Did Indiana Jones coming into a house full of dummies, at an atomic bomb test-site, seem familiar? (Indiana Jones and the Kingdome of the Crystal Skull) That’s because in 1954 Mickey Rooney and his pal comes across the same thing in The Atomic Kid.

Both Mickey and Indiana survive the blast, but Mickey became radioactive with special powers. 

The Atomic Kid is the movie on the marquee in Back to the Future. It was produced by Mickey Rooney and co-starred his then wife, billed on the main credits as ‘Introducing Elaine Davis – Mrs. Mickey Rooney’. (Why not show off your new bride?)

The movie was based on a story by Blake Edwards (The Pink Panther) and produced by Mickey himself, who Lawrence Olivier called ‘the greatest of all movie actors’.

This was director Leslie H. Martinson’s first feature film. He went on to direct 107 of TV’s top show episodes, including Mission Impossible, Wonder Woman & Fantasy Island.

At a celebrity show, I walked up to Mickey’s table and said, “Do you remember Blix Waterberry?”

He leaned back on his chair with his hands behind his head, and an ‘I don’t care’ expression. “Vaguely,” he said, looking at the ceiling.

“He was your character in The Atomic Kid,” I said eagerly. “All my friends loved that movie.”

No response. So, I chose a photo of him from ‘Mad, Mad World’ from a stack of photos on his table. (There was no Atomic Kid photo) He signed it with no further words.

I read later, that he had come to the show to earn money to fly somewhere. He had made millions from starring in the Sugar Babies stage show, but was broke at that time.

Mickey got addicted to horse race gambling when he was 15. He was in the hospital for an injury that he got making A Midsummer Night’s Dream and started reading the sports page and making bets.

Mickey once said, “I lost $100 on my first bet and spent a million dollars trying to win it back.”

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