The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Disney Mouseketeer Doreen Tracey
Doreen Tracey, a former child star who played one of the original Mouseketeers on The Mickey Mouse Club TV show in the 1950s, has died, Disney publicists said.
The 74-year-old, who was born in London, died from pneumonia at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, California, following a two-year battle with cancer.
Tracey maintained ties to Disney and showbusiness throughout her life, appearing in the film Westward Ho The Wagons! and touring with the Mouseketeers.
She later served as a publicist to musician Frank Zappa and worked at Warner Bros.
The pig-tailed Tracey and her co-stars appeared on television in black hats with ears following the anthem M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E on ABC’S famous show.
Millions of children raced home from school to watch in wonder as the bouncy Mouseketeers announced themselves at the top of the show.
The Mickey Mouse Club was the brainchild of Walt Disney during the flowering of his company’s fortunes in the mid-1950s.
To help finance the Disneyland park, he agreed to supply ABC with TV shows. One was designed for children in the pre-dinner hour.
The hour-long programme proved a sensation on its debut on October 3 1955. It flourished for two seasons, then was reduced to half an hour for two more. Tracey stayed for its four-year run.
The black-and-white series was syndicated in 1962-65. The 1990s version launched the careers of singers Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, and actors Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling.
Born on April 3 1943 to parents who worked in vaudeville, Tracey moved to the US when she was four and learned to sing and dance.
She gained a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club when she was 12.
Lorraine Santoli, a former executive at Disney who wrote The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book, said Tracey remained close to her Disney roots, maintaining friendships with her fellow Mouseketeers.
Tracey strained her relationship with Disney by posing for a men’s magazine in 1976 with nothing on except her mouse ears and later wearing nothing but an open trench coat in front of Disney Studios.
Tracey is survived by her son Bradley and two grandchildren, Gavin, nine, and Autumn, 12.