At a lovely luncheon this afternoon, the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters paid tribute to Mickey Rooney…so this afternoon, I reached my fill of jokes about people being short and often-married. In what turned out to be a very nice event, The Mick was honored by a dozen or so of his friends including Ann Rutherford, Margaret O'Brien, Frank Gorshin, A.C. Lyles, Gene Reynolds, Fayard Nicholas (the surviving member of The Nicholas Brothers), Hal Kanter, Johnny Grant and Red Buttons. I keep seeing Red Buttons speak at local functions and parties and I am amazed how incredibly funny and even topical he is. I wish someone like Jay Leno or David Letterman had the guts to let an 83 year old man come out and do stand-up because the man is an absolute treasure and I think he'd score with all ages.
Mickey was pretty good, too. The last two times I've seen him speak, he was rambling and lacking in coherence and he seemed to be imitating the Dana Carvey parody of him. This afternoon, he was crisp and sincere and told a couple of lovely stories that might have been a wee bit exaggerated (like the one about Mr. Walt Disney naming a certain mouse after him) but they entertained a crowd that loved and respected him dearly. He spoke warmly of his friends and of his spouse, Jan, with whom he currently tours in a one-man/one-wife show. They're playing the Cinegrill in Hollywood in June — a fact that did not go unmentioned. I think it's terrific that at age 84, he's still performing, and that so many turned out to honor him.