When my friend, public relations guru Jeff Abraham sent me the above parody ad for Mickey Rooney’s Potato Fantasy Family Restaurants, it is not far from the real truth. This joke ad brought back memories of our research for our worldwide best selling biography- The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney from Simon & Schuster (sold everywhere).

Here is a sampling of some of Mickey Rooney’s actual products and business investments- as we detail in our book:

Mickey’s two-ball- a – golf -a -chair indoor golf

Rooney’s Lovely Lady Cosmetics includes Trapeze, Taming the Shrew and Twelfth Night perfume

Complete, a men’s aerosol spray on hair

The Elim pharmaceutical line which included a stomach laxative called Elim-A- Ache; and of course, a foot powder called Elim-An- Itch.

Rip-offs- disposable undergarments for men and women

Tip-Offs- a disposable bra (Fruit of the Loom turned this down in 2 minutes)

Puppy Pop- a bubbly drink for dogs.

Mickey Melon- a watermelon flavored drink made by Canfield Beverage

A chain of 52 Mickey’s Weenie World that featured round hot dogs also featuring relish called McLish, Mickey’s Pancho Weenie and the best selling Eric-Von-Weenie

Mickey’s Yankee Doodle (mac-n-cheese) sold at Weenie World

Mickey’s Thirs-T an ice tea drink sold on the east coast

Mickey Rooney’s Acting Schools

Mickey Rooney’s School of Dance

Mickey Rooney’s Tabas Hotel and Inn -and Theater in Downington, Pa. Donald Trump told us he warned Mickey not to invest in this as Atlantic City was opening. It closed.

Mickey Rooney’s Star Bar B Cue

Mickey’s Coins – the Faces of Famous Celebrities on collector coins. Actually a good idea, but he forgot to get permission from those performers. Lawsuits followed.

There are many lessons that Mickey Rooney’s life can teach us if we choose to look beyond the brightness of his star. His life was a roller coaster ride of success, failure and success again. Rooney summarized his life by saying:

“You always pass failure on your way to success.”

Rooney was at the height of his career in 1940. He was one of the biggest box-office draws from 1939 to 1941, which brought him fame and fortune. His pursuit of the “good life” ended abruptly when his earnings couldn’t keep pace with his spending.

In the 1980’s, Rooney was getting paid $75,000 weekly for nearly 5 years for the Broadway hit ” Sugar Babies”. He plowed his money back into some of the businesses listed above. By 1992, he was bankrupt – for the second time.

”Life can be thought of as total entertainment,” explains Mr. Rooney, ”but too many people categorize life. They think ‘Oh God, it’s Monday again, what’ll I do? I’ll do what I always do on Monday.’ Then it’s Tuesday. ‘Oh I’ll do what I did last Tuesday.’ Then Wednesday, then ‘Holy smoke, it’s Thursday, I better think about what I did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.’ Then it’s Friday, and now they’ve become a Friday person,” says Mr. Rooney, ”which is a great title for a book!”

To Mr. Rooney, every phrase suggests a book title, every person a character for a show, every mouthful a fast-food empire. ”He’s so creative it verges on insanity,” said his dresser Tony Buonauro. Mr. Rooney had written six unpublished novels and and had “Eight or 10 filmscripts ready for production. Scripts for all genres: a horror film for Bette Davis, a thriller for Glen Ford, and television pilots that range from ”Roughshod,” a Western, to ”The Discoverers,” which Mr. Rooney describes as ”the episodic adventures of Balboa, Cortez and Ponce De Leon.” One favorite was ”The Picture Nobody Should See.” ”It’s about Charlie and Hazel Crow,” says Mr. Rooney, ”a milkman and his wife who set out to make a porno film. That’s the picture nobody should see.” He claps his hands. ”It’s a picture within a picture!”

A NY Times profile from 1980 (during the run of Sugar Babies) said: “Mr. Rooney is also in business – five or six of them, and much of his morning is taken up with telephone wheeling and dealing. His ”Talentown,” a cable-television show featuring young performers, will premiere this fall. ”Eighteen months after opening, we hope to have two million kids enrolled. Can you imagine that?” Mr. Rooney marvels. Those youngsters he doesn’t reach by television, he’ll get via cassette with ”Act-O-Lab,” a mail-order acting school. ”I have over 250 salesmen employed to help people find the creative incentive, to fortify theater once more.” The school motto? ”Success is how you act,” says Mr. Rooney proudly.

“He also speculates in fast foods. On the West Coast, ”Mickey Rooney’s Star-B-Q” pushes ”Rooney shortribs,” while ”Weenie World’s” hotdogs made their debut in Jersey City last month. ”Mickey Rooney Macaroni” is in the works, and Mr. Rooney bubbles over a new soft drink whose flavor he won’t divulge. ”It’s called ‘Thirst,” he says. ”I had the copy written 20 years ago.” He leans forward conspiratorially. ”Thirst Come, Thirst Serve.” Then there’s a senior citizens club (”experienced people,” interjects Mr. Rooney), a cosmetics company …and the projects tumble off the Rooney tongue.”

“Does he ever feel he’s spreading himself too thin? Mr. Rooney looks insulted. ”Doing eight or 10 projects at a time gives you an extemporaneous quality going at each project. Even the great Picasso did eight paintings at a time so he could move back and forth and constantly get a fresh perspective.” Theater, macaroni and cosmetics? ”It’s all under the same heading of enthusiasm,” he says, ”and enthusiasm is like manure. If it stays in one pile, it stinks. But if you spread it around, something may grow – a flower or some corn.”

“Not all of Mr. Rooney’s seeds bear fruit: maybe a third of them, suggests a friend. Some are nonexistent, ”delusions of grandeur” according to one source. “

“But one project that is very real is the class action filed by Mr. Rooney on June against eight Hollywood studios, seeking compensation on behalf of all actors who appeared in movies produced before February 1960 and are now being shown on television. (Actors now receive residuals for films made after that date.) It is a project close to Mr. Rooney’s heart. ”Last night they showed ‘It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’ on TV. I saw one of the commercials while I was backstage. It was a Bug Roach commercial.” His voice rises angrily. ”I didn’t make that movie for the Bug Roach commercial.” He scrambles to his Betamax and back, brandishing a cassette like a salesman. ” ‘Gunga Din’ starring Cary Grant and Douglas Fairbanks,” he announces. ”You can buy this wonderful movie to show on your Betamax for $59.45.” He shakes the cassette. ”Why don’t you pay Gary Grant? Why don’t you pay Douglas Fairbanks?” He’s tired of others making money off his ”individuality.” He’d rather make it himself.”

The suit reflects the combination of pride and bitterness with which Mr. Rooney views the industry. ”Getting all about. Everybody thinks we’re doing it just for the artistic fulfillment, the creative factor. But it’s the paycheck.” He looks away. ”For years I didn’t think that way. I had the idealistic approach. And I got kicked right in the ass. That’ll waken you real quick.” Now, he maintains, ”I take a back seat to no one. I no longer defer. I discovered God helps those who help themselves.”

One of our great friends wrote us that,

“When I was a kid (mid 1970’s), there was a “Mickey Rooney’s Weenie World” In Massapequa, Long Island. It was in a strange flying saucer shaped building. It didn’t last long, and was replaced by several restaurants, one of which was a pretty good gyro shop. Do you know if this weird building is still there?

One book on barbecue wrote : (“BBQ USA”, page 375) ….the actor Mickey Rooney wearing an apron and chef’s hat featuring a “Mickey Rooney’s Star-B-Q” logo. He looks like he could be anywhere from his 40s to his late 50s, which would put the timeframe somewhere in the ’60’s timeframe

When Mickey was 93, he was still making films and wacky investments. He still had plans. In March of 2014, director Shawn Levy was filming the last of the last Night at The Museum movies (part 3). Shawn informed us that Mickey was paid $250,000 on March 20, 2014. He was dead less than 3 weeks later. Surprisingly, he had only $18,000 in his bank account. It was certainly not enough to cover the costs to bury him. Thanks to the generosity of Hollywood Forever, he was buried in a beautiful mausoleum at their cemetery (near his friend Judy Garland).

You can read much more about Mickey in our 700 page plus comprehensive biography, The Life and Times of Mickey Rooney by Richard A Lertzman and William J Birnes. It’s in hardcover, Ebook , Audiobook and Audible Audio. Soon to be a major motion picture.