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Adventures in Autographs the "Other" Mickey
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I know its not sports but...In between the missing airplane and all the other current and not so current events I found buried in the news today that Actor Mickey Rooney passed away on Sunday He was 93.
Must have been more than 20 years ago but while racking up all those frequent flyer miles doing private signings , I spoke to a friend in southern California and he suggested "why not do a private signing with Mickey Rooney?" I was already set to meet boxers Ken Norton and Archie Moore and would be only a stones throw to Mickey's place. Why Not ! "But he's an easy autograph" I said "He signs through the mail"...."He does not sign that stuff, he hasn't signed fan mail in decades" was what I was told , which Mickey was nice enough to confirm later "But don't tell anyone" he said , I guess its OK to tell it now. We spent the better part of the day together , and the stories ! Wow ! the stories , He was like a time capsule of a by gone era of Hollywood's golden years. And had met and known personally just about any celebrity you could think of ....Heck he was MARRIED to Ava Gardner ! , He was gracious, funny, sad, and quite a story teller. He liked betting on the horses and told me he had just been to the track the week before and left before the last race and was looking for a place to urinate , finally found a safe spot between a couple parked cars. While he was standing there almost through several elderly ladies walked past......ITS MICKEY ROONEY !!! they exclaimed CAN WE HAVE YOUR AUTOGRAPH ??? From Walt Disney to Joe Louis, Marilyn Monroe to Frank Sinatra , Marlon Brando to Joe DiMaggio he had known them all, and had a story to tell about all of them. The signing should have taken no more than a couple hours but instead , he'd sign a photo and tell a story , sign a photo and tell another story. It overlapped lunch more stories. And I began to realize to him he was ALWAYS acting , ALWAYS putting on a performance , even if it was as in this case me, my son and Mickey's agent. To him he was performing to an audience ! He had some stories that were a little on the "adult" side but was a gentleman and careful only to tell THOSE when my son was not in the room. When the signing was through maybe afraid to lose his "audience" he suggested we take a drive. He insisted on showing us his old house he lived in during the Hollywood Hay day's. At every traffic light he made a point of making faces at the person in the car next to him until someone recognized him and said HEY its Mickey Rooney ! always on the stage that guy. He said "Hollywood is not what it used to be, they don't make movies here anymore" And I thought about it and he was right. Slowly throughout the years Hollywood forgot about him too. Until briefly yesterday they remembered him again. And then turned the page. _______________________________ jim@stinsonsports.com Vintage autographs for Sale Now at My web site http://stinsonsports.com/autographs-for-sale/ |
Sad day indeed.
My favorite movie of Mr. Rooney was "The Big Wheel." R.I.P. |
Great story Jim.
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Great actor. Always wanted him on my "Requiem for a Heavyweight" script but now too late.
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But what a great and fulfilling life he had. 93 years and most of it all in show biz and not a soul disliked him (I believe). You just can't ask for much more out of life. :)
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I watch a lot of vintage movies and recently saw Mickey's first dramatic role, 1950's Quicksand. Shedding his wholesome Andy Hardy image, he played a garage mechanic who gets deeper into debt and trouble with the law. A pretty decent little B-style film noir and Rooney proved he was a good actor.
http://dada.warped.com/movies/08227sand.jpg I've also seen a few of his 1930s-40s Andy Hardy movies that made him a star. Corny products of the time, but good harmless fun. |
Mickey was a very fine actor. He was never better than in the 1943 film "The Human Comedy". My favorite Mickey Rooney movie, the film features Rooney as a teenage boy in a small town during World War II. His older brother is off to war leaving him to care for his widowed mother and younger brother. He works as a telegram delivery boy after school to help support the family and has to deliver messages from the War Department that nobody wants to receive. Its a picture about small town life in an America that really doesn't exist anymore, where everybody knows each other and no one locks their doors. Seems kind of outdated today but Rooney is really good in it.
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I want to know who "Bob" is! All those autographs in the photo background are signed to him.
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JimStinson
My Favorite Movie with him in it was "Mad Mad World" , That movie is STILL hilarious today ! I was curious where they filmed it and he said in the mountains and deserts right outside of LA which was then desolate and now suburbs.
In answer to your question "Bob" was Mickey's agent ______________________________ jim@stinsonsports.com Vintage autographs for Sale Now at My web site http://stinsonsports.com/autographs-for-sale/ |
Great story!!
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Great story, thanks for sharing Jim!
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Great story Jim.
I used to work at a horse racing related company doing phone support. As Jim said, Mickey was a big horse racing fan. Don't know how it started, but he found us somehow and started calling one of my co-workers just about every Saturday. I had the pleasure of talking with him a couple of times when I filled in. My feeling was that the guy was either very lonely or else we were the only ones around at 8am he could tell stories too. And as Jim said, the guy was a GREAT story teller. All you had to do was give him a name and off he'd go. I got the feeling he just loved to talk and he was darned good at it. He'd always want to know who we liked in some of the big stakes races. So maybe he was just trading stories for tips. He never did become a customer. |
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JimStinson
Thanks guys...speaking of that movie I was doing a collectible show in Pasadena one weekend , and someone came up to my table , I turned around and it was Jonathan Winters ...I said hello and all I got was a "grunt" , Man was he GRUMPY !
Total opposite of what you would except from seeing him on the tube. I watched as he was leaving and someone asked him for an autograph and he looked at it like the guy was trying to hand him a "turd" and just kept on walking. Don't know if he was always like that or just having a bad day. _______________________ jim@stinsonsports.com Vintage autographs for Sale Now at My web site http://stinsonsports.com/autographs-for-sale/ |
Jonathan Winters always seemed like a grumpy person to me.
BTW, there was some follow-up news about Rooney's estate. I can't believe his assets were only valued at $18,000 according to this article. That seems a little hard to believe: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/09/sh...l?eref=edition |
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