page_title: Andy Hardy
section_title: Series
hierarchical_section_title: Andy Hardy / Series
caption_attribution_description: Cropped screenshot of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney from the trailer for the film Love Finds Andy Hardy.
context_page_description: Andrew "Andy" Hardy is a fictional character best known for the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer series of sixteen films where he was played by Mickey Rooney, released from 1937 to 1946 and a final film in 1958 as an unsuccessful attempt to continue the series. Hardy and others initially appeared in the 1928 play Skidding by Aurania Rouverol. 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.
context_section_description: 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, and Sara Haden as Aunt Milly (except for two films when Betty Ross Clarke appeared as Milly). The second and subsequent films starred Lewis Stone as Judge Hardy, Fay Holden as Mrs. Hardy, and Ann Rutherford as Polly Benedict. The Hardys' oldest child, married daughter Joan Hardy Martin, appeared only in the first film.
  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 (except for the short Andy Hardy's Dilemma where Carvel is mentioned as being a suburb of Los Angeles). 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  mogul Louis B. Mayer's idealized vision of his adopted country. 
  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. 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.  
  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. 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 with Judy Garland, beginning with Love Finds Andy Hardy, and continuing with Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) and Life 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 the Andy 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 in   Love 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 with Andy 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.
caption: Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in Love Finds Andy Hardy
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