Flea Market Find: The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club DVD

By: Nick Maglio

I picked this The Best of the Mickey Mouse Club DVD up at the Columbus Flea Market in New Jersey for $5.

It was brand new in it's shrink wrap!
I love the old Mickey Mouse club, which had 3 original seasons which aired from 1955-1957, before being syndicated.

Each day of the original Mickey Mouse Club featured a different theme.

Included on this DVD are 5 episodes, representing each day. 2 episodes are from the 3rd Season of the series, after it had been paired down from an hour long program down to a half hour show.
The other 3 are from it's syndication days of the 1960's, when original hour long episodes were edited down.

• Monday - Fun with Music Day, from September 30th, 1957, gets this disc off to a slow start. There is a cute musical number about a young lady at a pet shop, but then we have a lengthy preview of a 'Hardy Boys" Serial, titled "The Mystery of Ghost Farm", which made me just want to see said serial! Before you know it, Jimmie is singing farewell.

• Tuesday - Guest Star Day, which the box says aired in October of 1957, but the DVD itself says originally aired August 28th, 1962. (?) This episode is much more entertaining, with guest star Olympic ice skating medalist Ronnie Robertson doing a comical skating routine, before showing off his skill as the "Fastest Spinner in the World". This is followed by a "Mousekartoon", the excellent Academy Award winning Ferdinand the Bull  from 1938. I'll take a closer look at Ferdinand in a future Musings article.

• Wednesday - Anything Can Happen Day, aired November 12th, 1964. You know anything can happen on Wednesday by the surreal opening cast parade, followed by Disney animator Ward Kimball's Dixieland Band, The Fire House 5+2, playing a couple of tunes, with Mouseketeer Cubby playing drums with a guy in a Tiger Costume cavorting around! Whew! There is also a great Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1932 called Mickey's Nightmare. This sounds like it might be scary, but Mickey's nightmare is about the stork delivering too many kiddy mice to him and bride Minnie to take care of!

• Thursday - Circus Day, from October 11th, 1962. The cast is properly adorned circus performers, and the guest stars are jugglers, the Hap Brothers. The "Mousekartoon" is Silly Symphony The Pied Piper from 1933. 

• Friday - Talent Round Up Day, aired October 25, 1957. A rather light episode to end this collection on, with a young lady from Chicago becoming an Honorary Mousekeeter, who sings and dances. Then comes a Mickey Mouse Newsreel featuring Annette in Hawaii. The episode is wrapped up with a fable from Jimmie about a cat who is unable to outsmart a bird.

All and all, it's a nice little diversion, and a nice look back at history.