Mickey Rooney Was Right

D.W. Paone

Description

   Mickey Rooney Was Right is D.W. Paone’s autobiography with the emphasis on his quest to achieve success as both a writer and assistant cameraman in the entertainment industry.  However, no matter how hard he tried, and he tried very hard, long-term success in both these aspects of the industry continued to elude him.

   While he had the opportunity to work on Law & Order and a handful of other high-profile jobs, and even sold a joke to Jay Leno, his career was a roller coaster ride of highs and lows in a fickle industry with no rhyme or reason. This book is for anyone who has attempted, or even considered a career in the entertainment industry, or followed a dream even when logic and those around him said to stop.

Sujets

• Calling
• Biography
• Lifetime
• Autobiography
• Dream

Informations

• Publié par: AuthorHouse
• Date de parution: 02 mars 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781449076283
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Mickey Rooney Was Right
How I Spent My Lifetime Following a Dream When Logic and Those Around Me Said to Stop
D.W. Paone


AuthorHouse™
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.authorhouse.com
Phone: [phone]
 
 
 
 
 
 
© 2010 D.W. Paone. All rights reserved.
 
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
 
Published by AuthorHouse 09/30/2022
 
ISBN: 978-1-4490-7627-6 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4490-7626-9 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4490-7628-3 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2010900780
 
 
 
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Contents
Acknowledgements
A Note About the Font
Disclaimer
Prologue
Chapter 1 I Am Born
Chapter 2 The Doughnut Box Lied
Chapter 3 School of Hard Knocks
Chapter 4 I Know Why the Caged Rat Sings
Chapter 5 Lighting and Whipped
Chapter 6 The General Should Have Died at Dawn
Chapter 7 Send Me a Dream
Chapter 8 Law & Order
Chapter 9 Screenwriting and Camera Assisting, Sort Of
Chapter 10 The Stardust Agency
Chapter 11 New York News
Chapter 12 The Never-Ending Larry Gelbart Story
Chapter 13 Remember WEN N, The Virgin Kis s, Esquire for Hir e, Golden Ag e, Orio n, What Was He Thinking ?, The Simpsons
Chapter 14 Descent Into Debt
Chapter 15 IATSE 600 vs. David Paone
Chapter 16 Palm Desert High School
Chapter 17 Boomerang Baby
Chapter 18 The Road to Ukiah
Chapter 19 How I Became a Bum
Epilogue

For C.M.G.
Acknowledgements
Every published writer is indebted to a multitude of people and I am no different. I′d like to thank Lawrence Paone, Rich Eliano and Greg Wilson for taking the time to give me detailed notes that were just what I needed; my parents, Peg and Don Paone, for supporting me (both emotionally and financially) during the time it took me to write this book; "Code Name: Salami" for her affection and passion and not caring that I was broke, in debt, unemployed and living with my parents; Wes LeRoy of Author House for his endless patience and especially all the wonderful people I′ve met in my lifetime (whom you′ll read about in the following pages) who returned phone calls when I was nobody. And of course, Mickey Rooney, who made that very clear to me.
A Note About the Font
This book is typeset in Courier New. In the old days manual typewriters used this font and therefore all screenplays were typed in it. With the advent of computers, screenplays, teleplays and manuscripts continued to be written in this font. Since a good part of this book contains sections in screenplay format, it made sense to print the entire book in Courier New.
 
 
 
All photographs by or courtesy of David Paone, unless otherwise noted.
Disclaimer
I'll be the first to admit it: I have an awful memory. I don't remember names and faces, places I've been and definitely not numbers. With that in mind, I've tried my best to recall the important events in my life that make up this book. Sometimes dialogue will be paraphrased but always to the best of my memory.
Other times I will have the luxury of having quotes in writing in the form of a letter or an e-mail and in those cases the quotes will be exact. Sometimes my memory will be fuzzy and I won't know the year an event happened, while other times I made notes in my date books (which I still have) or have it in some other form and in those cases the dates will be spot on.
When there's a lengthy exchange of dialogue I'm going to write it out in screenplay format.
And lastly, unless otherwise noted, the names of people and names of companies and names of jobs are real. In a few instances I've either changed them (if the circumstances would embarrass someone undeserving) or not used them at all (if I couldn't remember them to begin with).
Prologue
In 1996, I was hired on the Utah unit of a feature called Animals with the Toll Keeper . There were these surreal, black and white scenes they needed to shoot in the Utah desert, among the rock formations formed millions of years ago. I was the second assistant cameraman and film loader.
The only problem was being winter, it was oh, so cold. So cold I couldn′t enjoy the magnificent land all around us. We were only going to shoot for a few days, so it wouldn′t be too bad.
The really great thing, though, was Mickey Rooney was going to be on for a day. So before I left Burbank, where I was living at the time, I found three copies of his autobiography for him to sign at some point. I arranged with his assistant a time to go into his trailer and hand him the books.
 
D.W.
Can you make the first one out to
Glenn? That′s with two n′s.
(beat)
He′ll be thrilled. He loves the old
movies.
 
MICKEY ROONEY
Fuck the old movies!
 
D.W.
Maybe you can write that in his book.
 
He signed the other two and I stood in front of him and I thought I′d ask him a few questions. In my research for Golden Age , which was a pilot teleplay I co-wrote for a single-camera sitcom that takes place during the Golden Age of Television, I had come in contact with many stage managers from the era. Mickey Rooney performed in a Playhouse 90 production of The Comedian in 1957 which was absolutely terrific.
 
D.W.
Do you happen to remember who the
stage manager for The Comedian was?
 
MICKEY ROONEY
Jesus fucking Christ! Do you know how
long ago that was?
 
I don′t remember exactly what I said next.
 
MICKEY ROONEY
Sit down, you′re standing over me.
 
D.W.
Well, I really should be getting
back -–
 
MICKEY ROONEY
SIT DOWN!
 
I thought I′d better do as he said and made no sudden moves. I slowly sat down. I told him about Golden Age and how my brother-in-law and I were trying to start our own TV series.
 
MICKEY ROONEY
Let me tell you something. You –- you
can′t do anything. Do you know why?
Because you′re nobody! Nobody! But I
wish you the best of luck.
 
He went on telling me I′m nobody and wishing me the best of luck for what seemed like five more minutes. I slowly stood up, as not to set him off, and left the trailer.
 
***
 
Was old Mickey on to something? Could I not do anything because I′m nobody? Not everyone who′s somebody was born that way; not every successful person in the entertainment business was born into it. There has to be some way for a nobody to become a somebody.
As you read this book you′ll see I was trying to become a somebody every minute. I took advantage of every opportunity that came my way and even created a few that didn′t.
In order for you to truly appreciate my story, I'll have to tell it from the beginning. Sit down, buckle up and hang on, it′s quite a roller coaster ride.
Chapter One
I Am Born
Sorry. I couldn′t resist. I was born on February 7, 1964. This was a pretty eventful day, not so much for me, but for millions of teenagers in America. It was a Friday and that's the very day The Beatles arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. Two nights later, on Sunday, they played live on The Ed Sullivan Show to the joy of millions of teenage viewers. To anyone who's old enough to remember this, it's a pretty prominent event.
 
***
 
My parents were married in 1949. My mother's full name is Margaret Ann Decker and my father's full name is Donald Vincent Paone. But from here on in they will be referred to as Peg and Don. Their first child is named Donald, born in 1951 (in Brooklyn); their second is Kenny, born in 1953 and their third is Alene, born in 1955, both also in Brooklyn. Peg and Don and their three children moved to Long Island in 1957 and their next addition was Lawrence, born in 1960, and then saving the best for last, me.
I almost died at birth. I had some sort of respiratory problem. Since Peg and Don were devout Catholics, and I was born at a Catholic hospital, one of the nurses baptized me immediately. The doctor told Peg I had a one in a thousand chance to live.
Don prayed to God and cut a deal with Him: If I live, he will go to church in thanks every Saturday for the rest of his life (in addition to every Sunday). To his credit, he's 85 (as of this writing) and is still going. I tell him at his age if he stopped, everyone, including God, will say he's lived up to his end of the bargain. He says no, a deal's a deal, and if he stops, I'll die.
With a one in a thousand chance to live, I beat death.
 
***
 
So here we were, living the American Dream. Peg and Don paid $16,250 for a three-bedroom, one and a half-bath house in Malverne, New York. It was a 20-year mortgage and their first payments were $85 per month.
Malverne, where we lived, is a small village on Long Island. It′s one square-mile with about 9,000 people. There's no McDonald′s or Starbucks and there are only two police cars on patrol at a time.
In September of 1969 I started kindergarten. I loved kindergarten. You know why? Because they had paint there. They had an easel where I could stand wearing a smock (which was one of Do