Screenland (May-Oct 1940)

A Date with Mickey Rooney * Continued from page 27 not too flashy, or too conservative either, do you think?" I told him it was just the sort of car that I or Hedy Lamarr or a half dozen other people would be very proud to own. For it's a deep blue, with the same color upholstering inside, with all sorts of gadgets on the instrument panel. "Tell ya what," said Mickey, suddenly inspired. "Let's go bowling. I know a place down here a ways." And we were off. Mickey began humming a tune — and then began singing softly as he drove. "That's my new song, My Heart Wakes Up When the Sun Goes Dozvn," he explained. "Got another one I just finished, too — Debutante No. 1. I'm trying to get that published now. I've been lucky, though. Got Have a Heart, Oceans Apart, and Love on the Range on the market — published and everything." "How do you go about composing songs?" I asked. "Just get in the mood and sit down to a piano and plug them out," said Mickey. "Sidney Miller collaborates with me. We've had five published up to date." Mickey pulled up to the curb in front of the bowling-alley. And when he helped me out I noticed with misgiving that my silver fox coat — guaranteed not to shed— had shed silver fur all over the handsome blue felt seat of Mickey's new car. "Just look at that, Mickey," I lamented. "Never mind, honey," he said. "It'll brush off. Come on, we got more important things at hand to do." The bowling man didn't want to take Mickey's money. "You two go ahead and bowl all you want on the house," he said. "It's a pleasure to have you drop in, Mike." But Mickey wouldn't have it that way. Doris Davenport, Gary Cooper's leading lady in "The Westerner," says exercise is fun in a free-action play suit like this one. "You work for your money and I work for mine," he reasoned, and insisted on paying. The thing that impressed me most, however, was the he-man reaction to Mickey expressed by the men and boys in the bowling-alley. Mickey, despite his rather short stature, is accepted on an equal footing, with the fellows respectfully greeting him —and not a single wise-guy or heckler in the lot. The men call him Mike— rather than Mickey — and they don't rush around him, but are friendly in a man-to-man fashion. Having been about with Gable before C. L. G. (Carole Lombard Gable), I could readily say that Mickey, too, is one of the few stars in this business equally liked by both sexes. "Ever been bowling before?" Mickey asked after we'd selected our court and balls — which seem to me to weigh a ton each. When I shook my head negatively, Mickey said, "Well, never mind. I'll show you how. Now suppose you watch me send out a ball, then you roll one." For some time we took turns — Mickey patiently playing the role of instructor. Then over a couple of Coca-Colas, Mickey gave me some pointers on how to hold the ball to best advantage and take a running dive with it. We really had some fun rolling up scores. "You're not bad— not bad at all," said Mickey after the first three quarters of an hour. "In fact, you're pretty good!" When we added up the final scores, Mickey's was 172, while I broke a hundred. He said mine was good for a beginner, by way of encouragement, and that he'd keep right on giving me pointers — and soon I'd be playing a pretty good game. By this time it was six o'clock and we were both pretty hungry. We went over to the lunch counter and ordered bottles of milk and sandwiches and doughnuts. Mickey said that a fellow had to eat often to keep up his energy and pep. "Sometimes I eat as often as five times a day — that is, counting my three regular meals and a late afternoon snack and one after a show or dance or something before getting ready for bed." "Well, you not being a girl, you don't have to worry about whether you eat too much or not," I said. "Nope, it never makes me grow any more," Mickey mused. "But then, you know I really owe my luck to my stature. Being short is what has really made me on the screen." While I agreed that Mickey being the eternal kid (he actually doesn't look more than about fifteen, even if he is nineteen) is an asset — it is really his ability as an actor that has made him such a success. Undoubtedly, he proved himself a great actor, like Spencer Tracy, whom he greatly admires, when he played "Young Tom Edison." For, as I told him, everyone went to the theater expecting to see Andy Hardy playing Tom Edison — but instead they really saw Tom Edison, with his deafness, his inquisitive impulsive mind, his pathetic tribulations as a boy, and his triumphs. "Tom Edison" should give Mickey Rooney an Academy Award. "Gee, I'm glad you felt that way," Mickey said. "I tried hard to really be Tom in the picture. I studied all about him in books and talked with his relatives and everything. Honestly, during the making of that picture, I actually got to feeling like I should invent something or discover something — being Edison." "How does it really feel, way down deep inside, Mickey," I asked, "to know that In her strapless swim suit, Paulette Goddard can make you forget the heat and humidity. Her new film is "The Ghost Breakers." you are actually the top box office star in motion pictures? You're king of the screen. And no matter how famous the stars are, you're tops of them all. How does it honestly make you feel?" I urged. "Well," answered Mickey, in a serious low voice, "you can't call a young kid like me a king — not when there're such stars as Gable and Tracy on the screen. When I heard the news first I thought to myself, 'Now I will have to work hard — for being on top there's only one way to go, and that is down.' You see, it's a pretty big responsibility for a kid like me. "It sort of settled me down a lot, too. I don't go running around very much any more. I keep working most of the time and thinking up things to do that will improve my acting. Then I'm serious about my song-writing. Some day I want to produce a picture myself. I'm not saying much about that now — because after all I realize that I'm only nineteen. But I spend as much time as I can on the sets watching them make pictures, studying technique. I've been studying this business for years. I'd like to write and direct my own pictures some day." "And what about girls and romance? You were the original ouppy lover on the screen a couple of year, ago," I reminded him. "Yeah, I know," Mickey admitted. "But every boy goes through that age. I'll answer you like I did the reporters in New York. They asked when I was going to get married. And I told 'em, 'Give me five or six years and maybe I'll take a look.' Of course, I said just MAYBE." We talked earnestly all the time we were] eating our sandwiches and doughnuts — and looked up to discover a line of little girls who'd learned of Mickey's presence, and who'd come in for autographs. Mickey signed each request. But the thing I noticed most was the way he thanked each girl, making it seem as though they'd done him a favor by asking him for his signature. 76