As a teenager, Mickey Rooney played Puck in a stage version of Shakespeare's
A Midsummer Night's Dream. In one scene, Rooney was directed to drop from a tree when prompted by the line: "My gentle puck, come hither."
One day, though the line was uttered three times, Rooney failed to drop. The problem? His jock strap (worn as part of the costume) had become snagged on a branch.
[Athletic supporters were introduced in 1874 to protect bicycle riders as they pedaled over cobblestone roads. The term "jock strap" derives from these early "bicycle jockeys."]
Sources
Carol Amende,
If You Don`t Have Anything Nice to Say... Come Sit Next to Me
