Susan Granger’s review of “American Legends: Mickey Rooney” at the Edgerton Center for the Performing Arts at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT
Now 91, Mickey Rooney has been entertaining audiences since he was 17 months old. Born on Sept. 23, 1920, on the dining room table in Brooklyn, New York, he’s the only child of chorus girl Nell Carter and comic Joe Yules Sr. Two weeks after his birth, Mickey was on the vaudeville circuit, touring with his parents. As soon as he could walk, he was fitted with a tiny tuxedo and began performing. After his parents divorced, Mickey wound up in Hollywood, where he landed his first film role, as a midget in “Not To Be Trusted,” followed by Puck in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Candidly recalling moments from his childhood comes easily to garrulous Mickey, whose rollercoaster career went from #1 box-office star in the world at 18 – to bit parts in beach movies when he was 48. At 5’3” tall, it wasn’t easy to find parts beyond the Andy Hardy series. Yet he made over 200 films, and his leading ladies included Elizabeth Taylor, Lana Turner, Ann Rutherford, Esther Williams and Judy Garland.
“Judy was one of a kind. Her talent touched everyone. She could dance, sing, make you laugh and cry. There was no on like her.”
In later years, he toured extensively with “Sugar Babies” and “Will Rogers Follies,” among other shows, and his enthusiasm still continues.
Mickey survived eight marriages, including his first to Ava Gardner, who left him after a year-and-three-months for Frank Sinatra. When questioned, Mickey could only recall the names of four of his wives, culminating with Jan Chamberlain Rooney – to whom he’s been wedded for the past 42 years.
Although he rambles fancifully about ‘discovering’ Sammy Davis Jr. and Red Skelton and giving young Norma Jean the name ‘Marilyn Monroe,’ Mickey never alludes to his sometimes fondness for liquor and how betting on the ponies cost him several fortunes and caused him to declare bankruptcy before becoming a born-again Christian. And the genial director of The Edgerton Center Jerry Goehring never probes too deep, preferring to skim the surface and allow elderly audience members to ask questions, most of which allude to incidents occurring 40 to 50 years ago.
Often referring to his loneliness, Mickey Rooney concludes: “The only things that count are family and friends, people who care.”