Editing Mickey Rooney (section)

=== 1927–1936: Mickey McGuire ===
His mother saw an advertisement for a child to play the role of "Mickey McGuire" in a [[Mickey McGuire (film series)|series of short films]].<ref name="current">''Current Biography 1942''. H.W. Wilson Co. (January 1942). pp. 704–06. {{ISBN|99903-960-3-5}}.</ref> Rooney got the role and became "Mickey" for 78 of the films, running from 1927 to 1936, starting with ''Mickey's Circus'' (1927), his first starring role.{{efn|The film was long believed lost, but in 2014 was reported found in the Netherlands.<ref name="Hollywood Reporter-3-30-14">{{cite news|last=Barnes|first=Mike|title=Lost Mickey Rooney Film Is Found and Set for Preservation|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lost-mickey-rooney-film-found-692160|access-date=April 4, 2014|newspaper=The Hollywood Reporter|date=March 30, 2014}}</ref>}}{{efn|The Mickey McGuire films were adapted from the ''[[Toonerville Folks|Toonerville Trolley]]'' comic strip, which contained a character named Mickey McGuire. Joe Yule briefly became Mickey McGuire legally to "trump an attempted copyright lawsuit so the film producer Larry Darmour would not have to pay the comic-strip writers royalties". His mother also changed her surname to McGuire in an attempt to bolster the argument, but the film producers lost. The litigation settlement awarded damages to the owners of the cartoon character, compelling the 12-year-old actor to refrain from calling himself Mickey McGuire on- and off-screen.<ref>{{cite book|last=Server|first=Lee|title=Ava Gardner: "Love Is Nothing"|url=https://archive.org/details/avagardnerloveis00serv|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=St. Martin's Press|isbn=978-1-4299-0874-0}}</ref><ref name="name change – 1930">{{cite news|last1=Coons|first1=Robbin|title=Mother of Mickey McGuire Seeks to Change Her Name|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/4009258/the_evening_review/|via = [[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=January 10, 2016|work=The Evening Review|date=August 29, 1930|location=East Liverpool, Ohio}}</ref><br />During an interruption in the series in 1932, Mrs. Yule made plans to take her son on a 10-week vaudeville tour as McGuire, and Fox sued successfully to stop him from using the name. Mrs. Yule suggested the stage name of Mickey Looney for her comedian son. He altered this to Rooney, which did not infringe upon the copyright of [[Warner Bros.]]' animation series called ''[[Looney Tunes]]''.<ref name="current" />}} During this period, he also briefly voiced [[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]] for [[Walter Lantz Productions]].<ref>{{cite web |title=The Walter Lantz Cartune Encyclopedia : 1931 |url=http://www.intanibase.com/gac/lantz/1931.aspx |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240222112701/https://www.intanibase.com/gac/lantz/1931.aspx |archive-date=February 22, 2024 |access-date=May 9, 2024 |website=The Internet Animation Database}}</ref> He made other films in his adolescence, including several more of the McGuire films. At age 14, he played the role of Puck in the Warner Bros. all-star adaptation of [[A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)|''A Midsummer Night's Dream'']] in 1935. Critic [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] hailed his performance as "one of the cinema's most arresting pieces of magic". Rooney then moved to [[MGM]], where he befriended [[Judy Garland]], with whom he began making a series of musicals that propelled both of them to stardom.<ref name=Krantz>Krantz, Les. ''Their First Time in the Movies'', The Overlook Press N.Y. (2001) p. 45</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/_vK0GxT9z9k Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120905012035/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vK0GxT9z9k&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vK0GxT9z9k |title=Puck's Soliloquy |via=YouTube |date=September 6, 2011 |access-date=June 18, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/vjSg2BVeCMs Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130619022557/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSg2BVeCMs Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite news |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjSg2BVeCMs |title=A Midsummer Night's Dream – 1935 "Puck, Oberon's Servant" |via=YouTube |last=BravuraK |date=February 12, 2011 |access-date=June 18, 2017}}{{cbignore}}</ref>