Annette Funicello; Original Mouseketeer and 'Beach Blanket Bingo' star Dead at 70 From Complications of Multiple Sclerosis

VIDEO: ANNETTE FUNICELLO DIED

Fox News: Legendary Disney Mouseketeer Annette Funicello died on Monday, 04.08.12, from complications due to Multiple Sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disease she battled for more than 25 years. She was 70 years old.

Annette suffered from chronic progressive, multiple sclerosis, that she battled for two decades before effective treatments were possible.

"She's on her toes dancing in heaven... no more MS," Funicello's daughter Gina Gilardi said in a prepared statement. "My brothers and I were there, holding her sweet hands when she left us."

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory neurological disease in which myelin, the protective layer that insulates neuron cells in the nervous system, gradually degenerates. As myelin degrades in different parts of the brain, people with MS can experience varying symptoms like fatigue and tingling sensations, and develop sensory, muscle coordination, and memory problems.

Most people do not experience severe symptoms, though in progressive cases like Funicello's, muscle paralysis can lead to a debilitating decline in quality of life.

"MS does not directly shorten the lifespan," explained Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl, director of the MS program at UCLA, to Today.com. "It doesn't kill people directly. If you've had a very severe form for a very, very long time you can have the same complications that anyone has who is immobilized. You can get pneumonia. You can get bed sores. You can have difficulty eating."

At least one in 1,000 have multiple sclerosis, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and most people develop their first symptoms between the ages of 20 and 40. There is no cure, though promising therapies can limit relapses and slow down the condition's progression if it is diagnosed in early stages. Unfortunately for Funicello, such MS treatments were not developed early enough to prevent her decline.

She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1987 at the age of 50, and kept her illness private until publicly disclosing it in 1992, when she established The Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases. The charity, which funds research into the cause, treatment, and cure of neurological disorders like multiple sclerosis, is still active.

Funicello's autobiography, A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes, chronicled her struggle with multiple sclerosis and was made into a TV movie in 1995.

Video:  A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story (TV 1995) 6/7

Funicello, who began her acting career at age 12, became "America's Sweetheart" as an original Disney Mouseketeer, and went on to star in the teen-oriented Beach Party films and record a series of hit singles throughout the 1960s.

"Annette was and always will be a cherished member of the Disney family, synonymous with the word Mousketeer, and a true Disney Legend," Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said in a statement. "She will forever hold a place in our hearts as one of Walt Disney's brightest stars, delighting an entire generation of baby boomers with her jubilant personality and endless talent."

Funicello died peacefully at Mercy Southwest Hospital in Bakersfield, Calif., the Disney company said.

Funicello stunned fans and friends in 1992 with the announcement about her ailment. Yet she was cheerful and upbeat, grappling with the disease with a courage that contrasted with her lightweight teen image of old.

The pretty, dark-haired Funicello was just 13 when she gained fame on Walt Disney's television kiddie "club," an amalgam of stories, songs and dance routines that ran from 1955 to 1959.

Cast after Walt Disney himself saw her at a dance recital, she soon began receiving 8,000 fan letters a month, 10 times more than any of the 23 other young performers.

Her devotion to Walt Disney remained throughout her life.

"He was the dearest, kindest person, and truly was like a second father to me," she remarked. "He was a kid at heart."

“She’s the perfect girl next door,” Avalon once said.“She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. She’s the sweetest girl I know, and nothing’s ever changed.”

In her 1994 memoir, “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes, My Story”, Funicello wrote that the carefully scrubbed innocence of “The Mickey Mouse Club” was “an honest if exaggerated reflection of an America that, sadly, has faded into history.”

When "The Mickey Mouse Club" ended, Annette (as she was often billed) was the only club member to remain under contract to the studio. She appeared in such Disney movies as "Johnny Tremain," ''The Shaggy Dog," ''The Horsemasters," ''Babes in Toyland," ''The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" and "The Monkey's Uncle."

She also became a recording star, singing on 15 albums and hit singles such as "Tall Paul" and "Pineapple Princess."

Outgrowing the kid roles by the early '60s, Annette teamed with Frankie Avalon in a series of movies for American-International, the first film company aimed at the burgeoning teen market.

The filmmakers weren't aiming for art, and they didn't achieve it. As Halliwell's Film Guide says of "Beach Party": "Quite tolerable in itself, it started an excruciating trend."

But the films had songs, cameos by older stars and a few laughs and, as a bonus to latter-day viewers, a look back at a more innocent time. The 1965 "Beach Blanket Bingo," for example, featured subplots involving a mermaid, a motorcycle gang and a skydiving school run by Don Rickles, and comic touches by silent film star Buster Keaton.

Among the other titles: "Muscle Beach Party," ''Bikini Beach," ''Beach Blanket Bingo," ''How to Stuff a Wild Bikini" and "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine." [Full Collection]

The shift in teen tastes begun by the Beatles in 1964 and Funicello's first marriage the following year pretty much killed off the genre.

But she was somehow never forgotten though mostly out of the public eye for years. She and Avalon staged a reunion in 1987 with "Back to the Beach." It was during the filming that she noticed she had trouble walking — the first insidious sign of MS.

When it was finally diagnosed, she later recalled, "I knew nothing about (MS), and you are always afraid of the unknown. I plowed into books."

Her symptoms were relatively mild at first, but gradually she lost control of her legs, and she feared people might think she was drunk. So she went public with her ordeal in 1992.

She wrote of her triumphs and struggles in her 1994 autobiography, "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes" — the title taken from a Disney song. In 1995, she appeared briefly in a television docudrama based on her book. And she spoke openly about the degenerative effects of MS.

"My equilibrium is no more; it's just progressively getting worse," she said. "But I thank God I just didn't wake up one morning and not be able to walk. You learn to live with it. You learn to live with anything, you really do."

"I've always been religious. This just makes me appreciate the Lord even more because things could always be worse. I know he will see me through this."

Funicello was born Oct. 22, 1942, in Utica, N.Y., and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was 4. She began taking dance lessons the following year and won a beauty contest at 9. Then came the discovery by Disney in 1955.

"I have been blessed to have a mentor like Walt Disney," she said 40 years later. "Those years were the happiest of my life. I felt that back then. I feel the same today."

Asked about the revisionist biographies that have portrayed Disney in a negative light, she said, "I don't know what went on in the conference rooms. I know what I saw. And he was wonderful."

In 1965, Funicello married her agent, Jack Gilardi, and they had three children, Gina, Jack and Jason. The couple divorced 18 years later, and in 1986 she married Glen Holt, a harness racehorse trainer. After her film career ended, she devoted herself to her family. Her children sometimes appeared on the TV commercials she made for peanut butter.

The beach films featured ample youthful skin. But not Funicello's.

She remembered in 1987: "Mr. Disney said to me one day, 'Annette, I have a favor to ask of you. I know all the girls are wearing bikinis, but you have an image to uphold. I would appreciate it if you would wear a one-piece suit.' I did, and I never regretted it."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Video:  Annette Funicello at Disneyland

Annette dances with Bobby Burgess, fellow Mousekateer who became a permanent member of the Lawrence Welk Show cast

Video: Mickey Mouse Club: "The Annette Sound"

Technorati Tags: Multiple Sclerosis,Annette Funicello,Hollywood,Disneyland,dance,remembering

RIDING AS THERAPY

Riding as Therapy:

Equine therapy is catching on as a fun and helpful activity for many MS patients.

One to three times a week a growing group of MS patients across the country saddle up to relieve some of their symptoms and to boost their self-esteem. Equine therapy is used to treat a variety of diseases and disorders besides MS, including mental illness, cerebral palsy, and brain injury. According to the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association Inc. (NARHA) in Denver, Colorado, more than 26,000 riders with disabilities benefit from therapeutic horseback riding activities at NARHA centers.

Hippotherapy, which means "treatment with the help of a horse," has been widely practiced in this country since the 1960's. In 1952 at the Helsinki Olympic Games, Liz Hartel of Denmark garnered the silver medal for dressage (The execution by a trained horse of complex movements in response to barely perceptible signals from its rider.) despite being paralyzed from polio. Her victory helped focus the world on using horses to improve the health of those with various disabilities. As the experts investigated various ways for horses to help patients, they found that not all people can be aided in the same way.

"Hippotherapy is using the horse strictly as a modality for therapy, where the riders are not influencing the horse at all," explains Occupational Therapist Erin Hurley, director of the Unicorn Handicapped Riding Association in Medford, NJ. "Equestrian therapy is more of a global term. It combines therapy and recreation. That's what most people with MS do. I think they get more out of it if they are an active partner in the process."

According to the NARHA, research shows that all therapeutic riding participants can experience physical, emotional, and mental rewards. Because horseback riding gently and rhythmically moves the rider's body in a manner similar to a human gait, riders with physical disabilities often show improvement in flexibility, balance, and muscle strength. For those with mental or emotional problems, the unique relationship formed with the horse can lead to boosted confidence, patience, and self-esteem. All who ride also receive the benefit of a special sense of independence which comes from riding.

Equine therapy can provide certain benefits to MS patients. "The benefits from the therapy depend on the disability. With MS, it's a physical disability in which case there are a lot of different benefits. For example, if you have an MS patient in a wheelchair, he (or she) is not getting a lot of stimulation to the spine," Ms. Hurley says. "The horse's movement stimulates the human movement in the way the horse walks. If you're sitting on the horse's back, you're getting those benefits of side to side movement and rotation movement each time the horse steps forward. Just the sensory input helps to stimulate the muscles in different ways. At the other end of the spectrum with spascity, equestrian therapy helps to loosen tight muscles especially through the hip area, lower extremities, and through the trunk."

The MS patients who ride at Ms. Hurley's center come either once or twice a week. They ride for 30 minutes with the help of two side walkers, a person who leads the horse, and an instructor. By having the four people work alongside the rider, safety is ensured. Since these helpers are trained to work with MS patients who have weakness and balance problems, no one should be afraid to give horse therapy a try, say the experts.

"Each person works on different goals as we walk through the woods or inside our indoor arena depending on the weather," she says. "One woman with MS who started with us this year was having trouble walking. After a ride she says she can walk much better."

The experts and MS patients say that equestrian therapy offers much more to MS patients then symptom relief. "It raises their self-esteem and gives them something to do for recreation. They love it and really look forward to it," says Ms. Hurley.

Just getting out in the fresh air and doing something physical can do wonders for MS patients say the experts. "One of the most frustrating aspects of chronic illness or disability is the effect it has on leisure-time activities. Just when a person would benefit most from the relaxation, enjoyment, and socialization that come from recreation, he is limited in what he can do. It is important, however, despite what limitations may exist, to maintain existing or find new interests," write Dr. Robert Shuman and Dr. Janice Schwartz in their book, Understanding Multiple Sclerosis: A Handbook for Families (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1988). "There is a network of horseback riding programs for the physically challenged. Many people with MS find that riding builds back abdominal muscles, strengthens weak legs, and is a terrific source of self-confidence."

"Don't defy the diagnosis, try to defy the verdict."
- Norman Cousins

For Rita McGinley, 44, of Westmont, NJ, equestrian therapy helped many of her symptoms and also raised her spirits. She rode every week for about a year at the Pegasus Riding Academy in Philadelphia. Diagnosed with relapsing-remitting MS four years ago, the registered nurse was forced to quit her job and later counseled patients at MSAA headquarters in Cherry Hill. Now undergoing intense physical therapy, she plans to return to equestrian therapy at the end of her current regimen. "It is so enjoyable. I ride bareback where there's just a blanket between me and the horse. I feel every movement of those four hooves, and I can feel the muscles in my pelvic floor moving. I have problems with my bladder, and after I ride I can feel much improvement," she says. "It's also great for strengthening and balance. There's a general feeling of well-being on a horse and that another living being is helping me. I love it."

Members of the Montville, NJ MS Support Group have saddled up for a therapeutic ride at the Handicapped Riding Center at West Orange, NJ, part of the Montclair Riding Academy, for the past nine years. Dedicated to the development of horseback riding as a therapeutic, recreational, and social activity for people with disabilities, the academy hosts these MS patients every Wednesday morning at its gorgeous grounds.

"We really don't know how it works. But from talking with different people, it seems that the horse helps them to move some of their muscles that they cannot move on their own. Most of the people with MS who come here think they are getting some benefit out of it. Some people insist on riding bareback so they have closer contact with the horse, but most people use the western saddle because it's safer and easier to use," says John Sinico, a spokesperson for center. "They love it. They swear by it. They also tell us that mentally it's a nice relief from their everyday worries. Instead of sitting home and feeling sorry for themselves they are out doing something. It's active, not passive. All in all, it's very beneficial."

Montville MS Support Group Leader Tom Hinkey says that some of the group members receive some relief from their spascity through riding, but they all get emotional benefits from it. By getting out and socializing and focusing on the horse, he says, they can forget about their problems and enjoy the day.

"If you don't have a fear of horses, it can probably help some of your symptoms. It's a lot of fun," says Ms. McGinley. "Whenever I rode, I would come home with a 'horse healthy high.' I miss it and can't wait to do it again once my current physical therapy is over."
- Christine Norris

PROMOTING A SAFE RIDE

The North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) was founded in 1969 to promote and support therapeutic horseback riding programs throughout the U.S. and Canada. Comprised of more than 500 riding centers, the NARHA helps ensure safe instruction by administering a certification program for riding instructors. NARHA also offers an accreditation program to riding centers to promote excellence in providing therapeutically-valid services. The association provides riding centers with guidelines for selecting riders who are suitable and appropriate for therapeutic riding activities.

To learn more about therapeutic riding or for a list of centers in your area, contact NAHRA at:

PO Box 33150
Denver, CO 80233

(800) 369-7433

(303) 452-1212

You may also visit NARHA on the world wide web at: http://www.NARHA.org.

What is Therapeutic Riding?

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