The world’s biggest box office draw went to the front lines of WWII & won a Bronze Star
History has forgotten the Morale Core soldiers, including Private Mickey Rooney, detailed to do shows — “Jeep shows” — for combat infantry in places where the USO and the Red Cross could not go.
Like Lieutenant Ronald Reagan did, Rooney could have served honorably in a motion picture unit at Hal Roach Studios, a 10-minute drive from his Beverly Hills House. But Rooney wanted to go where the action was — to do something that mattered to the men doing the real fighting. And Rooney did. And he won a Bronze Star.
Mickey Rooney stars again
The acclaimed new novel, Jeep Show — A Trouper at the Battle of the Bulge, tells the fascinating story of Mickey’s squad and the enlisted entertainer caught up in the largest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army.
