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Leo Gorcey
Leo Bernard Gorcey (June 3, 1917– June 2, 1969) was an American stage and film actor, famous for portraying the leader of a group of hooligans known variously as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids and, as 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 on June 3, 1917, the son of Josephine (née Condon), an Irish Catholic immigrant, and Bernard Gorcey, a Russian Jewish immigrant. Both were vaudevillian actors of short stature. Bernard Gorcey was and his wife was . Their son would reach in adulthood. Film career In the 1930s, Gorcey's father lived apart from the family while working in theater and film. When he returned in 1935, he and Leo's younger brother David Gorcey 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 bo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the List of United States cities by population density, most densely populated major city in the United States, and is more than twice as populous as second-place Los Angeles. New York City lies at the southern tip of New York (state), New York State, and constitutes the geographical and demographic center of both the Northeast megalopolis and the New York metropolitan area, the largest metropolitan area in the world by urban area, urban landmass. With over 20.1 million people in its metropolitan statistical area and 23.5 million in its combined statistical area as of 2020, New York is one of the world's most populous Megacity, megacities, and over 58 million people live within of the city. New York City is a global city, global Culture of New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn Accent
The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio, film, and television. Several other common names exist for the accent based on specific location, such as a Bronx accent, Long Island accent, Brooklyn accent, or North Jersey accent. The following is an overview of the phonological structures and variations within the accent. Vowels Consonants While the following consonantal features are central to the common stereotype of a "New York City accent", they are not entirely ubiquitous in New York City. By contrast, the vocalic (vowel) variations in pronunciation as described above are far more typical of New York City area speakers than the consonantal features listed below, which carry a much greater stigma than do the dialect's vocalic variations: *Non-rhoticity (or ''r''-lessness): The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Phynx
''The Phynx'' is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Lee H. Katzin about a rock and roll band named The Phynx and their mission in foreign affairs. The group is sent to Albania to locate celebrity hostages taken prisoner by Communists. This turned out to be the final film appearance for several of the veteran performers in the cast, including Leo Gorcey, George Tobias and Marilyn Maxwell. History ''The Phynx'' received an extremely limited release, and has since become something of an obscure, rarely seen cult film; bootleg copies for many years turned up on auction websites before Warner Archive officially released the film on DVD in October 2012. Plot Cast *The Phynx... Themselves **A. "Michael" Miller **Ray Chippeway **Dennis Larden **Lonny Stevens *Lou Antonio... Corrigan *Mike Kellin... Bogey *Michael Ansara... Col. Rostinov *George Tobias... Markevitch *Joan Blondell... Ruby *Martha Raye... Foxy *Larry Hankin... Philbaby * Pat McCormick... Father O'Hoolihan *Ultra V ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Fiddle To A Steel Guitar
''Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar'' is a 1965 American comedy film directed by Victor Duncan, and is notable for the reunion of Bowery Boys' actors Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, who had last appeared in a film together nine years earlier—in ''Crashing Las Vegas''. The film was released on September 15, 1965, by Marathon Pictures. Plot Jubal A. Bristol loves country music, but his wife thinks it is beneath her to listen to it. Mrs. Bristol is planning an opera event, but the company that was supposed to play are stranded in New York City. Jubal gathers a large group of country artists to come and play the opera in their place and saves the day. Cast * Arnold Stang as Jubal A. Bristol * Pamela Hayes as Mrs. Bristol * Leo Gorcey as Leo * Huntz Hall as Huntz The cast includes a variety of country music guest stars, including Little Jimmy Dickens, Lefty Frizzell, Bill Monroe and The Bluegrass Boys, Dottie West, George Hamilton IV, Pete Drake, Sonny James, Minnie Pearl, Billy W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huntz Hall
Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall (August 15, 1920 – January 30, 1999) was an American radio, stage, and movie performer who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), and in the later " Bowery Boys" movies, during the late 1930s to the late 1950s. Life and career Hall was born in 1920 in New York CitySocial Security Death Index to Joseph Patrick Hall, an engineer from Ireland, and his wife, Mary Ellen ( Mullen) Hall.Leonard Getz in his 2006 book ''From Broadway to the Bowery'' published by McFarland & Company uses August 15, but the more authoritative Social Security Death Index uses August 18, 1920. The Independent uses August 15, 1919, and the New York Times lists his age as 78, which would make his birth year 1920. Walker and Roat's biography uses 1919. As was the case with many actors, their resumes often conflict with official documents submitted to the government. The fourteenth of sixteen children, he was nicknamed "Huntz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
''It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World'' is a 1963 American comedy film produced and directed by Stanley Kramer with a story and screenplay by William Rose and Tania Rose. The film, starring Spencer Tracy with an all-star cast of comedians, is about the madcap pursuit of $350,000 in stolen cash by a diverse and colorful group of strangers. It premiered on November 7, 1963. The principal cast features Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry-Thomas, and Jonathan Winters. The film marked the first time Kramer directed a comedy, though he had produced the comedy ''So This Is New York'' in 1948. He is best known for producing and directing, in his own words, "heavy drama" about social problems, such as ''The Defiant Ones'', '' Inherit the Wind'', ''Judgment at Nuremberg'', and ''Guess Who's Coming to Dinner''. His first attempt at directing a comedy film paid off immensely as ''It's a Mad, Mad, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Clements
Stanley Clements (born Stanislaw Klimowicz; July 16, 1926 – October 16, 1981) was an American actor and comedian, best known for portraying "Stash" in the East Side Kids film series, and group leader Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in The Bowery Boys film series. Life and career Stanley Clements was born in Long Island, New York. Young "Stosh" (the Polish diminutive nickname for "Stanislau") realized that he wanted a show-business career while he was in grammar school, and after he graduated from Brooklyn's P.S. 49 in 1938, for the next two years he toured in vaudeville and found work in radio. He then joined the touring company of the ''Major Bowes Amateur Hour''. His career stalled in 1940, and Clements was reduced to panhandling for a time to survive. In 1941, he was signed to a contract by 20th Century-Fox and appeared in juvenile/teen roles in several B films for the studio. East Side Kids In 1942 he was loaned to Monogram Pictures. Among his friends he was known offscreen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bobby Jordan
Robert G. Jordan (April 1, 1923 – September 10, 1965) was an American actor, most notable for being a member of the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids, and The Bowery Boys. Early life and career Jordan was born in Harrison, New York, At the age of four, he was working in an early movie version of ''A Christmas Carol''. His mother took him to talent shows in and around Harrison, New York. He also modeled for newspaper and magazine advertisements and appeared in short films and radio programs. In the late 1920s, his family moved to the upper west side of Manhattan. In 1929, he was cast as Charles Hildebrand in the 1929 Broadway play '' Street Scene''. Dead End Kids and East Side Kids Though he was the youngest, Jordan was the first of the boys who made up the Dead End Kids to work in films with a role in a 1933 Universal short. In 1935, he became one of the original Dead End Kids by winning the role of Angel in Sydney Kingsley's Broadway drama ''Dead End'' about life in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sam Katzman
Sam Katzman (July 7, 1901 – August 4, 1973) was an American film producer and director. Katzman produced low-budget genre films, including serials, which had disproportionately high returns for the studios and his financial backers. Early career Sam was born to a Jewish family; his father Abe Katzman was a violinist. He and Sam's mother Rebecca (née Sugarman) were from Kishinev, Bessarabia Governorate, Russian Empire (now Chisinău, Moldova). Katzman went to work as a stage laborer at the age of 13 in the fledgling East Coast film industry and moved from prop boy to assistant director at Fox Films. He would learn all aspects of filmmaking and was a Hollywood producer for more than 40 years. Katzman worked as an assistant to Norman Taurog and got married on the set of ''The Diplomats'' in 1928 at Fox. In October 1927 he signed with comic Joe Russo to make a series of two-reel comedies. Screencraft Pictures Katzman was a production supervisor at Showmen's Pictures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arnold Stang
Arnold Sidney Stang (September 28, 1918 – December 20, 2009) ''The New York Times'', 22 December 2009. was an American comedian, comic actor. Early life Arnold Stang was born to a Jewish American family on September 28, 1918, in New York City.Career Stang claimed he gained his break in radio by sending a postcard to a New York station requesting an audition, was accepted, and then bought his own ticket to New York from Chelsea, Massachusetts, with the money set aside for his mother's anniversary gift.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 3, 1947 Though his widow, JoAnne Stang, explained upon his death that this story was untrue,[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Morgan (comedian)
Henry Morgan (born Henry Lerner von Ost Jr.; March 31, 1915 – May 19, 1994) was an American humorist. He first became familiar to radio audiences in the 1930s and 1940s as a barbed but often self-deprecating satirist; in the 1950s and later, he was a regular and cantankerous panelist on the game show ''I've Got a Secret'' as well as other game and talk shows. Early life and education Henry Lerner von Ost, Jr. was born in New York City to German-Jewish parents, Henry and Eva (née Lerner) von Ost, who were divorced when he and his brother were young. He grew up in Washington Heights, attended the High School of Commerce for two years, then went to the Harrisburg Academy in Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1931. Radio Morgan began his radio career as a page at New York City station WMCA in 1932, after which he held a number of radio jobs, including announcing. He strenuously objected to the professional name "Morgan" but was told that his birth name of von Ost was exotic and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
So This Is New York
''So This Is New York'' is a 1948 satirical movie comedy starring acerbic radio and television comedian Henry Morgan and directed by Richard Fleischer. The cynically sophisticated screenplay was written by Carl Foreman and Herbert Baker from the 1920 novel ''The Big Town'' by Ring Lardner. Foreman was blacklisted soon after. It remains the only film in which humorist Henry Morgan plays the leading role, and the material was tailored to showcase the cynical persona Morgan had developed for his radio show. The film was the second feature directed by Richard Fleischer (son of Max Fleischer), who had previously directed short subjects for United Artists. Fleischer went on to direct ''Follow Me Quietly'' (1948), ''Armored Car Robbery'' (1950), and ''The Narrow Margin'' (1954). It was also the first film produced by Stanley Kramer. Plot At the end of World War I, Ella Finch and her sister Kate inherit $30,000 each. Ella then announces her dissatisfaction with life in South Bend, Ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
