MUSEUM OF MODERN MYTHOLOGY AND POP CULTURE

THE BOWERY BOYS

1946. Leo Gorcey (1917-1969) and Huntz Hall (1919-1999) appeared on the New York stage in 1935 in Sidney Kingsley's gritty street drama, Dead End. They and other members Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsley went on to appear in the film production in 1937 starring Humphrey Bogart. A series of Dead End Kids films were made, and a spin-off series featuring the Little Tough Guys. The East Side Kids series is where Leo and Huntz created characters that would later change names and mannerisms, becoming Terrence Aloysius "Slip" Mahoney (Gorcey), and Horace Debussy "Sach" Jones (Hall). They and the other members of the Bowery Boys took on spies, gangsters, mad scientists, outlaw cowboys, gorillas, the Army, the Navy, the Marines, managing to cause hilarious havoc on them all.

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