This Is How Mickey Rooney Really Felt About Judy Garland
As a beloved silver-screen duo, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland have charmed generations over the decades. But while the legendary actors made movie magic together, were their smiles just plastered on for the cameras? Not everyone gets along with their co-workers, after all. Well, wonder no more. We know just what Rooney thought about Garland – and whether their on-screen chemistry translated into a real-life friendship.
And Garland could have used a friend in Hollywood – especially one who knew what it was like to have been in the biz from a young age. It’s incredible to think of now, but she was signed to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio at the age of only 13. Garland was already a seasoned pro by that point, mind you. Her first performance in front of a paying audience had come when she had been just two years old.
Want another fact that’ll blow your mind? Garland landed arguably her most iconic role when she was all of 17. As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, she sang and danced her way to superstardom and landed an Academy Juvenile Award in the process. But behind the scenes, the shoot had been a troubling experience for Garland. And it would have a real effect on her in later life.
At least the icon had Rooney to lean on – for a while, anyway. The pair had first starred together in 1937’s Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry but had already met a few years earlier as wide-eyed showbiz teens. And in 2020 Rooney’s biographer Richard A. Lertzman told Closer magazine, “Judy sang, and Mickey couldn’t believe her voice.” It appeared the admiration was mutual. Lertzman continued, “[Judy] loved his talent and energy.”
And luckily for both Rooney and Garland, child stars were big business in Hollywood at the time. In 1935 Louis B. Mayer had even created a schoolhouse on the MGM studio lot. This was overseen by Mary MacDonald, a teacher who had originally been hired to teach French to a young actress named Jean Parker. As it happens, all the youthful talent hired by the studio would go through MacDonald’s training.
