He is the central character in the play, All My Passions, by Vin Moreale, Jr.
Albert Mooney was born into this world on Christmas Eve 1939, in St. Louis Missouri, into a family of hardscrabble Irish. His father was Patrick Mooney, his mother was Maddie. She was Patrick's sixth wife and was brought in to take care of Patrick’s already large family of six kids, Albert being the seventh.
Albert grew up in a crowded household and a father who was absent most of the time. Maddie did not remain with him very long for many reasons, infidelity being one of the most egregious. That and the sheer work of keeping up with all those kids was too much for her. Patrick went on to father 6 more children, with several more wives.
Albert left the house when he was 16, not even finishing William Cullen McBride High School. He got on with a carnival that was performing in a vacant lot in St. Louis. He was immediately given the job of a barker, enticing people to throw a baseball and knock down the three milk bottles.
This may sound simple enough and Albert used it as an opportunity to use his skill of casting a sort of spell on people with his patter. Furthermore, responding to people, overcoming their reluctance to participate, was a classroom for him in the art of persuasion.
It wasn’t long before he was recognized for his intelligence and ability to learn things quickly. He was promoted to advance man and scouted the next location for the show.
Advance work is everything that needs to be done to prepare for the show's arrival in a town. The Advance man is he who handles details such as licenses and sponsors before a carnival arrives in town, and sometimes handles bribes to local officials for leaving the carnival alone. All this and he was barely twenty years old.
A producer for a burlesque house spotted him on the job and was impressed with his abilities. Albert was approached by him and persuaded to join an act with a vacancy at the Garrick Theater in St. Louis.
Albert had found his milieu, melodrama. He’d moved on to Los Angeles and found his way into motion pictures, usually B movies of an hour and a few minutes. Always playing the lothario, he developed a following of young, lonely women.
It wasn’t long before he was asked to audition for a new form of television, the weekly soap opera. Melodramatic plots using the same characters week after week, grinding out shows. He was in his place now and caught on as Everett Montague, the star of All My Passions, a sleazy soap sponsored by Abbott Laundry Products, where he shone as the star.
The plots were trite, usually involving a good-looking maid who was chased and seduced by the star. His character was devoid of morals and ethics but only to a certain level of depravity. Never stepping over the line of 50’s TV censorship. The Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters prohibited the use of profanity, the negative portrayal of family life, irreverence for God and religion, illicit sex, drunkenness and biochemical addiction, presentation of cruelty, detailed techniques of crime, the use of horror for its own sake, and the negative portrayal of law enforcement officials, among others. Suggestion, however, was allowed and All My Passions used it to the fullest.
Along the way Albert Mooney became his character, Everett Montague. He even changed his name and took on the persona as his off-screen self. Although he never became super-rich, he did achieve a certain affluence. His private life resembled that of his character in that he had seven wives and was always “on the make” with starlets. He was a mile wide and an inch deep.
There was a love in his life a long time ago, nearly 50 years prior. He made the choice to follow a career instead of settling down with one woman. It could have been the example set by his father, his ego, or the need to chase his fading youth. It would be difficult to separate these, and all of them probably factored in to make the colorful character that he is. At any rate, his star is fading, and the host of his show is wondering just how much longer this will be allowed to go on.
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