Mickey Rooney Was Right is D.W. Paone’s autobiography with the emphasis on his quest to achieve success as both a writer and assistant cameraman in the entertainment industry. However, no matter how hard he tried, and he tried very hard, long-term success in both these aspects of the industry continued to elude him. While he had the opportunity to work on Law & Order and a handful of other high-profile jobs, and even sold a joke to Jay Leno, his career was a roller coaster ride of highs and lows in a fickle industry with no rhyme or reason. This book is for anyone who has attempted, or even considered a career in the entertainment industry, or followed a dream even when logic and those around him said to stop.

Mickey Rooney Was Right is D.W. Paone's autobiography with the emphasis on his quest to achieve success as both a writer and assistant cameraman in the entertainment industry. However, no matter how hard he tried, and he tried very hard, long-term success in both these aspects of the industry continued to elude him. While he had the opportunity to work on Law & Order and a handful of other high-profile jobs, and even sold a joke to Jay Leno, his career was a roller coaster ride of highs and lows in a fickle industry with no rhyme or reason. This book is for anyone who has attempted, or even considered a career in the entertainment industry, or followed a dream even when logic and those around him said to stop.

A definitive biography of the iconic actor and Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney (1920-2014) and his extravagant, sometimes tawdry life, drawing on exclusive interviews, and with those who knew him best, including his heretofore unknown mistress of sixty years. “I lived like a rock star,” said Mickey Rooney. “I had all I ever wanted, from Lana Turner and Joan Crawford to every starlet in Hollywood, and then some. They were mine to have. Ava [Gardner] was the best. I screwed up my life. I pissed away millions. I was #1, the biggest star in the world.” Mickey Rooney began his career almost a century ago as a one-year-old performer in burlesque and stamped his mark in vaudeville, silent films, 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, the poster boy for American youth in the idyllic small-town 1930s. Yet, by World War II, Mickey Rooney had become frozen in time. A perpetual teenager in an aging body, he was an anachronism by the time he hit his forties. 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 affairs with beautiful women, multiple marriages, alcohol, and drugs. In The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney, authors Richard A. Lertzman and William J. Birnes present Mickey’s nearly century-long career within the context of America's changing entertainment and social landscape. They chronicle his life story using little-known interviews with the star himself, his children, his former coauthor Roger Kahn, collaborator Arthur Marx, and costar Margaret O’Brien. This Old Hollywood biography presents Mickey Rooney from every angle, revealing the man Laurence Olivier once dubbed “the best there has ever been.”

"A definitive biography of the iconic actor and Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney (1920-2014) and his extravagant, sometimes tawdry life, drawing on never-before-seen excerpts from Rooney's diary and exclusive interviews with Mickey, and with those who knew him best, including his heretofore unknown mistress of sixty years"--

Mickey Rooney is a cinematic icon whose career lasted from the silent era into the twenty-first century. From the shorts he made as Mickey McGuire to supporting roles in such films as Night at the Museum, Rooney had more than 300 film appearances to his credit. Mickey Rooney was not just a movie star, he was the most popular film performer for several years in a row in the 1930s. In addition to his four Academy Award nominations, Rooney received two special Oscars, including an honorary award for his variety of memorable performances spanning several decades. In The Essential Mickey Rooney, James L. Neibaur examines more than sixty feature films in which the actor appeared, from starring roles in Boys Town, Babes in Arms, and The Human Comedy to acclaimed supporting performances in The Bold and the Brave and The Black Stallion. In addition to familiar works like the Andy Hardy comedies or musicals opposite Judy Garland, lesser known films like Quicksand and Drive a Crooked Road are discussed as examples of the masterful performances he offered again and again. An actor of rare talent and unrestrained exuberance, Rooney appeared so often on film that it probably is impossible to view every performance of his career—one that lasted longer than any other actor in Hollywood. While minor roles are not discussed here, all of his vintage works are, making The Essential Mickey Rooney an indispensable resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the best work of this film icon.

Mickey Rooney was one of Hollywood's most prolific and long-lived stars, with film credits spanning the silent and CGI eras. Despite his Broadway acclaim and gift for character acting, he is remembered mainly for his comedies and tumultuous personal life. Most biographies have focused on these, neglecting his long and varied career, which was marked by sharp declines and meteoric comebacks. Drawing on interviews with coworkers, this book reveals Rooney as a skilled actor who settled for less in an industry that relegated him to lesser roles, and built a body of work admired by audiences and actors alike.

ONE OF THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER'S 100 GREATEST FILM BOOKS OF ALL TIME • From one of our most distinguished film scholars, comes a rich, penetrating, amusing book about the golden age of movies and how the studios worked to manufacture stars. With revelatory insights and delightful asides, Jeanine Basinger shows us how the studio “star machine” worked when it worked, how it failed when it didn't, and how irrelevant it could sometimes be. She gives us case studies focusing on big stars groomed into the system: the “awesomely beautiful” (and disillusioned) Tyrone Power; the seductive, disobedient Lana Turner; and a dazzling cast of others. She anatomizes their careers, showing how their fame happened, and what happened to them as a result. Deeply engrossing, full of energy, wit, and wisdom, The Star Machine is destined to become an classic of the film canon.