PORT CHARLOTTE, FL -- Billed as "The One Man One Wife Show," Hollywood actor and singer Mickey Rooney and his wife, Jan, packed the Cultural Center of Charlotte County Theater at a matinee performance Wednesday afternoon.

"I'm celebrating my 80th year in show business," Rooney said as he began his performance on a stage with a backscreen that projected clips of his old movies.

"Both of my parents were in vaudeville and they made me a tiny tuxedo. I still have it," Rooney joked.

After a meager beginning, Rooney went on to be the number-one box office hit for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he made movies like "Boys Town" and "National Velvet" with Elizabeth Taylor.

The audience, a packed crowd, sang along with Rooney's renditions of old songs from his performing career.

Rooney said he got into show business when his mother tried her luck in Hollywood and he became associated with legendary actors like Greta Garbo, Clark Gable and James Cagney.

He took a seat onstage at one point to allow the audience to view slides of his old movies such as "Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935), "Captains Courageous" (1937), "Strike Up the Band "(1939) and "Huckleberry Finn," which he made as a teen-ager.

He seemed to shine at the 2 p.m. matinee performance when his wife, Jan Chamberlin Rooney, took the stage dressed in a shimmering turquoise pantsuit. 

"Hey, folks, we're married," she said.

The Rooneys have been married 30 years and met at his manager's office. 

"I really didn't know what marriage was until I met Jan," he said.

They both agreed they were reluctant to tie the knot after Rooney's many divorces. "I had bad luck in marriage, but I'm grateful that they left me with seven sons and four daughters and seven grandchildren," he said.

Jan sang songs such as "I Fall to Pieces" and "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" that enhanced her nostalgic style.

She said of her husband, "I didn't want to marry him because of his track record, but I really fell in love with him. We've been married 30 years, and it's the ups that count."

At one point, Rooney sat at the piano and he and his wife performed a duet, with Rooney doing some of his legendary tap dancing.

Jan left the stage early after performing about five songs, saying she was suffering from laryngitis and didn't want to strain her throat.

Rooney remembered his old days with good friend, Judy Garland.

"Ours was a lovely love affair," he said and showed clips from a TV performance of "The Judy Garland Show." Of her 1969 death, he said, "losing Judy was losing one of the world's great entertainers."

The Rooneys closed the show with a rendition of "God Bless America" and thanked their drummer, bass player and pianist.

The Rooneys gave a second performance at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

You can e-mail Martha Hoy at mjhoy@sun-herald.com 
 

By MARTHA HOY

Staff Writer
Sun-Herald
www.sun-herald.com