LEO GORCEY—SIGNED DEAD END YELLS Memoir—1st/DJ Bowery Boys Comic Actor For Sale

DEAD END YELLS,

WEDDING BELLS,

COCKLE SHELLS

And DIZZY SPELLS.

FIRST PRINTING

IN DUST JACKET

111 PAGES 32 PHOTOS

VANTAGE PRESS (1967)

SIGNED AUTOGRAPHED

BYLEO B GORCEY

Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917– June 2, 1969) was a stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of an increasingly-comic group of street-wise city toughs known variously as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids, and — as putative adults — The Bowery Boys. Gorcey was famous for his use of malapropisms, such as \"I depreciate it!\" instead of \"I appreciate it!\"

Early years

Gorcey was born in New York City, the son of Josephine (née Condon), an Irish Catholic immigrant, and Bernard Gorcey, a Russian Jewish immigrant. Bernard was 4 ft 10, and his wife was 4 ft 11. Their son reached 5 ft 6 in adulthood.

Film career

In the 1930s, Gorcey\'s father lived apart from the family while working in theater —Abie’s Irish Rose— and film. When he returned in 1935, Leo\'s younger brother David Gorcey and he persuaded Leo to audition for a small part in the play Dead End. Leo had just lost a job as a plumber\'s apprentice and wished to emulate his father\'s modest success. The Gorcey boys were cast in small roles as two members of the East 53rd Place Gang in the play Dead End by Sidney Kingsley. Charles Duncan, originally cast as Spit, left the play, and Gorcey, his understudy, was promoted. Gorcey created the stage persona of a quarrelsome guttersnipe whose greatest known joy was to make trouble.

In 1937, Samuel Goldwyn made the popular play into a film of the same name, and transported the six rowdy young men to Hollywood. Gorcey became one of the busiest actors in Hollywood during the following 20 years, starring in seven Dead End Kids films (1937-1939, 21 East Side Kids films (1940-1945, and 41 Bowery Boys films (1946-1955.

The earlier films presented Gorcey in variations of his Dead End character Spit, a sneering tough guy meeting anyone\'s challenge with wisecracks. In the early 1940s, as the dramatic films shifted to roughneck comedy, Gorcey embellished his dialogue with malapropisms, always delivered in a thick Brooklyn accent. \"A clever deduction\" would be mangled by Gorcey as \"a clever seduction\"; \"I reiterate\" became \"I regurgitate\"; \"optical illusion\" came across as \"optical delusion\"; and \"I should see an optometrist\" was rendered as \"I should see an ichthyologist.\" A studio press release reported that Gorcey spent 30 minutes a day studying a dictionary: \"He has made something of a career for himself as an actor by the use of words no one else has ever heard of, and by the misuse or mispronunciation of others.\"

In 1944, Gorcey took a recurring role on the Pabst Blue Ribbon Town radio show, starring Groucho Marx. He also had a small role in a 1948 film, the Ring Lardner comedy So This Is New York, starring radio comedians Henry Morgan and Arnold Stang, which was Gorcey\'s last appearance as a straight character actor.

In 1945, Sam Katzman, producer of the East Side Kids series, flatly refused to meet Gorcey\'s demand of double his usual salary. Gorcey walked out on Katzman, and Katzman discontinued the series. Gorcey turned to Dead End teammate Bobby Jordan, who suggested a meeting with Jordan\'s agent, Jan Grippo. The series became The Bowery Boys, with Gorcey holding a 40% financial share, and Grippo as producer. Gorcey brought aboard his father, Bernard Gorcey, to appear as Louie Dumbrowski, the panicky owner of a sweet shop where the boys gathered, as well as his brother David to play one of the gang members.

The series was immediately successful, and Gorcey starred in four Bowery Boys films per year through 1955. That year, his father died as a result of injuries from an automobile accident. Gorcey, devastated, began abusing alcohol and lost a great deal of weight. When he allegedly trashed a film set in an intoxicated rage (an occurrence which was later vehemently denied in the 1980s by both Huntz Hall and David Gorcey), the studio refused to grant him a pay raise that he had demanded, so he parted ways with the Bowery Boys and was replaced in the last seven films by Stanley Clements. However, Gorcey\'s brother David remained with the series until it ended in late 1957.

During the 1960s, Gorcey did very little acting. He had a bit part in the 1963 comedy It\'s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, and he appeared with old sidekick Huntz Hall in a pair of low-budget films, Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar in 1966 and The Phynx, released in 1970 after his death. Gorcey also made an appearance in an all-star television commercial for a 1969 Pontiac model.

Autobiography

In 1967, Gorcey self-published an autobiography through a vanity press, An Original Dead-End Kid Presents: Dead End Yells, Wedding Bells, Cockle Shells, and Dizzy Spells, which was limited to 1,000 copies. It was reprinted in 2004.

Personal life

In May 1939, Gorcey married 15-year-old dancer Kay Marvis, who appeared in four of his Monogram movies. They divorced in 1944, and the following year, Marvis became the second wife of Gorcey’s Pabst Radio co-hort, Groucho Marx.

Gorcey married actress Evalene Bankston in October 1945, but they divorced two years later. He was arrested for firing a gun at his wife when she entered his home in Van Nuys, but was acquitted of the charge in 1948.

In February 1949, Gorcey married actress Amelita Ward, with whom he had appeared in Clancy Street Boys and Smugglers\' Cove. The marriage produced two children, including Leo Gorcey, Jr., but the couple were divorced in February 1956. Later that year, Gorcey married Brandy Davis. They had a daughter, Brandy Gorcey Ziesemer, but divorced in 1962. Gorcey was married to Mary Gannon on July 12, 1968, until his death, nearly one year later.

Death

Gorcey, a lifelong drinker, died of liver failure on June 2, 1969, one day short of his 52nd birthday. He is buried at Molinos Cemetery in Los Molinos, California.

Legacy

In 1967, Gorcey\'s image was to appear in the crowd of celebrities on the cover of the Beatles\' album Sgt. Pepper\'s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but because he requested a fee, he was removed.

Me and the Dead End Kid, a book about Gorcey written by his son Leo, Jr., was published in 2003.

Film

1937 Dead End Spit - D.E.K. series

1937 Portia on Trial Joe Gannow

1937 Headin\' East Boy boxer in gym

1937 Mannequin Clifford

1938 The Beloved Brat Spike Matz

1938 Crime School Spike - D.E.K. series

1938 Angels with Dirty Faces Bim - D.E.K. series

1938 Swingtime in the Movies Himself - D.E.K. series / Short /

1939 They Made Me a Criminal Spit - D.E.K. series

1939 Hell\'s Kitchen Gyp Haller - D.E.K. series

1939 The Angels Wash Their Faces Leo Finnegan - D.E.K. series

1939 On Dress Parade Slip Duncan - D.E.K. series

1939 Private Detective Newsboy

1939 Invisible Stripes Jimmy

1940 Boys of the City Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1940 That Gang of Mine Muggs Malone - E.S.K. series

1940 Hullabaloo Apartment house bellhop

1940 Gallant Sons \"Doc\" Reardon

1940 Pride of the Bowery Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1941 Road to Zanzibar Boy [7]

1941 Flying Wild Muggs - E.S.K. series

1941 Angels with Broken Wings Punchy Dorsey

1941 Out of the Fog Eddie

1941 Bowery Blitzkrieg Muggs - E.S.K. series

1941 Down in San Diego Snap Collins

1942 Spooks Run Wild Muggs - E.S.K. series

1942 Born to Sing Snap Collins

1942 Mr. Wise Guy Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1942 Sunday Punch Biff

1942 Let\'s Get Tough! Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1942 Maisie Gets Her Man Cecil

1942 Smart Alecks Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1942 \'Neath Brooklyn Bridge Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1943 Kid Dynamite Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1943 Clancy Street Boys Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1943 Ghosts on the Loose Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1943 Destroyer Sarecky

1943 Mr. Muggs Steps Out Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1944 Million Dollar Kid Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1944 Follow the Leader Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1944 Block Busters Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1944 Bowery Champs Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1945 Docks of New York Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1945 Mr. Muggs Rides Again Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1945 Midnight Manhunt Clutch Tracy

1945 Come Out Fighting Muggs McGinnis - E.S.K. series

1946 Live Wires Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1946 In Fast Company Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1946 Bowery Bombshell Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1946 Spook Busters Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1946 Mr. Hex Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1947 Hard Boiled Mahoney Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1947 News Hounds Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1947 Bowery Buckaroos Slip Mahoney (aka:\"Dead-Eye\" Dan McGurk) B.B. series

1948 Angels\' Alley Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1948 So This Is New York Sid Mercer

1948 Jinx Money Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1948 Smugglers\' Cove Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1948 Trouble Makers Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1949 Fighting Fools Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1949 Hold That Baby! Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1949 Angels in Disguise Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1949 Master Minds Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1950 Blonde Dynamite Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1950 Lucky Losers Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1950 Triple Trouble Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1950 Blues Busters Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1951 Bowery Battalion Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1951 Ghost Chasers Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1951 Let\'s Go Navy! Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1951 Crazy Over Horses Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1952 Hold That Line Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1952 Here Come the Marines Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1952 Feudin\' Fools Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1952 No Holds Barred Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1953 Jalopy Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1953 Loose in London Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1953 Clipped Wings Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1953 Private Eyes Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1954 Paris Playboys Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1954 The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1954 Jungle Gents Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1955 Bowery to Bagdad Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1955 High Society Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1955 Spy Chasers Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1955 Jail Busters Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1955 Dig That Uranium Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1956 Crashing Las Vegas Slip Mahoney B.B. series

1963 It\'s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World First cab driver Cameo

1965 Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar Leo

1970 The Phynx Himself Final film role

Television

1962 The Dick Powell Theatre Billy Vale Episode: \"No Strings Attached\"

1962 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Windy Episode: \"...But What Are You Doing for Your Country?\"