Why? Because We Still Like You: An Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club »

Jennifer Armstrong is a feature writer for Entertainment Weekly. She has provided pop culture commentary for CNN, VH1, Fox News Channel, and ABC, and her writing has been featured in Salon, MTV.com, Glamour, Budget Travel, and the Chicago Sun-Times. She also co-founded and continues to run SirensMag.com, an alternative online women's magazine. Her essays have appeared in the anthologies Altared: Bridezillas, Bewilderment, Big Love, Breakups, What Women Really Think About Contemporary Weddings, and Coffee at Luke's: An Unauthorized Gilmore Girls Gabfest.

This book will tell the behind-the-scenes story of how The Mickey Mouse Club paved the way for all that came after, from its humble beginnings as a marketing ploy, through its short but mesmerizing run, to the numerous resurrections that made it one of television's first true cult hits—all through the recollections of those regular kids-turned-stars who made it a phenomenon. It will reveal, for the first time ever, the untold stories of Annette, Darlene, Cubby and Karen, Bobbie and the rest of the beloved cast. It will explore, through the reminiscences of former fans who grew up to be some of television's finest minds, what made the show so special. And it will examine why the formula the creators of the show invented is more relevant than ever, and whether we'll ever see yet another Club for a new generation.

Library Journal

Like a lovely snow globe whose pastoral setting becomes a blur of white when shaken, this beautiful pastiche of anecdotes, remembrances, and stories incites a nostalgic blizzard for the three-year, mid-Fifties run of the original Mickey Mouse Club. Entertainment Weekly feature writer Armstrong displays a light and deft touch in balancing a strong but unobtrusive narrative of the Mouseketeers' stories. Divided among three sections—the events leading up to the show's ABC debut on October 3, 1955, the hysterical popularity of the show's three seasons, and the postshow history of the Mouseketeers and repeated incarnations of the Mickey Mouse Club—Armstrong's assemblage of tales provides insight into the hard work, daily regimen, behind-the-scenes hijinks, life with the mercurial "Uncle" Walt, and conflicts of the Disney vehicle originally developed to help finance Disneyland. Verdict Armstrong's book joins memoirs from former Mouseketeers Lonnie Burr (Confessions of an Accidental Mouseketeer) and Paul Petersen (Walt, Mickey, and Me: Confessions of the First Ex-Mousketeer) and should find a broad audience independent of its obvious boomer emphasis.—Barry X. Miller, Austin P.L., TX

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