Are you as tired of reading my snark on neocon windbags as I am writing it? Well, I thought so. Anyway, poor Mickey Rooney finally bought the big one. The New York Times gives a nice recap of his life and frequent hard times, noting that the one-time Hollywood box office king (three years in row, from 1939 to 1941) fell so low that “at one point in 1950, the only job he could get was touring Southern states with the Hadacol Caravan. Admission to the shows was a box top from a bottle of a 26 percent alcohol tonic that the government soon forced off the market.”
Yet only two years earlier, the Mick was in top form, starring in the MGM spectacular Words and Music, which unfortunately did not receive the box office it deserved. I’ve raved about it here, and above you will find one of Mickey’s best performances, linked, appropriately enough, with Miss Angst herself, Judy Garland, in a splendid rendition of Roger & Hart’s classic “I Wish I Were In Love Again.” Break out the Hadacol, everybody, and let’s have a party!
