MOVIE URBAN LEGEND: Walt Disney banned Annette Funicello from showing her navel in her beach movies in the 1960s.
Obviously, a number of cultural mores have evolved over time, and when you look back on some of them, they just look kind of absurd in retrospect. For instance, in Victorian England, for a time, at least, women showing off their bare ankles was considered scandalous. With the advent of bicycling, that particular "rule" fell by the wayside (as you can't very well ride a bike without showing your ankles), but a number of similar rules lasted well into the 20th Century.
One of those "rules" was the obsession that people once had with women's navels. In Hollywood, there was the Hays Office, which helped handle what was and what was not allowed in films, and for a time, the Hays Office (which governed Hollywood content through the "Hays Code") specifically banned the depiction of a woman's navel because tt simulated an "erotogenic orifice." Yes, by the standards of the time, female navels were treated as if they were substitutes for female genitalia, to the point where navels were banned from the screen. Even after the Hays Code fell out of favor in the late 1950s (following a Supreme Court decision in Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, which ruled that films were protected under the First Amendment, and thus the specter of government oversight into the film industry, which backed the implementation of the Hays Code, no longer applied), navels were generally considered a tad too scandalous, even though they were technically now allowed to be shown in films.
Two-piece bathing suits had become common among women in the 1930s, but these suits typically covered the navel. Thus, the bikini, introduced in 1946, was a huge cultural milestone. Whenever a celebrity like Brigitte Bardot was photographed wearing a bikini during the 1950s, it was a BIG deal, and, of course, bikinis very much did NOT cover a woman's navel. Even as the 1960s began, bikinis were a bit controversial in pop culture, which is why there is a legend about whether Walt Disney banned Annette Funicello from wearing a bikini or otherwise exposing her navel when she started doing her "beach" films in the 1960s, beginning with 1963's Beach Party.
WHAT WAS WALT DISNEY'S INTEREST IN ANNETTE FUNICELLO?
The Mickey Mouse Club was one of two television programs that Walt Disney created (the other being Walt Disney's Disneyland, which evolved into The Wonderful World of Disney) to help raise the money to help fund his expansion from animated films into amusement parks, beginning with Disneyland in California. Disney was not heavily involved in The Mickey Mouse Club overall (he was so busy on the films and the amusement parks, and the other TV show), but one of the areas where he DID get involved was to specifically cast young Annette Funicello after seeing her perform as the Swan Queen in a production of Swan Lake in Burbank. He signed Funicello to a seven-year deal in 1955.
She was clearly Disney's favorite among the "Mousketeers," as the teen stars on the Mickey Mouse Club were referred to, and soon, Disney pushed her to also become a recording artist. She became a favorite with the TV audiences, as well, and Disney kept her busy, getting her guest spots on other Disney shows, like Zorro. Disney also began to cast her in films, as well, including hits like Babes in Toyland and The Shaggy Dog. However, Funicello was still being paid based on the terms of her original deal, and she tried to get out of the contract in the late 1950s. She failed to do so, but when her deal ended in 1962, she moved on from Disney to begin working for the independent movie studio, American International Pictures (while still doing work with Disney, as well).
Her first film for AMP was Beach Party, the first in a string of "beach" films starring Funicello and singer/actor Frankie Avalon that were set on the beach, with all the surfing and beach fun that you might imagine. However, there is a legend that said that Walt Disney specifically forbade Funicello from wearing any swimsuit in those films that showed her navel.
WAS FUNICELLO BANNED FROM SHOWING HER NAVEL IN HER BEACH FILMS?
Here's the simple fact of the matter, Funicello DID show her navel right in the first film in the series, Beach Party, as you can see in the uncropped version of our featured image...
So obviously she wasn't banned from showing her navel. However, it IS fair to say that Disney did ASK her to avoid showing off too much skin by virtue of wearing a bikini. Funicello recalled in 1987, when she was doing a return to her beach movie days with Avalon for the family comedy, Back to the Beach, "'Mr. Disney called Sam and asked if my innocence could be preserved in the movie. I had so much respect for Mr. Disney I agreed to keep my 'Mickey Mouse Club' image. 'I was teased all the time about being the only girl in the 'beach' movies without a navel. But I wore bikinis around the pool at home -- I still do -- and when I went to the beach myself. But the truth is, I never have liked the beach very much. There's always blowing sand, crowds and the rough surf."
Obviously, as you can see, Funicello kept the navel story going, as well, but it simply was just a matter of her not wearing a skimpy bathing suit, and Disney obviously didn't BAN anything (how COULD he? He wasn't her boss on these films! It reminds me of a similar legend about how Disney supposedly kept the original Snow White voice actor from working because he wanted to avoid ruining the illusion of Snow White). She still showed a normal amount of skin, including her navel.
The legend is...
STATUS: False Enough for a False
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