All right, so it’s not exactly Keats. To fans of “The Adventures of Spin and Marty,” its episode-ending “Ballad of the Triple R” theme song remains a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
For three seasons between 1955 and 1958 (and later in syndicated repeats), Spin and Marty’s serialized dude ranch adventures were an appointment attraction of “The Mickey Mouse Club.” For the little kids who made up “Mickey’s” core audience, 14-year-old Spin and Marty were icon introductions to that mysterious, much longed-for status known as “teenager.” How many kids just assumed you hit the teen years, and you got a horse?
Spin and Marty were cowboy precursors to the little-buddy formula Disney would use time and again: Spin, the effortlessly cool big-kid-on-campus; Marty, the snotty rich brat who gets turned into a regular guy (and Spin’s best friend) by one boxing match. They rode in rodeos, they built cars, they chased “that wacky white stallion” Dynamite. And through it all, they were unfailingly polite, even when (in later seasons) they were fighting over Annette. Uncle Walt must have been proud.
Knowing its target audience, The Disney Channel began rerunning “Spin and Marty” episodes in August and will continue through October at 2 p.m. Saturdays with repeats at 10 p.m. Wednesday, so parents can watch it without their kids screaming at them to change the channel.” Let’s just say the glacially paced “Spin” is one childhood memory you may not want to share with children.
No such discouraging words, however, were heard at last month’s “Spin and Marty Day” at Los Angeles’s Autry Museum of Western History. The 200-seat auditorium was packed with excited boomers, waiting to see the grown-up versions of their “Mouse Club” heroes: Tim Considine (Spin) and David Stollery (Marty)–both now 54–along with 74-year-old Harry Carey Jr., who was part of John Ford’s western repertory company before he was cast as the Triple R’s affable camp counselor. Many in the crowd clutched “Spin” memorabilia (coloring books, lunch boxes, “Ballad” 45s), sacred relics brought along to be blessed by an autograph.
Why such affection for a show that can devote an entire episode to saddling up? Susan Morse, a singer whose Broadway credits include “Hair” and “Rocky Horror Picture Show,” says watching “The Club” inspired her to sing– and watching the boys inspired her to date.
“I was four years old when they came on the air. That’s pretty young to have a crush on a 14-year-old boy.”
Which boy? Spin, course. Nobody had a crush on Marty.
Freelance TV producer Maggie Wittenburg–who hadn’t seen the show since its original run ended in 1958–came to discover why she had a crush on Spin. She can remember standing around the playground with her third grade classmates discussing the episodes in detail, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember what they discussed.
The introductory “Spin” clips brought it all back to her. “Oh that’s what we liked, the T-shirts and the tight jeans. It was all about sex.”
Considine says the boys knew they were the subject of some schoolyard crushes, but didn’t realize the extent of their popularity until years later. Well, if they didn’t know how popular they were as teens, they have at least come to appreciate how fondly they are remembered as adults.
“Over a lifetime, you get a sense that a lot of people enjoyed it,” says Considine, “and that’s a nice thing to be associated with.”
Actually, Considine almost wasn’t associated with Spin at all. Disney wanted Considine to star as Marty in the “Mouse Club’s” serialized version of the book “Marty Markham.” Much to his agent’s chagrin, when Considine read the script he decided he’d rather play Spin, even though he was only a minor character.
“I was much more of a kid than an actor, and I didn’t want to be this snotty little rich kid. I thought his friend was really cool.”
Not willing to let a commission get away, Considine’s agent went back to Disney and convinced them to build Spin up to co-star status. To take over as Marty, Considine suggested Stollery, whom he had befriended when the two boys filmed Greer Garson’s “Her 12 Men.”
“I liked him immediately because he was kind of quiet. And the second thing was, he liked cars.”
“Obviously,” adds Stollery, “I got the part because he didn’t want it.”
Then they laugh, just as Spin and Marty would have. Stollery’s hair is thinning, and the once rail-thin Considine is a little squarer than he used to be, but you can see Spin and Marty in there. Of course, it helps that Carey still refers to them as “the boys.”
If Considine was just a kid, Stollery was a kid actor who had worked since the age of six. Before he met Considine on “12 Men,” he had already done “Connecticut Yankee” with Bing Crosby and appeared on Broadway as one of the children killed by Judith Anderson in “Medea.” Some fans may also remember his “I Love Lucy” appearance as one of the terrible, frog-owning twins (the other one was fellow Triple R Rancher Sammy Ogg) who ends up singing “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” with Lucy.
Life on the Triple R, however, was different than other acting jobs–more like a summer vacation, Considine says, than work. Instead of filming at the studio, “Spin and Marty” was filmed on the Disney ranch; the only real pressure was supplied by the boys’ competitive impulse to come in first in any horse race.
So isolated was their existence during that first pre-season summer, Considine says he and Stollery didn’t even know what “The Mickey Mouse Club” was. That happy innocence ended the day Considine went to the Disney lot for lunch.
“I remember seeing these kids with their names on their shirts and these weird hats … They looked like yarmulkes with wings.” Fascinated, he followed them to a rehearsal, where they started singing and dancing.
More Top Picks The One For Men Eau De Parfum Dolce Gabbana
“I was horrified.”
Now, however, thoughts of the “Club” and its founder bring back fond memories. “Mr. Disney was always very approachable,” says Stollery.
There was a trick, however, to prolonging the conversation. “If you ever wanted to talk to Mr. Disney,” Considine says, “all you had to do was say `How’s Disneyland going?’ ” Your reward was an immediate invitation to his office, where he had a scale model spread out on a ping-pong table.
Considine followed “Spin” with “The Hardy Boys,” “The Shaggy Dog,” and a five-year stint as the eldest of “My Three Sons,” but then acting offers dried up. Stollery quit acting at 19.
Sometimes, though, life goes full circle. The boys first bonded over a fondness for cars. Now, Considine writes about and races cars, while Stollery designs them (including the 1978 Toyota Celica). Stollery also designed the set for “seaQuest.”
With each fond question from the crowd, it must have become clearer to Considine, Stollery and Carey that they had entered a love fest. They responded by spreading some of the love around, pulling ex-Mouseketeer Doreen Tracey up on stage with them from the audience. Then they invited the rest of the “Spinners” to line up for pictures and autographs, which many happily did.
In fact, about the only thing they wouldn’t do was sing that theme song.
It didn’t matter; the crowd was still happy. Pegged to ask the last question, a 40-something man stood up at his seat and said “I just want to thank you guys for enriching my childhood.”
———-
“Spin and Marty: The Movie,” a compilation of the first 24 episodes of the serial is set to air Oct. 18 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the “Mickey Mouse Club.