While
most Annette biographies state she “retired” from acting and
recording in the mid 60’s, the real story isn’t quite that
simple. The decline of her "market niche" -- not just a
desire for more time with family -- is what most likely led to the
end of her film and recording career.
By
mid 1967, AIP had dropped the beach/surf/dragstrip/racetrack genres
and was heading full steam into hippie and motorcycle gang movies
(The Trip, WIld In The Street, The Wild Angels, etc.)
AIP never missed a fad in the 1960s and never stuck with one
that had run it course. That led to an end in their need for
Annette's talents, since she was firmly associated in people's minds
with the by-then outdated "fifties idol" and "surfer" themes, not
hippies and
bikers.
Interestingly, some critics view her
performance in 1967's Thunder Alley -- a rather unattractive care
racing drama which was her last film with AIP -- as an unsuccessful
attempt to transform herself into a late 60's Nancy Sinatra-ish
"groovy chick." If that's the case, the effort was doomed to
failure; Annette was simply too much the lady to effectively pull
off that kind of role.
That
left Funicello with no real starring role film options. She
couldn't seek them at Disney, since Walt -- her critical mentor
there - had died the year before, and the film side of the compnay
had pretty much ended producing the sort of live action family
comedies Annette had previously been cast in (i.e. The Absent
Minded Professor, the Misadventures of Merlin Jones,
etc.) Nor was trying to contract with other major studios an
option, since established stars (i.e. Vincent Price) who
"slummed" at AIP were basically stuck
there.
Why? Well, the major
Hollywood producers just didn't care for "tacky" AIP and pretty
much blacklisted those associated with it (even though they
repeatedly tried to copy AIP whenever an AIP theme proved
profitable; the Beach Party series being a case in point: as the
clone section of this site shows, between 1964 and 1967 almost
all the major studios released beach/surfing and related "youth
genre" movies featuring pop musical
performances).
That
lack of opportunity -- not just a desire to spend more time with
family -- was likely a large part of what really led Annette to
"semi-retire." She actually didn't completely disappear;
Funicello showed up occasionally on network TV into the mid 90s, and
not just in that infamous commercial role as a peanut butter
promoter. She also made numerous "guest star" appearances
on shows or specials, and two made-for-TV films (a 1985 comedy with
Martin Mull, left, as well as a cameo in one based on her 1994
autobiography). She even attempted to help Frankie Avalon
develop a regular weekly series in 1976, but unfortunately that show
never got beyond the pilot stage.
However, the mid 1960s was basically the
end of Annette's career as a a starring lead in films. She
appeared in only a handful of movieds after 1967, mostly in cameos,
other than her "vanity" (she co-produced the movie along with
Frankie Avalon) starring role in 1987's Back To The
Beach. The cameos consisted of a somewhat
self-depreciating appearance (as "Minnie," Davy Jones' girlfriend)
in the infamous 1968 Monkees film Head (right) and a
thrity second walk on (in which she played herself) in 1989's
Troop Beverly Hills.
However, her musical recording
career didn’t simultaneously end, and in fact continued long after
she left Buena Vista.
Over the next twenty years she continued to make
infrequent but ongoing appearances in recording studios that ended
up on vinyl. They
included the following:
-
Two
songs (“What’s a Girl to
Do” and “When You Get
What You Want”) on the 1967 B
oardwalk Soundtrack LP for
American International’s Thunder Alley, Sidewalk 5902 (mono) and
ST-5902 (stereo, left). There was also a single
released containing these songs, as well as an open-ended
disk-jockey promotional “interview with Annette” record released
by American International.
Many Annette fans actually consider the mature, sensitive
vocals on these two pieces (produced by the legendary Mike Curb)
to represent the singer at her peak. At a minimum, they
show a significant evolution from the young, childish voice heard
during the beginning of her recording career (i.e., numbers like
“Tall Paul, “First Name Initial,” etc.)
Interestingly,
the home video version of Thunder Alley (the
MGM “Midnite Movie” release) contains only “When You Get What You
Want,” even though several reviews (and the soundtrack
listing) of the film on the Internet Movie
Database make references to Annette
performing "What's A Girl To Do" in the movie.
This leaves one wondering about the story behind “What’s a Girl To Do.” Was this classic
AIP-style ballad for some reason left out of the video
version? Or was it --
per some claims on various Annette fan boards -- never even
in the film? The latter would appear doubtful, given
the posts on the imdb, but none-the-less a small but
interesting mystery results. For in the broad realm of
soundtrack albums, while there may be other examples, I've rarely
encountered
such “not-in-the-film-but-on-the-album” numbers.
No
reference is made to Disney or Buena Vista on any of the records
related to Thunder
Alley, suggesting Annette’s contractual relationships with
those organizations had ended by
then.
-
In
1981, a 45 --
Pacific
Star (569) – titled “Frankie Avalon and Annette
Funicello, Together We’ll Make a Merry Christmas”
(right). This was
privately produced by Avalon and Funicello and was the
beginning of what I like to call their “1980’s nostalgia comeback
marketing relationship,” which eventually led to the production of
“Back
to the Beach”
in 1987.
-
An
independently produced 1982 LP “The Annette Funicello Country
Album,” which honestly speaking is probably the least
impressive of all of her recording efforts. This is less due to
the material and more due to the performance; across the whole
album, Annette’s once beautiful timbre had mysteriously
disappeared, replaced with one scratchy, sometimes tired and often
out of tune.
None-the-less, it’s an interesting item, both given the
choice of material and the fact it appeared during but separate
from her early “nostalgia” appearances with Frankie Avalon. Some sources state that
Annette’s second husband Glen Holt was heavily involved in
producing this, but how that ties into the choice of material and
timing is unclear (she briefly discusses the LP in her
autobiography, but doesn’t really address the intriguing question
of exactly why she made it).
Bottom line: there’s a story behind this record –
potentially an interesting one -- that has yet to be
told.
-
In
1987, a single number, a noisy 80’s style Fishbone-backed re-make
of her “Jamaica Ska,”
(which originally appeared on her Buena
Vista Annette at Bikini
Beach
LP way back in 1964) on the Capitol Soundtrack LP “Back
to the Beach.”
While Back To The Beach
was clearly aimed at playing to Beach Party
nostalgia, the consensus among pop historians is not to
classify it as part of the AIP Beach Party series, which is why I
don't discuss it or its music here in any detail. Suffice to
say reviews of the film itself tend to be quite varied. My
own opinion tends to be thumbs down; on many levels, this
well-intentioned but made-for-TV-ish-feeling movie just isn't the
fun it's supposed to be. Or in the insightful words of some
other viewers, "a lot of people put their time and talent into
this picture, but it doesn't soar, doesn't spark fond
memories...basically a love letter to the worst elements of pop
culture in 1987." For those interested, the
Internet Movie Database (IMDB) contains a good representation
of the interestingly wide range of opinion on “Back to the
Beach;” it can be found at IMDB User Comments on Back To The
Beach.
By
the way, following up on the release of “Back to the
Beach,” Annette and Frankie actually did a limited
“nostalgia concert tour” (mostly appearances at small theatres and
parks) between 1989 and 1990. Those shows –
unfortunately I never caught one – apparently featured both some
actual beach party movie music and some pop material from the same
era. This was
the last gasp, so to speak, of the original Beach Party
Musical legacy.
But back to
that song on the soundtrack LP: while Funicello’s piece in
Funicello and Avalon
in
Back to the Beach isn’t particularly
interesting, it has the notable footnote of Parade at Disneyland, April
1996 being the last recording
Annette made prior to really retiring, which occured ocurred
when she went public with her multiple sclerosis diagnosis in 1994.
On
that subject, as I'm sure most readers are
aware, Annette
has been struggling with one of the more severe forms of
multiple sclerosis since the late 1980s (one so acute that she
underwent risky brain surgery in 1999 in an attempt to alleviate the
symptoms). Understandably, after her
diagnosis, her public appearances became increasingly limited
and infrequent, before ending completely in 1997 (one of the
last is shown in photo above). But during every
one she was as positive and optimistic as ever, a credit
to her emotional strength.
And with that strength came
a selflessness. After her diagnosis, Annette
opened up
a foundation, which supports research
into degenerative neuromuscular diseases. One can only
pray that this and other research initiatives will soon bear fruit
for her and the others who suffer from these terrible
conditions.
To all those who appreciate her legacy,
please help her in that effort. You are
invited -- in fact, urged -- to click the link below,
which will take you directly to a page where you can make a donation
to her foundation:
The Annette
Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders
