East Side Kids | Movie Posters

THE EAST SIDE KIDS 1940-1945

In 1940 producer Sam Katzman noticed the financial success of the other tough-kid series and made the film The East Side Kids, using 2 of the Universal's Little Tough Guys, Hally Chester and Harris Berger. He added former Our Gang player Donald Haines, Frankie Burke, radio actor Sam Edwards, and Eddie Brian to round out the new team. This was a one-shot film, designed to cash in on a popular trend. When Dead End Kid Bobby Jordan became available, Katzman signed him for Boys of the City. "The East Side Kids" became a series, released by Monogram Pictures.

Leo Gorcey joined the series, with his brother, David Gorcey of the Little Tough Guys. "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, the first child actor in the Our Gang comedies, was cast as "Scruno," the only African-American in the Jordan-Gorcey gang.

As with the Little Tough Guys, the membership of the team changed from film to film, until Huntz Hall joined in 1941, when the lineup was somewhat stabilized. In total, 20 actors were members of the East Side Kids. Dead End Kid Gabriel Dell drifted in and out of the series as a gang member, a reporter, or a small-time hoodlum, as in Million Dollar Kid. In Smart Alecks, he is an ex-member who left the gang to pursue a life of crime. Rising tough-teen actor Stanley Clements appeared in three films. Starting with Clancy Street Boys in 1943, Bernard Gorcey, father of Leo and David, played various bit parts in seven East Side Kids films.