After their success in the Broadway play of the same name, The 'Dead End Kids' were introduced to an unsuspecting public in Samuel Goldwyn's 1937 film 'Dead End', a crime drama featuring Humphrey Bogart. Next to the actors, 'The Dead End Kids' stood out. They weren't acting, they were the real thing, rough around the edges and eager to cause trouble.

Goldwyn signed the boys but he couldn't tame them. After Goldwyn fired them they headed over to Warner Bros Studios and made 7 'Dead End Kids' films. The success of the films caused other studios to copy the winning formula. Universal Studios produced 12 films and cashed in with their 'Little Tough Guys' Series. Meanwhile Monogram Films, known as the King of the Poverty Row Studios cranked out 23 popular 'East Side Kids' movies.

The anarchistic actors hopped from studio to studio and film to film. They knew no boundaries. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall and the Boys finished films at a furious pace. Between 1940 and 1957 they made an average of five films a year. As they experienced more films, their characters came into a sharper focus. The final winning formula of Leo Gorcey as  Slip Mahoney (The Chief) and Huntz Hall as Horace Debussy Jones (Sach) came into its own in 1946 when Monogram/Allied-Artist churned out 48 Boweys Boys movies

Hollywood could take the boys out of the Bowery, but they couldn't take the Bowery out of the Boys. They continued causing trouble with girls, booze and general mayhem. They were wild and rowdy off-screen as they were before the camera. In 1955, 20 years after their original on stage appearance, Bernard Gorcey, who played Louie of ' Louie's Sweetshop' died in a tragic car accident. Leo was stricken with grief and soon bowed out of the franchise. The show must go on and Huntz Hall, teaming up with Stanley Clements (Duke) led the remaining Boys until 1958, when the series finally drew to a close.