On The Boulevard: The Dead End Kids

To call these guys the Dead End Kids is kind of a misnomer. They started that way, but would be renamed The East End Kids, The Little Tough Guys and The Bowery Boys through time for different production companies. Though the best films they were involved with came under the Dead End Kid years.

They were a young group of New York actors who had been cast in the play Dead End, hence their name, and moved to Hollywood to star in the film version in 1937. Over the next 20 years, they'd appear in films opposite Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, John Garfield and a ton of heavy hitters.

A couple of the better films they were involved with was Dead End (1937), Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) and They Made Me A Criminal (1939). Some of the funnier titles include Spooks Run Wild (1941), Junior G-Men Of The Air (1952) and Hold That Hypnotist (1957). The boys would come and go replacing members like the band Menudo, finally disbanding in 1958. Makes sense, how the hell do you fly higher than the genius that is Hold That Hypnotist?

If you've never seen Dead End, it's worth a look especially for some of the character names: Dippy, Spit and Milty. The leaders name is Tommy because no one ever wants to follow a guy named Spit.