The Bowery Boys
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- For the 19th century nativist gang in New York City, see Bowery Boys.
The Bowery Boys were a group of actors who made a series of films released by Monogram Pictures from 1946 through 1958. The group was a revamping of 'The East Side Kids', who had been making films together since 1940. They included several originals members of 'The Dead End Kids', and a few of them had also previously appeared together as 'The Little Tough Guys'.
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[edit] History
'The Dead End Kids' originally appeared in the 1935 play, Dead End. When Samuel Goldwyn turned the play into a 1937 film, he recruited the original kids (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Billy Halop, and Bernard Punsly) from the play to appear in the same roles in the film. This led to the making of six other films under the moniker 'The Dead End Kids'.
[edit] Little Tough Guys
In 1938, shortly after they made their first film at Warner Brothers, Universal borrowed all of the 'Dead End Kids' except for Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey and made twelve films and three 12-chapter serials under the team names of 'The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys' and 'Little Tough Guys'. In addition, Universal contracted Leo's brother David and Hally Chester to become part of the team. When Universal dropped Jordan from his contract, Warner Brothers quickly signed him to join the rest of gang.
Due to the fact that the original 'Dead End Kids' were now working for several studios, these films were made at roughly the same time as the Warner Brothers' 'Dead End Kids' series, and later, Monogram Pictures' 'East Side Kids' series. The final film in Universal's series, Keep 'Em Slugging, was released in 1943.
[edit] The East Side Kids
When Warner Brothers released the remaining 'Dead End Kids' from their contracts in 1939, producer Sam Katzman at Monogram acted quickly and hired several of them, including Jordan and the Gorcey brothers, as well as some of the 'Little Tough Guys', including Chester, to star in a new series using the team name 'The East Side Kids'. These films also introduced 'Sunshine' Sammy Morrison, one of the original members of the Our Gang comedy team, as part of the gang.
As mentioned above, the original members of the 'Dead End Kids' were now working at several studios, so these films were made at the same time that Universal was making 'The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys' series.
A total of twenty-one films were made, with the final one, Come Out Fighting, being released in 1945.
[edit] The Bowery Boys
In 1945, when East Side Kids producer Sam Katzman refused to grant Leo Gorcey's request for double his weekly salary, Gorcey quit the series, which ended immediately. Bobby Jordan then suggested a meeting with his agent, Jan Grippo. Grippo, Gorcey, and Hall formed Jan Grippo Productions, revamped the format, and rechristened the series The Bowery Boys (the film credits are actually "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys"). Gorcey, who owned forty percent of the company, starred, produced, and contributed to the scripts. The new series followed a more established formula than the prior incarnations of the team, with the gang usually hanging out at Louie's Sweet Shop (reportedly at 3rd & Canal St.) until an adventure came along.
The main characters were Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney (Leo Gorcey), Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones (Huntz Hall), Whitey (Billy Benedict), Chuck (David Gorcey, sometimes billed as David Condon), and Butch (usually Bennie Bartlett, occasionally former East Side Kid Buddy Gorman). The proprietor of the malt shop where they hung out was the panicky Louie Dumbrowski (Bernard Gorcey, Leo and David's father).
Like the previous incarnations of the team, the members went through a number of changes over the course of the series. Thirteen actors were members of the team at one time or another. Bobby Jordan, an original Dead End Kid, appeared in the first eight films, but left after being injured in an elevator accident. Jordan was also unhappy with the direction of the series, which favored Gorcey and Hall, excluding the rest of the cast. "Sunshine" Sammy Morrison (aka "Scruno" in the East Side Kids films), declined the invitation to rejoin the gang and look a long hiatus from acting.
Gabriel Dell returned in the fourth entry, Spook Busters (1946) as "Gabe Moreno", a former member of the gang just out of the navy with a French war-bride in tow. He remained (minus spouse) for the next 16 features. Gabe was a convenient "utility" character, frequently changing jobs (private investigator, policeman, reporter) to suit the story at hand (and the limited casting budget). He reprised one of his East Side Kids roles in Hard Boiled Mahoney (1947), playing Gabe as a myopic nerd with thick glasses, ascot, and cap. His final appearance was in Blues Busters in 1950, generally regarded as one of the funniest in the series.
The early films such as In Fast Company (1946) flirted with the same crime-drama laced with humor of the previous series, but gradually shifted to all-out comedy, growing more slapstick and fantasy-oriented over the next decade. After 1950 the series began to resemble the farcical Abbott and Costello comedies—a far cry from the grim social realism of their 1930s films. The grittiness of the old days was sanitized (the gang's dingy basement club-house was now an ice cream parlor).
The team spirit of the ensemble cast faded as Huntz Hall was elevated to co-star status to showcase his comedic skills. The stories now focused entirely on the Slip and Sach characters, with the diminished three or four "boys" receding into the background with little or nothing to do. Time and again the plot revolved around Sach accidentally acquiring some strange power or ability (he becomes a psychic, champion wrestler, crooner, etc.). Old plot devices from their earlier films (haunted houses, mad scientists, nefarious spies) were trotted out and reworked as the ever-profitable series chugged along.
Like a streetwise Abbott and Costello, Gorcey and Hall became a cohesive comedy duo, extending their verbal and physical humor into broader slapstick comedy that served to increase the popularity of the series. In 1953 a new producer and director transformed the series into lucrative kiddie-matinee fodder, with Gorcey and Hall re-enacting gags borrowed from The Three Stooges. (Huntz Hall cited Shemp Howard, who did three Little Tough Guys films, as a major influence during this latter phase in the series.)
As the series wore on, the writers appear to have drawn more than a little inspiration from the hugely successful Abbott and Costello films. In the 1940s, Abbott & Costello did a quartet of "service comedies" for each branch of the military. The Bowery Boys duplicated this feat a decade later with Bowery Battalion, Let's Go Navy!, Here Come the Marines, and Clipped Wings. Abbott and Costello spoofed westerns: Ride 'Em Cowboy (1942), the upper-classes: In Society (1944), and hillbillies: Comin' Round the Mountain (1951). The Bowery Boys repeated this formula in Bowery Buckaroos (1947), High Society (1955), and Feudin' Fools (1952), respectively.
Abbott and Costello went on safari: Africa Screams (1949), to the Middle East: Lost In a Harem (1944), and even tangled with pirates in Abbott and Costello Meet Captiain Kidd (1952). Once again, the Bowery Boys followed suit with Jungle Gents (1954), Bowery to Bagdad (1955), and Hold That Hypnotist (1957).
The one area where they preceded Abbott and Costello was in developing the horror-comedy genre by casting Bela Lugosi in Spooks Run Wild (1940) and Ghosts on the Loose (1943). Later in 1948 Lugosi went on to help make Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein one of their most popular and critically-acclaimed comedies.
After filming Dig That Uranium in 1955, Bernard Gorcey was killed in a automobile accident, devastating his son Leo. Leo drank heavily, and it visibly affected his performance in the following film, Crashing Las Vegas, which would be his last. (During filming he became violently unhinged, trashing the set and destroying every prop in sight.) At a subsequent meeting with Allied Artists, Gorcey demanded an increase on the 40% interest he held in the series. This was denied. and after a heated exchange he quit the series and stormed off the studio lot, never to return.
The studio owed exhibitors three more films for the 1956 season, so Gorcey was replaced by Stanley Clements (a former tough-teen actor who had been in a few East Side Kids movies) as "Duke Coveleskie." Clements adapted to the series easily, and the new Hall-Clements partnership was successful enough to be renewed for the 1957 season. Four more films were made, with Eddie LeRoy joining the cast as bespectacled "Blinky".
In all, there were 48 Bowery Boys films (the longest feature-film series in motion picture history), with the final film, In the Money, being released in 1958. Only Huntz Hall and David Gorcey had remained with the series since 1946. (Source: Me and the Dead End Kid, Leo Gorcey, Jr., Spirit of Hope Publishing, 2003.)
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Movie | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1946 | Live Wires | |
| 1946 | In Fast Company | |
| 1946 | Bowery Bombshell | |
| 1946 | Spook Busters | |
| 1946 | Mr. Hex | |
| 1947 | Hard Boiled Mahoney | |
| 1947 | News Hounds | |
| 1947 | Bowery Buckaroos | |
| 1948 | Angels' Alley | |
| 1948 | Jinx Money | |
| 1948 | Trouble Makers | |
| 1949 | Fighting Fools | |
| 1949 | Hold That Baby! | |
| 1949 | Angels in Disguise | |
| 1949 | Master Minds | |
| 1950 | Blonde Dynamite | |
| 1950 | Lucky Losers | |
| 1950 | Triple Trouble | |
| 1950 | Blues Busters | |
| 1951 | Bowery Battalion | |
| 1951 | Ghost Chasers | |
| 1951 | Let's Go Navy! | |
| 1951 | Crazy Over Horses | |
| 1952 | Hold That Line | |
| 1952 | Here Come the Marines | |
| 1952 | Feudin' Fools | |
| 1952 | No Hold Barred | |
| 1953 | Jalopy | |
| 1953 | Loose in London | |
| 1953 | Clipped Wings | |
| 1953 | Private Eyes | |
| 1954 | Paris Playboys | |
| 1954 | The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters | |
| 1954 | Jungle Gents | |
| 1955 | Bowery to Bagdad | |
| 1955 | High Society | |
| 1955 | Spy Chasers | |
| 1955 | Jail Busters | |
| 1956 | Dig That Uranium | |
| 1956 | Crashing Las Vegas | Last film with Leo Gorcey |
| 1956 | Fighting Trouble | |
| 1956 | Hot Shots | |
| 1957 | Hold That Hypnotist | |
| 1957 | Spook Chasers | |
| 1957 | Looking for Danger | |
| 1957 | Up in Smoke | |
| 1958 | In the Money |
[edit] External links
- The Unofficial Bowery Boys Page
- Fan Site
- Leo Gorcey at the Internet Movie Database
- Huntz Hall at the Internet Movie Database
- Gabriel Dell at the Internet Movie Database
- Bobby Jordan at the Internet Movie Database
- Benny Bartlett at the Internet Movie Database
- David Gorcey at the Internet Movie Database
- Bernard Gorcey at the Internet Movie Database
- Stanley Clements at the Internet Movie Database
- Billy Benedict at the Internet Movie Database
- Jimmy Murphy at the Internet Movie Database
- Gil Stratton, Jr. at the Internet Movie Database
- Buddy Gorman at the Internet Movie Database
- Eddie LeRoy at the Internet Movie Database
| Preceded by East Side Kids 1939-1945 |
'The Bowery Boys' series 1946-1958 |
Succeeded by None |
