Tom Mahoney

Monnesota-born Tom Mahoney was a choreographer who received his training in Minneapolis. In 1956, after having been choreographer on several TV variety shows, he was hired as choreographer on The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). He changed the dancing technique on the show to aim it at a young teen audience, rather than the pre-teen demographic the first season catered to, and in that respect there was more boy/girl dancing rather than the performers dancing by themselves, as in the first season. After "The Mickey Mouse Club" went off the air, Mahoney continued to work for Disney, including choreographing the Disney musical Babes in Toyland (1961) with Annette Funicello. He also choreographed Annette's dancing in one of her "Beach Party" movies, Bikini Beach (1964). He died in St. Paul, MN, in 1995.