The Lost Boys

Success at a young age can be an intoxicating and overwhelming experience. My only brush with this phenomenon happened in the spring of 1971. Our school had gone on its yearly spring field trip to a place called Loma Mar. The trip on the old ‘rickety rack’ bus was long and monotonous. To a twelve year old who was bored easily, the trip was close to torture. Honestly I didn’t even feel like going. I would have much preferred staying home and working on my ‘hoop’ skills. But my mom…the veto artist thought it would be fun. So as always Mom won…and so I went. 

Did somebody say fun…huh!

After arriving I can remember yawning and staring up at the redwood trees…ok…I had to admit that the trees were pretty awesome, the air was different too…cleaner. It was probably close to eighty degrees. Off to the side of the bus was a huge red facility…and near it was a fenced in pool. I could see a bunch of people milling around. Hum…this was interesting. Who were they?

The answer to my question came within seconds. One of our teachers informed us that a small faction of the Disney film company was here also…filming a movie. We all looked at each other. Then the teacher said…

 “The director also said that he needs some kids for his movie…so tonight after dinner…he’s going to be there…and pick four of you.”

Believe it or not...I was one of the kids picked for the movie.

We spent five extra days up at Loma Mar filming. I had all of two lines but that didn’t matter. I loved everything about it. Between takes there was a lot of sitting around, but not me. I bugged the cameraman to show me what he was doing. I watched the director set up some scenes. I was his shadow, his little assistant.  The animal trainer took me to the shower room where the seals were. They yawned at me and some growled.

“That’s Smokey “he said…the star of the film.”

Smokey “played” Salty in the movie. He was a nice seal.

On our way home we heard there might be some people meeting us at the school. The word had gotten out that some of us had been picked to be in a movie. Actually the WHOLE school was there along with our parents. I can remember looking out the window of the bus as we pulled into the driveway…I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There were people everywhere. I got off the bus and heard screaming and applause, some kids touched me, others wanted my autograph. I was staggering…I was something of a celebrity. The other kids wanted to hang out with me. This lasted for awhile. Most everything was returning to normal until a Sunday night in December when the movie…Salty the Harbor Seal premiered on NBC. Some of the worshipers were back for a few days and then they were all gone. A few months later I was back to being just John…the kid who loved sports especially basketball. It really didn’t feel too bad…  

I was lucky because my small encounter with fame was nothing like what The Lost Boys had to face. They were on Broadway in a hit play and then just a few years later bonafide movie stars, one at the ripe old age of fourteen. They were heroes to some of the ‘real’ street kids who watched their movies whenever they were lucky enough to find five cents. To the street kids the boys were one of them…they expected to bump into them, in an alley or down the street. Or maybe even better...meet them for a rumble. Funny thing was…the boys in some ways…really were…what they portrayed.

The oldest was born June 3^rd, 1917 in New York City.  His middle name was Bernard  after his father. His first name was Leo. His last name was Gorcey. His father stood 4’10 inches…and his mother 4’11. They both worked in vaudeville.  Leo was raised in a broken home. His father had left the family upon discovering that his wife, Leo’s mother was having an affair with an opera singer. Leo was twelve when his parents divorced. He was angry with both parents. He was angry…period.  Leo was booted out of more than half a dozen schools for fighting. In high school the other kids giggled at Leo’s sarcastic remarks at anyone who annoyed him. They were all poor and he was fighting for them. He was voted president of his drama club even though he complained that he hated acting. Whenever he was late or his desk was empty the other kids figured he'd been expelled again. 

He worked as a plumber for his Uncle Rob. He didn’t like the job much but he had to work. His mouth was still getting him trouble. His uncle had already fired him a half a dozen times. The job was boring, and Leo wanted to be the boss. One day, after being fired again he went to the Belasco theater to see his little brother. David Gorcey had a small role in a play called…Dead End.  

David was thrilled when his older brother came around backstage. He was about to go on…that is until a fellow actor got sick and collapsed. David persuaded Leo to go on the stage...Leo grumbled “I ain't seen a script”…but still he agreed to go on.

He decided to ad-lib the scene...which mortified the director and his cast. But one man liked what he saw. Sidney Kingsley the writer of the play asked Leo to understudy the part of…Spit…Leo agreed and was paid thirty five dollars a week. Soon it was fifty and by opening night Leo was no longer the understudy. Maybe this acting thing wasn’t so bad after all… 

Two other…lost boys…were acting alongside Leo in Dead End.  

One was actually playing the lead, and Leo didn’t like him very much. The feeling was mutual. His birth name was William Halop but everybody called him Billy. He was three years younger than Leo. He had also been born in New York City but unlike Leo’s family his wasn’t considered theatrical. That is until his mother, who had been a dancer heard that a small local radio station was looking for children. Billy was hired immediately and made his professional debut when he was six years old. His father, a lawyer by trade wasn’t thrilled by his young son’s profession, but he figured it wouldn’t last long. Actually the opposite occurred.

Billy continued to work in radio and was joined by his sister Florence. From 1926 to 1933 he appeared on two children’s shows. He liked the work, it was easy…a snap.  Around New York some people knew him by name. Later in 1933 Billy was asked to replace another actor on a show called…The H-Bar-O Rangers…within months the show was renamed The Bobby Benson Hour and the star one Billy Halop was now a household name. During the summer Billy went on a tour playing Bobby Benson.  

When Billy was thirteen he played Romeo in a radio version of Romeo and Juliet. A few months later he was Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream. He was now earning 750 bucks a week. In 1935 he was the first actor cast in Dead End…a play revolving around survival, dreams and regrets in the slums of New York. . With all his experience and plus the fact he was already a radio star Billy received the most money and his own dressing room. Leo and the others sneered.

Dead End opened on October 28, 1935 to rave reviews and enthusiastic audiences. Singled out were Billy as Tommy, Leo as Spit and the youngest member of the cast a precocious twelve year old who played Angel.

Bobby Jordan who played Angel was born April 1, 1923. Born with more talent than most, by four years old he could sing, dance and play the saxophone. His mother took him to talent shows in New York City and by the age of seven he debuted in the play Street Scene. Bobby was ten when he appeared in a Universal short subject. He also modeled for newspaper and magazine advertisements. Bobby was attending a Professional Children’s school when playwright Sidney Kingsley selected him to play Angel in Dead End.  

Everybody liked Bobby. He was kind, funny and enormously talented. Even grouchy Leo warmed up to the ‘runt’ as he called him. Billy respected Bobby’s all around ability, as did the other cast members. He kept things light during rehearsals. Acting came naturally. But still there was an edge to Bobby. You didn’t push him too much. He was tougher than he looked.

Dead End was a smash and would eventually end its run on Broadway in 1938. By this time the ‘boys’ were in Hollywood. Bobby had arrived there first. Samuel Goldwyn had acquired the rights to Dead End. Goldwyn didn’t like the play very much but he liked money and he knew Dead End was a potential moneymaker.

Goldwyn was right.   Filming started May 3, 1937.  Director William Wyler tried to keep the boys in line. They called him Willie and Goldwyn ‘Pops’. They laughed at some of the other actors.  Leo had the attention span of a gnat, waiting around the set bored him to tears. He bought a car and racked up four tickets in eighteen days. Even Bobby who was fourteen couldn’t resist going for a ride. Within minutes he was back…with a ticket in his pocket. Billy tried to keep his hi jinks to a minimum. He couldn’t resist engaging in some on set pranks…but still he dreamed of being another Paul Muni. He spent most of his time in his dressing room.

Humphrey Bogart was cast as killer Baby Face Martin in Dead End. He gives one of his best performances, glowing with menace and projecting a real evil. There’s a scene where he teaches Billy to throw a knife that jumps off the screen. Bogie and the boys got along well. That is until…bored again…they tossed some live firecrackers in his dressing room. Bogie woke up to the crackling and smoke, and let out a stream of obscenities. He didn’t speak to the boys for awhile. Leo and the others felt bad. They liked Bogie and called him ‘the prince’.

Dead End opened to universal raves and impressive box office returns. The film was nominated for four academy awards. Again...Leo, Billy and Bobby were singled out for their realism and naturalistic acting.  Regardless of the reviews and the box-office Samuel Goldwyn wanted some payback. He took the advice of one of his producers and sold the boys contracts to Jack Warner. Let Warner have a few migraines, he thought.   

At Warner’s Leo’s antic’s continued to make the newspapers. Warner’s didn’t mind, they loved the free publicity. In 1939 Leo was talking about getting married, this time a few of the Warner’s suits stepped in “ Slow down Leo, if you reform too soon it will be bad for business” Leo’s response?

He chartered a plane and eloped with his sweetheart.

The boys were stars and eating it up. Billy was the heartthrob of the group. He enjoyed the attention, but still he was already thinking ahead. He was concerned about being typecast. He continued to study acting and stay out of trouble. Bobby was now the sole breadwinner for his mother and father…two brothers a sister and a niece. He was fifteen years old.                                                                        

Crime School was the first film that the boys did for Warner’s.

The film was made fast and cheap. Humphrey Bogart was back with the boys but this time instead of a playing a killer he was portraying Deputy Commissioner Mark Braden. Crime School is a well made and tight little crime thriller. Like in Dead End Billy is pitted against Leo. Art was imitating life. Leo felt he should be the leader of the group while Billy felt his acting was superior to Leo’s. The Warner’s writers won the battle.

Jack Warner was not impressed with some of the boys. After Crime School was in the can, Warner’s dropped the contracts of Billy and Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsly. They retained the services of Bobby and Leo. Billy and the others went to Universal and made Little Tough Guy.  Leo was grinning as Billy left the lot. He was now the leader. That is until Crime School opened and was an immediate box office smash. Jack Warner fired the idiot who had convinced him to drop Halop and the others (actually it was Warner’s decision) and swallowed his pride and asked them to come back to the lot. He sweetened the deal by giving them all new contracts. They were back in a flash.

Bobby had been busy. He acted alongside Edward G. Robinson in A Slight Case of Murder and Pat O’Brien in My Bill. The roles were on the small side but still Bobby was noticed. He was branching out and showing off his versatility. He was now living with his large family in Beverly Hills.

Warner’s had the boy’s next feature lined up and ready to go. They had coaxed James Cagney to star, and had Bogie lined up to play a corrupt attorney. A classic was in the making.

Originally titled Battle of City Hall…Angels With Dirty Faces…is a classic Warner Brothers gangster film. Tough and tender…lean and mean with a lot of heart and soul,

The film also benefits from a fabulous performance by James Cagney as career criminal Rocky Sullivan. Rocky comes home to visit his old haunts and hookup with his best friend Jerry.

As kids Jerry and Rocky ran the streets and robbed a train. Rocky was caught, Jerry escaped. Rocky is now a big time gangster…while Jerry is the local priest who runs a home intended to keep boys from crime. So here we have our morale center, with Jerry and Rocky and the boys…the Angels of the title…slipping and sliding along the edges and fighting their impulses.

Billy plays Soapy, again the leader who’s occasionally challenged by Bim played by Leo. Bobby tags along as Swing. During the making of the film Cagney showed the boys who…the real boss was. Off the set Cagney was nothing like Rocky Sullivan but he realized…rather quickly that he would have to continue being Rocky to keep the boys in line. If Leo mumbled his lines…Cagney tagged him. When Billy was feeling a little big for his britches and…blowing his lines, Cagney pressed the script against his face and said…“Read it.”

Leo and the boys backed off and left Cagney alone. This was no guy to push.  

The film opened November 26, 1938. The response was immediate and almost all positive. The film was eventually nominated for three academy awards. The box-office returns thrilled Warner’s.

The boys were now…in more ways than one…bigger than ever. Bobby and his family were living like movie stars and spending his money as soon as Bobby cashed his checks. In a span of nine months Bobby had purchased nine automobiles for his family.

Leo was chasing women…ALL women. He was also chasing whiskey…

Billy was still pestering whoever would listen. He was getting tired of being a Dead End Kid. The suits at Warner's liked the kid, be patient they told him. Behind the scenes there were plans to star the boys with another bad boy from New York. His name was John Garfield… 

They Made Me a Criminal began filming in August of 1938. The boys liked Garfield but couldn’t resist playing him for a fool… they told him director Busby Berkely wanted to speak with him privately…about a mile from the main set. John walked the mile. Berkley wasn’t there. No one was. There were more jokes until John glared at the boys and snarled…

“Ya keep this up and I’ll drown ya…all of ya’

Garfield had heard what Cagney had done on the Angels set and decided it was time to stand up to the boys. There were no more practical jokes.

The film opened in January of 1939 to mostly positive reviews. Garfield garnered the most praise with Billy getting noticed for his dramatic ability. Within a week of its completion Billy was informed that he was going to get his chance to star in a film WITHOUT the other boys. Billy was thrilled. Bogie was back to co-star. 

The filming of You Can’t Get Away With Murder went smoothly and like Garfield before him, Bogart was impressed by Billy’s acting. The box-office was not as impressive causing the suits to ponder if Billy could survive without the other boys.

Next up was another hard hitting melodrama…Hell’s Kitchen.  

Future president Ronald Reagan co-stars. Billy and Leo are again quite good in their roles but Bobby as sickly Joey steals the film. His death scene is easily the most powerful scene in the movie. The film opened in the summer of 1939…Bobby received some of his best notices since Dead End. The former runt was now taller than Leo and almost eye to eye with Billy.

Angels Wash Their Faces followed soon after Hell’s Kitchen. 

Again co-starring Reagan, the film is the weakest of the Warner Brother programmers. Was Warner’s caving in to all the controversy? The boys are much ‘lighter’ here then in previous efforts. There acting seems off balance, and in a way it was. Warner’s was so tired of there antics that they hired a guardian to keep an eye on them. Of course the boys had to test this bozo…and as Leo recalls…

 “Anyone who has ever been hit point blank with a full-size, high pressure fire hose can understand that we were very good kids while working on the rest of that picture."

Angels Wash Their Faces opened and closed pretty quickly.

Next up was a change of pace…and a nice chance for Leo to shine. He is quite good in the film, but sadly On Dress Parade is NOT a very good movie. Written and filmed in an overly sentimental and mawkish way it feels like a precursor for the some of the later…East Side Kids films.  

Bobby and Billy had reunited with John Garfield in Dust Be My Destiny. Their roles…as hobo brothers were small, but still it was fun hanging out with Garfield again. Billy picked Garfield’s brain about the art of acting while Bobby listened, and then sneaked off to read. A tragedy almost occurred on the set one day. Garfield, Billy and Bobby were filming a scene that called for them to run next to a moving train in a real rail yard. At one point Billy slipped and found himself on the other side of the track, facing an oncoming train. Bobby instinctively reached out and pulled Billy to safety.

As the year 1939 ended so did the boys' contract at Warner’s. Billy jumped over to Universal. Bobby and Leo were still at Warner’s. But how could that be? Weren’t they fired? Yes and no…they were still at the lot but…they probably weren’t going to be in any future Warner Brother’s films.

Billy was waiting on Universal who was prepping a new series for him, a…kids series. The advice he received was confusing. He would be the leader ‘again’…of the Dead End Kids…and the Little Tough Guy’s. A gang again…but bigger…he sighed…he was now twenty years old.

Leo was still at Warner’s…wasting away as a former somebody. They did cast him in a couple of films, but the parts were small and not important. Leo didn’t like it…for the first time in years he had some down time. Not good. Down time meant more drinking…and more women. Marriage hadn’t stopped him. One day Bobby called him…and suggested he come over to Monogram studios...

“There ain't much money"…replied Bobby “and no Cagney and Bogie…but it beats starving!” 

Leo joined Bobby on the set of Boys of the City...which was actually the second East Side Kids film. The tone was much different then the hard hitting Warner melodramas that had made them famous. The East Side Kids films were lighter and focused a lot more on comedy. Boys was a typical Monogram production, if you could call it that. The sets were cheap, and the motivation was…make it quick and move on…but still Leo was happy, Billy was long gone. Leo was finally the leader even though it was Bobby who received top billing.  Onscreen their chemistry was easy and carefree, though off-screen Leo had no time for Bobby.

Call the Messenger was Billy’s first Universal film. Combining the Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guy’s the film tried to recreate moments from Dead End and Angels…but the critics didn’t see it. The Motion Picture Herald wrote “The film is neither tremendous or trivial, mighty nor meager, but a sanely, sensibly constructed item of product.” 

Before starting work at universal, Billy co-starred in Tom Brown’s School Days which starred another former child actor…Freddie Bartholomew. This was an important picture and Billy enjoyed playing the part of the bully who pushed around Jimmy Lydon. The critics noticed too…singling out his performance.  

Bobby wasn’t surprised at the success of the East Side Kids films. His agent told him that if he wanted to…he could go over to Universal and reunite with Billy, Gabe and Huntz.in the next Dead End Kid’s picture. Even Leo’s little brother David had a recurring but small role in the series. Bobby pondered…the next East Side Kids film was being prepped…there was the constant problem of bills and demands from his family. Anyway he loved the work…

Bobby was on the set when You’re Not So Tough started production. Billy was happy to see him as where the other boys. Tough’s reviews were good, and the box-returns made Universal happy. The film is definitely an improvement over Call the Messenger and is arguably the best of the universal produced Dead End Kids pictures.  

Back at Monogram, Leo was happy to see he was receiving top billing on the next East Side Kids film…That Gang of Mine. Shot in less the six days the film returned it’s investment within weeks. Monogram had a hit series on its hands. 

Twenty more East Side Kid features were filmed…they all made money. The cheap budgets didn’t matter, or the below average scripts. There breezy banter…often ad-libbed by Leo, was funny. Leo loved to ad-lib and his trademark malapropisms ("This calls for drastic measurements") only made him more endearing to the movie going public.  

Universal cast Billy and the boys in a couple of serials…the first one Junior G-Men.

The boys had come a long way…their roles were more heroic but the product that Universal was putting out was still mediocre. The studio didn’t care because like the East Side Kids…their films always made money. All in all eight films were produced along with three serials.  

Billy made Mug Town which turned out to be his last film as a Dead End Kid; he enlisted in the military soon after production was completed. He joined the Signal Corps and became Sergeant Halop. Universal considered their revamped…Dead End Kids series…cancelled. 

Bobby had joined Billy at Universal for a couple of more Dead End Kids films. In his last appearance in 1943 he actually played Billy’s role…the film… Keep ‘Em Slugging was forgettable. But Bobby, playing the leader…shined.

A few months later Bobby also joined the military as a foot soldier in the 97^th Infantry Division. Neither Bobby nor Billy was concerned about putting their careers on hold. 

Leo’s number had also come up. A few days before his induction, he was flying down Ventura Boulevard on his motorcycle.  The speed limit didn’t matter, but a blown rear tire did. Leo’s body flew through the air and landed on the pavement. He broke both arms, fractured his skull and broke some ribs. Leo was in a coma for a week but somehow survived. Finally released almost a year later, he failed the military’s physical. Refusing drugs to ease the chronic pain, he drank even more. 

Fully recovered from his accident, Leo was looking for something more. The ‘more’ was money. He didn’t like working for peanuts, so he got together with Bobby’s manager who hammered out a percentage deal for Leo. Huntz Hall also received a new contract. For the next two years until 1945, Monogram and the East Side Kids made eight more movies. Leo was the established star, with Huntz as his number one sidekick. Within a year Leo would come up with another…bold idea.

Bobby’s parents were missing their meal ticket, so they begged him for help. He took a leave from his division and made an appearance in Bowery Champs.  

Bobby had trusted his parents to handle his money while he was away. They handled it by going to the racetrack and investing it in empty buildings. Bobby served two years and eleven months sustaining a serious injury before he was discharged. He got married on March 12^th, 1946 and returned to Hollywood ready to resume his career.

Billy was also discharged in early 1946 and wasted no time contacting the studio…only…now things were different…“When I came back to California in 1946, no one remembered who I was” he said.

He got married for the first time. Later in 1946 an offer came to work in a East Side Kids knockoff called…Gas House Kids…also staring Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer. Needing money Billy took the job. He felt like Hollywood was laughing at him.  

Leo wasn’t worrying about much except maybe how much his latest divorce settlement would cost. He had decided that since he was the star...and the leader…the East Side Kids should have a new name…The Bowery Boys…or from now on…Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys. The percentage deal he had worked out with the studio was paying off handsomely. He was also being paid to co-write some of the scripts and produce. The critics were pretty kind to Leo and divided about The Bowery Boys but it really didn’t matter. The films were critic proof. Leo was also dabbling in real estate, and laughing all the way to the bank.   

Bobby had returned to the set to a find a new name for the boys and more focus and Huntz and Leo and less on his character. Not one to complain he kept to himself, but he was frustrated and debated quitting. Ultimately he decided to hang around for awhile.

After the Gas House Kids opened Billy’s phone didn’t ring. He brooded at home. But out of the blue his agent called and told he was being cast in a film entitled Dangerous Years. He felt he was finally free of the Dead End Kid’s label. He changed his professional name to William Halop. The film also starred former little rascal Scotty Beckett, who was about to embark on a long downward spiral that would end tragically in Oakland, California twenty years later.  

Billy waited anxiously for the release of Dangerous Years. He felt good about his performance. Sadly when the film opened, the critics barely noticed him. He was devastated and began to drink more. He was offered another dead end kind of film and turned it down flat. He joined the stage company of Golden Boy and got out of town.

Bobby was also ready to go. He was sick and tired of blending deeper and deeper into the background. His line’s had been cut. He couldn’t help remembering when HE was the star of the East Side Kids films. As the year 1947 ended…so did Bobby’s role in The Bowery Boys series. He had had enough… 

Leo was divorced for the second time in February, 1948. During the divorce proceedings his estranged wife Evalene stated “Leo drinks to excess and carries a gun, my thirty one year old husband can never forget the role he played in Dead End as a teenager. He’s never stopped playing that role” Leo said nothing.  The Bowery Boys movie assembly line continued, if they missed Bobby, nobody said anything.

Billy’s first marriage ended after only eleven months. He tried again on February 14, 1948. He was looking for stability in his life. His career was anything but stable; he co-starred in a forgettable programmer called Challenge of the Range in early 1949.  He also had a bit part as a boat attendant in Too Late for Tears.  The name of the movie said it all…he bitterly replied…

“I hate the word dead end…I was typecast…I couldn’t get work.”

There were no movie offers for Bobby either. His family had informed him, that his money…was gone. Apparently his mother liked to gamble. Bobby had developed a nightclub act and figured now was the time to try it out. He was thinking comeback…at twenty five years old. In his act he sang and did impersonations of Bogart and Cagney. Most of the critic’s liked what they saw. So did the people, but it was still hard to get steady work and Bobby missed making movies. Like Billy, he began to drink heavily.

By 1955 Leo and The Bowery Boys had made forty one films. The content of the films were now ALL comedies. It was the Leo and Huntz slapstick show. Leo was tired of the grind. His drinking was out of control. Confronted on the set of Crashing Las Vegas he grew angry and belligerent. He was seeing ghosts…

“I just saw Papa in the chair over there.” 

Huntz Hall ran over and motioned for everyone else to stay away…

His voice was hushed…“Leo…Leo…you didn’t see Bernard on the set…Bernard’s not here”

“Not here! I just saw him!!” Leo was crying…he picked up a chair and started to destroy the set…” Papa…Papa…please come back!!!”

Bernard Gorcey had been a regular in The Bowery Boys films since 1947. Leo and Huntz had created a character by the name of Louie…just for him. Bernard had died seven months earlier. His death had shattered Leo, who had worshipped him all his life. Now he was being haunted, everywhere he looked he saw his father. Leo couldn’t concentrate; he was drunk throughout the making of Crashing Las Vegas. The movie still made money. 

Bobby worked on the film Treasure of Monte Cristo.

Was his comeback beginning?  Sadly…No…there were no film offers. In the 1950’s Bobby drifted to television and did find some occasional work on such shows as A Watch for Joe and The Steel Trap. He had smaller parts in Bonanza, Cisco kid, 77 Sunset Strip and Maverick. Bobby was also working as a bartender, not so smart when you consider that he was an alcoholic. Billy had found work in radio and like Bobby…television. In January, 1953 Billy made his television debut on the series Rocket Squad. He could also been seen in episodes of Footlight Parade, Favorite Year, Cisco Kid, Telephone Time and Richard Diamond-Private Detective. Working off and on, his internal demons were getting the best of him. He was drinking more and talking suicide. His wife had left him…he felt lost.

“ My rejection in Hollywood made me feel unwanted…I started drinking to escape…one morning in 1953 I woke and didn’t know who or where I was…the next thing I knew I was in a state hospital and had a series of shock treatments…that brought my memory back…he never drank again.”

Monogram now renamed Allied Artists wanted more Bowery Boys films. Leo wanted more money. Showing up drunk at the lot to discuss the future, Leo told them he wanted a bigger percentage deal. The studio said no…

Leo said fine and slurred “get yourself another sucker” and walked off the lot, never to return.  

Bobby’s marriage ended in 1957. His wife couldn’t handle his drinking.  He had had a few run-ins with the law. Shortly after his divorce he attempted to kill himself at a cheap motel in Hollywood. He was saved by one of the motel staff who had found him in the morning.  Bobby eventually recovered. He tried calling some of his old Hollywood friends. They were nice and said they would call him back, but of course they never did…Bobby took whatever job he could fine…as he said in 1960… “When I left the Dead End Kids I was all right for awhile…but then I came to a dead end…I sold photograph’s as a door to door salesman…but it isn’t very pleasant when people recognize you…nothing came easy anymore.”

Billy could relate. He got married for the third time in 1960. He was working as an electric dryer salesman and actually received an award as the most creative salesman in the United Sates. He was also acting occasionally and appeared in three Perry Mason episodes, and surprised himself and went back to school. His wife Suzanne suffered from multiple-sclerosis and Billy wanted to take care of her. He worked as a nurse at St. Johns Hospital in Santa Monica. He appeared in two episodes of The Andy Griffith Show when word filtered through the grapevine that someone he had once worked with…had died.

Leo had retired and bought a ranch in Los Molinos, California. His fourth marriage had just ended. His drinking consisted of one shot of whiskey an hour , a habit he had maintained for years  He appeared on The Dick Powell  Show and had a bit part in It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World in 1963. He didn’t really miss show business very much. His wives had given him two children, a boy and a girl. He was up at his ranch when he learned that he would soon be attending a funeral.

Bobby hung out at a bar on Hollywood and Vine. If recognized by a tourist he was always kind and gracious. He hadn’t worked in television in four years. He walked with a limp courtesy of a freak accident in an elevator in the 1940’s. He was frustrated. Acting was his life and that…had been taken away from him. He dove deeper into the bottle.

He was living in a cheap apartment in Hollywood with his mother. He saw his son when he could…

“My dad had a lot of disappointments” replied his son Robert Jordan Jr.

Bobby was living with some friends in 1965. His health was deteriorating…but still he drank. In August of that same year he entered the Veterans Hospital in Sawtelle, California. His liver was shot. The last week of his life his son was at his side…

On September 10^th, 1965 the multi talented, vibrant and underrated Bobby Jordan’s heart stopped. He was only forty two years old. All the remaining Dead End Kids reunited for his funeral. Leo later said…“Bobby Jordan must not have had a guardian angel.” 

Leo himself was next to go. He came across his fifth wife from a Lonely Hearts Club magazine, they married in 1968. He pondered a show business comeback but rarely left his ranch. In 1967 He published his autobiography… 

After walking away from the Bowery Boys in 1955, Leo had also walked away from his brother David. In late May, 1968 he collapsed and was taken to the Merritt Hospital in Oakland, California. His thirty seven years of a shot an hour of whiskey had finally caught with him. Like Bobby, his son Leo Jr. was at his side as his gifted and driven father muttered his last words…

“Those dirty rats…those dirty rats”

Leo was one hour short of his fifty second birthday.

Billy supplemented his income by working steadily in television in the 1960’s. Unfortunately his third marriage had ended in 1967. In 1971 he was cast in the hit show All in the Family as Munson, a tough New York City cab driver. Was this poetic justice?  Billy was playing a tough guy from New York. He would eventually appear in nine episodes, and feel himself being rediscovered. I can remember watching an episode and being struck by something. I didn’t recognize him from Dead End and Angels with Dirty Faces, two of my favorite movies.  It was that voice of his, deep, scratchy, and with a brooklyneze drawl that made my eyes widen. Yes, said my dad who always knew these kinds of things, that is the SAME Billy Halop.

Billy died in his sleep on November 9^th, 1976. He was fifty six years old. He had lived long enough to witness some of his old movies being called classics. He liked that… 

And the so boys…the lost boys…had been found again. Critics were talking about their gritty, hard-hitting films. Though their personal lives had been filled with pain and tragedy, ultimately they had been rediscovered by a new generation who loved their raucous antics and reveled in their adventures on screen.  Later as some of them metamorphosed into The Bowery Boys they maintained their unique personalities. One of them felt some bitterness, but near the end he discovered a peace and serenity. They were the perfect fit for their times, the golden age of the movies when…story…not special effects, was the driving force.

John Raspanti © April 2008

John Garfield:

Body and Soul

By John Raspanti                                                

Dark and cynical the young actor smoldered and seethed and responded to his other actors with a rapid fire delivery and intimidating intensity. Moviegoers watching from the shadows asked…who is he? Listed as a supporting player he’s stealing the movie from his more established co-stars. His wife later said “He’s got something”

She was right…that something was ‘real’ and the audience could sense it.

Later in the movie, seated at the piano, a cigarette dangling from his lips, he projects a cynicism and bitterness unseen up to that point.

Playing a character named Mickey…he recites Mickey’s lines as if he had written them himself…

 Mickey “I wouldn’t win first prize if I were the only entry in the contest”

Ann “Mathematically speaking, I think you’d stand a fine chance”

Mickey “You think they’d let me win”

Ann “Who?”

Mickey “They”

Ann “Who?”

Mickey “The fates, the destinies, whoever they are that decide what we do or don’t get”

Ann “What do you mean”

Mickey “They’ve been at me now for a quarter of a century. No let-up. First they said…Let him do without parents…He’ll get along…Then they decided,  He doesn’t need any education…That’s for sissies…Then right at the beginning, they tossed a coin...heads he’s poor, tails, he’s rich.. So they tossed a coin and…”

This was no high brow kid from Beverly Hills ‘playing’ a lost soul…this was somebody who knew how it felt to be lost and could channel it through his acting. He wasn’t quite sure how he did it, oh the method helped but ‘it’ was something else…something deep inside of him.

Where did that something come from?

He was born March 4, 1913 into the poverty of New York’s Lower East Side to David and Hannah Garfinkle. His parents named him Jacob Jules Garfinkle.  Twenty five years later, in his very first movie he was a sensation but his name wasn’t Garfinkle.

It was Garfield…John Garfield.

His early life was difficult. His parents were both Immigrants. There was very little money. The flat they lived in on Rivington Street was a slum apartment; there was no heat in the winter. There was barely a bathroom, as each floor’s tenant had to share a single toilet.  In the summer, the family climbed out on the fire escape or up to the roof to hopefully get some sleep.

His father David worked long hours as a pants presser. He immersed himself in the culture of the old country. John never understood his father. He related much more to his mother who by all accounts was warm, outgoing and very supportive of her young son. When John was five years old his mother gave birth to another son named Max. John was excited but could sense a change in his mother. The pregnancy had been difficult on her and their hard life in the slums unbearable at times. Her health slowly deteriorated until she died in 1920. John didn’t know what to do. If his mother hadn’t died it’s likely that he wouldn’t have hit the streets like he did, but it was right there…so close…right down the steps and out the door. To John it was like the call of the wild so…he went for it.    

On the streets again, John left the pain behind him. He liked practical jokes and ditching school. He had developed a stutter, but that didn’t stop him. He was full of energy and loved showing off. It was all mischief and fun. People liked him; he soon joined a street gang and had his first street fight in a vacant lot not far from where he lived. He learned about loyalty. His father tried moving his family to the Bronx, but basically he felt an indifference towards John and Max.  They were a burden, he shipped them off to other relatives were John learned more and more tricks like…how to steal without being caught. His father remarried in 1925. Her name was Dinah and she cared, cared enough to spend more time at school then John did, explaining his absences. John didn’t see that way. He already had a job selling newspapers. He wanted to quit school completely not an uncommon thing in a household where money was so scarce. Anyway he had discovered something called acting and loved performing for the other kids. But still John wanted to quit school. Dinah said no as did his Father. John mouthed off as usual. They wanted him to get some kind of an education, the problem was finding a school that would engage John, challenge him.

Her friends told Dinah about a school in the Bronx with a reputation for dealing with ‘problem’ children. The school was run by a man named Angelo Patri who tended to be a bit unorthodox in his thinking about education. If he found a student with a particular talent…like acting…Patri would allow the student to concentrate more on their’ talent’ than on the more traditional ‘three R’s’.  So John was sent to live with another of his uncles. At first he didn’t like his new school. John was suspicious of adults but Patri was different. He went out of his way to help him. John’s grades weren’t very good but he did well in Drama. Patri was immediately surprised and impressed at how quickly John was able to grasp character development. He could see that he was a natural. His grades started to improve. John shocked everyone but himself and Patri by coming in second place in a city wide oratorical contest. He later said of Patri “For reaching into the garbage can and pulling me out…I owe him everything”                     

John applied at The American Laboratory Theater. He impressed Maria Ouspenskaya, one of the more prominent drama teachers with his reading of an Edgar Allan Poe poem. Still she needed more and gave him a month to show some promise which he did in the first week. She then awarded him a full seven month scholarship. John was sixteen years old. David Garfinkle thought John’s acting career was ‘silly’. He considered actors ‘bums’. John worked odd jobs and continued to study acting. His lust for life and pursuit of adventure caused more chaos as he went on a cross country ‘vacation’ riding the rails and for months living the life of a hobo. He returned ill having contracted typhoid fever which permanently damaged his heart.

After resting and recovering for over a month John debuted on Broadway in 1931. He landed a small part and was thrilled. He also auditioned and received parts in two other plays. His confidence was growing. In 1934 he joined the Group Theater. That same year he had met playwright Clifford Odets and the two clicked. Odets had been involved with the group since its infancy…and he endorsed John to Lee Strasberg. Strasberg didn’t think much of Odets but after witnessing John’s improvisation with a Picasso painting he was impressed enough to add him to the roster.

The Group Theatre was conceived by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg in 1931. The goal of the group was to produce serious, socially realistic plays that portrayed the times that they were living in. They would act in an ensemble and promote a new ‘acting’ technique called ‘the method’…which is a style of acting where the actors use real life emotional experiences and then incorporate that experience into the character they are playing. John was already using the method without even recognizing it. His method was instinct and he followed it without hesitation. Not as experienced as the others he still had an ability to connect with the character.  Strasberg could see John’s talent but the actors considered him green and very naïve. To them he was just some enthusiastic local kid who probably wouldn’t amount to much. What they couldn’t see was John’s inner drive and determination. He would NOT be denied.

In 1935 John got married. He was twenty one, and Robbe his wife twenty. They had known each other since John was fourteen. Robbe was strong willed and political. John  was pretty easy going and bored by politics. Still they were madly in love and saw no point in waiting. Anyway his acting career was going pretty well, in the next 18 months he appeared in six plays.      

John received good notices for his performances in such plays Awake and Sing and Waiting for Lefty. Both of these productions were written by Clifford Odets whom John considered a friend.  In 1937 he was acting in a more traditional Broadway play called Having A Wonderful Time, and again he received some very positive reviews. His so called friends in The Group were not nearly as impressed, they had ridiculed his performance. A lot of the criticism could be explained by personal jealousy. Here was this green kid doing better than them. John was hurt but as was his habit, he said nothing. Backstage after the play he was visited by Odets, who told John he was writing a new play specifically for him. John was ecstatic…the play was Golden Boy and he felt the part was perfect. 

       In reality the part of boxer Joe Bonaparte, part time violinist and boxer WAS perfect for John. But by the time the play was cast another actor was playing Bonaparte. John was stunned; he couldn’t believe that Odets had broken his promise. Outwardly he hid his disappointment and played the part of Siggie. The play opened in November 1937 and was a smash hit. John still felt the sting of discontent and bitterness. Officials from Warner Brothers and MGM contacted him; they wanted to give him a screen test. He thought what the hell and showed up at the New York offices. He hadn’t told anybody,  it was his instinct and impulsiveness leading him again. He didn’t believe anything would happen anyway, it was all a joke…the movies?

How wrong he was. A few weeks after the test both studios offered contracts. John signed up with Warner’s, a two picture deal that would be completed within a year. Could he survive for one year in Hollywood? He thought one year was plenty.

Of course after John informed The Group that he was on his way to Hollywood, they reacted in disbelief. “Who do you think you are?” they said.

They told him he was extremely limited as an actor, and that they would no longer speak to him during the run of Golden Boy. John felt badly, and tried to explain himself. Some eventually forgave John, others didn’t. They probably realized that John was destined to be a star. John wasn’t thinking movie star as much as survival. He had enough self doubts to sink a ship. But he was curious.

His first film was Four Daughters a bit of a tearjerker about four sisters and their father. John was cast as Mickey and had decided that he would be as professional as he could. The film was completed quickly and so John moved on to his second picture. He had taken to film acting immediately but still considered the whole scene a lark, but he liked the money and Robbe was pregnant. Jack Warner had also convinced John to change his name from ‘Jules Garfield’ to John. He completed his work for Warner Brothers and went home. He figured he wouldn’t hear anymore from Warner’s He just didn’t think his acting was that good.

Then Four Daughters opened. The film was a hit and John was a star. The audience felt his power and magnetism. He couldn’t be acting; he was too down to earth, too genuine. He was…like them. A few months later he was nominated for an academy award. John was in shock.

And so the movie career of John Garfield was born. Unfortunately for awhile he was typecast. John had in essence played the first rebel onscreen. He was the ‘father’ of Clift, Brando, Dean and later Pacino and Deniro.  He made Blackwell’s Island and They Made Me a Criminal with the Dead End Kids in 1939, both films were box-office hits. His rollercoaster-like confidence was sky high. Warner’s thought they had another James Cagney but John had his own other ideas, and demanded something different. He got it with Juarez co-starring alongside Paul Muni. His role was a general named Porfiro Diaz, but he was miscast and he knew it.

Next was a sequel to Four Daughters and a few more potboilers. John was bored. He was getting tired of repeating himself. He again demanded something different. They gave him a script called Saturdays Children, John liked it. He was playing a doctor, not a street kid on the run, or a boxer, just a regular guy. The reviews were good, unfortunately the movie died a quick death at the box office, proving to Warner’s that John had to be in a ‘John Garfield Picture’. They pushed him into doing East of the River which John loathed. His performance revealed his distaste for the script. The excitement that he had created with Four Daughters was dying down, his career was slumping but women were now throwing themselves at John and he had no problem catching what they were throwing. This was all heady stuff for the poor boy from the Bronx. Robbe might have sensed something but chose to ignore it.

He turned down a number of scripts Warner’s offered; got himself suspended. He went back to the stage.  He knew he needed to something different. Then he heard that The Sea Wolf was about to go into production, he pushed for the role of Leach. As a kid he had loved Jack London’s stories, he met with Jack Warner and pleaded his case. Warner finally agreed. Even though his role was supporting, John didn’t care. Edward G. Robinson got top billing. The film was a huge hit at the box office. Next he did Out of the Fog with Ida Lupino. John played a ruthless gangster and was superb, receiving some of the best notices of his career.

For the next few years John Garfield alternated between staring and co-starring in his films. He acted alongside Spencer Tracy in Tortilla Flat and Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo. He enjoyed himself immensely, throwing everything he had into the World War 11 drama, guilty perhaps by the fact that his weakened heart made it unlikely he would serve. John watched old pros Tracy and Grant closely. He was back as the star in The Fallen Sparrow a part drama, part mystery with a little bit of film noir thrown in.  

John still longed for a challenge and got it with Pride of the Marines the true story of World War II hero…Al Schmid. For once John didn’t have to lobby for the part, Warner’s felt there was only one actor who could play the role…John Garfield. Al Schmid didn’t think of himself as a hero. Sent to Guadalcanal, Al and his fellow marines are assigned the job of preventing the Japanese from breaching their line. During a night attack, many of his fellow Marines are killed, but Al ends up single-handedly saving the day, killing hundreds of Japanese soldiers. Wounded during the battle he loses his eyesight. John wanted realism, he didn’t just want to play at being blind, he wanted to feel as much of it as he could. He spent two weeks at the Naval Hospital studying the mentality of blinded soldiers. He hung out with Schmid for over a month, taking notes…watching him. The film was released in August 1945 and the response was overwhelming. John’s acting was praised universally as was the film.

Reaching a new height in his career John took a major hit in his personal life that he never fully recovered from. His daughter Kathleen died suddenly at age seven. John came home to find his daughter already gone, her limp body being cradled by his wife. He burst outside and howled in anguish a gun at his side. He wandered the Hollywood Hills until his friends were able to talk him down. John never talked about the death of his daughter…but whenever the subject came up…his face would slacken and his eyes would drop to the floor. He was soon back to work…

 During the war John and Bette Davis opened the Hollywood Canteen, a club offering food and entertainment for American Soldiers. He traveled to Yugoslavia, North Africa and Italy…entertaining the troops. Forever reeling after the death of his daughter he tried to be a more attentive father but always felt disconnected.

In 1946 he had another hit with The Postman Always Rings Twice alongside Lana Turner. John was perfect as ‘noirish’ character Chambers. His Warner’s contract expired after he completed Nobody Lives Forever and Humoresque. He wanted something else. He had played a variety of characters over the years…the guy on the lam…the guy in prison…the guy with a chip on his shoulder. He was a comic Romeo in Tortilla Flat and then an Irish-American fighting Nazis in The Fallen Sparrow. Most of his performances were quite good…others only so so. He knew this…

“If I don’t find the truth”…he said “I fail miserably”

What to do? How about form your own independent film company. John did this in 1947 with Enterprise Studios, being one of the first actors to take this step.

“I want to make pictures with a point-zing, spit, fire” he said

His company’s first film…with John as the star was Body and Soul and it had all of the zing, spit and fire he was looking for. It’s a morality play with John playing Charley Davies a poor kid from the slums who fights his way to the top without bothering to notice all the carnage piled up around him. John had played a boxer before, but rarely with so much depth and darkness. This is film noir at its finest with the good girl and the femme fatale mixing it up with a healthy dose of cynicism.  Some fifty years later the dialogue still crackles…Charley fed up with his mother’s attempt to get financial assistance says…

“Shorty, get me that fight from Quinn. I want money. Do you understand…money, money!’

His mother replies “I forbid, I forbid. Better buy a gun and shoot yourself”  

Charley retorts “You need money to buy a gun!”

Money, money, money…that’s what Charley is…a money machine. And he thinks that’s all he needs to be…ignoring all the corruption floating around him. He loses almost everything, including himself until the end when he agrees to engage in a fight he really doesn’t want.

After the fight, Charley, gets accosted by the mobster Roberts…who says

“Good fight, champ”

Charley locked in a stare down with the mobster remarks “Get yourself a new boy. I retire”

Roberts “What makes you think you can get away with this?”

Charley “What are you going to do…kill me?...everybody dies”

It’s a classic line…and pure Garfield.

For his efforts in Body and Soul, John received his second academy award nomination. The fact that he didn’t win was disappointing but as he proved in Body and Soul and to a larger extent a year later, Garfield the actor had matured and taken his God given talent to another level.

He followed Soul with Gentleman’s Agreement; which starred Gregory Peck. John was cast in a supporting role and didn’t appear until the halfway point, but when he did he brought energy and focus to the screen. Peck was impressed by his co-star.

“He had strength, a poise, an inner calm”

John considered the theme of the film…anti Semitism so important that he worked for scale. The film and John received mostly enthusiastic reviews.

The next project to showcase John’s talents was Force of Evil another noirish tale written and directed by the same man who wrote Body and Soul…Abraham Polansky. Stretching himself, John found the main character a bit of a mystery. He couldn’t relate to him. Joe Morse is an educated man, a super slick lawyer who uses the power of words to get what he wants. Morse concocts a  brilliant plan for his mobster boss to take over all of the smaller numbers rackets in the city by ‘fixing’ the lottery to fall on the number…776…a number everyone…since it’s July 4^th  has bet on. The only catch in the plan is that Joe's semi-estranged older brother, played by Thomas Gomez runs such a racket. Joe feels guilty and wants to give him his brother a break. A day before the first scene was to be shot; John still couldn’t ‘find’ the character of Morse. He was beginning to panic until a friend gave him a Phi Beta Kappa key attached to a watch chain. That was it…John now understood Joe Morse. It’s interesting when watching the film how many times he fingers the key.

The film itself is extremely compelling and beautifully filmed. Combining guilt, and ambition, corruption and ultimately redemption Garfield gives what many reviewers feel is his career defining performance. Using his natural charm he strips Joe Morse of his cocky confidence and reveals a man who is terrified, and guilt ridden. Near the end of the movie Garfield searches for his now missing brother…running down a path and then a steep set of stairs, his own body lost as if he’s in daze…his voiceover is haunting… 

“I just kept going down and down there. It was like going down to the bottom of the world”

John’s film career peaked in 1948. Over the next three years he made a total of four films. He played skipper Harry Morgan in The Breaking Point a more faithful adaptation of Hemingway’s novel, To Have and Have Not then the Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall version. Warner’s picked Michael Curtiz to direct. The experience was enjoyable for all involved. The film’s reviews were good, but the box office was not. John was surprised but lurking above him was a black cloud. The cloud was the communist scare and John was right in the middle. He had always been liberal in his politics, signing documents without paying much attention and attending meetings with his wife. She was the political animal, John considered himself inferior intellectually. He did believe passionately in equality and justice for all, but still he thought of himself as the poor kid from Brooklyn still trying to prove himself. He never forgot how the writers who he admired so much would snicker at some of his comments or when he used the wrong words. Back at home he had filled a room with books, all classics. He said he read them all when in reality…he had not. But he was no communist. His problem was he probably knew a few and someone who was very close to him was at one point…definitely a communist.  

In April, 1951 the house committee on Un-American activities subpoenaed him to testify. John was stunned but appeared and answered the committee’s questions. His personal code was in place, he would not name names. He would not rat out his friends. He would not name his own wife as a communist. Most felt he did well but he was unofficially blacklisted. The studios would not touch him. Others testified after him, none said he was communist. United Artist’s possibly trying to exploit his notoriety did release his last film before he was blacklisted. The film, He Ran all the Way was well done and John, playing a criminal for the first time in many years is excellent.

But again the box-office was poor, depressing John even more.

Unemployed and now separated from his wife, John tried everything he knew to clear his name. Nothing he did seemed to help. He needed to work. His old friend Clifford Odets told him about an idea he had. He wanted to revive his old play and he wanted John to play the lead. The play was Golden Boy and this time John DID star as Joe Bonaparte. The play opened in March 1952 to enthusiastic audiences and very good reviews. But the darkness still hung around John. His health wasn’t very good. He had suffered a heart attack a few years before and he tired easily. But still he laughed it off. He was running on all cylinders but barely getting any sleep.

He kept on running until May when exhausted he stopped by a girlfriend’s hotel room to try and get some sleep. This time he did sleep…but…didn’t wake up. It was over… John Garfield was dead at thirty nine years old.

“You were dead, you were sleeping the big sleep, you were not bothered by things like that, oil and water were the same as wind and air to you. You just slept the big sleep, not caring about the nastiness of how you died or where you fell”

Raymond Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe

John Garfield was an extraordinarily gifted actor. His performances in Body and Soul, Force of Evil and He Ran all the Way are mesmerizing in their scope and depth. They live on as a testament to his singular talent.

As a man he suffered from an inferiority complex and self doubt. At times during his life shadings from his most popular film, Body and Soul seemed to push him to do whatever he could to get what he wanted. Near the end, it seemed like he was driven more by a redemption of the soul than by…revenge. In that way he died by the code of the streets…loyal to the end…ever silent…with no complaints.  

A special thanks goes out to my Dad…John Raspanti Sr who over forty years ago introduced me to the films of John Garfield.  

November 2007

The Rifleman and Superman

When I was a small child westerns still dominated television. Shows like…Death Valley Days…Bonanza…Life and Legend Of Wyatt Earp…Gunsmoke…Cheyenne…The Restless Gun…Colt 45 …Wanted Dead or Alive…and Lawman played over and over on our small black and white television. 

The 1960’s brought a new batch of westerns. Laramie, The Rebel…and the cult western The Westerner.

My dad watched them all. My mom watched my dad watching them, and my sister and I glanced over at the TV and wondered what the ruckus was all about. 

I had already found my favorite television show. The Adventures of Superman starring George Reeves. I watched it religiously every week, plopping down every Tuesday at 4:30. My mom had prepped my red cape and had it ready for me. At each commercial I would jump up and ‘fly’…that is flying around the house and jumping off anything I could find.  My mom would tell me to stop, but I was too fast for her. I mean come on…I’m flying here. I always made a point of going into my sister’s room to jump off her bed because…well… doing that ALWAYS annoyed her.

Dad would takeover the TV when he got home. After dinner he would sit in his favorite chair and read the paper and wait for one of his westerns to come on. I would sometimes join him until I saw what show was on.  He would ask me to stay for a few minutes and watch and sometimes I would but my restless nature would soon take over. Then…I was gone. I wasn’t into cowboys and Indians…at least not yet.

There was one show that he watched every week that bothered me. As the show began, the camera would pull back in unison…the main character moving forward…slightly crouching and then repeatedly firing and cocking his modified, altered rifle. No music, just…bang…bang…bang…bang...bang…bang…bang…bang. ` The narrator would say the name of the show…THE RIFLEMAN...in a very aggressive and commanding way. Then…at least to a four year old, the main character would glare at the camera. I thought he was glaring at me and I didn’t like it, this guy was menacing and a bad man. The guy was NO Superman.

So that was it, off I went to my room while my Dad watched a show about a bad guy who fired a funny looking gun. My dad would tell me   what a good show it was…but I wasn’t listening. I never watched any episodes of The Rifleman. As I grew up I certainly knew about it…but still had no interest.

That is until about six months ago when bored one night and flipping through On Demand I spotted that familiar title. It was the middle of the night, and I thought what the hell…so there I was watching that ominous opening again and…NOT feeling a desire to bolt to my room. Later…after it was over, I was stunned. The show was good…very good actually.

I watched another episode the following week. I was hooked.  I’ve since watched 24 episodes. Almost immediately I was struck by the cinematography. Sometimes they shot on a set which at times is painfully obvious but like Superman, it doesn’t detract from the finished product. I’ve read somewhere that the first two years are the best. Most of the writing is top notch. Sam Peckinpah wrote six episodes and directed four. His episode titled The Boarding House is excellent. Katy Jurado guest starred, seven years earlier she had stared alongside Gary Cooper in the classic High Noon. A repeated theme of the show is personal integrity…which nowadays we are in great need of.

Chuck Connors who played Lucas McCain brought a heroic like charisma to his portrayal. Never considered a great actor he’s a revelation here. Was this the part he was born to play? He’s the strong silent type, cut from the same cloth as Clint Eastwood. Before becoming an actor Connors played two seasons of professional basketball with the Boston Celtics. A few years later he was in the major leagues playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers and then the Chicago Cubs. Connors who was born in 1921 and stood 6’5, made his acting debut in the 1952 classic Pat and Mike, starring Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. In 1955 he guest starred on The Adventures of Superman. Recently I watched that rather forgettable episode. Connors’ acting appeared a little green but still he’s so likeable and funny that all else is forgotten

Johnny Crawford played Lucas’s son Mark. Interviewing 20 or 30 other kids before production began Connors knew Crawford was right for the role even before talking to him. As 12 year old Johnny walked towards him and a producer Connors remarked…

“That’s him…that’s the Rifleman’s son”

Connors was oh so right. Crawford more then held his own with Connors. The interaction between them is very believable. You can feel the warmth as if they really are father and son. Their acting is touching and honest, and very much on a par with some scenes from Superman.

The background music by Herschel Burke Gilbert is excellent and again like Superman, dramatic in its composing. Gilbert sets the tone very nicely, .composing a soft and quiet sound when Mark and Lucas are seen together…and then higher in tone when Mark is sad. The action scenes have a very dramatic drum roll or a stop and go quality that only heightens the suspense.

Of the 24 episodes I’ve watched all have been good and some have been almost great.

I guess it proves the old adage that you can’t judge a book by its cover or in this case judge a show by it’s opening. The Rifleman is a real gem and if you haven’t watched it in awhile, don’t wait 44 years like your’s truly.  Get to it!!!

Oh and Dad if you’re reading this…YOU WERE RIGHT!

John

August 2007

Chasing Superman's Ghost
By John Raspanti

Movie studios have always fascinated me. There has always been something so exciting about seeing the spot where a classic movie or television show was filmed. My goal as a teenager was to get inside a studio and...explore. I wanted to walk the lot...investigate the soundstages...and prowl the back lots. I had to see where Casablanca was shot, the Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone and of course The Adventures of Superman. To say I achieved my goal would be a bit of an understatement...but...I'll get into that later. 

The Adventures of Superman began shooting on July 10, 1951.

Its home was the historic RKO-Pathe Studios in Culver City, California.

The studio opened for business on December 1, 1918.  A few highlights...

Cecil B. DeMille stalked the back lot in the 1920's.

King Kong frolicked there in 1933.

Six years later Rhett Butler told Scarlett O'Hara 'Frankly My Dear I Don't Give a Damn'

A couple of years later Orson Wells whispered 'Rosebud'

Alfred Hitchcock lensed Notorious in 1946 with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman.

The studio and the famous back lot now called 40 acres were dripping with history. It must have been an amazing place to work.

The entire first season of Superman was shot there. The production team used the back lot extensively.  The Unknown People...The Case of the Talkative Dummy...The Mystery of the Broken Statues...and The Monkey Mystery...all showed off the downtown part of the back lot and as they called it...Main Street to a great advantage. Later The Deserted Village...and Riddle of the Chinese Jade used another area of Main Street. Near the end of the first season Czar of the Underworld was filmed. This episode revealed more about the lot...the bad guy cab driver took Clark Kent and Inspector Henderson past a row of buildings that I had never seen before. Later when Superman lands with Luigi Dinelli...he carries him to stage thirteen.

The number thirteen stuck with me. In the summer of 1977 I was staying in the Los Angeles area with my grandparents. One of the first places I had to locate was where The Adventures of Superman was filmed. I had to see it. I knew the studio was near MGM in Culver City. The weather that day was overcast and 'smoggy', typical for LA. I found Washington Blvd and slowed, spotting many business and industrial buildings. I kept thinking I would run right into it. I was right. When I spotted it I let out an audible breath. Colonial in style, with numerous pillars, I flashed on Gone with the Wind.  I parked right in front of the studio. Cars whizzed by me. I got out of my car and walked slowly up the driveway by a hedge that needed trimming. I could see some decaying along the edges of the building. The white paint was peeling but still I was in awe. There was so much movie history right in front of me and movie ghosts dancing about. I can remember wishing that the back lot hadn't been bulldozed. I noticed immediately that it didn't say Selznick International anymore. The big letters above the front door spelled out ...Laird. Oh well that didn't matter. I knew what had happened here, now I wanted to see it.
I was ready to fill out an application and then to somehow get on the lot and look around. I opened the front door and casually walked in. The door groaned as I closed it.  The secretary barely looked up...I smiled and said

"Are you accepting applications?"

I already knew the answer to this question. I had called the studio a few weeks before. I waited. She still hadn't said anything. Using slight of hand she produced an application and gave it to me.

"Thanks," I said.

The office was old, small and scruffy. There was one desk for the secretary and four or five cabinets spread out. Papers were stacked up. There was another chair for visitors which I was using. I remember seeing dust and dirt on the windows. Everything had a grayish tint to it. I wondered if George Reeves had been in this same office.

I filled out the application quickly. My heart was pounding. I stood up, took two steps and handed her the application. She took it without looking.

I waited a beat and said "Do you have a restroom I could use?"

This time she looked up for a second and said, "Go out that door behind me and turn to the right."

I was in.

Exiting the bathroom I hesitated. Should I do this? The resounding answer was YES.

I was on a pathway leading away from the administration office. Would the secretary wonder what had happened to me?  Nah...she had probably forgotten about me already.

The pathway opened up revealing a couple of more buildings. One said prop room. Oh boy...the buildings looked old like everything around this place. I didn't see any other people. I didn't hear anything only...the occasional sounds that the outside world were creating. Inside this world...it was pretty darn quiet.

I resisted the urge to look behind me and entered the prop room.

It was dark, and smelled like mold. I let my eyes adjust, I blinked...some of the ghosts were here. That is...if they could find any room!!! The place was packed, there were boxes stacked on top boxes some leading right to the ceiling. Chairs of all kinds were lying on their sides. Talk about crowded; I took a few steps forward. I spotted something different.  Peering around a few boxes I could see an ancient clock propped up against the wall. It was basically unencumbered, alone like a prominent statue.  I wondered if there was something special about it. Had it been in Gone with the Wind or Citizen Kane...or The Adventures of Superman?

I didn't know...I moved around some more, trying not to knock over any of the boxes and chairs. I allowed myself to wonder what else of movie history was nearby. I didn't know...I heard some voices outside and figured that was my cue to leave the prop room. It was quiet again; I opened the door and walked out casually. I could see where the voices had come from. Two people were walking away, past the soundstages.

Soundstages...stage thirteen...that's it!!

I was walking faster now...stage thirteen...but my mind was thinking about Superman. Twenty six years ago...'they' were here, Jimmy, Lois, Clark, Perry and 'Inspector' Henderson. I saw some numbers...2 and 3...then a building. I glanced to my right and saw more numbers on a huge structure that peeked a little near the top...11 and 12...I think it was...then 14...15...16. Yes a soundstage!!!...but NO stage thirteen!!!!!  I paused and gazed at the warehouse like building. No mobile dressing rooms like the ones I had seen at Universal...just this piece of architecture. Could this have been the soundstage used in Czar?? I had seen the episode a hundred times...the corner of the building sure looked like the same one from Czar...it had to be it...

Now what? I had told myself to be inconspicuous, to try and not draw attention to what I was doing, but still my natural curiosity was prodding me. I knew I couldn't leave yet. I had no choice really. I had to see the inside of the soundstage. I walked around the side of the building and saw a door. I stopped. The door was propped open ever so slightly. I was being drawn in, my nerves were jumping. I pulled the door open and stepped inside.

Darkness.

I was in short entryway. No sounds, just darkness. I took a few steps and tripped on something. I stopped as the echo from my shoes bounced around me. Jeez...didn't I say I was trying to be inconspicuous? I was moving forward on my tip toes. Up ahead was something, a faint light?  Yes...I brushed past a curtain and felt the stage open up. It was huge, and the light was coming from two places. Somebody had been nice enough to leave a couple of movable lights...in the on position. They were situated near the center of the stage.  I don't remember much about these stage lights except they were taller than me. I just stood there and looked up and down and all around me. I remember the ceiling was so high...and the stage was so enormous...and those ghosts again. I could hear them...

'GREAT CAESAR'S GHOST '

A huge crashing sound broke the spell. I tip toed across the stage and through the entry hall to the door that was still ajar. I stepped outside and remember blinking a number of times. My eyes were stinging. That was it. I knew it was time to go. I walked back to the administration building at a much brisker pace. I passed a few people, one smiled at me. I nodded. I was wondering about the secretary. Would she ask where I had been? It made no difference. When I walked back inside the office, there was no secretary. I went out the front door and walked to my car. I felt a little on edge, my adrenaline was pushing me.

I started the car and was shocked by what time it was. I had arrived at 9 AM. It was now past lunch time!!!

I had spent a good three hours roaming the studio. But it was funny because it had felt like mere minutes...not hours.

What an amazing place.

I hit all the Superman studios that summer. My quest was based on the order of the years in production. So...since season two and three were filmed in 1953 at California studios...that was where I was going next.

California Studios of 1953 had become Producers Studios in 1977.  It was and still is (even though it's been Raleigh studios since 1979) located directly across the street from the much more famous Paramount lot. I didn't know much about the studio. I did know that Mary Pickford had shot a silent picture there in 1915.  Douglas Fairbanks Sr had wandered the lot, which I really liked since the old time movie stars have always fascinated me. I had recently discovered that In the Heat of the Night had been shot there and numerous other classics like The Best Years of Our Lives. The Margaret Herrick Library on Wilshire Boulevard had been a wealth of information that summer. 

My plan was to copy what had been so successful at RKO-Pathe...fill out and application and then crash the lot.

Would it work again?? I felt reasonably confident as I attempted to find somewhere to park. I was parked on Bronson and walked up the sidewalk past the old brick building. The time was near 9 AM. Cars raced down Melrose Ave, and as always nobody was paying any attention to me.  I came to the end of the building and saw a chance. Forget filling out an application! A large gate that was probably supposed to be closed was...OPEN. I took this as an invitation and walked right on the lot.  It was funny but unlike RKO which had awed me, this studio was underwhelming. It looked like an old lumber building to me. I walked past what I presumed was the office I had been looking for. Later I said...first things first. I was on the other side of the building, trying to feel the history but not feeling anything. I glided past a large soundstage and was almost run over by two guys who had exited the soundstage and were in a big hurry. They glared at me...I wanted to glare back but instead I said "Sorry"
They didn't say anything and as I walked away I could feel them watching me. Uh oh...I went past the door to the soundstage those numbskulls had just come out of. I slowed but could still feel their eyes on me. I glanced inside the soundstage and saw complete darkness...the voice inside was screaming at me to GO...I turned around and eyeballed the numbskulls who where still in the same place...they in turn were eyeballing me back. Cool I thought...be cool. I wandered back over to them with a perplexed look on my face...

I said "Do you guys know where I would go to fill out an application?"

Of course they did, and so I went there and didn't do any exploring after I was done. There just wasn't much here and I didn't feel George...or anything.

The next day I found myself parking a half a block away from what was once Charlie Chaplin's studio. I wasn't a big Chaplin fan then. I had grown up on The Three Stooges. It wasn't until till later that I discovered the genius of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Charlie Chaplin had opened his studio in 1918. It's located at the corner of La Brea Avenue and Sunset. The Adventures of Superman had shot season four at the Chaplin Studio. As always this alone was enough to motivate me to see what was there.

And so it was. I walked briskly up the sidewalk toward the studio. I glanced at what looked like some small cottages. I crossed the street and eyed a pale building with two metal gates on each side. One looked like a door (I learned later that this was the door Chaplin himself used to enter the studio) past more cottages and bungalows. I looked skyward and could see the sign above the entrance to the studio. I remember the sign was round and inside the circle the letters...A&M were displayed. Herb Alpert of...Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass now owned the studio. I was getting closer to the entrance and the butterflies were back. Again I was dressed like a dude. My plan was the same but things weren't turning out the way I had envisioned them. I tried the door nearest the studio entrance. It was locked. Ok...I kept walking right to the main entrance...decision time...I turned and slowed but then instead of stopping and turning around, I kept going right onto the lot. A guard dressed in a green uniform came out from a building to my left. The guard looked at me, I looked back and nodded. I kept going, waiting for a voice that would shake the heavens...something like Broderick Crawford after gargling with razor blades...

"Hey YOU...STOP THERE!"

But...nothing...no Broderick Crawford voice. I didn't dare look back. I just kept going, past some more structures that looked English. I slowed down hoping my heart would do the same. I stood there, still expecting the guard to pop out and nab me. I started moving again in the direction of some soundstages. I remember the stages being very near each other, they appeared freshly painted unlike some of the other building that looked rundown. But there was something so different about Chaplin's studio. It had an aura of sophistication. The door to one of the soundstages was wide open...I moved toward it and then heard a crunching noise behind me. I looked over my shoulder.

The guard was coming fast. He was walking in my direction. He looked very determined. I turned from the soundstage casually, the guard was getting closer. I already knew what I would say. But...would he believe me??  Closer and closer he came. He was about on top of me. I faced him. I was ready.
But apparently...he wasn't. He walked right past me and nodded. I nodded back.

There wasn't much more to see. (The studio was quite a bit smaller in 1977 then it was in Chaplin's day)...but I did find the place fascinating. It reminded me of Sherlock Holmes and Charles Dickens. I never did find the administration building, but really didn't care. There were no apparitions floating about other than Chaplin himself who seemed to be dancing in the shadows of his old studio. I remember thinking his place was pretty cool...

I was nearing the end of my quest. I was back in my car cruising down La Brea towards Santa Monica Boulevard. My mind was drifting.  What would I find? All I had was an address scribbled on a piece of paper. I had found the address at the aforementioned, Margaret Herrick Library. But what would be located at 7950 Santa Monica Blvd? I was really hoping for a grand old studio, with the name ZIV painted on it. ZIV had once been Hollywood's Eagle Lion Studio until Frederic Ziv purchased it in 1954. I had learned that ZIV had produced some other shows that I had enjoyed watching like, The Cisco Kid, Highway Patrol and Sea Hunt. Highway Patrol was easily my favorite. I found myself wondering if like RKO, I would find some old props and who knows what else. The possibilities were endless, or so it seemed. 

I was on Santa Monica near the address I had written down. I was getting closer but still didn't see the studio. 7950 was right on top of me. I parked across the street and stared. I was here, the address on the building was correct. But there was one big problem. There was no studio. I sat there feeling like I had been punched in the stomach. All that was left was a string of businesses and a liquor store.  I shook my head and gazed imagining the bustling studio for what it once must have been. I smiled, nothing is forever.

I didn't want to leave. I sat there and contemplated what I had seen. ZIV was the last studio George had worked at. The last Superman episode, directed by George was filmed there. But being a fan of Season One I much preferred the hallowed halls of RKO-Pathe. Of all the studios, RKO had the most amazing movie history, and I liked to think that George was at his happiest there. RKO was the place where he got his big break opposite Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh in Gone with the Wind. I could only imagine what a thrill that must have been. Returning twelve years later to play Superman must have been in a way, bittersweet but still the role had given him the stardom he had always wanted and...immortality. So to me at least RKO is where the ghost of Superman is, not unhappy or fleeting...but happy and proud...arm and arm with George...forever.

© John Raspanti July 2007