MICKEY ROONEY AS ANDY HARDY
A lot of people who grew up during the 1930s and 1940s confuse The Hardy Boys from the books with Andy Hardy from the Andy Hardy movies, as played by Mickey Rooney. These movies were family comedies and still can be seen often on TV on Turner Classic Movies. They were filmed throughout the thirties and forties and Mickey literally grew up while making them. However, they have nothing to do with the Hardy Boys books, even though Mickey Rooney is often considered to be a Hardy Boy. Well, actually, he was! He was Andy Hardy.
On this magazine cover from 1942 he is shown with Esther Williams, Hollywood's glamorous swimming star, and Ann Rutherford. The movie was Esther's film debut and actually came out titled Andy Hardy's Double Life.
People often confuse the Andy Hardy movies with the Hardy Boys books, and Mickey Rooney with being one of the Hardy Boys. Now you know why!
The movies are terrific period pieces, showing how life was in the thirties and forties for young people, and Andy is generally girl crazy in the later ones when he is a teenager. In a couple of them, his girl-crazy interest is Bonita Granville, who played Nancy Drew in the four 1930s Nancy Drew movies. So Mickey Rooney, the third Hardy boy who wasn't really a Hardy Boy, even did some on-screen romancing with the gal who was Hollywood's Nancy Drew!
