Repost... Meeting Mickey Rooney

Meeting Mickey Rooney

**This meeting took place in October 2003, and was written in January of 2004- several months after meeting that old bastard Mickey Rooney*
So back in October I met Mickey Rooney… well, sorta…
There is a place called Spooky World in Foxboro MA. It sits behind the Patriots stadium in the woods… well, sorta… Anyway it’s open for Halloween season and they have rides and crappy spook houses that aren’t scary just pathetic… They also have a cool Halloween museum with vintage costumes, props etc… it’s really cool. They also have weekly guests… ususally B-grade movie stars, singers, etc… for example a few years ago my husband saw Tiny Tim there riding around on a motorized cart…
So this year I was perusing the Spooky World ads and noticed that old Mickey Rooney was on the schedule. I was floored. MICKEY ROONEY for cryin out loud… Mick of Mick and Joots (the names he and Judy Garland called eachother), Andy Hardy for goodness sake!!! I was out of my mind. So Jay and I gathered the $$ and time to spend the night in Foxboro with our friends John & Candis at the Holiday Inn Express, and I got a new winter jacket to wear… and I wore a cute white sweater with black flowers on it similar to the shirt Judy wore in one of her last movies w/ Mickey Rooney… and so we bundle up, pay $30 EACH to get “VIP” Tickets and enter the lack luster park. My main interest was Mr. Rooney, I really was not up for the rides or spook houses. So we get to the Museum and look at the cool stuff and I see the room where Mickey is signing autographs….
Now at this point, my stomach is doing kartwheels and I am only focused on meeting one the few remaning original MGM stars… I couldn’t stand myself, I was that anxious… so Jay told John & Candis that we were going to head to the autograph area and we’d meet them in a few minutes… So I’m 1 in line and shaking like a crack-deprived hoochie…
I can see Mr. Rooney and his wife at the table and I smile… no response… Then the guy from Spooky World turns on this mix tape of songs that Rooney sang in movies… Rooney is like, “HEY TURN THAT DOWN…” and makes a terrible face… I should have known something was up but I was star struck… I felt like Betty Thompson (the former Rockette who was the secretary at my elementary school in Candia, New Hampshire) in 1939 when she saw Judy & Mickey in NYC… ANYWAY they opened the gate and ushered Jay and I to the merch table where you HAD TO PURCHASE SOMETHING FOR HIM TO SIGN… I picked out my FAVORITE black and white glossy of Mickey playing a little cello and Judy singing… it’s adorable… especially Judy… what an actress… ANYWAY… I get to the table, look into Rooney’s eyes and say…
“I can not believe I finally get to meet you… I am sooo nervous….”
NO RESPONSE FROM ROONEY… HE STUFFS A HANDFUL OF POPCORN TAKEN OUT OF A MCBOO BUCKET INTO HIS MOUTH, BARELY WIPES HIS HANDS ON HIS SHIRT, SCRIBBLES HIS NAME OVER HIS PICTURE AND
F-L-I-N-G-S
THE PICTURE ACROSS THE TABLE…
I was taken back about 1000000000 years… what just happened???
So I just look up in time to see Jay holding out his hand to Rooney and saying, “Nice to meet you…”
Rooney can barely hold his hand out to shake because he is a horrible man.
So we leave the area and I am CRUSHED. Where is the friendly and scheming Andy Hardy? The jovial light house keeper from Pete’s Dragon???
Pissed is not the word for how I felt… I still can’t get over how disappointed I was… and still am.
That’s my story of Mickey Rooney…
Godamn MICKEY ROONEY…. He is a miserable LITTLE old man who is just mad that after 1945 NOONE WANTED ANDY HARDY ANYMORE AND SO OL MICK WAS STUCK DOING HORRIBLE ROLES… WELL F- YOU MICKEY ROONEY THAT IS NO REASON TO BE NASTY TO PROBABLY THE ONLY PERSON IN MASSACHUSSETTS WHO ACTUALLY KNEW WHO YOU WERE!!!