Bowery Boys on TCM! -- and How the East Side Kids became Men...

Starting today, TCM will begin airing all the films of The Bowery Boys, with one 'new' entry, every Saturday morning. There are forty-eight total in the Bowery Boys catalog, so it'll take nearly a year, to show the entire series.

-- I'm so excited!

I've never seen a Bowery Boys film, before.

And until I learned about this, back in January, I honestly didn't think I'd have the chance to ever see one.

Unlike The East Side Kids, the Bowery Boys have never been released on DVD; only a few of 'em were ever released on VHS; and none of 'em are available to download or watch for free at the Internet Archive.

Tomorrow is LIVE WIRES, the first in the series. Made in 1946.

Of the original Dead End Kids, it stars or features three of 'em:

Leo Gorcey
Huntz Hall
and Bobby Jordan.

But another original Dead End Kid, Gabe Dell, will soon be on hand; Dell makes his Bowery Boys debut in the fourth outing, SPOOK BUSTERS, in 1946.

The following year, Bobby Jordan makes his exit from the series; only eight entries in, Jordan quit after 1947's BOWERY BUCKAROOS.

Bobby was upset, because Gorcey and Hall were the obvious stars of the Bowery Boys, while the preceding Sam Katzman/Monogram series -- the one Leo Gorcey and agent Jan Grippo revamped to become the Bowery Boys -- The East Side Kids, had always charmed due to its group dynamic, with only a gentle hinting (at least in the early years) that Jordan was the star.

-- Though he was quickly equaled by Gorcey. And soon, Hall.

In the first official entry, BOYS OF THE CITY (1940), Jordan's Danny is the main character, while Gorcey was more or less just one of the gang. By the second entry, Gorcey as 'Muggs' is the obvious leader of the group, and he and Danny are two best friends amongst a whole group of club members.

Huntz Hall was not originally in the East Side Kids. He joined in 1941's BOWERY BLITZKRIEG, and when he did, the focus shifted from Muggs and Danny, and the rest of the gang, to Muggs, Danny, Glimpy (Hall) and Scruno (Sunshine Sammy Morrison), and then the rest of the gang, usually including Leo Gorcey's little brother, David, and several other future Bowery Boys alumni.

Dell joined the cast in 1942, with MR. WISE GUY, but rarely took part in the antics of the Kids. He usually played a bad guy, an enemy, a chiseler, even a nazi spy!

Because of his service in the war, Jordan left The East Side Kids in 1943. He made a cameo, in uniform, in 1944, but was officially out of the series until it was reborn 'The Bowery Boys'.

Ol' Sunshine Sammy had left the East Side Kids, too, also due to service in the war, but when asked if he, like Jordan, would return for the new, re-envisioned 'East Side Kids as adults' Bowery Boys series, Morrison wanted nothing to do with it.

He declined for the same reason Bobby would leave...

So then it was just Gorcey, Hall, and Dell. The three oldest of the original Dead End Kids. And they all got along pretty well.

In his autobiography, Gorcey remarks how when the whole thing began -- with the stage play, Dead End, in 1935 -- Billy Halop was the star, and everyone knew it; he had his own private dressing room, while the other five Kids had to share one. And Bernard Punsly was too busy reading and studying. So that left the three oldest boys, and little Bobby Jordan...

Gorcey said Jordan was too young to pal around with.

They seemed to pal around fine with a capital F in some of those early East Side Kid films...(think shirtless scenes, and pillow-fights!) so I don't know why he couldn't have made more room for Jordan in the Bowery Boys series. They were all men, now. Grown-ups. Couldn't they act like it?

But just another member of 'Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys' was not to Jordan's liking. And despite my never seeing a Bowery Boys film, I can't help but agree; the idea of Gorcey in the lead, Hall as his sidekick, and Jordan in the 'group' just doesn't feel right. I think Jordan would have made a good sidekick, too, with Hall as the silly one, and Jordan as a more serious smart aleck. Or if Gorcey hadn't been so hellbent on becoming the leader (where's Billy Halop when you need him??) the three of 'em could have made for a damn good trio!

And in case you're wondering about the other two Original DEKs I've barely mentioned: Billy Halop and Bernard Punsly never did a single entry in The East Side Kids, OR in The Bowery Boys.

Halop was the leader of Universal's Little Tough Guys, made during the same years as the Dead End Kid films and the dawning years of The East Side Kids.

Later, Halop also starred in GAS HOUSE KIDS (1946), the first entry in an East Side Kid imitation series. Halop's co-stars included former Our Gang member, Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer, and two time Bowery Boy collaborator, Teala Loring.

Punsly was also a part of the Little Tough Guys, but retired from acting, in 1943.

...

Gabe Dell exits the Bowery Boys, in 1950, after one of the most popular entries, BLUES BUSTERS.

Even Gorcey left! Abandoning his own co-creation (or co-reincarnation) after his father -- who played 'Louie Dumbrowski' in the Bowery Boys -- died in 1956.

Gorcey's last film in the series, is CRASHING LAS VEGAS.

And then there was one...

Huntz Hall was the last of the original Kids to work in any of the subsequent series.

He starred top-billed in the last seven Bowery Boys films, including the series finale, IN THE MONEY, in 1958.

Not only did this film mark the end of the Bowery Boys series, but it also brought to a close the on-screen sentence these 'Kids' has been carrying-out since their collective film debut, in 1937.



Twenty one years this group of actors spent working together (in some combination), and that's not including the two years they spent on Broadway, in the original stage production of Dead End!

So twenty-three years...

And plenty of films to show for it! There are seven Dead End Kid movies, nine Little Tough Guy movies, twenty-one East Side Kid movies, and forty-eight Bowery Boys movies, equaling a grand total of eighty-five films in the entire 'Kids canon!

-- Not to mention the three serials, and several 'almost' DEK features (starring more than one of the original Kids).

A bit overwhelming to want to conquer, but I love it!

I can't wait to see the latter-half of their filmography.

I do have a slight feeling, though, I won't like The Bowery Boys as much as I like the East Side Kids. Partially due to the aforementioned idea of Bobby Jordan getting pushed to the background, but mainly because I've read, as the Bowery Boys progresses, it opts for flat-out goofiness.

-- But oh well. Nothing tops the original DEK films. Of course we're talking comedies now, not dramas...

One rule of thumb:

If Billy Halop's the leader, it's probably a drama.
If Gorcey's the leader, it's probably a comedy.

And the simplest way to identify which series is which:

• The Dead End Kids = the original six Kids from Broadway.
• Little Tough Guys = mainly all of 'em, but never Gorcey.
• The East Side Kids = four of 'em, but never Halop or Punsly.
• The Bowery Boys = four of 'em; never Halop or Punsly; mainly Gorcey and Hall.

It's rumored the whole reason TCM's showing The Bowery Boys is because Warner Bros. plans to finally release the series on DVD (sometime next year, I believe...) but whether or not it's gonna be individually, or as a box set; the entire series, or just selected films, I have no idea.

...

For all you non-DEK fans out there:

Perhaps this will melt your butter...

Ginger Rogers is TCM's Star of the month! :)

I tell ya; between John Garfield day (March 4th), Ginger Rogers all Month, and the Bowery Boys for nearly a year, I am set with a capital S!

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