Repressed Magic

Disney jumped onto the 1963 'folk music is hip now' bandwagon with the casting of song stylist Burl Ives in the Hayley Mills vehicle (set in the less turbulent turn of the century) Summer Magic. Also in the mix is The Beaver's younger lookalike brother Jimmy Mathers (who says that stage mom baby factories are a new phenom?). Poor Jimmy spends the entire film emulating the scrunched face of his TV star older brother Beaver and acting like he is mildly retarded. Plus, it wouldn't be a Disney Studios Film without the cheap solution of using insect stock footage to illustrate the song and a cute sheepdog barking to keep the kiddies awake.



Later on, Deborah 'Gidget Goes Hawaiian' Walley and the family are serenaded by good ol' fashioned folksy Burl.



You can almost hear Hayley praying for The Beatles' British Invasion and the end of her Disney contract -- sending her off to do contemporary roles in The Trouble With Angels and The Family Way.

Deborah Walley would marry John Ashley and hang around doing Beach Party B-films into the late 60s.