The Original Mickey Mouse Club Show

Background

Ronald Steiner was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the middle son of three. His parents were Madge Stofford and Ralph Steiner, who had performed in vaudeville together. Ron's brothers were Roy, two years older, and Rob, two years younger. When Roy developed club feet, his parents made him take tap dance lessons to correct the condition. Ron and Rob also took them, the three boys being very close to each other.

In 1952 their aunt, also a former vaudeville dancer, got a job dancing on the Colgate Comedy Hour, for the shows hosted by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. She persuaded the family to move to Los Angeles, where the boys went to a holiday party and cookout at the Martin house. Asked to show off their tap dancing for the other guests, they were immediately recruited by an agent who was there. They soon were dancing on the The Dinah Shore Show, The Gary Moore Show, Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town, and doing TV specials with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and the Rat Pack.

Performance

Ron may have been hired as a replacement for Paul and the Rooney brothers. He seems to have joined the show after the July 17, 1955 debut at Disneyland, and probably bypassed the usual audition process. Why just Ron was hired, and not his brothers, and why it was decided to call him Ronnie, are unknown to me. Another mystery is why the directors, after taking the trouble to hire an excellent dancer, then let him sit around on the Blue Team watching guest stars and circus acts. This inactivity may have contributed to his discontent with the show, and explain why he left.

Among his few numbers was a short tap segment as one of a quartet of waiters at the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Ironically, his longest performance on camera came after he left the show; the Steiner Brothers were Talent Round-Up winners in the second season. Like other Mouseketeers, Ron had to take part in the Mickey Mouse Club Circus at Disneyland after the first season filming completed in early November 1955. Ron left the show in January 1956, just after the Circus closed. He told a Canadian interviewer in the 1990's that he felt guilty about being paid while his brothers weren't working, and took the first opportunity to decline an option renewal.

Aftermath

Within a short time after leaving the show, Ron and his brothers revived their act. With a new manager to replace the one who sent him to Disney, they were soon working in Las Vegas as an opening act for performers like George Burns, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis, Frank Sinatra, and Bob Hope. The boys received $750 a week; even split three ways, this was more for Ron than the $185 weekly salary from Disney, and he didn't have to worry about the $50 fine for losing his "ears".

When in Los Angeles all three boys attended Hollywood Professional School. The boys appeared in the Bing Crosby-Debbie Reynolds musical film Say One for Me in 1959, along with ex-Mouseketeer Judy Harriet. Like any act, they had their slack periods, when bookings were rare. In 1960, one such period saw them performing with other ex-mice in the 'Teen magazine troupe. Ron continued dancing with his brothers up to the early eighties, when injuries and changing times brought an end to their performances on the nightclub circuit. At their height in the 1960's they made $3,500 a week, and were once booked for a year straight at the Playboy Club in New York City.

Ron retired to Winnipeg, married a local girl, and began working as a medical technician at a hospital. He took part in the 25th Anniversary Show for the Mickey Mouse Club, televised in 1980, and attended the 1997 "Angel in Show Business" award party for Annette.