Remembering Mickey Rooney

     I've posted nothing but "campaign" columns since March 1st, but I'm making an exception today in writing a "non-campaign" column.
     My father occasionally spoke about Mickey Rooney. It was difficult for anyone born in 1913 like my father was, not to talk about the legendary actor. Rooney performed in countless films and television series over the decades, before taking his one-man-one-wife comedy show on the road in his later years.
     While I worked at KOBI-TV in 2004-2007, I had the pleasure of meeting Mickey Rooney and his wife face to face. One friend of his wife's lived in Sutherlin, so she had been able to talk Mickey Rooney into performing in Sutherlin. Being a member of the news media, I was able to schedule a personal interview with the legendary actor beforehand. I will never forget our meeting. I drove my news vehicle alongside the Rooneys' car, which was parked in an empty parking lot behind Sutherlin High School. Imagine one of the greatest stars of all times meeting me here is such an obscure place!
     The Rooney couple appeared to be humble on the surface. At the time, the Sutherlin Inn had a "suite" where the Rooneys stayed while they were in town. When I later worked at the motel as a desk clerk, known at the time as Microtel Inn, I would always tell the guests who stayed in room 303, that was the bed (or at least it was the same room) where Mickey Rooney slept. Actually, it was nothing more than a King-size bed room, and not a "suite," when I worked at Microtel.
     My father grew up in a different generation. Therefore, my frame of reference for Rooney's work was slightly skewed. I didn't remember Rooney for the great movies that he starred in. Rather, I remembered Rooney for his other roles....such as an episode of The Twilight Zone, where Rooney played the part of a horse jockey who gets his wish to be bigger. To show that Rooney had "grown" in size, Rooney was placed in a much smaller (dare I say doll house?) room where his head bumped the ceiling. The irony at the end of the story was that Rooney was offered his job back as a jockey, AFTER he became bigger...which meant he was out of luck.
     When I sat down to interview Rooney and his wife on the steps outside the Sutherlin High School gymnasium, we talked about Rooney's favorite films. He asked me what mine was. I mentioned The Twilight Zone episode. Rooney abruptly cut me off and said that's television, not film. I felt three feet tall. (No offense meant to Rooney's height.)
     The tone of the interview went the same way. Rooney's wife might be talking to her friend from Sutherlin, and I would be saying something to Rooney. Rooney would act bent out of shape, saying "shhhh" and gesturing for his wife not to disturb the interview. I appreciated Rooney's attempt to make the interview go smoothly, but at the time I was just making small talk, while I was positioning microphone equipment. I didn't think it was very civilized for Rooney to "shush" his wife.
     However, I gave Rooney the benefit of the doubt. At the time he was in his early 80s, and I had to believe that even a legendary actor of that age was under enormous pressure, and would sometimes become emotional. I didn't see a crotchety elderly man. I saw an actor whom my father had undoubtedly seen at the theater during my father's younger years.
     I've met some very prominent people during the 20 years that I worked as a journalist: Presidential candidate Barack Obama; General Paul Tibbetts, who piloted the Enola Gay over Japan during WWII; James Garner; Jesse Jackson; country music  singer Charlie Daniels; etc. But I can honestly say that Mickey Rooney is one of those at the top of the list whom impacted the most people.