Anita Gordon(1929-2015)

Actress
Music Department
Soundtrack

Jiminy Cricket begins the film by playing a Dinah Shore record that tells the tale of Bongo to cheer up a desolate-looking doll and bear. Bongo, a circus bear, meets and falls in love with a girl bear named Lulubelle. But first he must confront a bear rival, Lumpjaw, whose looks match his name, before he wins her. When the story is completed, Jiminy finds he has been invited to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's house where he is entertaining Luana Patten, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd. Bergen tells the story of Mickey and the Beanstalk, in which Mickey and his friends, Donald and Goofy, climb a beanstalk to rescue the lovely singing harp from a giant to restore happiness to their Happy Valley. As Bergen finishes the story, the giant appears, lifting the roof, in search of Mickey Mouse, then goes on down the hill toward Hollywood.

Play trailer2:19

Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

At age 6 in 1935, Anita Gordon moved with her family from Texas to Hollywood where she became a successful child star. As a teenager, she achieved singing fame on network radio as a regular on ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's show (allegedly, his famous dummy Charlie McCarthy was smitten with her). She was the voice who said "I don't talk to strangers" on the Buddy Clark hit "Linda" (1946), and she voiced the Singing Harp who helped Mickey Mouse escape from the Beanstalk Giant with "... in his right vest pocket you'll find a key..." for Disney in 1947. In the early days of television, Anita was a regular on the Ken Murray Show, and later a featured singer on the Tennessee Ernie Ford show on ABC. In 1948 she married Dale Sheets, who was later an MCA/Universal executive, and she gave birth to their three daughters. In the 1960s she appeared on various episodic television show, then enjoyed a mini-career as the "ghost singer" for various female film stars in movie musicals, including Jean Seberg in the role of Elizabeth in "Paint Your Wagon" (1969). In the 1980s and 1990s she wrote music and co-produced videos for various international clients including Philippine Airlines and Continental Airlines. Anita and Dale eventually divorced and she later married El Chan; they were married for 41 years. They retired to Newhall, California, where they stayed active and in touch with her three daughters, 9 grandchildren, and 21 great-grandchildren. She was married to him for 41 years. Her health declined rapidly in the year before her death in 2015.