The Tragic End of Little Mickey Rooney

As anyone who worked with him can attest, he was a miserable little fucker.

God, the poor guy.

That wife and stepson are pure evil.

He made awful choices his whole life and ended up with the crazy and abusive Jan Chamberlin. I wonder if Ben Stiller was nice to him on the "Night at the Museum" sets, and gave him some cash money to walk around with?

He was a totally entitled shithead til the end. Back when I worked in PR, we had him doing some event with Tony the Tiger for Kelloggs at the Mann's Chinese. He dove into the freshly laid cement with his feet just before the event started (I know, the event was a total joke but he signed on to be part of it). He was supposed to do press for it and was belligerent and bellicose through the whole thing. A truly awful human being to work with. This was around 1994-1995 when he still had his wits about him. Just a total asshole.

Who?

The entire family - even the "good" stepson sound like awful human beings. I wonder if Liza knew about any of this.

He told poor Judy she wasn't pretty enough for him and broke her heart.Could that all have been karma?

[quote]Who?

A hugely popular movie star and a tremendous talent back when movie stars had more talent than 'tude.

Not that it excuses his asshole-ishness, but Mickey Rooney had talent to burn. They just don't make 'em like that any more. Few entertainers could do it all the way he could at the height of his career.

Well, at least Mickey escaped the abusive clutches of his wife and stepson towards the end, and got to live his final years in relative peace..

He was amazing in Diner.

One last Judy and Micky film while they were both still in their prime could have been wonderful. What great rapport they had together.

He had 100k per year income from SAG and SS? Doesn't sound bad at all.

R6 Oh she knew. If nothing else, she knew he was a pervy little fucker - he was openly groping at her tits during the TCM event a few years back for the re-release of Cabaret. Every single photo of Liza from that event that has Mickey anywhere near her, she's got some serious 'HELP ME' eyes going on. I get the feeling this may not have been the first incident of its kind from Mickey.

He was a classic case of 'Napoleon complex' he was a talented man whose height hindered him from getting decent roles, and eventually this must have made him very bitter. He never progressed beyond the teenage types of roles he played in the Hardy movies. Even as an old man that was what he was called on to discuss, or his friendship with the more successful Judy. As a narcissist this must have really pissed him off. He was a bit pathetic.

He was at Chiller the east coast autograph show a few years before he died. His wife right beside him. She was such a whore, she wouldn't let anyone photograph him with her being in the photo. If you wanted a photo WITH him and you, she had to be in the picture. People were really pissed, who wanted her picture? This isn't me, I didn't want a pic but this is how she insisted it be taken. Notice the banner behind them where she gets billing with him.

[quote]He had 100k per year income from SAG and SS? Doesn't sound bad at all.

He had no control of it, never saw it, The wife and stepson did.

Just because you're an asshole doesn't mean you deserve to be beaten and financially exploited. Poor guy.

At first glance I thought the title of this thread read: The Tragic End of Little Mitt Romney. He used to shit his pants and bed.

R15 he did a Twilight Zone episode that was a little too close to home--he was a jockey who can't race anymore because of a doping scandal. The entire episode takes place in his apartment where he rants and raves that if he were big he'd have power and no one could push him around. He starts growing and is soon too big for his apartment. The phone rings and he's been cleared of the doping charge and can resume racing. The look on his face is incredible. He was a really great actor who never seemed to gain the respect and love that James Cagney received.

"Estate could have been worth hundreds of millions when he died"

PULEEEZE. If he had not been addicted to gambling, pills, booze and whoring around, he might have been worth a million or two.

What does Liza have to do with it, R6? They were not good friends. "Friends" only in the show business sense, like they saw each other in passing every 15 years.

I'm glad people are calling out Rooney as the little asshole he was.

R19, Rooney got his recognition when his career was hot. Problem was that his "charming punk" persona didn't wear well.

Who does this little cunt think he is?

Celebrities stop maturing at the age they were when they became famous. Mickey and Judy were both spoiled by becoming stars in their teens. Judy never paid her bills, feeling that as a star she was entitled to a first-class lifestyle whether she had money or not. Mickey ran through money, booze, and the goodwill of others as though he would always have a never-ending supply.

R19, speaking of that TWILIGHT ZONE episode, he recorded commentary track with an interviewer and he had quite the attitude. It is kinda funny, too. He really was a cunt.

Also, am I making this up or did Ava Gardner admit to whooping his ass a few times??? Imagining that scenario still makes me giggle.

Did you notice, on the video at R12, Judy doesn't appear to be wearing any shoes at all? Looks like she's wearing stockings with a dark toe and heel. In those days dark stockings had reinforced toe and heel, they were darker than the rest. She also seems to be sliding a little bit when she dances, as you do in stocking feet.

She's still taller than him.

Why should being short stop anyone - it never stopped Tiny Tammy Cruise.

r25, she kicks her heels off at the beginning of the number. It's actually quite charming.

[quote]One last Judy and Micky film while they were both still in their prime could have been wonderful. What great rapport they had together.

Well they did try twice. in 1950 Mickey was originally planned as the male lead of "Summer Stock", yet was replaced by Gene Kelly, probably after Mickey's big flop "Summer Holiday", not that the troubled musical was his fault. I believe he and MGM parted ways the year after its released, or at least they had no plans to have him head up a movie with Judy.

Then in 1965/65, MGM was planning an all-star Irving Berlin musical to be produced by Arthur Freed starring Mickey and Judy, called "Say it With Music", but it never came together and eventually the idea was scrapped.

I meant 1964/65 above.

Stanley Kramer wanted to reunite Mickey and Judy as the dentist and his wife in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. But it turned out that Judy was not insurable, so he teamed up Rooney with Buddy Hackett instead and cast the married couple, Ernie Kovacs and Edie Adams as the dentist and his wife. Then Kovacs was killed in a car accident so Sid Caesar took over the part. Edie Adams stayed in the movie as Ernie had left her deep in debt and she was determined to work to pay off every cent of it.

"I was the number one star in the world

Yah hear me?

Bang

(Kissing sound)

THE WORLD!"

The article says that Mickey was bi-polar so maybe that's the reason for his erratic or crappy behavior.

The combination of bipolar and ridiculous sense of entitlement is a horrible combo.

What a thread. DL is such a tonic!

The beginning stages of Alzheimers make the person an asshole too.

No doubt Mickey Rooney was an egotistical pill, but it's always sad when an elderly person is abused and taken advantage of.

At one time, he was indeed a huge star during Hollywood's golden era (he loved to reiterate that: "I was the biggest star in the world!"). And to end up the way he did: broke, treated like shit by those closest to him...well, it's enough to make you cry.

I know he tended to be awful, but I'm still very sorry for him. But hell, it was mostly his own fault. All those marriages, all his money thrown away on women and gambling; if he'd lived his life differently he wouldn't have ended up the way he did. In his own way he was as self-destructive as his "pal" Judy Garland.

His real name was Joseph Yule.

Holy shit R30, way to bring back some good memories!

R24. I don't know but I've heard she used to beat the shit out of Frank Sinatra.

I've also heard it was part of their "thing" sexually after awhile.

I was a bartender at Athens Olympia Restaurant in Boston's "theater district " (also known as the Combat Zone!) in the early eighties. Rooney was in town for Sugar Babies, which he toured for decades! One of the waiters, an elderly Greek, was star struck by him, and after serving his party asked for an autograph. Rooney agreed and Kirk went looking for something for him to sign. When he found a Playbill and returned to the table Rooney had left. He was so hurt he looked like he was going to cry. He always bad mouthed Mickey after that. It was such a shitty thing to do.

I remember when Michael J Fox was hailed "the new Mickey Rooney" when he was on Family Ties.

[quote]I remember when Michael J Fox was hailed "the new Mickey Rooney" when he was on Family Ties.

And before Michael J Fox they were saying the some thing about Linda Hunt.

Mickey Rooney as Bill.

He ended up a vulnerable adult like the one he once played.

[quote]A hugely popular ham and a tremendous scenery chewer back when other movie stars had more talent than 'tude, although he had more 'tude than talent.

I will always be grateful to Mickey for the first part of this scene.

He really was incredibly good in "Sugar Babies". I was surprised just how good he was, but although nominated for the Tony, he did not win. I imagine lots of people in the biz couldn't stand him.

It was karma for Mr. Yunioshi.

Wasn't there going to be another Broadway show like "Sugar Babies," i.e, a nostalgia show, but the star of the show was so nasty that the show shut down before it started? Maybe it was Jerry Lewis? I don't think so though. I can't imagine Jerry Lewis allowing anyone else to share a stage/show with him. I remember backers lost a lot of money

[quote] At one time, he was indeed a huge star during Hollywood's golden era (he loved to reiterate that: "I was the biggest star in the world!"). And to end up the way he did: broke, treated like shit by those closest to him...well, it's enough to make you cry.

I'd need a lot more than that to make me cry.

Yes, R46, it was Jerry Lewis in a revival of Hellzapoppin'. He put his girlfriend in it and no one knew what to do with her. The show had a torturous tryout period and closed on the road.

[quote] I remember when Michael J Fox was hailed "the new Mickey Rooney" when he was on Family Ties.

I thought they said that about Emmanuel Lewis on Webster.

Thank you, R48. I was thinking it was something with a title like Lollapalooza, but I couldnt remember it.

A lot of hopes were dashed, as people thought it would be a long running show like Sugar Babies.

He made movies that were never released and drek like those Frankie Avalon films. His #1 box office stuff was 60-70 years ago. He'd go on talk shows and yammer on about the old days, ignoring how poorly people (including him were treated). Other stars of his era figure out how to adapt, didn't marry anyone who came a long and invested in real estate.

I remember him talking in some documentary about how there were NO GAYS at MGM and that "if there was [sic] closets, they were LOCKED TIGHT."

Not only did it make him seem like a homophobe, it made him seem like a total idiot.

Given his track record with wives, film choices, kids, etc. I'd say total idiot. He needed to believe in the past--he just remembered it very selectively

Didn't be insinuate in his memoirs that Judy Garland had a bisexual fling with another 'famous female singer"? (I've heard it may have been Lena Horne). Coming from someone who called Judy his sister and his best friend it seemed like a desperate move.

Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist, said in an interview that Rooney was an a-hole to him during the national tour of Sugar Babies

I heard a particularly nasty story about Rooney recently. Seems there's a new biography about him entitled "The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney." I guess whoever wrote knew he was going to die soon, because judging from this one story Rooney is going to be raked over the coals in it.

The following information is supposedly taken from a friend of one of Rooney's wives (what a reliable source!). Anyway, here it is:

Pam McClenathan, a friend and caregiver to Betty Jane Rase, told book authors Richard Lertzman and Williams Birnes about the incident, reported the New York Post.

"Betty Jane . . . told me she went to visit Mickey at (an LA film studio) around June 1946," McClenathan was quoted as saying. "She had (the couple's first son) Mickey Jr. in tow and was pregnant with [second son] Timmy . . . When she opened the door to the dressing room, Elizabeth Taylor was on her knees giving Mickey oral sex." The book said they divorced after the incident. Rooney, who was in his mid-20s, and Taylor had starred together in the movie classic "National Velvet" in 1944. Elizabeth Taylor was 14 years old at the time.

Now...does anybody really believe THAT happened? I don't. Elizabeth Taylor demonstrated questionable taste in men later in life (Eddie Fisher, Larry Fortensky), but I seriously doubt that she would have been interested in sucking Mickey Rooney's cock and at the age of fourteen years.

I've heard a lot of Hollywood stories like that; so-and-so walked in to see so-and-so giving so-and-so a blow job. I think the Liz giving Mickey a blow job tale is just bullshit.

At any rate, here's more about the Rooney bio, which promises to be quite a smear job:

“I lived like a rock star,” Rooney is quoted in a Simon & Schuster blurb on the book . “I had all I ever wanted, from Lana Turner and Joan Crawford to every starlet in Hollywood, and then some. They were mine to have. Ava [Gardner] was the best.”

The book's authors said MGM worked tirelessly to keep their top box-office draw out of the gossip columns because the actor was far from the wholesome characters he played on screen.

"Countless people who have met Mickey have found his behavior reprehensible," the book says. "He could be not only crude and vulgar, but also a quarrelsome drunk; a shameless womanizer, especially when he was chasing underage girls; and a reprobate who spent too much time on the phone with his bookies."

"Was it possible … the only real Mickey Rooney was the guy who was on for the audience, on for the camera, or on for each of his wives and friends – until he was off?," the book says. "Was there no real person inside the created character that was Mickey Rooney? Simply put, was the secret of Mickey Rooney that there was no Mickey Rooney?"

"I'm GUMBY, dammit!"

Ava Gardner must have been insane to fuck that spastic troll.

It was always rumored that Mickey was well hung. He even fucked Norma Shearer after Thalberg died.

Lana Turner took great exception to Mickey writing in his book that they had fucked, but you know they probably did.

I recall a Larry King show on Marilyn Monroe, with Mickey and Milton Berle among the panel of celebs discussing her. Rooney and Berle really went at each other during the show, flinging insults left and right. It made for an amusing hour, watching old Larry and the other guests squirm.

"Didn't be insinuate in his memoirs that Judy Garland had a bisexual fling with another 'famous female singer"? (I've heard it may have been Lena Horne)."

OMG. NO. Lena had her choice of babes, Judy was not one of them. The "singer" was Kay Thompson.

Rooney may or may not have been an asshole (all signs seem to point to yes), but it's still sad to think of someone beating up a diminutive, 90+ year-old to the point of a black eye and a chipped tooth...

What really happened in Mickey Rooney's Brentwood home, the night Wife #5 was slain, along with her Serbian lover?

Little? He was hung like a horse!

He wound up with his son's girlfriend? Mickey was a trainwreck.

R55: I totally believe that underage Elizabeth Taylor gave him a blowjob.

She was an ambitious person who used sex to get what she wanted. And he was actually cute back then, hung like a donkey and, she probably thought, get her roles. They were both tramps.

"Ava Gardner must have been insane to fuck that spastic troll."

She was very young at the time. I imagine she was bowled over by his celebrity. And his money. I remember a picture of them together where she's flashing the huge diamond engagement ring he gave her. In his biography "Life Is Too Short" he describes her nipples (they were brown) and how great it was to suck them. He also described her clitoris. He also talks about the great blow jobs he got from Norma Shearer.("her soft, soft lips"). He said he might have fallen in love with his frequent co-star Judy Garland, but she wasn't pretty enough for him. Such a scumbag he was.

I agree, R64. I can totally see Liz Taylor doing that. What a whore she was.

I guess Mickey had a reality show promo that was never picked up. This is 12 sad, sad minutes of it. His wife is a bitch who will not shut up. She thinks it is the Jan show. Mickey wants to kill her.

R67 Good god what a miserable man. And SHE is supposedly the bitch????

Rooney was the product of a vaudeville couple. His father never missed an opportunity to express how much he disliked and resented his son and soon abandoned both Mickey and the mother. Mickey was an entertainer by the age of two. His mother and everyone else exploited the hell out of him. He was undereducated and had negative role models. He had almost no opportunity to not be a deeply unpleasant asshole.

Why the fuck does his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame read "JAN and Mickey Rooney"? Who is that overarching cunt?

That reality pilot is unwatchable--two annoying old people who don't wear seatbelts. Mickey does his whole nostalgia schtick putting the best gloss on that horrible LB Mayer. The idea that they wanted him for "Dances with Wolves" is ludicrous---would he be one of the Indians, putting in a performance like he did with that Japanese character in "Breakfast at Tiffany's"? Even "Cocoon"? Mickey's rank overacting would not have fit at all.

[quote] It was always rumored that Mickey was well hung. He even fucked Norma Shearer after Thalberg died.

Oh honey, you're actually talking about that like it was some sort of special achievement!

I never heard anywhere that Rooney was "well hung."

And I don't think Elizabeth Taylor ever sucked Rooney's cock. I don't think she was a 14 year old slut. I think that part of her life came a few years later.

I was flipping the tv and though the channel says GEtTv I think it should be renamed DL Tv. First up is The Judy Garland Show who sings/shouts to her son and then to Lorna about 2 inches from her face. Next The Jim Nabors show with guest Carol Burnett. He is flaming. Then The Merv Griffin show with Roddy McDowell Carol Burnett Oscar Levant, who is out of his mind or drunk as a skunk saying whatever pops into head. All of them smoking like fiends except Carol.

[quote]I don't think she was a 14 year old slut. I think that part of her life came a few years later.

Her mother, Sara Taylor told friends that "the jew coarsened my beautiful daughter" although for public consumption she told the press that Elizabeth converted to the jewish faith after Mike Todd died so that their daughter Liza wouldn't be the only one in the family.

One of the Old Hollywood books (City of Nets?) talks about the private brothel MGM ran for its execs and stars, and they said that Louie B Mayer had to have a private chat with young Mickey because he was practically living there.

You have to give the guy some slack. He was in 340 movies, most before he reached adulthood. How the Hell does anyone grow up normal when you're being treated like a rented mule by MGM? By all rights he should have been dead by 1960.

In the box. The embalmers work reminds me of the corpse in Sordid Lives.

He did have a tight little body when he was younger and I bet he threw a mean fuck.

I love him in the Andy Hardy movies and his good Busby Berkley musicals with Judy.

"National Velvet" is an excellent movie on every level, it's also gorgeously photographed.

....

There is a number from Sugar Babies taken from a Tony Awards show on one of those Best of Broadway DVD collections. In it Rooney is shamelessly attempting to upstage Ann Miller but she is too much of a showgirl to let him get away with it.

Was he ever approached for either of the "Grumpy Old Men" roles? He would have been perfect playing himself.

I mentioned this before on DL. I used to work with this lady who had a friend who was a Las Vegas show girl. Her friend said Mickey was doing Sugar Babies in Vegas and she said he was one nasty drunk. She said he was horrible.

I remember someone on DL one time mentioned Mickey was on Murder She Wrote because Angela Lansbury offered him to come on the show like myriads of other old movie-stars she knew. Apparently Mickey was so horrible on the Murder She Wrote set that Angela Lansbury apologized to everyone for bringing him on the show and she said she would never allow him back.

Holy Molly! that video on R67 link. If you haven't watched it yet, you must! He was horrible! He seems like he had something really mentally wrong with him. That lady who went up to him in a restaurant, and said she saw all his films and liked him and then he said thank bye and brushed her off. I know he was eating but just, WOW! BTW, Jan has a great singing voice. Thanks for putting that up R67!

Someone on her mentioned that Mickey claimed there was no Homos in MGM. I watched an interview ,which he was asked if certain actors were at lest bisexual and he flipped out! He said, NO WAY! That was BS made up the tabloids!

Ava Gardner said he was the biggest liar around. I highly doubt Liz Taylor had sex with Mickey. The studios knew she was and was going to be a bankable movie star and her career was highly secure. She was beyond beautiful when she was a kid and of course especially when she was an adult. On the contrary, I thought someone said Mickey might have raped her? However, I don't think that was possible either because her mother watched her like a hawk because Liz brought in the money for her family and her parents highly used her. Also, Liz converted to Judaism years before she married Mike Todd. She said she was searching for a spiritual connection when she was very, very young and she decided Judaism was what she chose. She said she didn't convert when she married Mike Todd because she would never convert to any religion for any man.

Someone posted Mickey's ex wife's death was questionable. He seems like he had a temper ,which he would flare up and could have gotten out of control, yikes!

Despite everything, he was and is a legend and one of those major pinnacles of Hollywood history. Even though Frank Sinatra was a complete monster and a thug, I give credit when credit is do and Frank Sinatra was a incredibly talented singer and a major legend ans star.

BTW, someone on this thread posted a little bit about Mickey's childhood that his parents were in vaudeville. However, for years I have heard his mother was really a prostitute who was very rough and tough lady.

I remember seeing him on one of those entertaiment tv shows once where he was in a tirade against people like Streisand who he said Judy had helped on the way up and were now ungrateful. He was scarily angry and the opposite of a smooth-controlled movie star. Mr. Mayer would have been horrified at his behavior. Mickey seemed to forget that when Judy had Barbra on her TV show it benefited both ladies. I had to wonder whether he later tried to get a job from Barbra and she told him to take a walk.

It seems Mickey had a schizo attitude to Judy. In documentaries he could be embarrassingly sentimental about how he loved her, and then in others he could be cruel in saying taking drugs was her own choice and not to blame her mother or MGM. One interviewer commented that Mickey publicly said he was a close friend of Judy but doubted they spent much private time together, especially in her declining years.

Like many stars of that era, he was trained to be a product of the studio system ie to internalize the idea of a dream factory etc. He always waxed sentimental about Louis B. Mayer and MGM because I suppose it gave him a sense of belonging to a 'family' that was probably mostly a fantasy. We know that Mayer was just another asshole who only cared about profit, so Mickey's claims that he was a father figure to him were no doubt largely in his own mind. Also these stars at MGM were cosseted, and treated like gods, while they were profitable. It must be hard to keep your feet on the ground in that kind of unreality. As for the Liz Taylor story I wouldn't put it past either of them. I saw an interview online, where lillian Burns, MGMs dramatic coach back in the day said something about Liz being a woman by the time she was 13 or so, it was the way she said it that kind of hinted that she was precocious in ALL ways!

Did they have brothels at every studio, or just MGM? or is this just more salacious invented gossip??

When Howard Hughes took over RKO in the late 1940s he had bungalows for starlets he was interested in. Not quite the same as brothels but the same result.

The Hacienda Arms Apartments, MGM's brothel:

Wow behind the tinsel of tinsel town is pure sleaze haha! You cannot trust what any Hollywood star says, they all, especially the old ones, mythologize. As for Rooney claiming there were no gays in MGM that is so disingenuous, surely he heard about Garbo, Arthur Freed, Lena Horne, Van Johnson etc, etc?

I bet Roddy McDowell has plenty to say about Mickey's exploits in that memoir that is under lock and key!!

I've seen a couple of terrible cases of elder abuse that were totally undeserved.

Rooney was probably combative as Alzheimers and dementia tend to be at certain stages of their illness. He should have had professional caregivers rather than relying on stepfamily members. That wouldn't have stopped the thefts, but it would have ended the physical abuse. As for his issues with continence, that's quite normal.

He was generally acknowledged to be an asshole when he was younger so it's unlikely he was going to become jolly old Mickey when he got old.

Silent film star Billie Bennett was the madam at a high end brothel that featured prostitutes who looked like movie stars, the inspiration for LA Confidential. It supposedly operated with the backing of MGM, but it was more to show the movie theater operators in from the sticks a good time and send them back to DesMoines with aa story to tell than it was to keep the stars happy.

The brothel Rooney wrote about in his book was called T&M Studio. He was first taken there by Groucho Marx.

Today is a good day. I thought that shit was still breathing.

[quote]I've seen a couple of terrible cases of elder abuse that were totally undeserved.

As opposed to the rest, when it was totally deserved?

As opposed to Mickey Rooney, who treated the people around him like shit when he was compos mentis, R95.

Even the most horrible among us does not deserve to be physically and mentally abused when he is completely powerless, vulnerable, and unable to defend himself.

I agree, R97. It's just harder to feel sorry for some people than others.

I wonder if he was the first actor in his late twenties to play teenager roles.

As far back as college in the late 1970s, I recall from various acquaintances who had had dealings with him and from the press (then rather loath to attack a former child star) that he had the reputation of one of the most miserable human beings alive. He was something of the Dionne Warwick of his time, agreeing rather freely to lend his name to various charitable events and then unleashing an escalating series of demands then failing to show, or showing up to make a stormy exit - taking what money he could wring out of a situation, destroying all good will, and unleashing torrents of vile temper. He had elaborate strings of business dealings in Pennsylvania, all similarly fraught with bad drama and mean-spiritedness, large or small, the sums of money seemed inconsequential even as his own finances became suspect. Whatever he touched, it seemed a bellicose explosion was soon in the offing, inevitable. He seems to have been a miserable cunt all his adult life.

[quote]and her parents highly used her.

Her parents "highly used her?"

His prime was way before my time (I'm old but not that old) so I remember him primarily for the horsing around he did in commercials for Sugar Babies, and for when he did Late Night with David Letterman. His old fashioned "nutty hijinx" were perfect fodder for Letterman's raised eyebrow irony.

At some point in his old age he had an obscenely huge, perfectly round belly that he used to go around flashing, apparently for a laugh, and I used to think "what is up with this creepy imp of a man?" What a relic he was.

Esther Williams recounted a story in her memoirs about walking with Red Skelton to the set of Neptune.'s Daughter and they passed by the Freed Unit offices and Red did a humorously swishy walk. it was known all over Hollywood about "Freed' s Fairies" (I.e. Roger Edens, Charles Walters, Gower Champion, Robert Alton, Lennie Hayton, Stanley Donen, Vincente Minnelli) Freed himself was straight though

And yet he was deep inside the gorgeous Ava Gardner.

... who was nuttier than a fruitcake herself ....

He nearly killed my career

He was a terrific young actor in non-musicals, as well, like Boys' Town.

He must have been really short as Judy was supposedly barely 5' tall and he appears a few inches shorter than her.

[quote]By all rights he should have been dead by 1960.

And that would have spared us from Mr. Yunioshi.

He was a hot number when he was young.

"He also described her clitoris"

I thought that was Lena who described Ava's clitoris.

[quote]She said she was searching for a spiritual connection when she was very, very young and she decided Judaism was what she chose. She said she didn't convert when she married Mike Todd because she would never convert to any religion for any man.

Liz Taylor chose Judaism because she thought the word Jew meant they worshiped jewelry.

'I never heard anywhere that Rooney was "well hung."'

On the Datalounge, everyone is well hung.

R112 Even the ladies!

Women don't care about the hung, they care about the tongue. When Scott Baio was on Stern and he was going down Baio's women, Stern said , you must be really hung, and Baio said not at all, it's all about the oral and he became a master at it.

That reality footage was disturbing. After all the housewives beating each other it would have probably did very well now.

R77

I thought he looked worse in SKiDOO

I also read where he told one of his wives something he wanted to do sexually to her or with her and she said to him 'if I did that I would have to sell my soul.'

She divorced him a short while later.

Very curious to know if what it was is in the book or if it is so unspeakable they don't say.

I did see him with Ann Miller on Broadway in Sugar Babies and they were sensational together.

It was a lot of fun but I'm amazed now that he had the discipline to do 8 shows a week and that at some point he didn't break with Miller.

Maybe it was too lucrative for either of them to fuck up their relationship but with these two old MGM pros trying to outdo one another at every performance it could not have been fun backstage.

[quote] I give credit when credit is do

Oh, dear.

I've heard lately about Donen being gay.

Considering the incredibly tight relationship he had with Kelly early in both their careers and how they developed together professionally and then how the relationship fell irreconcilably apart in the mid 50s I bet that would make a book in itself.

The closeness, the switching of wives, the professional mutual support and then competition, a blow by blow uncensored account would be incredible.

Though the few people left alive will probably have their lips sealed until the grave.

There is a very good Stanley Donen bio out there called DANCING ON THE CEILING by Stephen Silverman, r120. All of those things are discussed except any insinuation of bisexuality on the part of Kelly or Donen (who I believe endorsed the book).

Can anyone name a really good book about the history of MGM? I still feel like I haven't found it; most are very dry and academic.

R121, have you read MGM's Greatest Musicals - The Arthur Freed Unit by Hugh Fordin? Breezy and chock-full of info about the glory days of Hollywood musicals.

[quote]I also read where he told one of his wives something he wanted to do sexually to her or with her and she said to him 'if I did that I would have to sell my soul.' She divorced him a short while later. Very curious to know if what it was is in the book or if it is so unspeakable they don't say.

It was one of those things that a woman ain't s'posed to see.

He says he met Marilyn in 1936, at R22. She was 10 yo !!! Oh Lordie, R17. Uh, yea. That's exactly when you deserve to be exploited and beaten down. When you're an asshole. It's called karma.

He was bitter, short, full of himself and a moron. But he was married to hot, hot, hotties early on.

Thank you r121. I will look for that book.

"The article says that Mickey was bi-polar so maybe that's the reason for his erratic or crappy behavior."

I'm so tired of this sorry excuse for peoples problems. Bi-polar disease is extremely serious and genetic. I have only met one true bi-polar person in my life. You are literally up (awake) for several days before the crash/burn of depression and sleep. The person I knew had a family history of mother, brother and herself that had it. They have horrible symptoms and act out with addictions like gambling, sex, stealing, shopping. The person I knew said she would walk the streets of our neighborhood endlessly. My ex-husband said she used to ask if he/we had any valium or anything that might help her to sleep. Serious stuff. And there's no mild or not-so-severe bi-polar. You have it or you don't.

Mickey was just a senile, old coot. He thought he was entitled and was bitter. The video at R22 clearly shows that.

Didn't Mickey write that he had sodomized Elizabeth Taylor? Also Ava found out that Mickey had cheated on her when she realized the woman had been using her douchebag.

"I've heard lately about Donen being gay."

LATELY?

There is a book called MGM Hollywood's Greatest Backlot which is quite wonderful in it's photos. It's also very sad because all the backlot is now gone.

I find Judy's comment that Mickey was a genius and she learned everything she knew from him, odd.

R114 Speak for yourself.

[quote]Maybe it was too lucrative for either of them to fuck up their relationship but with these two old MGM pros trying to outdo one another at every performance it could not have been fun backstage.

He and Ann were kids when the got to MGM, like Debbie reynolds. They were trained to be total pros. They weren't stupid and knew exactly what they had with "Sugar Babies". They did for years.

Elizabeth Taylor was anything buy a slut. She was very protective, between the studio, her parents and the studio. The only men she slept with she married. An Ava Gardner or such would have just had an affair with Eddie Fisher, she married him.

R24 - I remember that Twilight Zone episode DVD audio commentary. There is someone provided to help Mickey talk about his experience but the Mickster continues to shut him down. It makes you think that Mickey was forced into doing the commentary and he offers little to no insight.

[quote]Elizabeth Taylor was anything buy a slut.... The only men she slept with she married.

Yes, but wasn't she married forty-eight times?

"Elizabeth Taylor was anything buy a slut. She was very protective, between the studio, her parents and the studio. The only men she slept with she married. "

Now THAT is certainly a crock of shit. I think it was Taylor herself who said that, that is, that her only lovers were men she married. I guess she wanted people to think she wasn't THAT scarlet a woman. But she certainly did fuck men she didn't end up marrying. Liz was very needy. She always needed a man in her life. But I don't think she was sucking cocks at age 14.

Ann Miller said that she was in dire financial straits when Sugar Babies was offered to her and she profited handsomely from it. I'm sure she would have withstood Hitler as her co-star, let alone Mickey Rooney.

[quote]But she certainly did fuck men she didn't end up marrying.

Elizabeth Taylor couldn't fart without the press reporting it. Apparently you were in her bedroom, please spill everything!

Who is/was despised by colleagues more, Mickey Rooney, or Jerry Lewis?

We were walking along Goethe Street across from the Ambassador East Hotel in the 1970s when a familiar personage came bouncing toward us.

"It's Mickey Rooney"! exclaimed we.

"And twice on Sundays" came the sassy reply from same.

I saw Jerry Lewis in Damn Yankees and I was amazed that he actually played the part and didn't try to upstage everyone.

He put on his gracious generous act and as the pro he is played it convincingly.

Just like Sinatra and other huge egotists when they are in the mood.

R-138, I would add Danny Kaye.

R-138, I would add Danny Kaye.

R-138, Danny Kaye.

R-138, Danny Kaye.

I never saw anything like Kaye in Two by Two. He railroaded everybody.

I was surprised he wasn't brought before Equity for his outrageous behavior.

That's not to say the audience didn't eat it up.

Sorry for the Danny Kaye duplicates, my Samsung 5 wasn't cooperating.

So much has been written about Danny's antics during the run of Two by Two, especially after he broke his leg and continued to perform as Noah in a wheelchair.

The man was so insecure, he balked at wearing the Noah aging makeup for fear that audiences wouldn't recognize him right away and his entrance applause would be affected.

Stanley Donen is still alive.

For history's sake, he should be drugged and made to talk.

I've read the Donen book and it is enjoyable but for some reason I have a very strong suspicion that everything was a whole lot more interesting than it already appears in that book.

Donen's approval is not necessarily a good sign.

The DL should compile a list of "Questions for Stanley Donen".

I have a feeling that at least half of them will have something to do with Gene Kelly's ass.

People! People! We're talking about ME here, remember? ME? I was the biggest star in the world. (smacking noise). THE WORLD!

[quote] it would have probably did very well now.

Oh dear

[quote] The person I knew had a family history of mother, brother and herself that had it.

Ohhhhh dear

Stanley Donen's companion for the last 20 years or so has been Elaine May. Take that for what you will.

"Apparently you were in her bedroom, please spill everything!"

If you want someone to "spill everything", then read some of the many biographies of Elizabeth Taylor. Some are trash, but some are very well-researched and her life has been thoroughly documented. But trash or worthy, NONE of them are of the opinion that Taylor's lovers only consisted of men she married. Read up on her life and you'll see that. You CAN read, can't you?

Not only Kelly's ass.

When he is dressed up as Mack the Black in the dream sequence of The Pirate his thighs deserve an X rating.

Add Buddy Hackett to the list of comedians who behaved badly on stage in musical plays, to the frustration and annoyance of the cast of I Had a Ball. Hackett would stop the show dead and launch into his nightclub act. After five or ten minute of that, he would cut the routine short, saying, "I gotta go act now," at which point he would allow the play to resume. I think eventually Equity had to discipline him or at least threaten to.

Zero Mostel was an ad libbing asshole in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Fiddler on the Roof. His lack of professionalism in Fiddler cost him the chance to play Tevye in the film.

I Had a Ball is forgotten for good reason, but the great and sadly underrated Karen Morrow belted the hell out of the title number, which is worth a listen:

There was a nightclub scene near the end of Mr. Wonderful in which Jack Carter would adlib at each performance with such skill that performers from neighboring Broadway shows would sneak into the theatre just to watch Carter do his thing.

I'm watching Rooney in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" on TCM. He was very cute and appealing. Such a shame he was such an asshole. He really was very talented.

I hear he did a devastating impersonation of Genevieve Bujold.

Maybe off-topic, but I recently purchase some memorabilia of Judy Garland and Mickey, and when it arrived, I realized that I had purchased it from his son Mark. Interesting, but left me feeling a bit sad.

What did you buy, R160 and how did you find it?

Stanley Donen was nowhere near Gene's butt or thighs on The Pirate.

Summary of the drama of his last days, including the stepson's sale of his personal effects

Interesting, R160. A friend told me that it was Chris Aber selling the stuff online, but I'm glad to hear it was his brother Mark.

Chris is the one who allegedly (is it even allegedly anymore?) abused Rooney and stole from him for years, but his brother Mark moved in with Rooney at the end of his life to care for him. Chris and Mark aren't speaking, according to news reports. Not a surprise.

[quote]You CAN read, can't you?

I don't read unauthorized biographies, Dear. You sound like you have a three foot pile of old Modern Screen magazines next to your toilet.

People often talk about Andrews not getting the film of MFL, Merman/Gypsy, Channing/Dolly but nobody ever talks about Mostel not getting Fiddler.

And I don't like Topol in the film. Too young and bland.

But on the obc of Fiddler Mostel gives one of the giant performances of the theater.

Though I did see him do it in the 70s at the Winter Garden and it was about as wretched a performance as I've seen. And that includes amateur and community theater productions of anything.

Zero Mostel would have been about as believable as the father of adolescent girls as Roz Russell in GYPSY.

Re despised colleagues, Jason Alexander comes across as being insufferably arrogant. Any anecdotes about him?

[quote] There is a book called MGM Hollywood's Greatest Backlot which is quite wonderful in it's photos. It's also very sad because all the backlot is now gone.

That is indeed a fabulous book. Also, "The MGM Story."

My dad knows Zero Mostel's ex wife. She said he was completely crazy.

I worked with Jason Alexander in the mid-90s when he was at the height of his SEINFELD fame and he couldn't have been sweeter. A total mensch, no vanity.

Thanks R171. I saw an interview with him about the show where he told the producers after the episode that was set in Florida that didn't feature George that if they planned another show without George he wouldn't come back to the series. That's vanity. That show also didn't have Michael Richards but he didn't make the same threat.

Did all the Seinfeld cast members receive $1 million per episode for the last season?

[quote]after the episode that was set in Florida that didn't feature George that if they planned another show without George he wouldn't come back to the series

Why? I don't understand why he would pitch a fit about something like that. It's not like they really went to Florida or anything.

I saw Alexander in Central Park sometime after the run of Merrily but before Seinfeld.

Went up to him to tell him how much I enjoyed the show and he was very surprised and happy to be recognized and complimented.

I wonder now if that is still the case.

I think I read somewhere that he hates when people yell out George when they see him.

This is better R156

He said it wasn't worth his time to be in a TV show where he wasn't in every episode. This is presumably because he lived in NY and Seinfeld was filmed in LA.

Alexander did an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where he told how he now hated the character of George as he felt he had been typecast. This could have been a comedy bit but one sensed there was some truth to it.

Jason Alexander has played a jerk a number of times. Pretty woman, Seinfeld, Shallow Hal...am I leaving anything out?

Who has seen that award show where Mickey is partnered with Jayne Mansfield and his head comes up to her breasts? I think he said that was one time when he was glad to be short. Oh, it's on YouTube.

Mickey looks out at the audience and says, "Who wants to be tall?".

I saw a new biography of Mick's on sale at the Barnes and Nobles today. I laughed and bought that new book about the Salem witches. Don't want Jan to get a cent!

To gays that's sex

Rooney was highly insulted when someone suggested to him that L.B. Mayer was possibly gay. Rooney's response--I saw the interview--was "How you say such a horrible thing about such a wonderful man." (or words to that effect).

He may have had a tragic end but it wasn't ever little

My ex's mom was good friends with an elderly lady who used to hob-knob with the rich and famous when she was younger. She said Mickey Rooney was a jerk and sexually harassed her. She would see him now and then (they had the same circle of friends) and he still made a pass at her.

While walking east on Goethe street across from the Ambassador East in Chicago a familiar looking person approached from the opposite directia. To our query "Mickey Rooney"? He replied with a smile " and twice on Sundays!"

I worked with this lady whose friend was a Vegas show girl. She said Micky was in Vegas doing the show Sugar Babies and she said he was the nastiest person she ever met especially when he drank.

I hope the assholes who abused him rot in their own feces.

To have friends and family steal all ur $ and treat u like shit is awful.

cant the cops arrest the culprits....

Mickey was ornery, but he not deserve to die in poverty ....

I think it was when Ronald Reagan died that Larry King rounded up a few Old Hollywood types to give their memories of Reagan the movie star on CNN. Mickey Rooney was one of the guests, and naturally he started talking about himself, his World War II service, how poorly he'd been treated, etc. I was disgusted that anyone could be that self-involved. Eventually Larry interrupted and reminded Rooney that they were there to talk about Reagan.

On another Larry King Show about Marilyn Monroe's legacy, Milton Berle and Mickey argued openly, while fellow guests Robert Wagner, Hope Lange and others looked on.