by Nathaniel R
While we've never been Mickey Rooney fans, per se, you know we love to celebrate anniversaries here at TFE so we're going to look at three of his most famous films this week. But first a bit of history. This pint-sized sensation, a household name for most of the 20th century, was born in Brooklyn on September 23rd, 1920. Though his career no longer holds the enduring caché of several of his contemporaries, he was the most popular star of the late 30s and early 40s. What's more he had the longest onscreen career of any American movie star -- he worked in the films from the time he was 6 years old until his death at the age of 93...
Like many famous actors of the Golden Age, his career actually began before the talkies, via vaudeville and then silent film. While franchise stardom is de riguer in the 21st century, it wasn't as common 100 years ago though Mickey Rooney was prime proof that the general concept has always been with us. He first came to popularity in serials, those shorts franchises that would play before features. His first big role was the titular character in the "Mickey McGuire" serials which ran from 1927 through 1934 as direct competition for the popular "Our Gang" comedies (which the wee Mickey had auditioned for). Here's a clip from one of the McGuire films...
After transitioning into features, he played all American teenager "Andy Hardy" in A Family Affair (1937) the son of the film's lead, Judge Hardy (Lionel Barrymore). Sadly this culturally significant film (it launched a giant film series which affected many careers) isn't available to rent anywhere online for our investigation or we would have focused on it right here to kick off this brief series of posts. Andy Hardy proved such a scene stealer that a franchise was born and would stretch across fifteen (!!!) more films.
You can amusingly track how thoroughly Mickey Rooney took over just by looking at the first four film titles...
- A Family Affair (1937)
- You're Only Young Once (1937)
- Judge Hardy's Children (1938)
- Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938)
Most of the films thereafter include Andy Hardy in the title. [Aside: 80s kids will understand this as a Family Ties type situation. That 1982-1989 sitcom was originally about the former hippie parents but Michael J Fox's young Republican character completely took over and essentially became the lead in that era of Reagan-worshipping.]
It's perhaps worth noting that Andy/Mickey's original screen parents, Barrymore and Spring Byington, who were already famous and respected character actors, were either replaced or choose to bolt after the original film, which was not intended as a franchise launch for their 17 year-old screen son. Lewis Stone and Fay Holden would be the judge and the mother thereafter.
Though the series is almost never spoken of now, outside of the context of Judy Garland's rise to stardom (she's in three of the fifteen films, most famously Love Finds Andy Hardy which Nick recently discussed) it was very popular at the time. MGM also used the series to test public reaction to young actresses, most successfully with Lana Turner (Love Finds Andy Hardy, 1938), Kathryn Grayson (Andy Hardy's Private Secretary, 1941) and Esther Williams (Andy Hardy's Double Life, 1942).
Here's a clip from Love Finds Andy Hardy featuring Judy Garland's sweet performance, and a very young Lana Turner as Andy's friend's girl Cynthia.
Tomorrow: Rooney's first Oscar nomination for Babes in Arms (1939)