It all began on the Broadway stage in the galaxy known as New York City. The year is 1935 and a ragged group of young tenement trash street punks turned actors take to the stage in the production of "Dead End" the play that depicts the street life of the Lower Eastside, it's character, it's poverty and it's crime. Starring in the production were a cast of "real" characters who came to symbolize that streetlife on the silver screen, making the leap from the Eastside of New York to the glitz and glam of Hollywood, California.
Billy Halop known for his amazing head of hair that would even Robert Plant would have been proud to own! Billy would be the firebrand of numerous Kid flicks sharing billing with Gorcey. Then there was the Dead End version of the King of Cool, Bobby Jordan. Bobby was the original teen heart throb pre-dating David Cassiday and Leonardo Di Caprio, and again, the hair, it's all about the hair with with the Dead Enders!
Gabe Dell was the serious one and sometimes appeared outside the confines of the gang as a member of a competing gang. Huntz Hall, the original Jughead played the part of the epitome of stupidity that masked an unmatched business savvy in real life, just as Tommy Smothers took the brunt of the jokes, he was the brains behind the operation. Then..there was Gorcey! In later years, Huntz would get filthy fucking rich investing in off shore oil and gas drilling operations and projects! He was also appointed Drug Czar of Monaco by non other than Princess Grace herself!
Leo Gorcey came from a family that believed in hard work and the chance to tryout for the stage production of Dead End, he refused and wanted to continue his training as a plumber, a noble occupation to be sure, but then, history as we know it would have planets out of alignment and we no enjoy the universe in what today is the world according to Leo Gorcey.
He was short, obnoxious, and the first punk to hit the pop culture canvas. Others followed, Bugs Bunny of course, the original animated punkass, and let's face it, the Ramones are the musical vimmaculate conception of the Dead End Kids Blitzkrieg Gang Bang Bopping Sheena the Punk Rocker! Leo was the wise cracking "leader" of the pack who ahd a penchant for crushed hats that became as much his trademark as a ten gallon hat on a cowboy.
After Broadway, savvy Hollywood types who knew the play planned production of a big screen version of Dead End. Interviewing California kids for the roles proved futile, lets face it Southern California kid's belong in films like "The Breakfast Club" and "Pretty in Pink." Beverly Hills is not tough,New York is, so they imported the entire original cast to star in the film. Leo Gorcey goes to Hollywood!!! Dead End the movie was shot in 1937.Filming took a disastrous turn as boys will be boys destroyed sets and equipment paving the way for rock groups in the Sixties and Seventies to destroy hotel rooms, ala, Gorcey! MGM sold their contract to Warner Brothers because of this and the result was high drama with some of the biggest stars in Hollywood including Cagney, Bogart and a future president, Ronald Reagan. The femme fatale in most of their films was the inimitable Ann Sheridan. In 1938 Sunshine Sammy Morrison was added to the cast. Sammy was one of the original Our Gang comedy members and the most experienced of the whole group. He was also a Negro which at the time was unheard of. As Sammy said in later interviews, "I was the first Negro child star and the first Negro star to earn a million dollars in Hollywood and paved the way for others to come," Damn right Sammy!
Leo Gorcey had the world by the balls and made sure everyone knew it. Most accepted his bravado, except when that bravado irritated the great Jimmy Cagney on the set of Angels With Dirty Faces. Leo learned that day, Don't fuck with Cagney!! Next came Angels Wash Their Faces, and a string of dead end box office boffo hits, including "They Made Me A Criminal" with the great John Garfield, and again, Ann Sheridan. Two of the more 1943 endearing Kids' flicks had a star of vampiric stature. The drug addicted blood sucking Bela Lugosi in two flicks before Hollywood drove a stake through the heart of his career sending it back to some unknown Transylvania. "Spooks Run Wild" where a mad killer is on the loose, and in "Ghosts on the Loose" the Kids discover a nest of Nazi's sabateurs and of course foil the plans of the Third Riech. The interesting thing about this particular Lugosi-Gorcey filmatic fornication is the appearance of a young Ava Gardner when she was Mrs. Mickey Rooney!
The Dead End Kids had also become the Clancy Street Gang and eventually the Bowery Boys and the transition from drama to comedy was made and it was a transformation that got them on the little screen on television to the delight of college campi everywhere. The Bowery Boys were now camp in the same league as The Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers. Other acts followed in their footsteps under names such as the Gashouse Gang and the Harlem Tough Kids, but there will always be only one Dead End Kids gang, and of course, only one Leo Gorcey and only one Huntz Hall.
The Dead End Kids days dead ended in the 1950's but it had been a great ride of 89 films over 21 years. Huntz Hall died in 1999. Billy Halop tried a solo career but it was not to be in the stars. He ended up in the 1970's playing Munson the cab driver on All In the Family and worked until his death in the 1970's as a male nurse. Gabe Dell was a regular on the old Steve Allen Show along with Don Knotts, Louis Nye and Tom Poston. Gabe palyed a recurring role as a comedic vampire in a vamp camp imitation of Bela Lugosi. Gabe died in 1988. Sammy Morrison died in 1989, and having gone through a million dollars or two over the years ended up working at an aircraft plant until his death 1989, and Bobby Jordan, an alcoholic became a bartender and at times a rough neck for oil riggers and a door to door photography salesman.
Then...there was Gorcey. he made his millions and wrote a book about the Dead End Kids that is still available from his son, Leo, Jr, who also wrote a book about his dad, and Leo appeared in one of his last roles as the cab driver in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World driving Ernie Kovacs around. Leo died in 1969. An interesting side note, Leo's first wife left him to marry Groucho Marx, and in time Groucho and Leo became best friends. Leo always referred to Groucho later as his firnd and "husband in law!"
The Angels With Dirty Faces are now dead and gone, literally Dead Ended, but the world goes on..the world according the legacy of Leo Gorcey!