On view in January–February 2024.
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of The Walt Disney Company, The Walt Disney Family Museum is showcasing objects from the museum’s collection which highlight important moments in Walt’s career. These objects, which include recent acquisitions and fragile materials that have never been publicly displayed, will rotate periodically throughout the year.
Actor, songwriter, and Disney Legend Jimmie Dodd was the host of the Mickey Mouse Club television show during its first four seasons, appearing with the show’s ensemble cast from 1955 to 1959. After seeing Dodd audition to perform a song on the upcoming television show, Walt Disney reportedly exclaimed: “Hey, Jim is the one who should be on the Mickey Mouse Club!” Dodd wrote more than 400 songs, including the “Mickey Mouse March,” the show’s popular theme song, and numerous other compositions for the program.
This four-string tenor guitar is one of two such instruments known to have been played by Dodd on the Mickey Mouse Club. It was made by Candelario Delgado of Candelas Guitar Shop, where the Delgado family of luthiers (craftspeople who make stringed instruments) have been making guitars in Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights neighborhood since 1947.
For more information on the preservation of this guitar, click here.