Image courtesy Steve Hart Photographics - The day Hollywood came to Rosehill - Mickey Rooney and John Singleton.
Steve Hart swung into action when one of Hollywood’s most enduring stars made an impromptu appearance at Rosehill in the mid 90’s.
Steve snapped this photo of Mickey Rooney surrounded by admirers in the mounting enclosure. On Mickey’s left is an unabashed fan John Singleton and behind Singo are journalist Bronwyn Farr, Telegraph racing writer Keith Robbins and Jack Ingham.
If you look over Mickey’s right shoulder, you’ll see in the background a very youthful Ron Dufficy.
You can understand why Mickey Rooney stopped the show when he arrived at Rosehill with his entourage. His love of a bet and his passion for horse racing were legend in Hollywood and he made a special request to be taken to the Sydney race meeting .
It’s not often you get to see a man whose movie career began in the silent era. He was around 76 at the time this photo was taken, but he was still working into his late 80’s.
His astonishing career embraced more than 300 movies, including some of Hollywood’s most loved classics. He could act, he could sing, he could dance, he could play piano and drums, he could write music, and had perfect comedic timing.
The iconic actor Sir Laurence Olivier said of Rooney’s acting ability, “probably the best there has ever been”.
Clarence Brown, who directed Rooney in National Velvet said, “he’s the closest thing to a genius I’ve ever worked with”.
Mickey wasn’t short of a quote himself, during his long life. Eight times married Rooney famously said, “it’s always best to get married in the morning. That way if it doesn’t work out, you haven’t wasted the whole day”.
Anyone who’s ever enjoyed a movie was saddened by Mickey Rooney’s passing in 2014, at age 93. The little fella with the cherubic face, had no idea how much spark he put into that winter race meeting at Rosehill, all those years ago.