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From earliest youth in the 1920's, Mickey Carroll wanted to entertain audiences. Born in 1919 to Joseph and Josephine Finocchiaro, the joy of seeing carnival performers on the street led him to a life in the footlights. He entered every amateur contest he could find, earning $40 or $50 a night with his precocious talent. Then came free dance lessons at the local Fox Theater - and suddenly at age nine Mickey stopped growing. His enthusiasm stayed high, though, and with the help and management of his six-foot tall brother, Bud, Mickey found work in vaudeville as a singer, dancer, and emcee. It was important to work, because his father died when Mickey was 8, leaving Josephine and six children.    Fortunately, Mickey had a real Italian godfather: Al Capone. Mickey's father, who had started out as a New York City cop before moving the family to St. Louis, had arrested Capone several times. The personable gangster and Mickey's dad made friends, so in 1927 when Capone was visiting St. Louis, the elder Finocchiaro asked Capone to be Mickey's godfather. Capone made good on his promise, giving Mickey emcee duties at two of the Chicago nightclubs he controlled, and protecting the young entertainer - now 13 or 14 years old - from the hard edges of mob life. As a professional entertainer, Mickey earned great money on the vaudeville and nightclub circuit during the 1930's, earning up to $1000 a week. He met Judy Garland when she was just a girl, and their friendship led her to call him when she was 15 and ready to star in The Wizard of Oz. The movie would pay a lot less than he was making on the road, but Judy appealed to him, knowing he would be a huge asset to the troupe of Munchkins. 17-year-old Mickey assented when Judy's mother offered to put him up for the eight-week period of shooting.  Onscreen, Mickey leads the Munchkin parade down the yellow brick road (he's the one with the violin). After The Wizard of Oz, Mickey continued with movie voice-overs and vaudeville entertainment, earning a special place in the entourages of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as warm-up for their appearances across the country. In the mid-40's, Mickey settled in St. Louis to run the family business, a company that makes headstone monuments.  Years later, after The Wizard of Oz had found a new life on television and brought Mickey back into the limelight, he had the chance to memorialize a special gift at the heart of the Oz legend. In Bloomington, Illinois, a deteriorating headstone marked the grave of Dorothy Gale, a niece of Oz creator L. Frank Baum, who died in infancy. To commemorate the original Dorothy, Mickey installed a fitting monument at her grave.  As one of less than a dozen surviving Munchkins, Mickey's great heart has brought healing to many. He makes many appearances a year, serving as a grand marshall in parades and signing thousands of autographs. He has benefitted a huge variety of causes, including the Special Olympics. In recent years he's given away copies of the famous Ruby Slippers to friends, along with his unique brand of caring. Now 83 years old - and still 4-feet 7-inches he was at age nine - Mickey continues his quest to entertain and uplift with a seemingly unquenchable spirit.
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