Jimmie Dodd(1910-1964)
- Actor
- Music Department
- Composer
Composer, songwriter ("Mickey Mouse March"), actor, singer, guitarist
and conductor, Jimmie Dodd was educated at the University of
Cincinnati, the Cincinnati Conservatory and Vanderbilt University. He
began his career in 1933 as a guitarist and singer on radio, coming to
Hollywood in 1937 to play in the Louis Prima
orchestra and later become an actor. In World War II he toured the
Aleutians and the China-Burma-India area for the USO with wife Ruth
Carrell Dodd. He was active in television beginning in 1952 and won the
MC role on the new
The Mickey Mouse Club (1955)
series in 1955. He left the series in 1959, beginning a tour of
Australia that lasted in 1960. He also led his own dance group. Joining
ASCAP in 1946, his chief musical collaborators included his wife Ruth
and George Wyle and
John Jacob Loeb. His other popular-song
compositions include "He Was There", "Encyclopedia", "I Love Girls",
"Lonely Guitar", "Mamie", "Nashville Blues", "I'm No Fool", "Rosemary",
"Be a Good Guest", "Amarillo", "Hi to You", "Proverbs", "Washington"
(official song of the District of Columbia), "Meet Me in Monterey" (for
the Monterey Centennial), and "A Bird Is Singin' the Blues".
