This Bizarre 1980s Fast Food Concept Was The Brainchild Of A Movie Star

Celebrity restaurants make a lot of sense on paper; there are so many places to eat, and only so many mealtimes to try them all, so why not try a place backed by Hollywood's finest? Unfortunately, the untold truth is that most celebrity restaurants are troubled, and some of them completely flop. Just ask legendary actor Mickey Rooney, who among many other business ventures made what he thought was an ingenious innovation to fast food: The Weenie Whirl.

Rooney claims he invented a "round hot dog with a hole in the middle that you could put on a hamburger bun", in his memoir "Life is Too Short" (via Internet Archive). What do you put in the middle, we hear you ask? That depends on the type of Weenie Whirl you order: The standard Whirl had mustard, the Yankee Doodle had cheese, the Pancho Weenie had chili, and for those who had completely lost their minds, the Surfboard Weenie had raisins and pineapple. It's starting to become a bit more clear why the Weenie Whirl never caught on.

Before you sprint out to grab yourself a Weenie Whirl, be warned that Mickey Rooney's masterpiece is no longer available. The Whirl was served as the signature item of Weenie World, which had a couple of locations in New Jersey and Long Island. To add to the insanity, surviving ads for the restaurant spell it "Weene World", contradicting Rooney's own account of his hot dog adventure. Whatever the spelling, both Weenie Worlds had gone to Weenie Heaven within a year.

Mickey Rooney spent practically his entire 93-year lifespan acting, but he also never stopped coming up with new schemes and business ventures: Other restaurant attempts, like Mickey Rooney Macaroni and Rooney's Star-B-Que also failed to catch on. He compared himself to the character of Micawber in "David Copperfield", who was constantly switching between get-rich-quick schemes; certainly, Weenie World was a far cry from the Beverly Hills restaurant where Humphrey Bogart liked to have brunch. The tradition of celebrity-owned restaurants getting bad reviews is still very much alive today, but few gave it as numerous — and as strange — tries than Rooney. We can only wonder how the Surfboard Weenie would have gone down in the age of social media, but we doubt it would have replaced the Big Mac in any timeline.