FRANKIE AVALON and ANNETTE FUNICELLO
Beach buddies Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello sign a color publicity photograph of them on a beach from one of their many films together.
Photograph signed: "Frankie Avalon" and "Annette/Funicello". Color, 8x10. This photograph is a beach scene from a 60s film. Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello appeared together in ten Beach Party films between 1963-1968, and they reunited in 1987 in Back to the Beach, which the two co-financed. Unlike some of the heavily marketed "teen idols" who ruled youth-oriented American radio between Elvis and The Beatles, FRANKIE AVALON had a real music background. His popularity peaked in 1959, when he had #1 hits with "Venus" and "Why". While he made several action movies, beginning with Guns of the Timberland (1960), Avalon is best remembered for his Beach Party movies. He still tours in "golden boy" revivals with Bobby Rydell and Fabian. The "sweetheart" of TV's The Mickey Mouse Club, American entertainer ANNETTE FUNICELLO (born 1942) began performing at age ten. The Disney people, who sensed that Funicello had star quality, built several musical numbers around her. Funicello began appearing in the Beach Party series while still under contract to Disney, and she agreed to the Disney request that she wear a one-piece swimsuit rather than a bikini in the films to protect her image. Funicello, who was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1987, the year of her last Beach Party film, last appeared as herself in the 1995 biopic, A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story. Ink lightly smudged at Avalon's signature. Fine condition.