Andy Hardy
Mickey Rooney (center) as Andy Hardy, with Judge Hardy (Lewis Stone) and Mrs. Hardy (Fay Holden), 1939
First appearance	Stage: Skidding (1928) Film: A Family Affair (1937)
Last appearance	Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958)
Created by	Aurania Rouverol
Portrayed by	Charles Eaton (stage) Mickey Rooney (film)
In-universe information
Alias	Andrew Hardy
Gender	Male
Family	Judge James K. Hardy (father) Emily Hardy (mother) Marian Hardy (sister) Mildred (Milly) Forrest (aunt)
Nationality	American

Andrew "Andy"Hardy is a fictional character best known for theMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer series of 16 films in which he was played byMickey Rooney. The main film series was released from 1937 to 1946, with a final film made in 1958 in an unsuccessful attempt to revive the series. Hardy and other characters initially appeared in the 1928 playSkidding byAurania Rouverol.^[1] Early films in the series were about the Hardy family as a whole, but later entries focused on the character of Andy Hardy. Rooney was the only member of the ensemble to appear in all 16 films. The Hardy films, which were enormously popular in their heyday, were sentimental comedies, celebrating ordinary American life.

The Hardy family first appeared inAurania Rouverol's playSkidding, which debuted on May 21, 1928, at theBijou Theatre and ran until July 1929.^[2] The original cast includedCarleton Macy as Judge Hardy, Clara Blandick as Mrs. Hardy,Charles Eaton as Andy, Joan Madison as Myra, andMarguerite Churchill as Marion.^[3]Samuel Marx recommended to MGM that the play be adapted into a film.^[4]

The initial Hardy film,A Family Affair (1937), was based directly on Rouverol's play and was produced without a view to producing a series. It featuredLionel Barrymore as Judge Hardy andSpring Byington as Mrs. Hardy, Andy's parents, and Margaret Marquis as Andy's on-again-off-again sweetheart, Polly Benedict. Several of the actors in this initial Hardy film had been in the 1935 filmAh, Wilderness!, based onEugene O’Neill’s only comedy: Barrymore, Byington, Rooney,Eric Linden,Cecilia Parker,Charley Grapewin, and Margaret Marquis. (Bonita Granville, who was also inAh, Wilderness! but not inA Family Affair, has a major role in the last two original Hardy films,Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble andLove Laughs at Andy Hardy.)

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When the series was launched, most of the cast was changed, with the exception of Rooney,Cecilia Parker as Andy's older sister Marian Hardy, andSara Haden as Aunt Milly (except for two films whenBetty Ross Clarke appeared as Milly). The second and subsequent films starredLewis Stone as Judge Hardy,Fay Holden as Mrs. Hardy, andAnn Rutherford as Polly Benedict. The Hardys' oldest child, married daughter Joan Hardy Martin, appeared only in the first film and was not mentioned in the subsequent films.

Most of the movies were set in the Hardys' fictional hometown of Carvel, located in Idaho in the original play, but described in the films as being in the Midwest. (In the short filmAndy Hardy's Dilemma, the Hardys are described as living in Los Angeles, with no mention of Carvel.) All of the films were sentimental comedies celebrating ordinary American life. The people in Carvel were generally pious, patriotic, generous, and tolerant. The town represented MGM mogulLouis B. Mayer's idealized vision of his adopted country.^{[citation needed]}

The early movies focused on the Hardy family as a whole, but the character Andy soon became the center of the series, and his name was featured in the title of the fourth film and all films from the seventh on.^[5] They were instrumental in Rooney's rise to stardom. The first two Hardy films dealt with the danger of adultery among the younger generation, but the later ones avoided such controversial themes.^{[citation needed]}

The central relationship in the movies was between Andy and his father. Judge Hardy, played by the grandfatherly looking Stone, was a man of absolute morality and integrity, with a stern demeanor, but a kind heart and droll sense of humor. A typical plot involved Andy getting into minor trouble with money or girls, usually because of youthful selfishness and a willingness to fudge the truth.^{[citation needed]} This would lead to a "man-to-man" talk with his father, after which Andy would do the right thing.

In three films, Rooney was paired withJudy Garland, beginning withLove Finds Andy Hardy, and continuing withAndy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) andLife Begins for Andy Hardy (1941). Garland's character, Betsy Booth, is an aspiring singer and she sings in the first two of these films. However, although Garland songs were planned for the final film, they were eventually dropped. Unlike Garland-Rooney films outside of theAndy Hardy series, Rooney's Hardy character is not a musician, so Garland and Rooney do not perform together in the Hardy films.

Rooney played the character continuously from age 16 to 25, when he appeared inLove Laughs at Andy Hardy (1946), in which Andy returned to civilian life after fighting in World War II. Twelve years later, an attempt to revive the series with an older, wiser Andy was made in 1958 withAndy Hardy Comes Home, but it turned out to be the final film in the series. Thus, the Andy Hardy series ended with a "To Be Continued", which indeed has yet to be continued.

Also, a 1940 short subject promoting theCommunity Chest was calledAndy Hardy's Dilemma (18 minutes).^[7]

• Names in white rectangles show which actors appeared in each film. A dark grey rectangle indicates that the character did not appear in that film.

The Andy Hardy series served as a platform forMGM to introduce new performers, some of whom became stars themselves.^[5] As examples,Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) featuredLana Turner in one of her first film appearances, whileAndy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941) launchedKathryn Grayson's movie career, andAndy Hardy's Double Life (1942) marked the screen debut ofEsther Williams.

A number ofpublic service announcements involving the Andy Hardy character and his father were shown in theaters in the 1940s. A notable example had Andy trying to persuade his father to give him $200 for a car. Instead, his father took him on a tour of several charities that needed the money more. After each visit to a charity, the car Andy wanted to buy became more and more decrepit.

From late 1949 into 1952,The Hardy Family was syndicated byMGM as a half-hour weekly series on radio, with a cast includingMickey Rooney,Fay Holden andLewis Stone, and writers including Jack Rubin and Jameson Brewer, directed by Thomas A. McAvity. Radio historian J. David Goldin identifies the personnel and summarizes a dozen episodes, with episode numbers suggested more than 70 episodes were broadcast.^[8] Seven episodes of the series are preserved in anInternet Archive collection.^[9]

In June 1947,Fiction House's Movie Comics published a comic book adaptation of the filmLove Laughs at Andy Hardy.^[10][11]

Andy Hardy was also the subject of a six issue comic series published by Dell in 1952–1954.^[12][13]

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• American film series
• Film characters introduced in 1937
• Film series introduced in 1937

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