Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Mickey Rooney's Fourth Wife

Last week, when my wife Lois mentioned that Fox TV had refused to air a commercial featuring two seconds of octogenarian Mickey Rooney's bare derriere, my mind flipped back fifty-plus years to Butte, Montana.

I had been standing in front of our house listening to dad talk with Dan  Ducich.  I, age eleven, enjoyed just being there -- listening to men talk man talk. Dan had just installed most of the new storm windows that he had sold Dad, but he had to take a half dozen back to the shop for modifications. He had stacked them against his truck.

When the bull session ended, Dan jumped into his truck and drove off. CRASH! The storm windows lay in a heap on the pavement. A memorable moment! After Dan cleaned up the street and left, Dad said that Dan was upset because his wife had run off with another man -- Mickey Rooney. Wow, I thought: Mickey Rooney!

Dad told me that Dan's wife was in Los Vegas at a driving range, when Mickey Rooney walked up and put his arms around her to help her golf swing. He told her he wanted to marry her. She divorced Dan to become Rooney's fourth wife.

Weeks or months later, Dad told me that Dan Ducich had committed suicide. He had shot himself in the head.

Back at the restaurant, the focus of my eyes returned from infinity to Lois. "I knew the guy whose wife married Mickey Rooney."

"What?" Lois said, used to me leaving and reentering the real world.

I told her about Dan Ducich. In discussing my recollection, we wondered: Who was Rooney's fourth wife? Was there more to the story?

When we returned home I did a web search and found:  http://www.glamourgirlsofthesilverscreen.com/show/65/Elaine++Devry/. It reveled the "rest of the Dan Ducich story."

The fourth wife of Mickey Rooney was Elaine Devry, but the story is not quite the same as my dad told me back in Butte. It is however a great Hollywood tale.

Devry (aka Elaine Davis / Elaine Mahnken), was born in 1932 in Compton, California. She was a Compton Community College beauty queen and married her high school sweetheart, Dan Ducich, a Compton High and Utah State basketball star.

But, problems happen: Ducich was convicted of armed robbery in Los Angeles and was placed on five years probation.

Meanwhile, Elaine Devry apparently goes off on her own, does somenude modeling for respected photographer Theda Emerson Hall, and Warner Brothers selects her to take acting lessons with Sylvia Rosenstein. She returned to Butte to divorce Dan Ducich.

In the summer of 52, she goes to live with her mother in Woodland Hills and works at night as a carhop.

She meets actor Mickey Rooney at the Woodland Hills driving range. She is with Rooney every night for about a month, and says "yes" when Rooney proposes to her at Don the Beachcomber's. He charters a plane for Los Vegas where they get married.

She lives with Rooney at his house in Woodland Hills. Dan Ducich contacts her and asks her for money as he has run into gambling trouble in Los Vegas, and the Mob is after him. She asks Mickey for some money to help him and he refuses.

A few months later, Dan Ducich is killed by the mob, shot in the head.

But problems happen: Mickey starts to fool around. She finds out. He appeases her by buying a second home on Lake Arrowhead, a Chrysler, a Chris Craft boat, and two horses. They start to live separate lives in separate places. Both get lovers. She asks Rooney for a divorce.

The divorce decree awards her the house on Fryman Road, the cabin at Arrowhead, a Century inboard motorboat, the Chrysler, assorted jewelry, $40,000 cash, and $17,500 per month for ten years.

So the Compton High girl does well, however Rooney only pays alimony for a year and a half. She went on to have a successful career in film and TV having supporting roles.

In his 1965 autobiography, Rooney blames part of their marriage problems on her past. But wait--he had nine wives... He once said: "Always get married early in the morning. That way, if it doesn't work out, you haven't wasted a whole day."

 

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