Ladies and Gentlemen, and children of all ages… The Mickey Mouse Club Circus, in the world’s largest striped circus tent, debuted at Disneyland on this day in 1955 and remained until January 8th of the following year. As if it weren’t enough to see Professor Keller and His Feline Fantastics, Serenado the Wonder Horse playing “The Ballad of Davy Crockett”, and Bob-O the Disneyland clown, the Mouseketeers from TV’s Mickey Mouse Club got into the act as well.
The boys were Peter Pan and the girls were Tinker Bell, and we glowed in the dark.
The Mickey Mouse Club Circus was a particular highlight of Mouseketeer Bobby Burgess’ Disney days, and he told D23’s Scott Wolf, “The Mickey Mouse Club Circus was in the fall of ’55 with the Ted DeWayne Circus and they melded us into it and called it the Mickey Mouse Club Circus. It was a red and white huge tent, and it was hot and sweaty in there, but we were having a blast. They dressed us as Peter Pan and Tinker Bell and we did the trapeze act. There was a girl in the center who was a pro who would go over and over and over. Tommy and I were the web setters, and two of the girls, one was Sharon and one was Bonnie from the first year. The rest of them were on swinging ladders, and the boys were Peter Pan and the girls were Tinker Bell and then we turned out the lights and we glowed in the dark. We also rode elephants and horses everyday and we were trained by professional circus people. That was really fun!”
