Dead End Kids

They proved to be so popular that they continued to make movies under various monikers, including the Little Tough Guys, the East Side Kids, and the Bowery Boys, until 1958.

[2] Failing to find actors who could convey the emotions they saw in the play, Goldwyn and Wyler had six of the original Kids (Halop, Jordan, Hall, Punsly, Dell, and Leo Gorcey) brought from New York City to Hollywood for the film.

During production, the boys ran wild around the studio, destroying property, including a truck that they crashed into a sound stage.

The film proved successful enough for Universal to launch a "Little Tough Guys" series in 1939, but by this time the original gang members were not available, so Universal filled the roles with other Hollywood juveniles (including future series perennials David Gorcey and Billy Benedict).

Producer Sam Katzman, releasing through Monogram Pictures, began his own tough-kid series, beginning with the 1940 film East Side Kids.

As was the case at Universal, none of the original Dead End Kids was available, so Katzman hired six juveniles to fill the roles.

In 1941 Huntz Hall and Gabriel Dell joined the series, now known as "The East Side Kids", followed in 1943 by Billy Benedict.

When they began, in Dead End and their other early films, their characters were serious, gritty, genuinely menacing young hoodlums.

But, by the height of their career, their movies were comedies, with the Kids depicted as low-class but basically harmless, likable teens – comic caricatures of their former selves.