12. Screen Actors Guild Foundation Conversations: Mickey Rooney, ActorSpeak.com, http://actorspeak.com/2015/02/24/video-conversations-with-mickey-rooney-sag-foundation/.
13. Ibid.
14. Marx interview.
15. “Child Star Delia Bogard Interview.”
16. Sabini interview.
17. Sidney Miller, interview by authors, June 1999.
18. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 38; and Marx interview.
19. Ibid.
20. Joe Crow, Hollywood Citizen-News, February 11, 1932.
21. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 40.
Chapter 3: Ma Lawlor and Universal Studios
1. Jack Townley, Review of Fast Companions, Hollywood Citizen-News, June 23, 1932.
2. Ralph Wilk, Film Daily, May 1, 1933.
3. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 36.
4. Ibid., p. 37; and Marx interview.
5. Miller interview.
6. Ibid.
7. Mickey Rooney interview. Rooney was interviewed both in person and on the phone. The first interview was in June 1999 (Santa Anita Racetrack). Second, in person, was at Vitello’s Restaurant (Studio City, California) in 2007, March 2008, July 2009. Various phone conversations in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010.
8. Gerald Clarke, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland (New York: Random House, 2000), p. 45.
9. Jackie Cooper, Please Don’t Shoot My Dog: The Autobiography of Jackie Cooper (New York: Morrow, 1981), p. 124.
10. Sabini interview.
11. Rooney interview.
12. Miller interview.
13. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 58.
Chapter 4: Selznick Rescues Mickey: The Start at MGM
1. Carl Laemmle Jr., interview by authors, 2007.
2. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 53.
3. The authors could not locate the original agreement. However, we estimated the signing date based on the work logs stating that he began work on an MGM loan-out for Down the Stretch on August 1, 1934.
4. Rooney interview.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Barty interview.
9. David A. Fury, Maureen O’Sullivan: No Average Jane (White River, South Africa: Artists Press, 2007), p. 165.
Chapter 5: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1. Steve Vaught, “The Indestructable [sic] Mickey Rooney,” Paradise Leased (blog), March 4, 2011, http://paradiseleased.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/the-indestructable-mickey-rooney.
2. David Wallace, Exiles in Hollywood (Hal Leonard, 2006), p. 266. Kevin Hagopian, at http://albany.edu/writers:inst/webpages4/filmnotes/fns98n5.html.
3. Gottfried Reinhardt, The Genius: A Memoir of Max Reinhardt (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), pp. 275–91; and http://www.worldcat.org/title/reminiscences-of-gottfried-reinhardt-oral-history-1959/oclc/122597301.
4. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 46; and Marx interview.
5. A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2.1.385–87.
6. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 60–61.
7. Kevin Hagopian, at http://albany.edu/writers:inst/webpages4/filmnotes/fns98n5.html.
8. Marx interview.
9. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 47.
10. Marx interview.
11. Gottfried Reinhardt, The Genius, p. 270.
12. Los Angeles Illustrated Daily News, September 5, 1934.
13. Midsummer, 5.1.2281–90.
14. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 64–65.
15. Kevin Hagopian, New York State Writers Institute, State University of New York, Film Notes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/filmnotes/fns98n5.html.
16. Gottfried Reinhardt, interview by authors, March 1991; and Bob Thomas, Clown Prince of Hollywood: The Antic Life and Times of Jack L. Warner (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990), p. 209.
17. Marx, interview by authors, June 1998.
18. In the end, Oberon was played by Victor Jory; Frank McHugh was cast as Quince, and Hugh Herbert as Snout. Yeaman of course meant Snug, not Snig; and Arthur Treacher recited the Epilogue.
19. Hagopian, Film Notes: A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
20. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 67.
21. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 52.
Chapter 6: The Gates of Hell
1. p. 72.
2. Joe Eszterhas, The Devil’s Guide to Hollywood: The Screenwriter as God (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2007), p. 22; and Scott Eyman, The Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005), p. 223-224.
3. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, p. 7.
4. The financial and legal records of MGM, particularly its dealing with contract players such as Rooney, can be found at the Index to Periodical Articles, Margaret Herrick Library, Oscars.org, http://collections.oscars.org/perindex/results.aspx?QF15=Image&QB15=AND&QB2=AND&QF2=Title+%7c+Author+%7c+Film+description+%7c+Name+%7c+Subject+%7c+Journal&QI2=%22mickey+rooney%22&QB0=AND&QF0=Journal&QI0=&QB1=AND&QF1=Date+%7c+Datesort&QI1=&TN=Perindex&AC=QBE_QUERY&RF=WebHostedReport&DF=WebHostedFull&MR=20&BU=http%3a%2f%2fcollections.oscars.org%2fperindex%2f&.
5. Rooney interview.
6. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, pp. 223–224 and personal interview, October 29, 2014.
7. E. J. Fleming, The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling, and the MGM Publicity Machine (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2004).
8. Scott Eyman, interview by authors, October 9, 2009.
9. E. J. Fleming, interview by authors, and personal interview (phone), October 7, 2014.
10. Fleming, The Fixers, p. 193 and personal interview (phone), October 7, 2014.
11. Charles Higham, Merchant of Dreams: Louis B. Mayer, M.G.M., and the Secret Hollywood (New York: Dutton, 1993), p. 177.
12. Fleming interview.
13. Peter Evans and Ava Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2013), p. 139.
14. Quoted by Rowdy McDowell in episode 2, “The Lion Reigns Supreme,” of the documentary MGM: When the Lion Roars, hosted by Patrick Stewart, broadcast March 1992, TCM and TNT.
15. Esther Williams, The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography (New York: Harvest Books, 2000), p. 122.
16. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, pp. 3–4.
17. Ibid., p. 4.
18. Ibid.
19. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 136–37.
20. Arthur Marx interview.
21. Chris Whiteley, “Louis B. Mayer (1884–1957),” Hollywood’s Golden Age (blog), http://www.hollywoodsgoldenage.com/moguls/mayer.html.
22. Eyman, Lion of Hollywood, p. 5.
23. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 137.
24. Ibid.
25. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 70.
26. Ibid., p. 72.
27. Fleming, The Fixers, p. 190; and Fleming interview.
28. Murray Lertzman, interview by authors, 1974, 1976, 1982, 1983.
29. Ibid.
30. Rich Cohen, Tough Jews: Fathers, Sons, and Gangster Dreams (New York: Vintage, 1990), p. 197.
31. Lertzman interview.
Chapter 7: Mickey and the Lion
1. Mickey Rooney, personal interview in 2008 during which Mickey expounded on meeting the sports greats such as Babe Ruth, Max Baer Sr., and Red Grange.
2. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 75.
3. Ibid.
4. Marx interview.
5. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 76.
6. Rooney interview, 2008.
7. Rooney interview by authors.
8. Marill, Mickey Rooney, pp. 21–22.
9. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 94.
10. Ibid.
Chapter 8: The Make-Believe World of Andy Hardy’s America
1. President Bill Clinton as told to Janis F. Kearney, Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton, from Hope to Harlem (Little Rock, AR: Writing Our World Press, 2006), p. 28.
2.
Marill, Mickey Rooney, p. 20.
3. Jean Rouverol, “The Writer Speaks: Jean Rouverol,” oral interview, May 1, 2000, https://archive.org/details/calawgf_00004.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Jean Rouverol, Refugees from Hollywood: A Journal of the Blacklist Years (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000), p. 148.
7. Bob Thomas, Thalberg: Life and Legend (Beverly Hills: New Millennium Press, 1969), p. 277.
8. Peter Hay, MGM: When the Lion Roars (Nashville, TN: Turner Publications, 1991), p. 14.
9. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 57.
10. Ibid., p. 57.
11. Marill, Mickey Rooney, p. 19.
12. Ibid.
13. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 57.
14. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 84.
15. Ibid.
16. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 59.
17. Marx interview.
18. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 60.
19. Hay, MGM: When the Lion Roars, p. 135.
20. Marill, Mickey Rooney, p. 19.
21. James Robert Parish, The Great Movie Series (Lancaster, UK: Gazelle Book Services Ltd., 1972), p. 53.
22. Frank Rose, The Agency: William Morris and the Hidden History of Show Business (New York: Harper Business, 1996), p. 276; and Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 62, and confirmed by MGM Archives, http://lantern.mediahist.org/?q=Mickey+Rooney.
23. Based on Harry Friedman Memo, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at http://collections.oscars.org/msinvent/results.aspx?AC=NEXT_BLOCK&XC=/msinvent/results.aspx&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fcollections.oscars.org%2Fmsinvent%2F&TN=msinvent&SN=AUTO23718&SE=1674&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebHostedReport&EF=&DF=WebHostedFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=oscarmsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=0&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=utf-8.
24. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 62.
25. Ibid., p. 63; and Martin Gang memo, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, http://collections.oscars.org/msinvent/results.aspx?AC=NEXT_BLOCK&XC=/msinvent/results.aspx&BU=http%3A%2F%2Fcollections.oscars.org%2Fmsinvent%2F&TN=msinvent&SN=AUTO23718&SE=1674&RN=0&MR=20&TR=0&TX=1000&ES=0&CS=0&XP=&RF=WebHostedReport&EF=&DF=WebHostedFull&RL=0&EL=0&DL=0&NP=255&ID=&MF=oscarmsg.ini&MQ=&TI=0&DT=&ST=0&IR=0&NR=0&NB=0&SV=0&SS=0&BG=&FG=&QS=&OEX=ISO-8859-1&OEH=utf-8.
26. Marx interview.
Chapter 9: Mickey and Judy and the MGM Backyard Musicals
1. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 140.
2. Sabini interview.
3. Margaret O’Brien, interview by authors, October 7, 2014.
4. Paul Donnelley, Judy Garland (London: Haus Publishing, 2007), p. 72.
5. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 290–91.
6. Miller interview.
7. Kelly Rooney, interview by authors, July 7, 2014; September 10, 2014; October 12, 2014; November 12, 2014; January 7, 2015; February 3, 2015; February 12, 2015; April 7, 2015.
Chapter 10: Mickey Goes Wild
1. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 115.
2. Nick Sevano, interview by authors, June 2008; interview with wife Jean Sevano, December 7, 2014.
3. Marx and Miller interviews.
4. Richard Quine, interview by authors, March 6, 1985.
5. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 121.
6. Murray “Sonny” Lertzman, interview by authors, September 10, 1982.
7. Katharine Brush, This Is on Me (New York: Farrar and Rinehart, 1940), p. 121.
8. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 66; and Marx interview.
9. Miller, interview by authors, 1997.
10. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 76; and Marx interview.
11. Rooney interview.
12. Miller interview.
13. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 98.
14. Ibid.
15. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, pp. 77–78; Marx interview; and Rooney interview, 2008.
16. Fleming, The Fixers, p. 192; and Fleming interview.
17. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 78.
18. Ibid., and Marx interview.
19. Rooney, i.e., An Autobiography, pp. 89–90.
Chapter 11: Ava
1. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 111–13.
2. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 182.
3. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 115–16.
4. Miller interview.
5. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p.116.
6. Ibid., pp. 116–17.
7. Miller interview.
8. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 119–20.
9. Ibid, p. 119.
10. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 125.
11. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 114–15.
12. Miller interview.
13. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 153.
14. Ibid., p. 123.
15. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 123–24.
16. Ibid., pp. 126–27.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., p. 134.
19. Ibid., pp. 134–35.
20. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 95.
21. Ibid.
22. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 135.
23. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 96.
24. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 186–87.
25. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 97.
26. C. David Heyman, interview by authors, January 2006, March 2006, June 2007, October 2009, March 2010, June 2001.
27. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 97.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid.
30. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 136.
31. Ibid., p. 135.
32. Ibid., pp. 136–38.
33. Ibid., p. 140.
34. Ibid., p. 141.
35. Ibid.
36. Marx interview.
37. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 101.
38. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 142.
39. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 103.
40. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 142–43.
41. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 189.
42. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 145.
43. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 104.
44. Ibid., p. 105.
45. Ibid.
46. Eyman, The Lion of Hollywood, p. 127.
47. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 153–56.
48. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 191.
49. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 10.
Chapter 12: The First Divorce
1. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 190–91.
2. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 157–60.
3. Nick Sevano and Ted Schwartz, Sinatra: His Story from an Insider (Wellesley, MA: Branden Books, 2013), p. 277.
4. Ibid., pp. 166–67.
5. Ibid., p. 168.
6. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 113.
7. Fleming interview.
8. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 168.
9. Huntz Hall, interview by authors, June 14, 1992.
10. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 168.
11. Leatrice Gilbert, interview by authors, March 12, 2013.
12. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 118; and Marx interview.
13. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, pp. 119–20.
14. Ibid., p. 119.
15. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, pp. 169–71.
16.
Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 122.
Chapter 13: Mickey and the Pit Bull
1. Frances Pottenger Jr., M. D., Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition (Lemon Grove, CA: Price Pottenger Nutrition, 1995), p. 277.
2. Evans and Gardner, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, p. 121.
3. Rooney interview.
4. Ibid.
5. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 153–54.
6. Sabini interview.
7. Marx interview.
8. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 203.
9. Rooney interview.
10. Ibid.
11. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 128.
12. Miller interview.
13. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 127.
14. Ibid., p. 128; and Marx interview.
15. Lertzman interview.
16. Marx interview.
17. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, pp. 128–29.
18. Chris Costello, interview by authors, April 2012, June 2013.
19. Jay Robert Stiefel, interview by authors, November 6, 2014; November 17, 2015; January 20, 2015.
20. Marx interview.
21. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 206.
22. Adrienne Callander, interview by authors, November 10, 2014; November 12, 2014.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 130.
26. Bill Ludwig, interview by authors, January 19, 1997.
27. Ibid.
28. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 132.
Chapter 14: Greetings
1. Roland Flamini, Ava (New York: Coward-McCann, 1983).
2. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 211.
3. Jane Ellen Wayne, The Leading Men of MGM (New York: Carroll and Graf, 2005), p. 256.
4. Fleming interview, in which he cited Flamini, Ava.
5. Miller interview.
6. Ibid.
7. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 137.
8. Miller interview.
9. Rooney interview.
10. Quoted in Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, p. 138.
11. Rooney, i.e., An Autobiography, p. 127.
12. Marx, Nine Lives of Mickey Rooney, pp. 139–40.
13. Ibid., p. 140.
14. Mickey’s and B.J.’s letters were provided to us by B.J.’s friend Pam McClenathan, who cared for the dying Barbara Jane, Timmy Rooney, and now Teddy Rooney, who is in hospice care in her home.
15. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, p. 220.
16. Ibid.
Chapter 15: Rooney Inc.
1. Rooney, Life Is Too Short, pp. 222–23.
The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney Page 56