Roger Mobley: Child star buddy-bonding, teen idol gazing at girls, Disney Adventure Boy, Green Beret

In spite of a few bright spots, such as Boyne Castle, Disney movies in the 1960s were overwhelmingly heterosexist. Disney Adventure Boys -- and there was a stable of them -- offered an aggressive conflation of muscles and heterosexual ravings.  The stand out hetero star was Roger Mobley.

Born in Evansville, Indiana in 1949, Roger began performing with his siblings in carnivals and county fairs, and on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour, a sort of radio precursor of American Idol.  

This led to many guest spots on the popular tv series of the day -- Hawaiian Eye, Donna Reed, Gunsmoke, The Detectives, The Virginian-- plus a starring role in Seasons 3 and 4 of Fury (1958-60), a "boy and his horse" Western.  Peter Graves played a rancher in modern-day California, a single dad raising his adopted son Joey (Bobby Diamond).  Fury was a "wild" stallion who won't be ridden, but doesn't mind saving the day.  Roger played the son's friend, Packy.

He starred in Emil and the Detectives (1964), based on the novel by Erich Kastner: After his 400 marks are stolen, rich kid Emil (Bryan Russell) follows the thief to Berlin.  He thwarts a bank robbery with the help of his gay-subtext buddy, the street urchin Gustav (Roger).

In 1964, Roger became a Disney Adventure Boy, appearing in six of the movies broadcast in installments on episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney.

For the Love of Willadean (1964) Rural

l boy Harley (Roger) tries to win the Girl of His Dreams, but his rivals trick him into stealing a prize watermelon, and then into braving a haunted house.  Future Lost in Space kid Billy Mumy plays his buddy. 

Next Roger started on his most famous character, Gallagher, a Gilded Age newsboy who first appeared in an 1891 story by Richard Harding Davis, then in two silents, Gallegher: A Newsboy Story (1917) and Let'Er Go, Gallegher (1928)

More after the break

Bobby Diamond: Horse's costar, non-DIckensian Pip, Dunky Gillis, gymnast, flower child, and the Mighty Mightor

Link to the n*de dudes

Dig this vintage commercial from the 1950s.  Bobby is trying to chop wood, but he's too weak, causing him to lose the respect of his friend, dad, and horse.  Then his other dad calls them to lunch.  

They burst with excitement: they're having Borden's Cottage Cheese!!!!The cooking-and-cleaning dad plops on "any kind of fruit."  Yuck!The friend pours syrup on an enormous pile of the gunk.  Yuck again!

Bobby makes a cottage cheese-and-jelly sandwich.  Triple yuck!  

But shoveling the vile stuff into his face gives Bobby the energy to chop that wood and earn his gay dads' love.

And he takes his shirt off, causing conniption fits among the gay boys of the era.

During the 1950s, television characters commonly sold the product during the story ("Let's take a break for some Maxwell House Coffee -- It's so incredibly delicious!"), so this commercial was probably shown during Fury (1955-60), a modern-day Western: The orphaned Joey (Bobby Diamond) is adopted by Jim (Peter Graves), a rancher with a horse named Fury.  His friend might be Packy (Roger Mobley), and the dad who does the cooking Pete (William Fawcett).

Born in 1943, Bobby was discovered by a talent scout and put to work in 1952, with uncredited roles in The Silver Whip, The Lady Wants Mink, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Half a Hero, and many other movies,, plus one tv show, Father Knows Best. 

In 1955, he was cast as the lead in Fury, and achieved the greatest stardom of his career. 

Though Bobby was an adolescent during the course of the series, he was generally excused from expressing heterosexual interest (he gets a crush on a girl in one episode).  The producers did give him a series of best friends to get into scrapes with: after Packy, Pee Wee (Jimmy Baird), and then Buzz (Stuffy Singer), but they didn't express any heterosexual interest, either.  The episode "Pee Wee Grows Up" would today mean getting a girlfriend, but in 1956 it meant signing up for a bodybuilding course.

After Fury, Bobby was offered My Three Sons, which became a mega-hit, but instead he decided to play to his strengths, and become the adopted son of newlywed Nannette Fabray on Westinghouse Playhouse.  It lasted for only 25 episodes. (He did score three My Three Sons guest spots)

During the Swinging Sixties, the Westerns of yesteryear seemed old-fashioned and obsolete, and the former cowboy star had trouble finding roles, in spite of his willingness to take off his shirt.

And, reputedly, his pants, as this art photo from around 1965 suggests.  (On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

More after the break