Lonnie Burr

Lonnie Burr (born May 31, 1943) is an American entertainer and writer best known as one of nine of the original thirty-nine Mouseketeers who remained under a seven-year contract for the complete filming (1955–1959) of Walt Disney’s children’s television show the '' Mickey Mouse Club''. The ''Mickey Mouse Club'' was the first national TV show to star children who appeared primarily as themselves as well as acting as characters in scenes and musical numbers. The original show aired in syndication in the 1960s, reran again in 1975, then on the Disney Channel in the 1980s through the early 2000s.

After appearing on the show, Burr's entertainment career included work as a character actor, dancer, singer, and choreographer. His career as a writer included being a book author, playwright, lyricist, journalist, critic and poet. Throughout adulthood, he continued to honor his Disney experience. As he was quoted in an interview, "Whether I someday scale the Matterhorn or win my Pulitzer, I shall always be known as Mouseketeer Lonnie; that is the way the obituary will begin. I have come to learn that is a marvelous association."

Early life

Burr was born in Dayton, Kentucky. The family moved to Highland Park, California when he was three. From 1st through 12th grade Lonnie attended Hollywood Professional School, a private school for children working in show business. He is of Danish, French, Ulster-Scots and German descent. His parents, Howard Ambrose Babin and Dorothy Doloris Burr, were a night club and vaudeville dance team that toured from 1934 to 1941 as "Dot and Dash". (An African-American team of the same name appeared in the 1935 film ''Temptation''.)

Early performances

At age four Burr started dance lessons with legendary tap teacher Willie Covan and was soon dancing, singing and doing imitations for live audiences and local, Pasadena, CA TV shows. He began acting on radio after turning professional at age five. By six (1949) he was working on national television, radio, films, theatre and commercials. His first two movie appearances were in '' A Yank in Korea'' and '' Queen for a Day'', followed by '' M'' (1951 U.S. remake), ''Hans Christian Andersen'' (1952), '' The Greatest Show on Earth'' (1952) and '' Apache'' (1954).

Burr’s first recurring television role (1950-1951) was as next door neighbor Oliver Quimby on '' The Ruggles'' situation comedy starring Charlie Ruggles. He guest starred as Jimmy, title character in "The Holy Terror" episode of '' The Range Rider'', made ten appearances on '' The Colgate Comedy Hour'', and also appeared on '' The Roy Rogers Show'', '' The Alan Young Show'', '' All Star Revue'', '' The Donald O'Connor Show'', and '' Father Knows Best''.

On radio, he was heard on ''The Enchanted Lady'' as Buster Beetle, Prince Charming and other characters, the child lead on the popular NBC Radio soap opera ''Dr. Paul'' and in 1953 as Tiny Tim in Dickens’ ''A Christmas Carol'' on '' Stars Over Hollywood''. For two years in the early 1950s he was also the national radio voice of the enthusiastic boy who loved Chef Boyardee spaghetti("Oh Boy, it's Chef Boy-Ar-DEE !!"). After years of radio and voice-over work, Lonnie became the pre-recorded voice of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in the 21st century giving visitors general information, opening and closing times and providing safety and emergency instructions.

Lonnie's career as a stage actor began at age six at California's renowned Pasadena Playhouse. After appearing in two plays, he performed his first stage lead there at age eight in ''The Strawberry Circle''. His early television commercials included appearing during ''Space Patrol'' (1950s series) to eat a bowl of '' Chex'', one of the show's sponsors, and '' The Lone Ranger'', in which he and Clayton Moore (the original television Lone Ranger), both on horseback, promoted the goodness of Cheerios breakfast cereal. (Lonnie dismounted to enjoy his cereal at the breakfast table.)

''Mickey Mouse Club''

In 1955 Lonnie signed a seven-year contract with Walt Disney Studios as one of twenty-four original Mouseketeers hired for the first season of '' The Mickey Mouse Club'' from the thousands of children who auditioned. As one of only four boys, of thirty-nine total kids, who remained under contract for the run of the series, Lonnie was a member of the "Red Team", the group that comprised the show's first string unit. Lonnie appeared in the show's opening number, "Roll Call", and closing number, "Alma Mater", segments daily for the first two seasons. Unfortunately, a prominent facial injury during rehearsal kept him off camera for the third season pre-filming of those two numbers, but he was otherwise an active season three Red Team member, continuing to perform in skits and musical variety numbers both solo and with other Mouseketeers. He is generally acknowledged to have been one of the show's three top dancers and his slightly husky singing voice and resemblance to singer Mel Tormé, nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", caused other Mouseketeers to call Lonnie "The Velvet Smog".

Lonnie appeared in more than 200 episodes of the original ''Mickey Mouse Club''. The popularity he and other Red Team members enjoyed continued after ABC cancelled the series in 1959, as it was rerun in the 1960s and 1970s, then continued on the Disney Channel from the 1980s through the early 2000s. The "Mice", as the adult Mouseketeers often call themselves, continued to acquire new fans; eventually adults who were fans as children watched with their own children and grandchildren. Disney also licensed the shows internationally, and they were aired in five languages in forty-plus foreign countries including Japan, France, Mexico, Australia (twelve years), parts of South America, and in the 1980s and 1990s in Russia (U.S.S.R.) and the other Warsaw Pact countries.

Roles as an adult

After ''The Mickey Mouse Club'' stopped filming in 1958, Lonnie took a hiatus from the entertainment business and at age fourteen he completed his senior year of high school. Accepted at UCLA, he received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in Theatre Arts by age twenty. He completed a year toward a Ph.D. in English Literature a few years later, but decided to return to his professional careers in the performing arts and his new career as a published author. Burr resumed his performing career in the 1960s in plays, musical comedy, film, television, commercials, industrial films, night clubs and other live performances. He transitioned from child TV star to adult character actor, deliberately taking roles in which he could vary his appearance and attitude to the extent that in the 1980s Robert Osborne, then columnist for ''The Hollywood Reporter'' and later TCM host, named him "a master of disguises."

Live theatre is Burr’s favorite performing medium. His 45 drama, comedy and musical theatre performances include Gower Champion’s original Broadway production of '' Mack & Mabel'' (1974-75) with Robert Preston and Bernadette Peters; two productions of '' George M'' (1969), the first National Company with Joel Grey and on his own in a 1983 Las Vegas production; ''Death of a Salesman'' (1999) at the Olney Theatre Center; the Ford’s Theatre (Washington DC) production of '' The Grapes of Wrath'' (2005); a second revival of ''No, No Nanette''; ''The Boys From Syracuse'' ( Goodman Theatre, Chicago ); the premiere of "Over The Hill", a comedy he also wrote and directed; as the fascist Capitano Aldo Finzi in '' Tamara'', Los Angeles’ longest running play (nine years); and the year-long Los Angeles production of '' 42nd Street'' ( Shubert Theatre, Los Angeles). In Actors' Equity professional summer stock on both coasts, Lonnie co-starred as Spats Palazzo in '' Sugar'' with the late Arte Johnson, Marcellus in ''The Music Man'' with Peter Marshall, with Ginger Rogers in '' Coco'', and with Elke Sommer in '' Irma La Douce''.

Lonnie’s live appearances include performances during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World (WDW) in 30-minute stage shows reuniting some of the original Mouseketeers, who performed new numbers and a few recreated from the original series. Lonnie also wrote and choreographed the first of these appearances.

As a promotion for the original ''Mickey Mouse Club''’s return to television in the mid-1970s, Lonnie and other Mouseketeers appeared on ''Tomorrow'', Tom Snyder’s national late night talk show from New York. Lonnie and three other Mouseketeers also visited Queens to appear at a Shea Stadium New York Mets game with Mickey Mouse, who was scheduled to throw out the first baseball. Instead, Mickey handed the ball to Lonnie, making him the only Mouseketeer to have thrown the opening ball for a Major League Baseball game.
Mickey and Lonnie were together again in the 1980s when Disneyland promoted its extensively renovated New Fantasyland via a 10-stop Amtrak trip from California to New Orleans