Larry Larsen Sep 3, 1939
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The Oldest Mouseketeer
Larry was hired as a replacement for the second season, and remained with the show for only one year. He was a Blue Team member, a dance specialist, who could also sing and act. He was in several television series before and after leaving the show, and is now a retired engineer.
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Background
Larry Lynn Larsen was born in Houston, Texas, the only child of Ray and Alice Larsen. His very brief Disney press releases simply described
him as being a specialist in tap and modern jazz dancing, who could sing and act as well.
Larry auditioned for the show in the spring of 1956. Technically, he was outside the age parameters the casting agents asked for, but he impressed the audition judges enough for them to waive the age limit. Larry played tennis and baseball, and was a rifle enthusiast. He had done some theater and television work prior to joining the club. He told an interviewer in recent years that he wasn't nervous at the auditions, which would start with a hundred kids, then be halved with each callback until there were only one or two left.
Performance
It's unfortunate that none of the second season production numbers are available on DVD or VHS, for Larry was one of the best male dancers to ever appear on the show. Despite being stuck on the Blue Team, he was used in most dance numbers filmed that year, including Sweetshop 1925, Edelweiss Polka, and Holiday in Hawaii, among others. Lonnie Burr says that Larry "was a solid dancer", one of the top five on the show's three year run. One memorable jazz routine had Larry, Bobby, and Lonnie as sailors, a sort of Mouseketeer version of On the Town.
Larry enjoyed his six-month stay on the show. (Replacements were hired in April and let go at the end of September, so that most of their tenure would be during the summer months when California state law didn't require schooling). He was paid $300 a week, more than the usual for replacements, perhaps because of his age and experience. He is one of the few Mouseketeers that says Walt Disney did visit the set often, and he has expressed admiration for his decision to use 35mm film for shooting the show.
Aftermath
After leaving the show Larry appeared in episodes of the television westerns Maverick, Colt .45 and The Californians, and the rural comedy The Real McCoys. He used his show business money to finance his education, going for two years to Santa Monica Community College, than transferring to New Mexico State for a Bachelors degree. He then obtained a Masters degree in mechanical engineering at USC. In between show business gigs, he worked for Rocketdyne and later, local government in Los Angeles, designing and developing early pollution control equipment.
Despite the fact that Larry was living in Los Angeles, the Disney Studio was unable to locate him for the 20th Anniversary celebration activities in 1975. They did find him in time for the 25th Anniversary in 1980, and he appeared on the televised reunion.
In the late eighties Larry and some partners opened a consulting firm that provided advice on energy conservation and efficiency to utility companies in New Mexico and around the southwest. By the mid-nineties Larry had shifted to part-time consulting, and soon after retired. Larry now resides in Colorado.
