Submitted by Dick Blust, Sweetwater County Historical Museum
Sweetwater County, WY (8/11/19) – At least one Rock Springs native was able to break into the movies, and he did it after appearing at the Rialto Theatre in Rock Springs.
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Mickey Daniels (real name Richard Daniels, Jr.,) was born in Rock Springs on October 11, 1914. He was the son of Richard and Hannah Daniels. Richard Daniels was an actor born in Wales.
Mickey Daniels started performing at a young age, and he was spotted by a talent agent during a performance at the Rialto Theater on South Main Street in Rock Springs in 1921. By the next year, he’d been signed by producer Hal Roach for the groundbreaking Our Gang movie series, whose stars were a group of loveable, ragtag kids. (Daniels appeared in the first “Our Gang” short in 1922 at the age of eight. He was part of the “Our Gang” series until 1926).
Daniels appeared in over 100 short and feature films between 1922 and 1941. Film buffs in particular remember him as Mickey the Truant Officer in 1933’s Fish Hooky, one episode of the Our Gang series later syndicated on television.
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A short colorized clip from “Fish Hooky” can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHlx7KjrRpk and the full 30-minute feature is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4BPko0Tf2k
Daniels left acting in the 1940s and died in San Diego, California, in 1970.
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