Editing Mickey Rooney (section)

=== 1937–1944: Andy Hardy films and Hollywood stardom ===
[[File:Rooney-Garland-ebay-1938.jpg|thumb|Rooney with [[Judy Garland]] in ''[[Love Finds Andy Hardy]]'' (1938)]]
In 1937, Rooney was selected to portray [[Andy Hardy]] in ''[[A Family Affair (1937 film)|A Family Affair]]'', which MGM had planned as a [[B-movie]].<ref name="current" /> Rooney provided comic relief as the son of Judge James K. Hardy, portrayed by [[Lionel Barrymore]] (although former silent-film leading man [[Lewis Stone]] played the role of Judge Hardy in subsequent pictures). The film was an unexpected success, and led to 13 more ''Andy Hardy'' films between 1937 and 1946, and a final film in 1958.

According to author Barry Monush, MGM wanted the Andy Hardy films to appeal to all family members. Rooney's character portrayed a typical "anxious, hyperactive, girl-crazy teenager", and he soon became the unintended main star of the films. Although some critics describe the series of films as "sweet, overly idealized, and pretty much interchangeable," their ultimate success was because they gave viewers a "comforting portrait of small-town America that seemed suited for the times", with Rooney instilling "a lasting image of what every parent wished their teen could be like".<ref name=Monush />

Behind the scenes, however, Rooney was like the "hyperactive girl-crazy teenager" he portrayed on the screen. [[Wallace Beery]], his co-star in ''[[Stablemates]]'', described him as a "brat", but a "fine actor".{{sfn | Marx | 1986 | p=68}} MGM head [[Louis B. Mayer]] found it necessary to manage Rooney's public image, explains historian Jane Ellen Wayne:

{{cquote|Mayer naturally tried to keep all his child actors in line, like any father figure. After one such episode, Mickey Rooney replied, "I won't do it. You're asking the impossible." Mayer then grabbed young Rooney by his lapels and said, "Listen to me! I don't care what you do in private. Just don't do it in public. In public, behave. Your fans expect it. You're Andy Hardy! You're the United States! You're the Stars and Stripes. Behave yourself! You're a symbol!" Mickey nodded. "I'll be good, Mr. Mayer. I promise you that." Mayer let go of his lapels, "All right," he said.<ref name=Wayne>{{cite book|last=Wayne|first=Jane Ellen|title=The Leading Men of MGM|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780786714759|url-access=registration|year=2005|publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers|isbn=978-0-7867-1475-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780786714759/page/246 246]}}</ref>}}

Fifty years later, Rooney realized in hindsight that these early confrontations with Mayer were necessary for him to develop into a leading film star: "Everybody butted heads with him, but he listened and you listened. And then you'd come to an agreement you could both live with.&nbsp;... He visited the sets, he gave people talks&nbsp;... What he wanted was something that was ''American'', presented in a [[Cosmopolitanism|cosmopolitan]] manner."<ref>{{cite book|last=Eyman|first=Scott|title=Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0ldNR7gZ1oC|year=2005|publisher=Pavilion Books|isbn=978-1-86105-892-8|page=323}}</ref>

[[File:Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy.jpg|thumb|[[Spencer Tracy]] and Rooney in a scene from ''[[Boys Town (film)|Boys Town]]'' (1938)]]
[[File:Lionel Barrymore 61st birthday 1939.jpg|right|thumb|Lionel Barrymore's 61st birthday in 1939, standing: Mickey Rooney, [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]], [[Clark Gable]], [[Louis B. Mayer]], [[William Powell]], [[Robert Taylor (American actor)|Robert Taylor]], seated: [[Norma Shearer]], [[Lionel Barrymore]], and [[Rosalind Russell]]]]
In 1937, Rooney made his first film alongside Judy Garland with ''[[Thoroughbreds Don't Cry]]''.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=September 3, 2019 | url=https://slate.com/culture/2015/10/the-mgm-history-of-judy-garland-and-mickey-rooney.html | title=The Long, Fruitful, and Tortured Relationships Between Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, and MGM | date=October 30, 2015 | last=Longworth | first=Karina | website=Slate}}</ref> Garland and Rooney became close friends as they co-starred in future films and became a successful song-and-dance team. Audiences delighted in seeing the "playful interactions between the two stars showcase a wonderful chemistry".<ref>{{cite web | access-date=September 3, 2019 | url=https://slate.com/culture/2014/04/mickey-rooney-dead-at-93-remembering-the-star-with-some-of-his-best-musical-performances-video.html | title=Remembering Mickey Rooney With a Few of His Greatest Musical Performances | date=April 7, 2014 | last=Harris | first=Aisha | website=Slate}}</ref> Along with three of the ''Andy Hardy'' films, where she portrayed a girl attracted to Andy, they appeared together in a string of successful musicals, including [[Coming-of-age story|coming-of-age]] musical ''[[Babes in Arms (film)|Babes in Arms]]'' (1939). For his performance as Mickey Moran, [[12th Academy Awards|19-year-old Mickey Rooney]] was nominated for an [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role]], becoming the [[List of oldest and youngest Academy Award winners and nominees#Youngest nominees 2|second-youngest]] Best Actor nominee. During an interview in the 1992 documentary film ''MGM: When the Lion Roars'', Rooney describes their friendship:<ref name="mgmrooneyquote">{{cite episode | title=The Lion Reigns Supreme |year=1992 | last=Rooney | first=Mickey | series=MGM: When the Lion Roars}}</ref>

{{cquote|Judy and I were so close we could've come from the same womb. We weren't like brothers or sisters but there was no love affair there; there was more than a love affair. It's very, very difficult to explain the depths of our love for each other. It was so special. It was a forever love. Judy, as we speak, has not died. She's always with me in every heartbeat of my body.}}

In 1937, Rooney received top billing as Shockey Carter in ''[[Hoosier Schoolboy]]'', but his breakthrough role as a dramatic actor came in 1938's ''[[Boys Town (1938 film)|Boys Town]]'' opposite [[Spencer Tracy]] as Father Flanagan, who runs a home for wayward and homeless boys. 18-year-old Rooney and 17-year-old [[Deanna Durbin]] were awarded a special [[Academy Juvenile Award|Juvenile Academy Award]] in [[11th Academy Awards|1939]], for "significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth".{{sfn|Lertzman|Birnes|2015|p=161}}<ref name="Oscars.org 2">{{cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/legacy/ceremony/11th.html|title=11th Academy Awards|access-date=July 6, 2011|publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences}}</ref> Jane Ellen Wayne describes one of the "most famous scenes" in the film, where tough young Rooney is playing poker with a cigarette in his mouth, his hat is cocked, and his feet are up on the table. "Tracy grabs him by the lapels, throws the cigarette away, and pushes him into a chair. 'That's better,' he tells Mickey."<ref name=Wayne /> Louis B. Mayer said ''Boys Town'' was his favorite film during his years at MGM.{{sfn|Lertzman|Birnes|2015|p=161}}

Rooney was the biggest box-office draw in 1939, 1940, and 1941.<ref name="1939hgy">{{cite AV media | title=1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year | publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |year=2009 | last=Branagh | first=Kenneth | type=Movie | quote=By 1939, [Rooney] was the top box-office star in the world, a title he held for three consecutive years.}}</ref> For their roles in ''Boys Town'', Rooney and Tracy won first and second place in the ''[[Motion Picture Herald]]'' 1940 National Poll of Exhibitors, based on the box-office appeal of 200 players. A contributor to ''[[Boys' Life]]'' magazine wrote, "Congratulations to Messrs. Rooney and Tracy! Also to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer we extend a hearty thanks for their very considerable part in this outstanding achievement."<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BfgNiM4xmDcC&pg=PA22 | title=Movies of the Month | date=April 1941 | last=Mathews | first=Franklin K | issn=0006-8608 | magazine=Boys' Life | page=22}}</ref> Actor [[Laurence Olivier]] once called Rooney "the greatest actor of them all".<ref name=USAToday>{{cite web | last=Freydkin | first=Donna | title=Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney dies | website=USA Today | date=April 6, 2014 | url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/04/06/mickey-rooney-dies/7404557/ | access-date=September 3, 2019}}</ref> He appeared on the cover of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine in 1940, timed to coincide with the release of ''[[Young Tom Edison]]'';<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3201/young-tom-edison#articles-reviews|title=Young Tom Edison (1940)|publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]]|access-date=September 16, 2013|quote=''Time'' put Rooney on the cover, noting that his movies had grossed a whopping $30&nbsp;million for MGM the previous year and praising him for 'his most sober and restrained performance to date' as young Edison, 'who (like himself) began at the bottom of the American heap, (like himself) had to struggle, (like himself) won, but a boy whose main activity (unlike Mickey's) was investigating, inventing, thinking.'}}</ref> the [[Article (publishing)|cover story]] began:<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,763693,00.html|title=Cinema: Success Story|date=March 18, 1940|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=September 16, 2013|quote=Hollywood's No. 1 box office bait in 1939 was not [[Clark Gable]], [[Errol Flynn]], or [[Tyrone Power]], but a rope-haired, kazoo-voiced kid with a comic-strip face, who until this week had never appeared in a picture without mugging or overacting it. His name (assumed) was Mickey Rooney, and to a large part of the more articulate U. S. cinema audience, his name was becoming a frequently used synonym for brat.}}</ref>

{{cquote|Hollywood's No. 1 box office bait in 1939 was not Clark Gable, Errol Flynn, or Tyrone Power, but a rope-haired, kazoo-voiced kid with a comic-strip face, who until this week had never appeared in a picture without mugging or overacting it. His name (assumed) was Mickey Rooney, and to a large part of the more articulate U.S. cinema audience, his name was becoming a frequently used synonym for brat.}}

During his long career, Rooney also worked with many of the screen's female stars, including [[Elizabeth Taylor]] in [[National Velvet (film)|''National Velvet'']] (1944), [[Marilyn Monroe]] in ''[[The Fireball]]'' (1950), [[Grace Kelly]] in ''[[The Bridges at Toko-Ri]]'' (1954) and [[Audrey Hepburn]] in [[Breakfast at Tiffany's (film)|''Breakfast at Tiffany's'']] (1961),.<ref name=Huffington>{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mickey-rooney-dead_n_5102575|title=Legendary Actor Mickey Rooney Dies|date=April 6, 2014|website=HuffPost|access-date=September 3, 2019}}</ref> Rooney's "bumptiousness and boyish charm" as an actor developed more "smoothness and polish" over the years, writes biographer [[Scott Eyman]]. The fact that Rooney fully enjoyed his life as an actor played a large role in those changes:

{{cquote|You weren't going to work, you were going to have fun. It was home, everybody was cohesive; it was family. One year I made nine pictures; I had to go from one set to another. It was like I was on a conveyor belt. You did not read a script and say, "I guess I'll do it." ''You did it.'' They had people that knew the kind of stories that were suited to you. It was a conveyor belt that made motion pictures.<ref name=Eyman>{{cite book|last=Eyman|first=Scott|title=Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0ldNR7gZ1oC|year=2005|publisher=Pavilion Books|isbn=978-1-86105-892-8|page=224}}</ref>}}
[[Clarence Brown]], who directed Rooney in his Oscar-nominated performance in [[The Human Comedy (film)|''The Human Comedy'']] (1943) and again in ''[[National Velvet (film)|National Velvet]]'' (1944), enjoyed working with Rooney in films:

{{cquote|Mickey Rooney is the closest thing to a genius that I ever worked with. There was Chaplin, then there was Rooney. The little bastard could do no wrong in my book&nbsp;... All you had to do with him was rehearse it once.<ref>{{cite book|last=Basinger|first=Jeanine|title=The Star Machine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yyXUTSkqeV4C|year=2007|publisher=A.A. Knopf|isbn=978-1-4000-4130-5|page=442}}</ref>}}