The Bowery Boys/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Trivia about The Bowery Boys includes:

  • In 1994, the Dead End Kids as a group received a star on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.
  • Producer Jan Grippo was a professional Stage Magician who originally came to Hollywood to teach Veronica Lake how to do card tricks for a movie; he later became an agent and represented at least two of the Bowery Boys before they created their own production company. However, he went back to his original skill set to act as a "hand model" performing card and dice tricks for 1950's Lucky Losers.
  • The Character Died with Him: Louie of Louie's Sweet Shop, when Bernard Gorcey died in an auto accident in 1955. The location died, too -- the Sweet Shop was replaced by Clancy's Cafe, run by a similar proprietor, Mike Clancy.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!:
    • Infamous Crying Indian Iron Eyes Cody as "Indian Joe" in Bowery Buckaroos (1947).
    • Ellen Corby, best known as Esther "Grandma" Walton from The Waltons, as Amelia Gravesend in The Bowery Boys Meet the Monsters (1954).
    • Amanda Blake -- "Miss Kitty" from Gunsmoke -- as the con artist Clarissa Jones in High Society (1955).
    • Carl Switzer -- better known as "Alfalfa" from The Little Rascals -- plays a criminal in Dig That Uranium (1955).
  • The Other Darrin: Two instances, both in the supporting cast: Doris Kemper followed by Queenie Smith as Mrs. Kate Kelly, and Percy Helton followed by Dick Elliott as Mike Clancy.
  • Real Life Relative: Leo Gorcey, his little brother David, and their father Bernard Gorcey all had roles in the Bowery Boys films. David and Leo also frequently worked together in the various earlier film series.
    • In 1949 Leo Gorcey married Amelita Ward, who played opposite him as "Teresa Mahoney" in 1948's Smuggler's Cove.
  • Shout-Out: Hold That Baby! (1949) includes a short segment referencing One Touch of Venus, where Sach longs for a department store mannequin he calls Cynthia.
  • Similarly Named Works: In 1957, it was announced that screenwriters Elwood Ullman and Edward Bernds had been nominated for Best Screenplay for their script for High Society. Ullman and Bernds were surprised, to say the least, to see a Bowery Boys film up for an Oscar. As it turned out, the actual nominee was supposed to be John Patrick, who wrote the screenplay for the High Society that starred Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra. Ullman and Bernds successfully petitioned the Academy to remove their film from the ballot.
  • You Look Familiar: Actor Paul Harvey (not to be confused with the radio personality known for his "The Rest of the Story" pieces) appeared as several different characters across the life of the series:
    • Terrence Mahoney Esq. in Smugglers' Cove (1948)
    • Lt. Cmdr. O. Tannen in Let's Go Navy! (1951)
    • Henry Baldwin in High Society (1955)

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