Leo Gorcey in Boys of the City
Bobby Jordan in Boys of the City
Frank Moran in Ghosts on the Loose
The East Side Kids was a film series focusing on a group of tough, slightly delinquent but generally good natured New York teenagers. It developed from the troupe of "Dead End Kids" actors, so named because they debuted in the stage (1935) and film (1937) versions of Dead End. The group, then aged mostly 12 to 17, included Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, and others. They continued (as different characters) for six more features including Angels with Dirty Faces, mostly film noir and supporting or even taking billing over James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart.
After a detour to Universal (as the Dead End Kids and the Little Tough Guys), most of the original group (plus former Little Rascal Ernie Morrison and others) joined a low budget series at Monogram, the East Side Kids (which added the Dead End Kids actors with the second movie, Boys of the City). Three different entries involved goings on in a spooky old house, two of them co-starring Bela Lugosi. After 22 films, which increasingly emphasized comedy, the series was renamed yet again in its best remembered form, the slapstick Bowery Boys.
References[]
- The script for the Sesame Street "Monsterpiece Theater" segment "Monsters with Dirty Faces" calls for the young monsters to speak with "Dead-End Kid New York Accents."
- The fifth season Muppet Babies episode "Is There a Muppet in the House" includes clips from Boys of the City, showing secret panels. Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan appear, as does actress Ina Gest. Clips from Ghosts on the Loose (1943, actually about Axis spies hiding in a spooky mansion) show Lugosi and henchman Frank Moran peering from behind a picture frame.