Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland were one of the most attractive young pairs in Hollywood in the pre-World War II years. These adolescent performers were great friends offscreen as well as on, and their chemistry is apparent in every movie they made together. Garland is most famous as a singer, so it’s no surprise that most of the movies they made together were musicals. Rooney also was a musical performer who sang and danced.
Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland made 10 movies together throughout their career. Of these, three were entries in the popular Andy Hardy series, all of which starred Mickey Rooney as an incorrigible but lovable youngster from a small town. Judy had a recurring role on the show as Betsy Booth, Andy’s younger neighbor with a hopeless crush on him. Of the 16 films in the Hardy series, the three with Betsy are “Love Finds Andy Hardy” (1938), “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante” (1940), and “Life Begins for Andy Hardy” (1941).
‘Love Finds Andy Hardy’
We first meet Betsy Booth in “Love Finds Andy Hardy,” in which 15 year-old Andy gets mixed up with three girls. Rooney was about two years older than his character, so it’s safe to assume that Betsy is around 13, since she’s played by the 15 year-old Judy Garland. Betsy’s mother is a famous Broadway performer, but her grandmother lives next door to the Hardy family in the small town of Carvel In this film, Betsy is visiting her grandmother for Christmas.‘Andy Hardy Meets Debutante’
In “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante,” the Hardy family goes to New York City for the first time. This gives them an opportunity to see their old friend Betsy. Since New York is her hometown, she shows the Hardys around. Betsy is now a more mature young lady, but that doesn’t stop Andy from continuing to think of her as a child. The high school senior’s current dilemma is that he has a big crush on New York’s number-one debutante, Daphne Fowler (Diana Lewis).
When Andy’s girlfriend, Polly Benedict (Ann Rutherford), and pal Beezy Anderson (George Breakston), find his notebook full of Daphne’s pictures, Andy explains by saying that he has a long-distance romance with Daphne. When his father, Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone), goes to New York City on business and takes the whole family, Andy is in trouble. Eager to catch him in a lie, Polly and Beezy tell him to bring back a picture of Daphne and himself, or they will instead publish a humiliating photograph in the school magazine.
‘Life Begins for Andy Hardy’
In “Life Begins for Andy Hardy,” Andy sets off on his own for the first time. He has graduated from high school, but he wants to see if he can make it in the real world before going to college in the fall. Betsy drives with him to New York City and wants to help him start out. However, as usual, he is too proud to accept much help from her.
In his usual fashion, Andy’s head is quickly turned by a pretty girl, but this young woman is older and more worldly than any of the other girls he has encountered so far. Her name is Jennitt Hicks (Patricia Dane), and she’s the switchboard operator at a company where he tries to get a job. She easily seduces the naïve young man into buying perfume for her, but soon realizes how inexperienced he is with women. Before long, Andy is struggling even to eat and keep a roof over his head.
Film Friends
Betsy Booth is one of the most likeable female characters in the Hardy film series. We can’t help but root for her and think that Andy is a dope for not realizing how much she cares for him. Their relationship is very similar to the dynamic between these two actors in real life. Judy wanted more than friendship with Mickey. It’s surprising that they didn’t have some kind of romance, since the eight-times-married Rooney seems to have been romantically linked with just about every other classic actress.
Rooney described their relationship beautifully in the 1992 documentary “MGM: When the Lion Roars“: ”Judy and I were so close we could’ve come from the same womb. We weren’t like brothers or sisters, but there was no love affair there; there was more than a love affair. It’s very, very difficult to explain the depths of our love for each other. It was so special. It was a forever love. Judy, as we speak, has not died. She’s always with me in every heartbeat of my body.”
It’s the same thing with Andy and Betsy. These three charming movies are an adorable tribute to youthful fun, young love, and the beauty of friendship.
