Freddie Bartholomew: An Informal Biography by Cliff Aliperti

Author:Cliff Aliperti [Aliperti, Cliff]
Language: eng
Format: azw, epub
Published: 2015-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

Above: Mickey Rooney, Freddie Bartholomew, and Peter Lawford in A Yank at Eton.

Freddie returned to MGM in 1942 for A Yank at Eton where, in a reversal of previous fortune, he played in support to star Mickey Rooney. Both Rooney and Bartholomew were slated to star when A Yank at Eton first went on the MGM production schedule in 1939. World War II killed plans to film on location in England and A Yank at Eton wound up shelved for three years.

All-American boy Rooney is hero of the big high school football game, but moments later discovers that his mother married an Englishman while on vacation. He and his sister (Juanita Quigley) arrive in England within the first ten minutes of the movie. Freddie is Peter Carlton, Mickey’s new stepbrother.

A Yank at Eton is about Rooney adjusting to life in England. To make the differences seem even more extreme, he’s enrolled at Eton. It’s more or less Andy Hardy goes to England. Rooney struggles to fit in and winds up at odds with Peter throughout much of the film. After they work out their misunderstandings and Mickey more generally triumphs over adversity, A Yank at Eton winds to its proper conclusion, a scene shared by the two former child actors, who chat a little before walking off together.

“Mickey was an incredible talent, but a little wild … He never took anything seriously,” Freddie recalled in 1992. But speaking of a time when MGM held a deep stable of young stars, Freddie credited Mickey as, “The very best actor of the group. He could do anything … To this day, I have a feeling of awe about his talent.”

If you like Andy Hardy, there’s plenty to like about A Yank at Eton. It’s the same Rooney. Juanita Quigley steals every scene she’s in, even with Rooney. It’s jarring to see Freddie so lean and lanky, towering over Rooney and standing eye to eye with Ian Hunter, who plays his father. There is no denying the 18-year-old actor can no longer be classified a child star.

After that it was back to Columbia, where Freddie was for the two films before A Yank at Eton. Even though Freddie was much taller than he was during his peak of popularity, Columbia saw some of his old appeal and signed him to a contract. In July the Associated Press reported that Superior Court approved Freddie’s one-year deal with Columbia at $2,250 per week.

Freddie appeared in just one movie under that contract, Junior Army. He headed a cast reuniting him with Tom Brown co-star Billy Halop along with Halop’s Dead End Kid chums Huntz Hall and Bobby Jordan.

Recalling Freddie in a 1974 interview, Halop revealed another side of the young actor: “Freddie Bartholomew used to play sissy types in pictures, but he wasn’t like that at all. We used to cruise up and down in a Cadillac and pick up broads.”

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