Ups And Downs Of The "Dead End" Kids

Radio Record, Volume XIII, Issue 11, 21 August 1939, Unnumbered Page

Ups And Downs Of The "Dead End" Kids

Leo Gorcey Is Writing His First Novel

"PHICKEE DE COP!’ shouted six poor boys from New York’s East End, as a stranger, whom they took to be a detective, approached them. Their ery, in slum jargon, meant: "Look out! Here’s a policeman." The stranger was Sidney Kingsley, playwright, who was looking for genuine slum boys to appear in "Dead End,’ his drama of water-front hoodlums who are gangsters in the making. "Akey! Akey! MHalfies!" they screamed with joy when they heard of his project. It meant that they had found something valuable and all would share equally. The "Dead End Kids" became Cinderella boys that day and have since marched on to fame and fortune. And the other week Leo Gorcey, eldest anid toughest of the "Kids," who is still in his *teens, flew from California to — Yuma, Arizona, to marry 17-year-old film actress Katherine Mavis.

Leo was about to become a plumber’s assistant when Sidney Kingsley discovered him, His ambition to-day is to be a writer. Having had one short story published, he is now busy on his first novel. Following the great success of ‘Dead End" on the New York stage, Sam Goldwyn brought Leo and the other five "kids" to Hollywood for the film version, which was hailed as a masterpiece, Since then they have appeared in "Crime School," "Angels With Dirty Faces" and "They Made Me a Criminal." One of the "Kids,’.Gabriel Dell, wrote his own version of "Hamlet" when a boy in Brooklyn and hopes to become a Shakespearian actor when he’s older, Their Hollywood careers, however, as was noted in the "Record" the other week, may end up in anti-climax. Now that the wave of "tough-kid" pictures has passed, there seems little else they can turn their hands to in films.