SaturdaysToys.com Hosting the Annette Funicello Research Fund Exhibition at D23 2015

"Through the years we'll all be friends wherever we may be"

- from the "Mickey Mouse Club Alma Mater" by Jimmy Dodd

As over 40,000 fans gather in August for Disney's D23 Expo 2015, the Walt Disney Company will also be celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Disneyland's dedication and grand opening.

Among the performers who participated in the live coast-to-coast broadcast on July 17, 1955 were a group of young people making their own debut as the original Mouseketeers of Walt Disney's new "Mickey Mouse Club." Of the twenty-four children who appeared on camera that day, it would be a shy twelve-year-old girl by the name of "Annette" who would sing and dance her way into our hearts.

In celebrating that historic milestone, the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases will present the inaugural public exhibition of Annette's most celebrated awards, including the Disney Legends Award and her own star from the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also, hidden within her home for over five decades, Annette's "Tower of Talent" award for her smash hit single "How Will I Know My Love, will be exhibited for the first time in history. Presented to Annette in 1959 by New York's WPTR Radio, the award would follow Annette's featured performance at one of the earliest rock and roll stadium shows of that era. On hand that night to witness the presentation were several of her friends and fellow performers including Frankie Avalon, Fabian and Connie Francis.

In addition to the artifacts from Annette's personal archive scheduled for display at D23 Expo, a vintage collection of Annette's high school homework assignments (1958-1959) has recently surfaced. A limited edition of only 100 signed and and dated pages will be offered to benefit the Annette Funicello Research Fund. Held for the past half century in the collection of Mrs. Jean Seaman, the Mouseketeers' teacher at the Walt Disney Studio, these hand-written treasures will be made available exclusively to D23 Expo attendees for a minimum donation of $100 or more to the Annette Funicello Research Fund.

The exhibit, hosted by SaturdaysToys.com (Exhibit Hall A / Booth A307), will be on display from Friday, August 14 thru Sunday, August 16 at D23 Expo 2015 in the Anaheim Convention Center.

Tickets for D23 Expo are currently available at: www.d23expo.com

We hope to see you there!!

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