Merci Montello

Merci Montello appeared as the Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 1972 under the name of "Mercy Rooney". The New Jersey native, who was born in the Garden State on June 21, 1950, acquired her new surname as the wife of Mickey Rooney Jr., whom she had met when she was a "Bunny" at the Los Angeles Playboy Club (or "Hutch"). The blonde-haired, blue-eyed Meci sported a classic 36-23-36 figure, which is a winning hand on both Coasts. Before she gained her chance to grab at the Big Brass Ring as a bunny at the L.A. Hutch, Merci was self-employed as a decorator, seamstress and dancer. On the back of her gate-fold in the December issue, Mercy listed her ambition as "To become an actress". Unfortunately, Merci Montello's career in pictures was distinguished only by the fact that she had a different name in each picture she appeared in: "Mercy Mee" in Space Thing (1968), "Merci Montello" in Erika's Hot Summer (1971), and -- cashing in on her Playboy notoriety -- "Merci Rooney" in "Bloody Friday" (1974). In the latter movie, a.k.a. The Single Girls (1973), she was shot in the stomach with a crossbow while gamboling in the woods. The body of the voluptuous Playmate was buried under leaves and straw by her slayer, though Mercy's hand was left sticking out of the improvised grave to provide a plot device. With that, she waved good-bye to her career and the limelight. She divorced Mickey Rooney Jr., who is now a born-again Christian and a minister who regales his audiences by testifying about the folly of "Life in the Fast Lane".