Annette Funicello, the Disney Mouseketeer who later starred in a series of beach-party movies, suffered smoke inhalation Thursday in a fire that gutted her Encino home.
Funicello, 68, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, was taken by ambulance to a local hospital after she and two other people - identified by neighbors as husband Glen Holt and a nurse - fled the burning home.
"Glen must have gotten her out of the house and put her in the backyard," said Corliss Foster, a long-time friend and neighbor of the former actress.
Officials said the three people who escaped were being evaluated, but were in good condition.
Los Angeles Fire Capt. Tina Haro said firefighters were called about 7 a.m. to the hillside home in the 3100 block of Fond Drive, where Funicello has lived most of her adult life. | See photo gallery.
"When firemen arrived, a lot of flames were coming out of the front of the home," said Haro, adding that investigators had not yet determined the cause of the blaze.
Although the fire was concentrated in the rear and attic of the 3,600-square-foot home, officials said the structure and its contents were badly damaged by smoke, heat and water.
The interior of the house appeared charred, although passersby could see posters from some of Funicello's movies and performances mounted on the wall of the two-car garage.
Funicello became a household name in 1955, when she was hand-picked by Walt Disney to be one of the Mouseketeers on his new television variety show, "The Mickey Mouse Club."
She was pretty, friendly, and had the ability to appear both flirtatious and innocent. Boys developed crushes on her and girls simply wanted to be her.
"She had blue-black hair, lily-white skin, this Cupid's mouth and these big brown eyes," Doreen Tracey of Burbank, another of the original Mouseketeers recalled Thursday. "Black-and-white (TV) just loved her, and she photographed just as she was - this angelic person."
While later incarnations of "The Mickey Mouse Club" launched the careers of numerous younger superstars such as Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling, there are reasons why the '50s original stays lodged in a generation's imagination.
"There were many factors," Tracey said. "One was, there was nothing like it before. We did all the adult shows (but) in a child's version. We had a soap opera, we had a musical variety show. There were cartoons and documentaries and major films run in 15-minute segments.
"Television had never seen anything like that."
After the Disney show ended in 1959, Funicello went on to star as Dee Dee opposite teen heart-throb Frankie Avalon in a half-dozen beach-party movies, such as "Beach Blanket Bingo" and "How to Stuff a Wild Bikini."
Funicello settled down in 1965, marrying her first husband and raising their three children. She reunited with Avalon in 1987, filming "Back to the Beach" and touring the country in reunion concerts.
She experienced balance and vision problems while working on the movie, and was eventually diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She shared her condition with fans in 1992, and established the Annette Funicello Fund For Neurological Disorders.
Tracey said that donating to Funicello's charity would be the best way for fans to show their support as the former Mouseketeer copes with the loss of her home and its memories.
"I hope everybody knows that if they love Annette, they should contribute to the Annette Funicello Multiple Sclerosis Foundation," Tracey said. "It's really important, and she gave a lot of her time to it when she wasn't as well as the public thought she was."
The Annette Funicello Fund for Neurological Disorders is administered by the California Community Foundation, which can be reached at 213-413-4130 or online at calfund.org/give/giving_funicello.php.
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