From 1st through 12th grade Lonnie Burr attended Hollywood Professional School, a private school for children working in show business.
18 Facts About Lonnie Burr
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Lonnie Burr is of Danish, French, Ulster-Scots and German descent.
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At age four Lonnie Burr started dance lessons with legendary tap teacher Willie Covan and was dancing, singing and doing imitations for live audiences and local, Pasadena, CA TV shows.
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Lonnie Burr began acting on radio after turning professional at age five.
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Lonnie Burr's first recurring television role was as next door neighbor Oliver Quimby on The Ruggles situation comedy starring Charlie Ruggles.
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Lonnie Burr guest starred as Jimmy, title character in "The Holy Terror" episode of The Range Rider, made ten appearances on The Colgate Comedy Hour, and appeared on The Roy Rogers Show, The Alan Young Show, All Star Revue, The Donald O'Connor Show, and Father Knows Best.
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In 1955 Lonnie Burr signed a seven-year contract with Walt Disney Studios as one of twenty-four original Mouseketeers hired for the first season of The Mickey Mouse Club from the thousands of children who auditioned.
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Lonnie Burr appeared in the show's opening number, "Roll Call", and closing number, "Alma Mater", segments daily for the first two seasons.
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Lonnie Burr is generally acknowledged to have been one of the show's three top dancers and his slightly husky singing voice and resemblance to singer Mel Torme, nicknamed "The Velvet Fog", caused other Mouseketeers to call Lonnie "The Velvet Smog".
10.
Lonnie Burr appeared in more than 200 episodes of the original Mickey Mouse Club.
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Lonnie Burr resumed his performing career in the 1960s in plays, musical comedy, film, television, commercials, industrial films, night clubs and other live performances.
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Mickey and Lonnie Burr were together again in the 1980s when Disneyland promoted its extensively renovated New Fantasyland via a 10-stop Amtrak trip from California to New Orleans.
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Lonnie Burr has been a guest on more than 100 national and local talk shows from the 1960s into the 21st century promoting the Mickey Mouse Club for Disney and his own books, criticism, poetry and plays.
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Lonnie Burr has two poetry collections, forty-eight poems published in literary journals and newspapers and is the recipient of 11 poetry awards.
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Lonnie Burr is a playwright with four produced plays and a musical, which have been staged in Los Angeles, New York City, and Washington, DC, plus twenty-two nationally aired radio dramas for Heartbeat Theatre and two for American Radio Theatre.
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Lonnie Burr was one of the hosts and the creative consultant for the 1980 ABC television special 25 Years of Mouseketeers.
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Lonnie Burr was instrumental in the creation of scripts for the Disneyland live performances by some of the original Mouseketeers throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s.
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Lonnie Burr has worked with such dance greats as Bob Fosse, Twyla Tharp, Vincent Paterson, Gower Champion, Larry Fuller, Lester Wilson, Kenny Ortega, Joe Layton, Tommy Tune, and Dee Dee Wood.