July 14, 1946 – Original Member of the Mickey Mouse Club Cubby O’Brien is Born
“I was playing drums in a little Dixieland band…and we did a show at the Screen Actors Guild during Christmas, and I was playing double bass drums flipping drumsticks, and I looked like I was about two years old. And some producers were there, and they got in touch with my dad and said they were putting this show together at Disney, and would I be interested in auditioning. So that’s how it happened for me.”
On July 14, 1946, Carl Patrick O’Brien was born in Burbank, California. His father was well-known drummer Haskell O’Brien, who performed with several big band era ensembles. Cubby learned drumming from his father, and brought his skills to a show at the Screen Actors Guild, where he was spotted by Disney producers. Although he was considered for a guest spot on “Talent Round Up Day,” when they had spotted fellow Mouseketeer Karen Pendleton, they thought the two young children would make a great matched set of Mouseketeers. O’Brien was one of the few that earned a key spot on the “Red Team” and remained on the team through all three seasons of the show. After the show ended, he went with the main Mouseketeers on a tour in Australia from 1959 to 1960. After his work at Disney, he joined the cast of The Lawrence Welk show, then toured with Spike Jones and his band. He has also worked in the orchestra for several Broadway musicals, including The Producers, and the Bernadette Peters revivals of Gypsy and Annie Get Your Gun.
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