‘THAT LITTLE MUNCHKIN’

In his review of “Life Is Too Short,” David Freeman wrote that the parents of Rooney were “a vaudeville comic and a showgirl. Joe Sr. didn’t stay around long, and Mickey and his mother headed West. . . . “

On a few occasions, circa 1940, with some of my high school friends, I went to the Follies Theatre on North Broadway in Los Angeles. Of course, we went to see the girls. But what has remained vivid were the performances of Joe Yule Sr. Not many years later, I realized that we had seen what must have been some of the last acts of classic vaudeville.

The poignant contrast, felt at the time, of Mickey at his apex in Hollywood and Joe Yule on the burlesque stage only a few miles distant is probably the reason I have retained this memory.

FREDERICK A. USHER, SANTA BARBARA