Sherry Alberoni
Encyclopedia
Sherry Alberoni (born December 4, 1946) is an American
actress and voice artist
. Alberoni got her start as a Mouseketeer on the weekday ABC
television program The Mickey Mouse Club. As an adult, she became a voice artist for Hanna-Barbera Productions. Besides providing voices for numerous incidental characters in series such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
and Jeannie, Alberoni is best known as the voice of both nasty rich-girl Alexandra Cabot from Josie and the Pussycats
and "superhero-in-training" Wendy from the first season of Super Friends
. In 1971, she starred alongside Patty Andrews in the Sherman Brothers
stage musical, Victory Canteen
.
Early on Sherry displayed a generosity of spirit that would stay with her throughout her life. She volunteered for charity work, and became so successful at it that she was proclaimed a "Red Feather" girl by the Community Chest. This enabled her to attend opening day at Disneyland in 1955, where she first met Walt Disney.
Both Sherry and her brother tried out for the Mouseketeers in the spring of 1956. Roy was up first, and after realizing his chance was slipping away, gallantly volunteered that his little sister could play the trumpet while tap-dancing. The casting judges then called for Sherry and she performed as advertised, in the process nearly knocking her teeth out. What really got her a spot on the show though was her lisp; director Sidney Miller thought it was hilarious.
Though normally assigned to the Blue Team for Circus Day and Guest Star Day audiences, Sherry was also given roles in several Anything Can Happen Day numbers. She recalled in later years that director Sidney Miller would often change her lines to include many sibilants, so fond was he of hearing her lisp.
, the last Abbott and Costello
picture. It was Lou Costello
who advised Sherry to stick with her original last name, Alberoni. She followed that up with guest appearances on Bronco
and The Ed Wynn Show, before going to Europe in 1960 to make The Three Worlds of Gulliver
(in which she played the character Glumdalclitch
). Upon return to the United States, Sherry had a feature role on The Tom Ewell Show as the star's daughter. Sherry graduated from Westchester High School
in Los Angeles, where she was a straight "A" student. In 1962 her brother Roy founded a professional combo called The Rhythmaires, for which Sherry was the lead vocalist.
Throughout the sixties Sherry would appear on episodes of many television series, such as The Farmer's Daughter
, Ripcord
, My Three Sons
, The Man from UNCLE, and The Monkees
, while also doing bit parts in minor films. Her biggest recurring television role was as "Sharon James" on Family Affair
(1966–71). Sherry also took a regular part in entertaining Marines at Camp Pendleton during these same years for a monthly production called "The Julie London Show". It was also in the late sixties that she began doing voice work for animated series, like Josie and the Pussycats
, Super Friends
, and in 1984, The Mighty Orbots. During the seventies she also featured in two horror films, Nightmare Circus
(1974) and Sisters of Death
(1977).
In 1980 Sherry took part in the televised Mouseketeer Reunion, and for once got a chance to tap dance with the Red Team. Sherry took part in the Mouseketeer live performances at Disneyland in the 1980s, and also became a fixture on Mouseketeer personal appearance tours during the late eighties and nineties, often teaming with Bobby Burgess
.
Sherry has been married to Dr. Richard Van Meter for over thirty years. The couple has two adult daughters, and resides in Laguna Hills, California
. Throughout her life Sherry has kept up her volunteer work for charities, donating her time and talents for a variety of worthy causes.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress and voice artist
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
. Alberoni got her start as a Mouseketeer on the weekday ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television program The Mickey Mouse Club. As an adult, she became a voice artist for Hanna-Barbera Productions. Besides providing voices for numerous incidental characters in series such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Scooby-Doo, Where are You!
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is the first incarnation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. It premiered on September 13, 1969 at 10:30 a.m. EST and ran for two seasons on CBS as a half-hour long show. Twenty-five episodes were produced...
and Jeannie, Alberoni is best known as the voice of both nasty rich-girl Alexandra Cabot from Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats (TV series)
Josie and the Pussycats is an American animated television series, based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo....
and "superhero-in-training" Wendy from the first season of Super Friends
Super Friends
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
. In 1971, she starred alongside Patty Andrews in the Sherman Brothers
Sherman Brothers
The Sherman Brothers are an American songwriting duo that specialize in musical films, made up of Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman ....
stage musical, Victory Canteen
Victory Canteen
Victory Canteen is a musical comedy play with script by Milt Larsen and Bobby Lauher and song score by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The play opened on January 27, 1971 at the Ivar Theatre and ran for seven months. The show featured Sherry Alberoni, Patty Andrews, Lorene Yarnell,...
.
Background
Sharyn Eileen Alberoni was born December 4, 1946, in Cleveland, Ohio, the youngest of three children. After her family moved to California, Sherry started modeling at age two, and shortly after, took up dancing lessons, joining her older brother Roy. Both kids also learned to play musical instruments; trumpet for Sherry, and drums for her brother. Sherry's biggest hobby was collecting dolls, and by her teenage years she would have several hundred.Early on Sherry displayed a generosity of spirit that would stay with her throughout her life. She volunteered for charity work, and became so successful at it that she was proclaimed a "Red Feather" girl by the Community Chest. This enabled her to attend opening day at Disneyland in 1955, where she first met Walt Disney.
Both Sherry and her brother tried out for the Mouseketeers in the spring of 1956. Roy was up first, and after realizing his chance was slipping away, gallantly volunteered that his little sister could play the trumpet while tap-dancing. The casting judges then called for Sherry and she performed as advertised, in the process nearly knocking her teeth out. What really got her a spot on the show though was her lisp; director Sidney Miller thought it was hilarious.
The little girl with a lisp
Sherry joined the Mickey Mouse Club as a second season replacement and was assigned to the Blue Team. She had few solo performances in her one season with the club, but was part of many audience scenes for guest stars and circus acts. She had a long show business career as an adult, including voice work for cartoons.Performance
At age nine, Sherry was the youngest Mouseketeer for the show's second season (there were two younger mice during the first season). She used the stage name "Allen" upon the advice of her first agent, who thought some casting directors might not hire an ethnic talent. Like all second season mice, Sherry's performances are unavailable for viewing today, as the studio hasn't released production numbers from that year on video or DVD.Though normally assigned to the Blue Team for Circus Day and Guest Star Day audiences, Sherry was also given roles in several Anything Can Happen Day numbers. She recalled in later years that director Sidney Miller would often change her lines to include many sibilants, so fond was he of hearing her lisp.
Aftermath
After leaving The Mickey Mouse Club Sherry appeared in the film Dance With Me, HenryDance with Me, Henry
Dance with Me, Henry is a 1956 film starring the comedy team of Abbott and Costello. It is the final film that they starred in together, although Costello went on to star in one more film before his death, The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock.-Plot:...
, the last Abbott and Costello
Abbott and Costello
William "Bud" Abbott and Lou Costello performed together as Abbott and Costello, an American comedy duo whose work on stage, radio, film and television made them the most popular comedy team during the 1940s and 1950s...
picture. It was Lou Costello
Lou Costello
Louis Francis "Lou" Costello was an American actor and comedian best known as half of the comedy team of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott...
who advised Sherry to stick with her original last name, Alberoni. She followed that up with guest appearances on Bronco
Bronco (TV series)
Bronco is a Western series on ABC from 1958 through 1962. It was shown by the BBC in the United Kingdom. The program starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, a former Confederate officer who wandered the Old West, meeting such well-known individuals as Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Jesse James,...
and The Ed Wynn Show, before going to Europe in 1960 to make The Three Worlds of Gulliver
The Three Worlds of Gulliver
The Three Worlds of Gulliver is a 1960 Columbia Pictures fantasy film loosely based upon the 18th-century English novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The film stars Kerwin Mathews as the titular character, June Thorburn as his fiancée Elizabeth, and child actor Sherry Alberoni as...
(in which she played the character Glumdalclitch
Glumdalclitch
Glumdalclitch is the name Gulliver gives his "nurse" in Book II of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. In Book I, Gulliver travels to the land of Lilliput. Leaving there, he travels to the land of Brobdingnag...
). Upon return to the United States, Sherry had a feature role on The Tom Ewell Show as the star's daughter. Sherry graduated from Westchester High School
Westchester High School (Los Angeles)
Westchester High School is a public high school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Local District 3.It is located in Westchester , USA, a suburban neighborhood adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport and bordered by Playa Vista to the north, Inglewood to the east, El Segundo to the...
in Los Angeles, where she was a straight "A" student. In 1962 her brother Roy founded a professional combo called The Rhythmaires, for which Sherry was the lead vocalist.
Throughout the sixties Sherry would appear on episodes of many television series, such as The Farmer's Daughter
The Farmer's Daughter (TV series)
The Farmer's Daughter is an American situation comedy series that was produced by Screen Gems Television and aired on ABC from September 20, 1963 to April 22, 1966. It was sponsored by Lark cigarettes and Clairol for whom the two leading stars often appeared at show's end promoting the products...
, Ripcord
Ripcord (TV series)
Ripcord is an American syndicated television series that ran for 76 episodes from 1961 to 1963 about the exploits of a skydiving operation by the same name.-Overview:...
, My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
, The Man from UNCLE, and The Monkees
The Monkees (TV series)
The Monkees is an American situation comedy that aired on NBC from September 1966 to March 1968. The series follows the adventures of four young men trying to make a name for themselves as rock 'n roll singers. The show introduced a number of innovative new-wave film techniques to series...
, while also doing bit parts in minor films. Her biggest recurring television role was as "Sharon James" on Family Affair
Family Affair
Family Affair is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to September 9, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment. Davis' traditional...
(1966–71). Sherry also took a regular part in entertaining Marines at Camp Pendleton during these same years for a monthly production called "The Julie London Show". It was also in the late sixties that she began doing voice work for animated series, like Josie and the Pussycats
Josie and the Pussycats (TV series)
Josie and the Pussycats is an American animated television series, based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo....
, Super Friends
Super Friends
Super Friends is an American animated television series about a team of superheroes, which ran from 1973 to 1986 on ABC as part of its Saturday morning cartoon lineup...
, and in 1984, The Mighty Orbots. During the seventies she also featured in two horror films, Nightmare Circus
Nightmare Circus (film)
Nightmare Circus is a 1974 film directed by Alan Rudolph and written by him and Roman Valenti.-Plot:Three showgirls head to Las Vegas for work when their car breaks down...
(1974) and Sisters of Death
Sisters of Death (film)
Sisters of Death is a 1977 American film directed by Joseph Mazzuca and starring Claudia Jennings.-Plot:During an all-girl secret society initiation, one of the new members is killed playing Russian Roulette...
(1977).
In 1980 Sherry took part in the televised Mouseketeer Reunion, and for once got a chance to tap dance with the Red Team. Sherry took part in the Mouseketeer live performances at Disneyland in the 1980s, and also became a fixture on Mouseketeer personal appearance tours during the late eighties and nineties, often teaming with Bobby Burgess
Bobby Burgess
Robert Wilkie "Bobby" Burgess is an American dancer and singer. As a child he was an original Mouseketeer and later in life a regular on the The Lawrence Welk Show.-Early life:...
.
Sherry has been married to Dr. Richard Van Meter for over thirty years. The couple has two adult daughters, and resides in Laguna Hills, California
Laguna Hills, California
Laguna Hills is a city located in southern Orange County, California, United States. Its name refers to its proximity to Laguna Canyon and the much older Laguna Beach. Other newer cities nearby—Laguna Niguel and Laguna Woods—are similarly named.-Geography:...
. Throughout her life Sherry has kept up her volunteer work for charities, donating her time and talents for a variety of worthy causes.