Mickey Rooney singing in Atlantic City through July 11

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Mickey and Jan Rooney in “Let’s Put on a Show!”

The New York Daily News reports that Mickey Rooney – now 87 – is still going strong! Tonight and tomorrow, he is performing “Let’s Put on a Show!” at the Atlantic City Hilton with his wife Jan, as part of his 85th Anniversary Tour!

He is perhaps the only movie star left from Jeanette and Nelson’s era to still have an active career entertaining.

Mickey Rooney, as you know, starred in one of Nelson’s very first movies, Broadway to Hollywood (1933). Nelson sang one number and was barely seen in the film at all, since all though his number, the camera was busy filming a fight between Frank Morgan and Alice Brady.

I saw the show a few years back and Mickey Rooney is, well, still an energetic if elderly Mickey Rooney! You can’t help but be nostalgic for the 1930s when he sings and talks about those MGM years. So, I would recommend that you go if you can, who knows how many more chances we will have to see him perform.

“It was such a different era then,” Rooney told the Daily News. “The songs had so much meaning. what Jan and I do is blend talent and multimedia. We sing, we do a little dance, we show some film clips of my early days in Hollywood. I play a piano. Jan sings. And everybody goes away happy. We love doing it.”

From the Daily News: “The Brooklyn-born entertainer, who turns 88 in September, says he is up to taking the show ‘anywhere they want to see it.’ It covers everything from his first movie, Not to Be Trusted, in 1926 to A Night at the Museum in 2006….

“I’ve always loved what I’ve done,” Rooney says in explaining why he keeps going. “I’ve done over 350 pictures” – enough to make the Guinness Book of Records this year as the actor with the longest career on both stage and screen. Nevertheless, he is moved when younger actors seek him out.

“I was at the Screen Actors Guild Awards earlier this eyar sitting backstage when Brad Pitt approached me and said he wanted to mee me. Then Angelina Jolie…Then Tom Cruise came by. I was so surprised,” Rooney recalls, his voice cracking. “All I ever wanted to do was give people a good time,” he says.

Link for tickets and information.

Mickey Rooney’s website (which hopefully will have updated tour dates for the rest of the year)

Jeanette MacDonald’s “San Francisco” – Solution for the losing SF Giants?

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Jeanette MacDonald in San Francisco 1936

To win at home Giants need to change their tune…by David Bush in the Examiner

The Giants have trouble winning at home, and I think I know why.

An even .500 on the road, they are ten games under at AT&T Park as they open a series against the Cubs Monday night. Their team batting average at home .256 is nine points lower  and their team ERA 4.45 is 0.38 higher. It’s a great ballpark so what’s the problem?

It’s that song.

After every victory at AT&T Park the team turns on the stadium P.A. and unleashes the sappy “I Left My Heart in San Francisco’’. No wonder the players don’t like winning there. You have the thrill of victory and the agony of listening to Tony Bennett.

Even those who like that piece of music must admit it is ill-suited to salute a victory in a baseball stadium. It might be fine in a concert hall, a night club or on a saloon juke box. But Bennett’s lamenting just doesn’t work in a noisy ballpark.

The idea of a city themed victory song was popularized by the Yankees, but at least they had something to work with. Following every home triumph the crowd and players in the Bronx are treated to Frank Sinatra singing, “New York, New York.’’ That’s a song with a little pizzazz that fans are probably still humming as they make their way across the Tri Borough Bridge or along the Grand Concourse. While Bennett is busy not caring that the morning fog fills the air, Sinatra is waking up in a city that doesn’t sleep.

If the Giants really want to make some stirring noise after a victory they should adopt the rousing “San Francisco,’’ sung by Jeanette MacDonald in the movie of the same name. I believe that at one time this was the city’s official song, and it really captures the personality of the town.

“….Open your Golden Gate, don’t let a stranger wait outside your door.’’

That gives a lot more flair than those silly little cable cars going halfway to the stars. Nothing every was halfway about Jeanette MacDonald’s singing and this time she is celebrating San Francisco’s resilience in the aftermath of the Big Earthquake.

Maybe that’s why the Giants are staying away from this particular song. In the film Ms. MacDonald is in full voice, entertaining the patrons of Blackie’s (Clark Gable’s) bar when the chandeliers start swaying as the Big One hits. The Giants have already been through a temblor at the ballyard during the 1989 World Series and perhaps fear triggering another one.

But they do need to shake things up, figuratively speaking, at China Basin, and the manager, players and coaches say they are fresh out of ideas. Why not try this?

Link 

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