When Annette Funicello outgrew being a Mouseketeer in the late 1950s, she went into the beach movie business.
But she admits she never had a natural affinity for the seaside setting."You know why? I have naturally curly hair, and so the minute I go in the water, that's the worst place for me," she told the Los Angeles Times.
"So for all the beach pictures I wore a wig and they used to spray it. There I was on the surfboard, every hair in place. And that just followed me throughout all the pictures. Even now people will say, `How come your hair never moved?' "
To this day, Funicello, the "sweater girl" of the Mickey Mouse set, says she doesn't know why she became the best known of the Mouseketeers.
"I don't think I ever really had sex appeal. I just had a friendly face," she said. "And to the guys, I was like a pal and they had a crush on me. I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out, why I was singled out from all the other Mouseketeers."