photo of Annette Funicello sharing a telephone call with a friend

Those Who Knew Annette Best

In celebration of naming The Walt Disney Studios’ Soundstage 1 as the “Annette Funicello Stage,” author and friend Lorraine Santoli talks with those who knew the beloved Disney Legend best.

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Ginny Tyler

Ginny Tyler

Ginny’s vocal work gradually moved from just narration to character voices for Disney; she played two amorous female squirrels in The Sword in the Stone and sang for several of the barnyard animals in the “Jolly Holiday” sequence of Mary Poppins.

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Tommy Kirk

Tommy Kirk

Tommy fondly remembers Walt Disney, and recalls once bumping into him at a Beverly Hills hotel. “He was with Hedda Hopper, the legendary columnist. He put his arm around me, and he said, ‘This is my good-luck piece here,’ to Hedda Hopper. I never forgot that. That’s the nicest compliment he ever gave me.”

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Young Annette Funicello

To Annette, with Love

D23 dips into the Disney twenty-three magazine archives for this touching story on Annette Funicello’s relationship with her devoted husband, Glen.

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