MICKEY ROONEY

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20887, 19 August 1939, Page 17 (Supplement)

MICKEY ROONEY

RAISED TO STAR RANK ALL HIS LIFE ON STAGE Following a steady climb in popular affection Mickey Looney at last is a star in his own right. This phase in his career begins with “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Mickey Looney plays the Mississippi River boy of Mark Twain’s famous sequel to “Tom Sawyer.” He has never before had the leading role in a feature, though he had such a position in the two-reel “Mickey McGuire” comedies, before he went into features to be catapulted to the position of one of the biggest box-office attractions of today. Young in years, Mickey Rooney is a veteran of show business, having appeared in vaudeville and on the screen from the time he was two years old. The son of a vaudeville team, he was literally raised in the theatre. Mickey was born on the twenty-third of September in Brooklyn, New York, where his parents. Nell Brown and Joe Yule, riancer and comedian, respectively, were engaged in vaudeville. As a baby of two, he crawled out on the stage and interrupted his parents by sneezing. His father picked mm up, gave him a French harp to play, and he was an instant hit with the audience. From that day on he was a regular member of the act. First Screen Role as Midget Later he entered Will Morrissey’s Revue in New York, where lTt; was brought to the attention of a studio executive who signed him to plnv the role of the midget in “Not To Be Trusted.” He was four years old at the time. He next appeared in “Orchids and Ermine,” and again he portrayed a midget. Then came an avalanche of screen roles which included the role of Puck in “Midsummer Night's Dream.” “Ah Wilderness!”. “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “The Devil is a Sissy.” “Gaptains Courageous.” “A Family Affair,” “Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry,” “You’re Only Young Once.” “Love Is a Headache,” ‘Judge Hardy’s Children.” “Lord Jeff.” “Love Finds Andy Hardy.” “Roys’ Town.” “Slablemales” and “Out West with the Hardys.” Between working in films, the youngest. veteran of the stage and screen in Hollywood attended two Los Angeles grammar schools and a military academy. The remainder of his schooling was received at studio schools under the supervision of private tutors.