RIP Mickey Rooney

Neither one is a mental picture you particularly needed...

 

Seriously, 1st question: who was better in bed Liz Taylor or Judy Garland? Who was crazier?

 

As a teevee anchor, this pisses me off. When you have a guest who is a few decades past his or her prime, absolutely, you study up on it.

Andy Williams was passing through here a decade ago and, on short notice, he showed up. I spent ten minutes just reading up on his bio and, in the twenty minutes before he had him on, I chatted him up in the break room, asked about some of his old connections and, I swear, his face lit up and he smiled like a 19-year-old sailor on leave.

Made for a great interview. I showed that I cared enough about his accomplishments and he was a superb talker. His publicist even sent me a hand-written note a few days later thanking me for doing my research.

 

I heard a rumor that Mickey Rooney could breathe through his ears.

 

Funny you should confuse the two. They allegedly had some bitter feud through the years that I have been unable to find an origin for. Rooney apparently was gracious about Borgnine when the latter died a few years ago, but a couple of their quotes about the other (Rooney: "He's a lucky jerk." Borgnine: "I've got an Oscar, he's got a therapist. Checkmate.") seem like there must have been a doozy of a beef to get it going.

Or maybe it was as simple as Borgnine winning an Oscar, something of a surprise for "Marty," while hard-working Mickey didn't get one?

I'm going to assume it wasn't a fight over Marilyn Monroe.

From interviews I saw and heard, Borgnine was a grateful, appreciative, friendly, funny guy. Rooney, on many occasions, not so much.

 

If that works, Rick Stain is guaranteed to live to at least 100.

 

To paraphrase one of his exes, eight wives can't be wrong.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20804236,00.html

 

#CancelRooney wins.

 

I can't help but think about Bart and Milhouse yelling out "MICKEY ROONEY!" as he swings off a rope into the treehouse every time I hear his name.

 

Rooney was a compulsive womanizer.
Good story about Ava Gardner becoming a star at MGM.

 

Dana Carvey on Mickey Rooney when they (and Nathan Lane) appeared on the short-lived One of the Boys.

 

His will -- pretty sad that he had an estate valued at $18,000. Sadder that he "disinherited" (whatever that means when there's no inheritance) his eight kids and left everything to his caretaker stepson. A big fight now because he apparently didn't want his wife of 35 years to have his remains.

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/rooneys-estate-stepson-caretaker-23248532

This is going to end up with his head frozen in Arizona, isn't it?