Collector Mike Kaplan, Jan Rooney, Mickey Rooney and Malcolm McDowell at the opening of the exhibition "The More the Merrier: Posters from the Best Picture Nominees, 1936-1943" at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' Wilshire Grand Lobby in Beverly Hills on Friday, January 22, 2010. The exhibition, which features posters from 80 movies, will remain open until April 18. Among the represented films are Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Victor Fleming's Captains Courageous, Leo McCarey's The Awful Truth, William Wellman's A Star Is Born, William Wyler's The Little Foxes, and Michael Curtiz's Casablanca.
Mickey Rooney co-starred with Spencer Tracy in Norman Taurog's sentimental drama Boys Town (1938), in which Tracy plays a real-life priest and Rooney a rebellious youth who learns to follow the path of virtue. A sequel, Men of Boys Town (1941), wasn't nearly as prestigious. At around that time, film exhibitors voted Rooney the top box-office attraction in the United States.
Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photo to enlarge it.