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The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
Mickey Rooney began his career almost a century ago as a one-year-old performer in burlesque and stamped his mark in vaudeville, silent and talking films, Broadway, and television. He acted in his final motion picture just weeks before he died at age ninety-three. He was an iconic presence in movies and the poster boy for American youth. Yet, by World War II, Mickey Rooney had become frozen in time. His child-star status haunted him as the gilded safety net of Hollywood fell away, and he was forced to find support anywhere he could, including multiple marriages, affairs, alcohol, and drugs. This Old Hollywood biography presents Mickey Rooney from every angle, revealing the man Laurence Olivier once dubbed the best there has ever been.
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    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 19, 2015
      Birnes and Lertzman have created a definitive biography of Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney (1920â2014), examining his children, spouses, mistress, and other biographies as well as the star himself. The book introduces readers to Rooney's squeaky-clean persona as "Andy Hardy, the all-American young man"âhis most famous roleâand huge popularity in his teenage years. It also covers the dark and seamy side of Rooney and the industry itself, when lives were run by studio moguls like "Uncle" L.B. Mayer and their mob-connected "fixers." Beware, modest readersâthere's plenty here to offend, from the off-color language of off-screen golden-age Hollywood to plentiful descriptions of Rooney's busy sex life. We meet all eight wives, from Ava Gardner to Jan Rooney , as well as the anonymous "Mrs. Smith," Rooney's mistress of six decades. One recurring theme is a matter still contested in court: Rooney's tangled finances. The book is most interesting when presenting conflicting versions of the man, though when the authors wonder "Was the secret of Mickey Rooney that there was no Mickey Rooney?", they serve no one well. Nonetheless, this is a page-turner; many of the people portrayed are long gone, but there's enough tell-all entertainment to keep almost any reader pushing through.

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  • English

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