was a part of my decision to end the Todd and Kelly Fan Clubs. Besides the fact that in 1981 the New Mice were disbanded and there was nothing really new to report, certain fans were sending more and more things to Kelly (when she wrote a thank you note, that prompted them to send more stuff) and it just got to be too much.




This photo was taken in the family room of Kelly's townhouse. Kelly and her sister Kim were looking at some photos I had taken. You'll notice above the couch are photos that Kelly's mom had put up. From left to right: There's the L.A. airport photo I took when the group were leaving for Disney World in 1977, next is a "Pete's Dragon" cell (Kelly's mom loved that movie), and then there's a photo I took at the kids' "Dinah!" taping. Bottom row: The Mice in their warm-up suits (all the kids had autographed the mat around the photo), the Mice with Ronnie Schell and JoAnne Worley from the 1977 Disney World TV special, and then there's the "Mickey's Angels" photo that you don't see very often (Allison, Lisa and Kelly are posed -- wearing their Mice ears -- in "Charlie's Angels" type poses). I never heard why the photo was taken.

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