Godspeed to the Big Wheel…

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Mickey Rooney passed away earlier this week at the age of 93, making his acting career the longest in Hollywood history. He was a American film legend staring in a number of great pre & post-war movies, and a few that were just so-so in the middle. The one that’s been mentioned on the HAMB before is ‘The Big Wheel’ from 1949. Many viewers may not know that ‘The Big Wheel’ was mainly shot at Carrell Speedway in Gardena, California, and used a good deal of stock footage from races held there. The Carrell track does triple duty in the film playing as itself, the Culver City Stadium (both with some decent dirt racing action by the T Roadster that our hero Billy Coy drives) and even as Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In reality, most of the of the film’s final scenes were put together from second unit footage (shot at the 33rd Indy 500 race in May 1949, five months before the film released) and using some obviously fake rear projection… Regardless, thanks for all the classic films Mickey, and Godspeed!

.