Biography

Jimmie Dodd

Jump to

Composer, songwriter ("Mickey Mouse March"), actor, singer, guitarist and conductor, Jimmie Dodd was educated at the University of Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Conservatory and Vanderbilt University. He began his career in 1933 as a guitarist and singer on radio, coming to Hollywood in 1937 to play in the Louis Prima orchestra and later become an actor. In World War II he toured the Aleutians and the China-Burma-India area for the USO with wife Ruth Carrell Dodd. He was active in television beginning in 1952 and won the MC role on the new The Mickey Mouse Club (1955) series in 1955. He left the series in 1959, beginning a tour of Australia that lasted in 1960. He also led his own dance group. Joining ASCAP in 1946, his chief musical collaborators included his wife Ruth and George Wyle and John Jacob Loeb. His other popular-song compositions include "He Was There", "Encyclopedia", "I Love Girls", "Lonely Guitar", "Mamie", "Nashville Blues", "I'm No Fool", "Rosemary", "Be a Good Guest", "Amarillo", "Hi to You", "Proverbs", "Washington" (official song of the District of Columbia), "Meet Me in Monterey" (for the Monterey Centennial), and "A Bird Is Singin' the Blues".
- IMDb mini biography by: Hup234!

By all accounts he was just the sort of person he played on The Mickey Mouse Club (1955)- decent, caring, deeply religious, and very much concerned for children and their welfare. All of the original Mouseketeers loved him, a love that was reciprocated, and all continue to speak well of him to this day.
After some fifteen years of (largely uncredited) acting in movies, he finally found his niche, and an irreplaceable place in the hearts of America's Baby Boomers, as the moralistic, guitar-strumming, avuncular host of the original The Mickey Mouse Club (1955).
A talented guitarist and musician, he was originally hired by Walt Disney as a music writer. He went on write/compose "The Mickey Mouse Club March" and all the daily opening songs that accompanied it on the show.
Early on played sidekick Lullaby Joslin in the popular 'Three Mesquiteers' film series.

"Why? Because we like you!" -- Jimmie's familiar saying at the end of every Mousketeer show.

Suggest an edit or add missing content