Walt Disney's 1950's television program "The Mickey Mouse Club", the 1956 "Hardy Boys" serial "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure", and a Spanish gold doubloon dated 1808. I was a little kid in 1955 when the Walt Disney company began running it's television program "The Mickey Mouse Club" at 5:00 pm on weeknights. "The Mickey Mouse Club" logo is shown at the beginning of the television program, and after some skits, the serial chapter was shown. Mickey Mouse Club title "The Mickey Mouse Club" was a one hour long black and white children's program which ran on the ABC Television Network from 1955 to 1959 and featured a group of young teenage performers, cartoons, newsreels, and sometimes a filmed serial. "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" title "The Hardy Boys - The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" was a television serial produced by Walt Disney Productions for the program in 1956. The serial consisted of 19 12-minute episodes which were broadcast daily starting on Tuesday, October 2, 1956 and ending Friday, October 26, 1956. "The Hardy Boys" began life as a series of novels written for young people about two brothers who solved mysteries. They were published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate whose founder Edward Stratemeyer created the characters in 1927. Stratemeyer hired writers to write his books under the fictional name Franklin W. Dixon. The Walt Disney serial is very loosely based on the novel The Tower Treasure published in 1927. The Disney "Hardy Boys" television program showed an 1808 Spanish gold doubloon several times along with a chest full of dollar-sized prop coins. The Doubloon was a Spanish 8 escudo gold coin minted from 1610 to 1820 at Spanish mints including Mexico City. They circulated in the early United States where they were worth around 16 dollars. Each serial episode opened with scenes from a Disney pirate film and a song: Gold doubloons and pieces of eight, handed down to Applegate. From buccaneers who fought for years for gold doubloons and pieces of eight. Handed down in a pirate's chest, the gold they sailed for east and west. The treasure bright that made men fight, till none were left to bury the chest. So now the gold and pieces of eight all belong to Applegate. The "Hardy Boys", Frank, age 14, and Joe, age 12, who live with their father Fenton Hardy, a private detective in the fictional town of Bayport. The boys' mother is not mentioned at any time. It is summer, the boys are out of school, and are bored. Their father is out of town and the brothers would like to solve mysteries like their father does. Mr. Silas Applegate is an elderly man who lives in a large old house which is falling apart. There is a long time story about a cache of gold doubloons being located on the property. The doubloons were supposed obtained from Jean Lafitte, a real pirate who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800's. Mr. Applegate is regarded by the townspeople as an eccentric and most do not believe the treasure story. A young city boy works for Mr. Applegate and finds a gold doubloon on the property which he gives to the Hardy boys. This event starts the story. The "Hardy Boys" coin obverse The "Hardy Boys" coin reverse The Disney company sells DVDs of the serial and I bought one. The DVD also has an episode of the "Mickey Mouse Club", and a short feature on two children visiting the then-new atomic-powered submarine "Nautilus". I had to have something that was shown in the program. Spanish America gold eight escudos "doubloon" 1808, Ferdinand VII Gold, 36.5 mm, 27.00 gm, Mexico City Mint Obverse: Ferdinand facing right FERDIN VII D G HISP ET IND R 1808 (Ferdinand VII, by the Grace of God, King of Spain and the Indies) Reverse: Crowned shield of Spain IN UTROQ FELIX AUSPICE DEO (For both sides, happiness under the auspices of God) 8 S (8 Scudi, Latin for escudos) Mo TH (Mexico City Mint, Assayer initials) The coin was graded by NGC as AU 50
I loved the Mickey Mouse Club then and also really enjoyed the Hardy Boys episodes. That is a wonderful coin. BTW, fun fact. As a kid in LA in about 1960-1963ish, my family did go to Disneyland probably 3 times a year. One time (and this was always told to me by my dad), my parents were approached by someone to see if they would allow me to possibly be on the Mickey Mouse Show. I guess there were scouts in the park, looking for certain types of kids for the show to update it as some of the other kids on there were growing, or it was alternatively, someone trying to pull a fast one on my parents. My parents said no, and it was reasonable, as our family was no show-business one and as an adult I am super glad they did say no, because kids were treated so badly in that business and it ruined many children's lives.
I grew up in Burbank and my grandmother lived 1/2 block from the home used as the Hardy boys home in the Disney series. I was 6 at the time. We were close friends of the Reithermans. Bob was a close friend and classmate K>12. Wolfgang (one of Disney's "9 old men") and Bob were in our YMCA Indian Guides group and Woolie (as we knew him) was also my Little League baseball coach.
As a small kid I remember watching the Mickey Mouse Club and well remember watching Disney's "The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh". Great movie
@willieboyd2 great writeup and great memories. Thanks for the walk down memory lane. I love your doubloon too. I applaud your reasoning for wanting one.
I remember the Mickey Mouse Club as well. I was about 7 in 1955 and was living in Germany (my father was in the army) until 1957 and missed many of them. When it was on, we went to our neighbors to watch. We loved the Shirley Temple stories as well. I was 15 before we had a TV. I liked Spin and Marty as well. It was fun being a kid those days.
The Mickey Mouse club was a launching pad for many, Brittney spears probably the most famous also Christine Aguilara another but money and kids don’t mix allot of the parents spent most of the kids money unfortunately
Another great reason for me not to be allowed to maybe audition or whatever. My mom likely would have been the culprit behind me not getting a cent in the end. So all good.
I was born in 1952 and we did not have a television in our house until 1967. I guess I was deprived. I read a lot as a kid and we had six acres of land to play in. Every kid should have their own woodlot and swamp to play in. My wife's cousin was friends with Annette Funicello so there is a Mouseketeer connection. My uncle was in the television industry, first as a cameraman, and then as a technical director for WABC sports. He won five Emmys.
Thanks for everyone's entry. It brought me back to my very young age. When I was about 11, we were living in Castroville, California. There was a kid's show where they auctioned off a lot of fun stuff. Instead of money, your bid with a certain brand name bread wrappers. My mother contacted all our neighbors and members of our church to get the bread wrappers. We had tons of the wrappers when we went to the show. My brother and two sisters and I divided the wrappers. We had enough wrappers to "buy" everything that was auctioned. The producer told my mother not to come back to the show, that we weren't fair. My parents thought about a lawsuit but thought better. Our lawyer said we would win, but it wouldn't be worth it. Anyway, the next month, the show was cancelled. I don't ever remember what we got.
