Tommy Cole knew from a young age that he was interested in the performing arts. His parents, an editor and child caretaker, weren’t so sure about the path he’d chosen. But in 1956, Cole signed on to the red team of The Mickey Mouse Club, and there was no denying that he’d found a piece of success. Cole initially made it into the front lines of the club due to his incredible talent for singing. In fact, he’d been singing in a country western band before his time as a Mouseketeer.
After working on the show for its final two years, he made appearances on a variety of others, such as an episode of Leave It to Beaver in 1959. He also made a few appearances at Mouseketeer reunions throughout the years.
Enter Doreen Tracey
Doreen Tracey spent the first few years of her life living in her hometown of London, with her Vaudeville star mom and dad. But at age 4, her family moved to Hollywood, where her parents opened their own dance studio. Doreen loved to sing and dance at mom and dad’s studio, and eventually, she followed in their footsteps and started booking professional gigs of her own. When she was twelve, she was hired into The Mickey Mouse Club.
After her three consecutive seasons on the show, she continued her career in acting. Like many of her fellow Musketeers, she appeared on The Donna Reed Show. Tracey put a smile on the faces of many men and women overseas when she went on an international tour to perform for the troops. But this kind-hearted patriotic sweetheart would soon find herself making some pretty shocking career moves…
Tracey Gets Racy
In 1976, Tracey gave her Disney fans quite a shock when she bared it all for the cameras of Gallery, an adult men’s magazine – twice – yes, twice that year. But it wasn’t just the fact that she appeared in the magazine that made her fans drop their jaws. It was that she posed nude wearing her Mickey ears that shocked them the most. In fact, Disney actually banned her from the rest of the Mouseketeer reunions – and all other “official” Disney events – for the next several years afterwards.
But posing in Gallery triggered something in Tracey, something that seemed to set her free – all of her, apparently. Not too long after the shoot, she snagged the role of lead vocalist in a rock band that she dubbed, Doreen and the Invaders. A few years, after she ended her singing career, she took on the role of Frank Zappa’s publicist and started bodybuilding on the side.
Tommy Cole: Life After the Mouseketeers
Aside from his television appearances, Cole continued to make his mark in the entertainment world through other mediums as well, like through his current venture – makeup artistry. Cole had done a bit of soul searching after his semi-retirement from the set. He went to school, both at the Hollywood Professional School and Pasadena City College and spent awhile in the United States Air Force. But through it all, he came back around to find his passions really lie in makeup.
After working as an apprentice for a couple of different networks, his work started to speak for itself, earning him several Emmy nominations, including those for the work he did in Wings and Masquerade Party. In 1979, he and the two other makeup artists on his team won the Emmy for their work in Backstairs at the White House.
Cubby O’Brien’s Debut as a Mouseketeer
Cubby O’Brien is perhaps most well-known for being one of the first Mouseketeers, appearing on the show for all three of its original seasons. His father, “Hack” O’Brien, had shown him the ropes of the entertainment world through his own work as a drummer in several big band groups. Like costar Annette Funicello, Cubby was chosen by Walt Disney as a member of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Unlike Funicello, Walt didn’t witness Cubby’s performance first-hand, but was intrigued when he got a phone call from one of his staff members, who told him that they’d seen Cubby on stage at a charity event and thought he’d make a great fit for the cast. He was signed on to the red team when he was just 8 years old.