Bowery Boy Bobby Jordan Sings!

One of the Bowery Boys' best entries had Sach (Huntz Hall) transforming into the mellifluous "Bowery Thrush" -- an amazing crooner who sounded like "Crosby, Jolson and Sinatra, all on one record!". (And besides the vocal similarity, his physique even rivaled the bobby-sox era Sinatra!). Little did movie patrons know that this premise was a case of art imitating life, because it seems that former Bowery Boy Bobby Jordan actually possessed a genuine singing talent! As evidence today's post at the Bowery Bijou features an actual audio recording of Bobby's post-Bowery Boy nightclub performance, in which he sings "Sweet Lorraine".

At song's end Bobby good-naturedly proclaims himself to be "the greatest male voice to be heard in the last 50 to 100 years" -- before admitting to have "lost" his head, joking that he "looks better without it!"

Dead End Kid Meets Detour Girl!

The very same year in which she acheived Film Noir immortaldom as the most ferocious of 1940's femme fatales in Edgar G. Ulmer's Poverty Row masterpiece, "Detour," Ann Savage also co-starred with Leo Gorcey in a decidely less portentous B-hive output entitled, "Midnight Manhunt." And what transpired between the "Detour" gal and the "Dead End" gent? -- well, nothing like the cinematic fireworks that erupted between Ms. Savage and her "Detour" leading man, Tom Neal, to be sure! (But to be fair, Leo was really just a comic foil; William Gargan actually functioned as Ann's leading man). Nonetheless, with the sultry Ms. Savage on tap, the road signs clearly pointed to -- if not a "Dead End" or a "Detour" -- at least some formidable "curves ahead" for Leo!

Great Expectorations with Leo Gorcey!

The legendary expectorating prowess of Leo "Spit" Gorcey is on display this week at the Bijou, in a clip from "They Made Me A Criminal," where Leo engages no less a worthy opponent than John Garfield in a spitting contest! Although Leo's attempts at scene stealing with James Cagney earned him a cuff in the nose for his trouble from the "Angels With Dirty Faces" star, here Leo manages the amazing cinematic feat of spitting on Garfield's shoes and still remaining vertical and conscious! The premise of the film has Garfield on the lam as a fugitive puglist who encounters the Dead End Kids rusticating on a ranch in Arizona. "We got too hot in New York," explains Leo. In actuality, it was so hot on location during the shoot that the film stock purportedly melted in James Wong Howe's camera!

Leo & Huntz Pushing 50!

In the Swingin' Sixties, when Bond and the Beatles reigned supreme, Bowery Boys Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall emerged from the shadows of semi-retirement to grace the silver screen once more! This is another rare glimpse of Leo & Huntz in color (some 30 years down the road from their 1st color stint as Crime School Kids!), this time reprising their iconic "Slip" and "Sach" characters for a new generation of baby-boomer fans who had discovered them on the boob tube. Here Leo & Huntz look every day of their collective 93 years, as they exchange some obviously improvised schtick!

Mendie Koenig: Last of the East Side Kids

Actor Mendie Koenig holds the distinction of being one of the last surviving members of the East Side Kids! (Others in this lamentably endangered species include Johnny Duncan, with whom Mendie co-starred, and Eugene Francis, who played "Algie" in the earlier entries of the series).

Mendie joined Leo Gorcey and the gang in 1945, on the strength of his convincing portrayal of a street tough in his debut film, "River Gang" (starring Gloria Jean). This was shortly before Leo and Huntz revamped the series into the Bowery Boys, dealing out producer Sam Katzman in favor of their own agent, Jan Grippo, for a bigger piece of the profit pie.

Incidentally, Mende was tipped to the part in "River Gang" from his pal, a former hairdresser turned cowboy star, named Alfred "Lash" LaRue! You can glimpse Lash on the receiving end of a knuckle sandwich served up by Mendie in the video clip below!

The following is a tribute to Mendie -- "Last of the East Side Gang" -- which was intended to play like an old Monogram Pictures trailer of the period. More with Mendie to follow!

Oomph Girl Meets Bowery Boy

Leo Gorcey reminisces about Warner Bros. "Oomph" Girl, Ann Sheridan, in today's post at the Bowery Bijou. At the top of Leo's very short list of "nice" actresses (the others in this narrow field are just Carole Lombard and Martha Raye!), Ann Sheridan holds an endurance record, of sorts, in that she co-starred with the Dead End Kids in no less than three films -- Angels With Dirty Faces, They Made Me A Criminal and Angels Wash Their Faces -- and she managed to successfully fend off all of their collective amorous offscreen advances while still being regarded as a "swell" gal! In this anecdote, a somewhat remorseful Gorcey tells about the time the gang prevented Annie from keeping a dental appointment by misappropriating her car.

Happy Boithday to Leo Gorcey!

Okay, so it's not June 3rd. But today's post is nonetheless a cinematic celebration of Leo Gorcey's "boithday," with the Bowery Boys proving themselves to be a "swell buncha rats" who lavish him with presents that all look suspiciously as though they came from a back-alley boutique. The cream of the crop is heralded as a "genuine B-flat bugle."

"Why'd ya get me a flat one?," asks Leo, trying to repress his true "sediments".

Enter the gang's arch rivals, the dread Cherry Street Gang who, led by Billy Benedict, are there to give Leo a collective present -- his birthday butt-whupping!

Bela Lugosi Meets a Bowery Bonehead

Some 11 years before he made the cinematic acquaintance of a "Brooklyn Gorilla," Bela Lugosi first condescended to meet a "bowery bonehead" named Huntz Hall! In this historic 1941 encounter from "Spooks Run Wild," Bowery Boy Huntz Hall dons a cloak & skull and turns the tables on the screen's foremost vampire! Employing a respectable Lugosi vocal impersonation, Huntz proceeds to moan: "You scared the HEALTH out of me!"

Too bad Gabriel Dell hadn't yet hooked up with the East Side Kids at Monogram, as he was to later make a 2nd mini-career with his brilliant impersonation of Bela on the Steve Allen Show and, later still, on the Famous Monsters Speak phonograph album!

Bogart & the Bowery Boys in COLOR!

Today's post affords a rare glimpse of those relentlessly black & white Bowery Boys in color! With the exception of those oddest of film oddities of the 1960's, SECOND FIDDLE TO A STEEL GUITAR (1965) and THE PHYNX (1969), this is your only chance to catch LEO GORCEY and HUNTZ HALL together in color -- and as relative youths at the beginning of their Warner Bros. tenures yet! Here LEO & HUNTZ make a brief cameo appearance in a Warners color short subject that was lensed concurrent with the filming of CRIME SCHOOL in 1938. Along with fellow Dead-Enders BILLY HALOP and BOBBY JORDAN, they can be briefly glimpsed slurping soup and terrorizing the patrons of the studio commissary with their less-than-genteel manners. Luckily for the waitresses in attendance, HUMPHREY BOGART is on hand to keep them in line!

Of particular historical interest here is the fact that the studio hadn't yet finalized the gang's billing as the "Dead End" Kids (after all, why give free publicity to the rival Goldwyn production?). Instead, Warners initially decided to label them the "Crime School" Kids, and thereby associate them with one of their own films. This was their game plan right up until ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES; by the time that film went into post-production, the monicker "Dead End Kid" had entered the nation's lexicon, and resistance proved futile.

Leo Gorcey: Bobby Jordan's Funeral

The somber event of Bobby Jordan's funeral in 1965 is the unlikely setting for Leo Gorcey's bemused recollection of East Side Kid Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison. Ernie (erroneously referred to as "Leo" Sunshine Sammy Morrison in this interview) had departed the series after being drafted in World War II, and declined an offer to sign on later with the Bowery Boys because, in his words, he "didn't like the set-up." (One can only assume that he was referring to the diminishing roles of series regulars in favor of the increasing "Leo & Huntz Show" nature of these postwar entries; but it could have been that the financial renumerations were unappealing, or a combination of both.) In any event, Ernie prospered in an aircraft profession that saw him driving in style to Bobby Jordan's funeral, to the obvious chagrin of his fellow East Siders!

Note: the footage in this video marks the momentous first cinematic meeting of the two gents who were to eventually serve as the "head honcho" of the Bowery Boys -- Leo "Slip" Gorcey and Stanley "Duke" Clements!

Leo Gorcey: Waiting at the Airport for 10 hours & 10 drinks

The beginning of the famous 1968 Richard Lamparski radio interview (which served as the basis for the "Whatever Became of Leo Gorcey?" book article), with Leo Gorcey as the amiable, but slightly hungover interviewee.
Regrettably, this would seem to be Leo's last substantial interview.
In Part 1, the native New Yorker returns to his roots for the 1st time in 20 years!
Look for Part 2 later in the week.

Leo Gorcey & Wife No. 3: Amelita Ward

For our 21st post, we have the momentous 1st cinematic meeting of Leo Gorcey and his future wife (No. 3), Amelita Ward, in 1943's "Clancy Street Boys". Although they wouldn't get hitched until after they were paired again in 1948's "Smuggler's Cove", you can definitely see why Leo's head was turned by this curvaceous cutie (and mother of future "Me and the Dead End Kid" author, Leo Gorcey Jr.). By the way, the decidedly un-curvaceous "Annabelle" is played by Huntz Hall in drag!

Billy Halop: I Hate the Name "Dead End"

In our 20th post, Dead End Kids star Billy Halop returns to the microphone for a very special, candid session at the Bowery Bijou! Billy gives us the low down on why he and the other kids (with the lone exception of Gabe Dell), didn't get along, and how he found himself despising the name, "Dead End," as a middle-aged man of 48! Good stuff for all Billy and Bowery Boys fans to ponder!

Bowery Boys: Best & Worst Actors of the Group

For our 19th post, it's an "Oscar" ceremony -- Bowery style. Leo Gorcey casts his vote for the Best Actor and Worst Actor of the Dead End Kids! The Best Actor award is actually a tie, as it turns out, and the Worst Actor winner is somewhat surprising, considering the source! All the drama of the "Academy Awards" is on tap here today at the Bowery Bijou and, thankfully, there are no long-winded, embarassing acceptance speeches with which to contend!

Billy Halop on What Made the Dead End Kids Great

Dead End Kids ringleader, Billy Halop, takes center stage in our 18th post. Here he talks (briefly) about the "message" that made the Dead End Kids features "great." Halop, of course, was the Dead End Kid who had both the acting chops and the good looks to have succeeded in a "solo" career as a sensitive "John Garfield"-type tough guy (albeit one with a voice that sounded curiously like Jerry Lewis!). Co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in You Can't Get Away With Murder, it seems like Warners Bros was grooming him with such a strategy in mind, but somehow solo stardom managed to elude Billy. More from Billy soon in future posts, so stay tuned!

Leo Gorcey Talks about Billy "Whitey" Benedict

In our 17th post, Leo Gorcey reminisces about Billy Benedict, who played "Whitey" in the Bowery Boys. Although he began his association with Leo as a rival adversary of the East Side Kids (e.g., the venomous "Spider"), Billy was to eventually become a mainstay of the series as the amiably vacuous "Whitey," Bowery birdbrain par excellence. In fact, Billy is the only "add-on" gang member who's generally held in the same high-esteem among fans as the "original" Dead End core-group: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Gabriel Dell. And, quite fittingly, Leo reveals that Billy was just as nice offscreen as he was on (and one would guess probably a whole lot smarter, too!).

Space Nut: the Bowery Boys Film that Failed to Launch

Like the Three Stooges (but on a smaller scale), Leo Gorcey & Huntz Hall found themselves riding a resurgence of popularity with the syndication of the Bowery Boys films to TV in the early 1960's! As it had likewise done for the Stooges, this set the wheels in motion to exploit their "rejuvenated" careers in new film & TV projects featuring the Gorcey & Hall duo. For instance, it was around this time that there was serious discussion of making an animated Bowery Boys TV series, implementing the voices of Leo and Huntz (as had been done for the Stooges and Abbott & Costello -- likewise employing the real voices of the surving members of those comedy teams). Regrettably, this cartoon project was never realized, and Leo & Huntz were destined to work together only twice more: in 1965's "Second Fiddle To a Steel Guitar" and 1969's "The Phynx". However, in this rare mid-1960's interview, Huntz Hall seems pretty pumped about one of the great motion picture "what-ifs" of all time -- a planned Leo Gorcey/Huntz Hall collaboration called "Space Nut" to be filmed in Puerto Rico!

Bowery Boys: You've Got Mail!

Move over Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The screen's greatest romantic team, Huntz Hall and Sandra Gould, pitch woo from back in the days when love letters travelled via snailmail and not email! Sandra, who was to later play the replacement "Gladys Kravitz" on the Bewitched TV series, entices Huntz to kiss her, despite the latter's protests that it would "ruin" his reputation.
"How can one little kiss ruin your reputation?" she queries coyly.
"That's my reputation," explains Huntz. "I've never been kissed!"
How Huntz handles her request to "send her" -- with eyes closed and lips puckered -- is classic corn served up Bowery Boys style!

Coming Attractions with the Bowery Boys

Imagine the unparalleled thrill as a Saturday-matinee patron of the 1950's to watch the "coming soon" trailers unspool, and learn that next week's attractions promised the "funniest safari in history!" and "more monsters than you can shake a shudder at!" Yes, it's a Bowery Boys double-feature, and you know those folks at the National Screen Service trailer factory were never guilty of hype -- so it's just gotta be the stuff dreams are made of! (Note: you can briefly glimpse Clint Walker as the jungle man in the leopardskin speedos; shortly after this stint he was to acheive TV Western immortaldom as "Cheyenne!" The jungle-babe was Laurette Luez!)

Whatever Happened to Dead End Kid Bernard Punsly?

Of the six original "Broadway-to-Hollywood" Dead End Kids, Bernard Punsly seemed to "fly under the radar" a bit, and may have been the original "Background Bennie" (as Huntz Hall liked to call the various actors who later populated the gang, but were relegated to the "background" with little -- or no -- lines to speak). Punsly, it seems, just didn't have the show-biz ambitions that the others exhibited; he was the first to leave the series but, as Leo Gorcey recalls in our 13th post here at the Bowery Bijou, Bernard was to emerge as perhaps the biggest success story of the gang!

Triple-Trouble Troubleshooting

A necessary post today to update our faithful readers with some recent developments. Because of its nature, the Bowery Bijou is totally dependent on the Youtube site remaining well-behaved in order to view our embedded videos. So, if you ever visit here and there's big blank spots where videos ought to be, that's because Youtube has temporarily gone "down the tubes" -- and taken our videos with them! Just be patient, because the 'Tube Techies are probably just fiddling with the dials, and should be finished playing in short order (although yesterday it took them the better part of the day to stop twiddling!).

Secondly, while "upgrading" our blog today, our "feed" address was abruptly changed. What this means in layman's terms is, if you "subscribed" to this blog to appear as a live update on your homepage at Google or Yahoo! or MSN -- or wherever -- I'm afraid you will need to do it all over again! The buttons on the sidebar have now all been properly updated to point to the new feed. (Note: I don't believe the "email notification" form was affected, but re-subscribing would be the workaround there, too, if you never receive an email!). I apologize for these extra hoops to jump through; hope to make it worth your while by posting some new material shortly -- but not today, 'cause I'm all pooped by traversing the setbacks of my upgrade path!

Leo Gorcey Talks about His Dad: "Louie Dumbrowsky"

Ask a fan who their favorite Bowery Boy is, and the results are generally polarized: about half pick Leo; about half pick Huntz (while a few pick Billy "Whitey" Benedict, and --fewer still -- the likes of Eddie "Blinky" LeRoy!). But most everyone is in agreement in their universal adulation for "Louie Dumbrowsky," the sawed-off, sputtering Sweet Shop proprietor played by Leo's real-life father, Bernard Gorcey! In our 10th post, Leo pays tribute to the thespian talents of the elder Gorcey, and remarks about the tragedy of his father's untimely demise in a car accident in 1955 -- an event that sounded the "death knell" to the popular series!

From Broadway to the Bowery

To quote Leo Gorcey (or was it Norm Crosby?), one of the "extinct pleasures" of having launched into the blog-o-sphere with the Bowery Bijou is making the acquaintance (via email) of such "foist"-class subscribers as Leonard Getz. Len, it turns out, is a real author who has completed a new book about the Bowery Boys, From Broadway to the Bowery, soon to be published by the prestigious McFarland house! The following is a promotional music video of the book, put together by El Kaye. In the spirit of Len's book, the video is likewise a terrific chronological celebration of the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and Bowery Boys! Be sure to stay tuned to the end "credit roll" to see how to obtain your personal copy hot off the press (this tome is sure to sell quicker than "triple-banana splits with double-whipped cream" at Louie's Sweetshop!). For more info about the book, click here:
From Broadway to the Bowery.



Note: My regular video posts will resume in a couple of days, after we give Len's video a proper premiere showcase! The imminent publication of Len's book is a huge event for B-Boys fans, and we should support this endeavor if we are to expect publishers to bring us more like it in the future!

Bowery Boys: Hot Lead & Cold Seat!

Our 9th post summons Leo Gorcey before the bench, where he confesses to assaulting an unarmed toilet with a firearm! Actress Martha Raye also figures as an innocent bystander (or by-sitter, to be more precise) -- in this tragic tale that we call, Hot Lead & Cold Seat! It seems that once, on a personal appearance tour, Leo was appointed the treasurer of the gang's receipts. When the sum of their boxoffice take quickly ascended to the princely sum of $4000, Leo felt compelled to procure a gun to guard the loot. The next order of business was, quite naturally, for Leo to test-fire the heater, and the Dead End Kids' dressing room commode became the target of choice. A short while later in walks an unsuspecting Martha Raye into the same dressing room facility -- and suffers personal injury and untold mental anguish when she finds that the john has become a decided safety hazard!

Bowery Boys Meet Frankenstein

In 1948 Universal Pictures struck boxoffice paydirt with the inspired idea of transplanting Lou Costello's brain in Glenn Strange as the Frankenstein monster. Just one year later at the low-rent Monogram Pictures, their copycat writers conspired to exchange Mr. Strange's brain with Huntz Hall's. The downward trend had, indeed, reached a freefall when Glenn Strange first met Abbott & Costello and wound up encountering the Bowery Boys in very short order! The occasion did, however, afford Glenn the opportunity of delivering the single greatest comic (!) performance of his lifetime when, as the hirsute gorilla-man "Atlas", he affects an uncanny pantomine of Huntz Hall as "Sach" -- replete with all the mincing steps and fey gestures! Thanks to his status as the reigning "coverboy" in Forry Ackerman's Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, Glenn Strange's visage holds the distinction of probably usurping Boris Karloff as the iconic image of Frankenstein to an entire generation of "Monster Kids" of the 1960's!

Bowery Boys: Saturday Night Fever in 1943!

A change of pace for our 7th post, with a musical interlude for all you "culture vultures"! The Bowery Boys are crowned "Lords of the Jitterbug" in this prime example of Saturday Night Fever -- 1943 style! Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and Bobby Jordan hit the dance floor, and the linoleum is left smoking! Leo's dance partner is his gorgeous real-life wife, Kay Gorcey; Bobby executes some hot-hoofing with Monogram Pictures glamor girl, Pamela Duncan, and; Huntz tears it up with a towering and unjustly uncredited amazon (Vince Barnett: "Hey, if she falls down, she'll be home!")
The intro is a disco remix; the eminently toe-tapping main music is supplied by Mike Riley's Orchestra.

Huntz Hall compares the Bowery Boys to the Beatles!

Ever notice the startling resemblances of Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Gabriel Dell to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison? Well, as a matter of fact, neither did we! In our 6th post, Huntz Hall steps up to the plate to make the quantum-leap comparison of the Dead End Kids to the Beatles! It all makes sense the way Huntz explains it; this is his personal take on the genealogy of the Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and Bowery Boys!

Leo Gorcey Talks about his Famous Hat

Leo Gorcey is on tap once more in our 5th post to reveal how he came across his iconic hat with the upturned brim that he sported in 60-odd (some would say very odd) East Side Kids and Bowery Boys films! The original hat, by the way, was eventually bronzed by film producer Jerry Thomas.

Best of the Bowery Boys

Our 4th post features 4 minutes of funny schtick from the Bowery Boys latter "slapstick" period (1952-1956), with Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall as gun-slinging desperadoes, "The Lone Disarrangers", as well as party-crashers in a swanky NYC high-rise (Huntz is in top form impersonating a butler with a curious Bela Lugosi brogue!). This was culled from ancient broadcast VHS; we anxiously await the heralded release of the Bowery Boys package on DVD from Warner Home Video! Also featured in this clip is Bernard Gorcey (as the bartender, naturally) , Myron Healey and Tom Keene (as the Bad Guys), Mary Beth Hughes (as the Saloon Gal) and Marjorie Reynolds (as the object of Leo's affections).

The Bowery Boys: Not Best Buds in Real Life

Our 3rd post brings Leo Gorcey to the microphone once more, where he explains that, like Abbott & Costello and Martin & Lewis, discord often reared its ugly head amongst the The Bowery Boys (not to mention Leo and his five wives!).

This is yet another clip from my Bowery Interviews DVD. I hope to gather all these clips "under one umbrella" at this blog, so bookmark if you like, and stay tuned!

Leo Gorcey's Famous Screen Characters

For our momentous 2nd post (yup, that's two in one day -- the daily double!), we yield the floor to noneother than Leo Gorcey, who (somewhat incoherently, we must admit) discusses his famous screen characters: Spit, Muggs and Slip. This is yet another excerpt from The Bowery Interviews DVD, a homegrown work-in-progress that continues at a snail's pace (thanks, largely, to an ultra sub-Monogram budget and the annoying intrusions of having to make a living at a real job!).
Also discussed herein is the infamous Gorcey autobiography, "An Original Dead End Kid Presents Dead End Yells, Wedding Bells, Cockle Shells and Dizzy Spells" (which was recently republished by his son, Leo Gorcey, Jr. For more info click here: Leo Gorcey Sr. autobiography). The stouthearted viewer may also glimpse the legendary photo of Leo in the buff posing as "The Thinker" (which is only rated PG, thanks to the strategic fig-leaf!).

Welcome to the Bowery Bijou

We bid you welcome to the premiere post in The Bowery Bijou, wherein we celebrate the cinematic artistry of Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys! Leading off is a video segment from a rare interview (circa 1964) in which Huntz Hall relates how The Bowery Boys once got an Academy Award nomination -- of sorts!

(Depending on the speed of your connection, it might take a few seconds for the embedded video to load below.)