CUBBY O’BRIEN, shown in a photo taken last week, still performs as a drummer several decades after his debut on the Mickey Mouse Club television show.
HIS FATHER taught Cubby O’Brien how to handle drumsticks at a young age. Photo courtesy of Cubby O’Brien
THE ENTIRE GROUP of Mouseketeers is shown as they appeared in the 1950s on the Walt Disney TV program. Photo courtesy of Cubby O’Brien
AT LEFT: Famous ears were part of the Mouseketeer look shown here by Cubby O’Brien. At right: The adult Cubby played drums with many nationally known musicians and during six Academy Awards shows. Photos courtesy of Cubby O’Brien
He was born 68 years ago as Carl O’Brien. But, a generation of children who grew up watching the Mickey Mouse Club on television knew him as Cubby – the name he still goes by today.
Mouseketeer Cubby was famous during the show’s heyday from 1955 to 1959, and in reruns over the next two decades.
O’Brien, who currently lives in Amboy with his wife, Holly, fell into the Mickey Mouse Club role as a drummer almost without trying. Living in Los Angeles, his father was a drummer and taught him to handle the sticks. Young O’Brien played in a Dixieland band at age 8 and some Disney producers heard him perform.
That’s all it took.
“They said they needed kids for this new TV show,” O’Brien said last week during an interview at The Reflector office. “That set things in motion.”
After four seasons as a Mouseketeer, he went on to perform on the Lawrence Welk Show, singing with Janet Lennon of the Lennon Sisters at age 13. His career kept building during stints with Spike Jones’ band touring Lake Tahoe, Reno and Las Vegas; helping conceive and design Ann-Margret’s first show; appearances on the Carol Burnett Show; touring with The Carpenters; and Broadway exposure in “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Gypsy,” and “The Producers.”
O’Brien poured his energy into Broadway, working eight shows a week for eight years. His longest musical liaison has been with Bernadette Peters, with whom he still performs on a scaled-down schedule.
He also played drums in the band at six Academy Award shows. Still in his 30s then, O’Brien continued to be excited to see big-name actors.
“I’d look around and say, ‘Oh, there’s Bette Davis,’” he recalled.
However, it’s the Mickey Mouse Club that everyone wants to talk about when they meet Cubby, an affable man who looks at least a decade younger than his age. With special fondness, he recalls Annette Funicello, a fellow Mouseketeer who died in April 2013 of complications from multiple sclerosis.
“Annette was a great warm person,” he said. “We miss her a lot. She was the only one that Walt Disney picked himself.”
Disney was a wonderful man as well, O’Brien said. He recalled that Disney would remember when each of the Mouseketeers had a birthday and would bring a cake to the set.
“He wanted us all to call him Uncle Walt,” O’Brien said. “I called him Uncle Walt, but Annette always called him Mr. Disney.”
O’Brien and his former club mates are looking forward to next year, when the 60th anniversaries of the show and Disneyland itself come around. He will be at Disneyland for special festivities marking both.
He’s kept in touch with others, including Mouseketeer Sherry, with whom O’Brien has performed on Disney cruises. Unlike many stars, he isn’t upset when people ask for an autograph.
“I love it,” O’Brien said. “People come up and say how the show affected them. Some people have tears in their eyes.”
He recalled having dinner with Peters when a lady came over and asked for her autograph. Then she turned to O’Brien and asked for his, too, saying he was her favorite Mouseketeer.
When the fan left, Peters leaned over to O’Brien and confided, “You were my favorite Mouseketeer, too.”
Disney had two squads of Mouseketeers so the children all had time for school. O’Brien was on the top-flight red squad each season, rehearsing on Mondays and Tuesdays and filming the show on Wednesdays.
He cherishes those days and it’s evident in his Amboy home, where O’Brien has lots of memorabilia and photos.
He and Holly were married after meeting on an airliner where she worked as a flight attendant, living in Vancouver. O’Brien was performing “Annie Get Your Gun” on Broadway at the time and invited her to a show. She called two weeks later to take him up on the offer.
“We’ve never been apart since,” he said.
O’Brien was asked if he missed the bright lights of L.A. or New York now that Amboy has been home for the past eight years. He instantly replied that he does not.
“I really like it here,” he said. “I was ready to slow down.”
The pace fits the lifelong musician, and allows him to perform whenever he wants to.
“I still play and I love doing it with good musicians,” he said.
