After graduating high school in 1937, Mickey decided to travel to California to stay with his aunt. He had $19 in his pocket and drove there alone in a Model A Ford he had purchased for $50. As luck would have it, his aunt lived next door to "Spanky" McFarland of the famed Little Rascals series. Besides Spanky, Mickey befriended some of the other Little Rascals stars (Alfalfa, Darla, and Buckwheat) and drove them all to the set each day at Hal Roach Studios where they filmed the Little Rascals. It was during these trips that Mickey eventually met a quite popular studio accordionist at that time, Johnny Kiado. Mr. Kiado was so impressed with Mickey's playing, that he asked Mickey to fill in for him on some accordion background music that was needed for a new movie with Fred MacMurray called The Princess Comes Across. Mickey, who was playing many of the popular Charles Magnante arrangements at the time, filled in the movie sound track with 90 seconds of Flight of the Bumble Bee behind a scene where Fred MacMurray was acting out an accordion performance.

Afterwards, this and many more studio jobs started coming Mickey's way. But unfortunately after approximately three years in California, he was called home to be with his sick mother, who was diagnosed as having a large "tumor", which later actually turned out to be Mickey's younger sister Jeanette. Nevertheless, this misdiagnosis is what lured Mickey back from a quickly progressing career in Hollywood, just about the time that World War II broke out.

Mickey was drafted into the Air Corp at the beginning of the war, and of course brought his accordion with him. The accordion opened a lot of musical doors for him and kept him out of the front lines when he was later transferred to the infantry. After basic training in Midland Texas, he started going regularly to the Air Corp band rehearsals, where he connected with Sergeant Bob Mayhu, a very well-known Air Force band leader at the time, who had conducted his band behind Bing Crosby, Dale Evans, and other singing celebrities. After noticing Mickey listening to rehearsals night after night, Sgt. Mayhu asked him if he was a musician. Mickey indicated that he played accordion. Sgt. Mayhu responded with "We'd really like to use you in the band, but we really don't have a spot for an accordionist." Mickey said "I'm not really interested in playing the accordion for you. I just feel I could write better arrangements for your band than the ones I am hearing." Mr. Mayhu accepted, and Mickey wrote his first big band arrangement on the standard tune Sunday. Mickey sharpened his skills as big band arranger for the next three years, which he felt provided better musical training than any music college could have given him.
 

Mickey left the service in 1945, and came back home to Youngstown to start a teaching partnership with a very successful local music store owner, "Tee" Ross. Accordion interest was booming at the time, and Tee needed an outstanding teacher on his staff. Mickey also started his four-year degree program during this period at the well-known Dana School of Music at Youngstown University, where he was able to polish his skills in theory and composition. For the next 25 years as teacher with Tee Ross then as independent accordion teacher in Youngstown, Mickey was able to draw on all his previous rich experiences as young teacher, studio accordionist in Hollywood, and big band arranger in the Air Corp, and use those skills to produce some of the best and most frequently awarded students in the American Accordionists' Association (AAA) state and national competitions. Mickey's outstanding teaching abilities as well as his successful accordion transcriptions and adaptations of classical literature, enabled his students to capture first place in most of the AAA divisions year after year. On occasion, they would find themselves competing in the same divisions against each other, bringing home first, second, and third place simultaneously (see photo).  Many of Mickey's transcriptions were used by other students in the AAA competitions, often taking top prizes with his arrangements for standard and/or free bass accordion. In fact, the late Charles Magnante with whom Mickey shared a lifelong friendship, often told Mickey in personal letters, that his transcriptions were establishing a new standard in the accordion world.

Two of Mickey's students Joseph Natoli and Anthony Rolando each won the AAA United States Open Virtuoso Competition and represented the United States in the Coupe Mondiale Competitions, winning second and third place respectively (see photo below for a shot of Mickey taken in Venezuela). 

Mickey's personal achievements in his later years revolve around his accordion performances in the Kenley Players Theatre Orchestra behind stars like Mickey Rooney, Jimmy Dean, and Bobby Vinton. Most notably Mickey performed the 110-page accordion part in the Kenley production of Irma La Douce behind Juliette Prowse (popular stage and screen star in the 60's and 70's). Mickey also performed on occasion with the Montovani Orchestra.

In addition to his accordion-related achievements, Mickey has created literally hundreds of big band and stage band arrangements for many different dance orchestras over the last 30 years.  Even though Mickey passed away on August 22, 2000, he has written so many outstanding compositions and arrangements for accordion, JANPress Publications  will continue to posthumously publish his works until all are on-line and available for the entire accordion community to see.