Walt Disney's 1950's television program "The Mickey Mouse Club", the 1956 "Hardy Boys" serial "The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure", and a Spanish gold doubloon dated 1808.
I was a little kid in 1955 when the Walt Disney company began running it's television program "The Mickey Mouse Club" at 5:00 pm on weeknights.
"The Mickey Mouse Club" logo is shown at the beginning of the television program, and after some skits, the serial chapter was shown.
Mickey Mouse Club title
"The Mickey Mouse Club" was a one hour long black and white children's program which ran on the ABC Television Network from 1955 to 1959 and featured a group of young teenage performers, cartoons, newsreels, and sometimes a filmed serial.
"The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" title
"The Hardy Boys - The Mystery of the Applegate Treasure" was a television serial produced by Walt Disney Productions for the program in 1956.
The serial consisted of 19 12-minute episodes which were broadcast daily starting on Tuesday, October 2, 1956 and ending Friday, October 26, 1956.
"The Hardy Boys" began life as a series of novels written for young people about two brothers who solved mysteries. They were published by the Stratemeyer Syndicate whose founder Edward Stratemeyer created the characters in 1927. Stratemeyer hired writers to write his books under the fictional name Franklin W. Dixon.
The Walt Disney serial is very loosely based on the novel
The Tower Treasure published in 1927.
The Disney "Hardy Boys" television program showed an 1808 Spanish gold doubloon several times along with a chest full of dollar-sized prop coins.
The Doubloon was a Spanish 8 escudo gold coin minted from 1610 to 1820 at Spanish mints including Mexico City. They circulated in the early United States where they were worth around 16 dollars.
Each serial episode opened with scenes from a Disney pirate film and a song:
Gold doubloons and pieces of eight, handed down to Applegate.
From buccaneers who fought for years for gold doubloons and pieces of eight.
Handed down in a pirate's chest, the gold they sailed for east and west.
The treasure bright that made men fight, till none were left to bury the chest.
So now the gold and pieces of eight all belong to Applegate.The "Hardy Boys", Frank, age 14, and Joe, age 12, who live with their father Fenton Hardy, a private detective in the fictional town of Bayport. The boys' mother is not mentioned at any time.
It is summer, the boys are out of school, and are bored. Their father is out of town and the brothers would like to solve mysteries like their father does.
Mr. Silas Applegate is an elderly man who lives in a large old house which is falling apart. There is a long time story about a cache of gold doubloons being located on the property. The doubloons were supposed obtained from Jean Lafitte, a real pirate who operated in the Gulf of Mexico in the early 1800's.
Mr. Applegate is regarded by the townspeople as an eccentric and most do not believe the treasure story.
A young city boy works for Mr. Applegate and finds a gold doubloon on the property which he gives to the Hardy boys. This event starts the story.
The "Hardy Boys" coin obverse
The "Hardy Boys" coin reverse
The Disney company sells DVDs of the serial and I bought one.
The DVD also has an episode of the "Mickey Mouse Club", and a short feature on two children visiting the then-new atomic-powered submarine "Nautilus".
I had to have something that was shown in the program.
Spanish America gold eight escudos "doubloon" 1808, Ferdinand VII
Gold, 36.5 mm, 27.00 gm, Mexico City Mint
Obverse:
Ferdinand facing right
FERDIN VII D G HISP ET IND R 1808
(Ferdinand VII, by the Grace of God, King of Spain and the Indies)
Reverse:
Crowned shield of Spain
IN UTROQ FELIX AUSPICE DEO (For both sides, happiness under the auspices of God)
8 S (8 Scudi, Latin for escudos)
Mo TH (Mexico City Mint, Assayer initials)
The coin was graded by NGC as AU 50
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Posted 10/24/2022 5:30 pm
