MOVIES - July 13, 1988

Mickey Rooney and Bob Watson--stars of the original 1938 film “Boys Town”--returned to the Nebraska boys home of the same name Monday for the facility’s 50th anniversary celebration. During the ceremony, the Rev. Val J. Peter, current director of Boys Town, gave Rooney and Watson mementos of the film’s 50th anniversary. Rooney’s eyes filled with tears as he watched highlights of the movie, while Watson tearfully recalled a Boys Town resident, nicknamed Ants in the Pants, who gave him a bag of marbles during the filming. “I still have that bag of marbles,” said Watson, now a Southern California Methodist minister. Said Rooney when asked to recall what working with Boys Town founder Father Flanagan was like: “It was like working with Jesus. This was probably the most ethereal man that I’ve ever met in my life.”