The Bowery Boys

In 1945, when East Side Kids producer Katzman refused to grant Leo Gorcey's request to double his weekly salary, Gorcey quit the series, which then 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 earlier films' credits appear as "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys".) Gorcey, who owned 40 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 (at 3rd & Canal St.) until an adventure came along.

The original main characters were Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney (Leo Gorcey), Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones (Huntz Hall), Bobby (Bobby Jordan), Whitey (Billy Benedict), and Chuck (David Gorcey, sometimes billed as David Condon). "Sunshine" Sammy Morrison, "Scruno" in the East Side Kids films, declined the invitation to rejoin the gang. (He later stated in an interview that he "didn't like the setup," possibly referring to the idea of Gorcey and Hall being in the forefront, and being paid much more than the other members.) When Bobby Jordan quit the series for the same reason, his character was replaced by Butch Williams, with former East Side Kids Bennie Bartlett and Buddy Gorman alternating in the role. The proprietor of the malt shop where they hung out was the panicky Louie Dumbrowski (Bernard Gorcey, Leo's and David's real-life 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 and limited the participation of the other gang members.

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, songwriter, reporter, Nazi spy) to suit the story at hand—and the limited casting budget. Dell often acted as a bridge between the real world and those of the Boys who he would summon to assist him. 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 humor-laced crime drama of the previous series, but they gradually shifted to all-out comedy, growing more slapstick and fantasy-oriented over the next decade.

After filming Dig That Uranium in 1955, Bernard Gorcey was killed in an automobile accident, devastating his son Leo, who began to drink heavily, and it visibly affected his performance in the following film, Crashing Las Vegas, which was 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.

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. Clements, as "Duke Coveleskie," adapted to the series easily and completed the three films, which now starred "Huntz Hall and The Bowery Boys." 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." With Bernard Gorcey gone, Louie's Sweet Shop was replaced by Clancy's Cafe with a similarly put-upon proprietor, "Mike" (Percy Helton, later played by Dick Elliott).

In all, there were 48 Bowery Boys films, making it the third-longest feature-film series of American origin in motion-picture history (behind the Charles Starrett westerns at 131 titles, and Hopalong Cassidy at 66). The final Bowery Boys film, In the Money, was released in 1958. Only Huntz Hall and David Gorcey had remained with the series since 1946.[2]

The Bowery Boys and East Side Kids picked up a new generation of mostly younger fans when the films were syndicated for television. (The independently made East Side Kids films aired on TV first, in the early 1950s. The Bowery Boys entered TV syndication in 1960.) The films became a staple for independent stations across America, often used to fill the early-afternoon time slots on weekends, much as the same films played at matinées in theaters.

All 48 Bowery Boys films were released on DVD by Warner Brothers via their "made-to-order" Archive Collection label in four volumes, each consisting of 12 films on 4 recordable media discs, beginning November 20, 2012. Initial distribution was advertised by Warner as being traditionally replicated on "pressed disc" media in anticipation of high demand for these first Bowery Boy releases to be "remastered from the best available elements."

• Hollywood's Made-to-Order Punks: The Dead End Kids, Little Tough Guys, East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys by Richard Roat, Mendi Koenig and Brandy Gorcey-Ziesemer, BearManor Media (2009)

• Leo Gorcey at IMDb
• Huntz Hall at IMDb
• Gabriel Dell at IMDb
• Bobby Jordan at IMDb
• Benny Bartlett at IMDb
• David Gorcey at IMDb
• Bernard Gorcey at IMDb
• Stanley Clements at IMDb
• Billy Benedict at IMDb
• Jimmy Murphy at IMDb
• Gil Stratton, Jr. at IMDb
• Buddy Gorman at IMDb
• Eddie LeRoy at IMDb