Me and the Dead End Kid [Hardcover]

Leo Gorcey Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2003

Leo Gorcey, The Hollywood Legend - Leo Gorcey, Jr., His Happy Ending: The son of a Hollywood legend takes you on a humorous and heartfelt journey of survival, strength, forgiveness, and hope.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating book! -- Steve Brennan--The Hollywood Reporter

"An honest look at the man we loved who played The Dead End Kid - A terrific book!" -- RICH BUHLER, author of Pain and Pretending. (Founder of TruthOrFiction.com) April 15, 2003

"Leo Gorcey Jr. captures the magic of The Dead End Kid with never before published family stories." -- DAN POYNTER, author - featured publisher, Writer’s Magazine.

About the Author

About the Author:

Like his father before him, Leo Gorcey Jr. has been in the spotlight for most of his life. For 17 years Leo worked as a singer/songwriter, actor, teacher, radio talk show host, seminar speaker, and even a licensed minister.

Looking for a new adventure, he turned to a career of copywriting for radio and Television. His success at creating scripting and new training techniques for Direct Response consultants led to the establishment of his own marketing firm.

In spring 2002, Leo took a hiatus in Ashland, Oregon. There, he studied Shakespearean theater and began writing 'Me and The Dead End Kid', the roller coaster ride of a story about growing up with his celebrity father, Leo Gorcey. Of his book, 'Me and The Dead End Kid', the author comments, "Over the past 20 years, I‘ve been asked one question more than any other. ‘How did you survive such a chaotic childhood?’ I think 'Me and the Dead End Kid' tries to answer that question."

Leo is currently writing the sequel to 'Me and The Dead End Kid', entitled 'No Dead End', due out in Spring 2004.

Leo Gorcey, Jr. currently makes his home in Laguna Niguel, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 295 pages
• Publisher: Leo Gorcey Foundation (May 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1929753152
• ISBN-13: 978-1929753154
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,428,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A son's tribute to his dad, a moving biography, March 4, 2005

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Me and the Dead End Kid (Hardcover)

Well, the way I figure it, Leo Gorcey felt that he earned so much fan adoration, became one of Hollywood's biggest money makers, and wielded power in the movie board rooms because his character - Spit/Muggs/Slip - was loud-mouthed, smart-alecy, bullying, hat-pounding, overbearing, and childish. It certainly wasn't because he had talent; he never wanted to be an actor, never liked the movie business. (At least that's what he claimed. I think he secretly did enjoy it, otherwise why would he do it so well for so many films until his father's death made it impossible to work any more.) Therefore, to earn the love of the women in his life, and his children, he just had to turn it up several notches to become a drunken, gun wielding, abusive, screaming husband and father. Then everybody would love him. At least that's what I garnered out of the terrific biography of Gorcey by his son, Leo, Jr.. This is the story of an actor's rise from a plumber's helper to the star and centerpiece of one of the most successful movie series of all time: The Bowery Boys, nee the Dead End/Eastside Kids. The realism captured here is overwhelming. The son puts us in the world of the dad and it is if we are there for the meetings, the confrontations, shooting on the set, the explosive family occasions, many of which happened before the author was even born. The feelings he generates and the language he so perfectly captures makes the scene come alive before our eyes. Yes, Leo, Sr., is quoted in his Lower East Side accent throughout the book, both in character and out, which leads me to think, because of this consistency, that maybe that's the way he talked in real life. In these scenes we feel the star's wonderment at his fast rising success and grasp of power, his love and pledged support to his parents, his destruction at his father's unexpected death. But, this is more than a story of an actor out of control; it is as well the attempt of a son to reconcile his love for his father with the constant abusive attention he received. The book moves along quickly to a soul-searching letter from son to now-deceased father that Leo, Jr. shares with us. A sequel is promised in the book; what more he could write about I can't imagine, but I am waiting its publication. (Upon checking with Leo, Jr., I am told that plans for the sequel have been put on hold while their energies are earmarked for making a movie of the first book. Who will play Leo? How about the kid from Malcolm in the Middle?) I will remember this book for a long time and look at the next Bowery Boy film I happen to see with increased respect.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Commendable candor, unique perspective, but "dialect" hurts, August 6, 2003

By 

Scott MacGillivray (Massachusetts, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Me and the Dead End Kid (Hardcover)

Leo Gorcey, Jr.'s biography of his father, probably the most troubled and trouble-prone of The Dead End Kids, is a "funny valentine." The memories and anecdotes are often bittersweet, owing to Leo Sr.'s often abusive and insensitive behavior.

When the author himself is speaking, the style is very accessible and the writing is very good. (His private thoughts when besieged by superfans are memorable.) But whenever Leo Gorcey the Elder is quoted, it's always in his fractured-English screen characterization. For example, Gorcey's discussion with Bobby Jordan (about producer Jan Grippo and the future of their film series) is just the kind of thing fans want to read about, but the dialect undermines the content: "Let's have a little pow-wow wit dis guy, Grippo, an' surveil duh lan'scape!" The repeated use of dialect is distracting; offscreen conversations are riddled with "Whut are ya, crusadin' fer Alcoholics Analogous or sump'm?" and the like.

In fairness to Gorcey the author, it may have simply been easier to approach the subject as a caricature, to make the total effect more humorous and less painful. The author doesn't blink when recounting his father's (and his own) turning points, and the reader has to admire such honesty.

Mr. Gorcey is already working on another book. This writer wishes him well, and hopes that future attempts to transcribe his father's words will be as faithful and truthful as his own words.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thanks, Dead End Kid, May 16, 2004

By 

Tim Lasiuta "cowboyfantim" (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Me and the Dead End Kid (Hardcover)

The Dead End Kids were a phenomena unto themselves. And Leo Gorcey was a curse unto himself. As the fame of the Kids rose, Gorcey's troubles increased, and as the fame of the Kids dwindled Leo Gorcey continued in his wild ways. "Me and the Dead End Kid" is the story of Leo Gorcey Jr., and his search for his famous father. As many children of famous fathers find, the life of Leo Jr. was no picnic. When Leo Sr. was `on' he was funny, and had his friends rolling in the aisles. When he was `off', he was unpredictable. Leo Sr. could be drunk, he could be in a fighting mood, or he could be agreeable.

Leo Jr. relates the story of his father's rise in Hollywood starting from his early childhood in New York working at his Uncle's plumbing shop, to his first Broadway and Hollywood success with the Bowery Boys. `Dead End Kids' with Humphrey Bogart was a big success in 1937, and it parlayed into a string of movies for Warner, Monogram, and MGM. By the time he was finished with his movie career in 1966, he had acted in 81 movies, the majority of them as Muggs, Terrence Aloysius `Slip' Mahoney, or Terrence J. Montgomery Mahoney.

His on stage personna as the leader of the Dead End Kids was not so far from reality. The explosive, irreverent, disrespectful, quarrelsome characters he portrayed were very much Leo Gorcey. His five marriages were not quiet, they were confrontational and filled with drunken rages and mental/physical abuse. However, the characters he portrayed clicked with his viewers. Inside the psyche of everyone of us, we wanted to lash out, just like the Boys. That quality which made him popular, was also his downfall.

Fast forward.

Leo Gorcey Jr. stood by his father's gravesite. He struggled with his emotions. Would he mourn his famous father? Or would he be thankful his torment was over? Fast forward again.

Therapy. Leo Gorcey Jr. had found the strength to seek professional help with his problems. He soon realized that through his own life he had inadvertently lived out his father's. He had abused alcohol, he had controlled women with anger and fear, and he had to stop. His struggle to learn about his father, to learn who his father was, was his therapy and the turning point in his life came when he was able to forgive his father. With the help of God, he did, and he was free.

He wrote a letter to his father, and it went: "Dear Dad:

Where do I begin? How do I describe the pain I buried deep in my heart when they lowered you into the ground that day in Los Molinos?...."

It is amazing the depth of pain that Leo Jr. endured at the hands of his father, most of it unknowingly planted. It is even a greater miracle that he has been able to grow out of his pain and share his story with us. This book is amazing. Not just from the first person perspective of Leo Gorcey Jr., or the rare photographs that dot the pages, not from the rarely heard story of a Kid, but from the deeply personal, deeply reaching consequences for NOT dealing with our pasts, and our hurts. All I can say, as I put down the book, and finish this review, is "Thanks." Thanks for your memories, and your honesty, and your not so pleasant memories of your father. Thanks for your candor and courage to tell the truth about the Dead End Kid, and his son who came back from the Dead End, and took a U-turn into a life worth living.

`Me and the Dead End Kid' is available directly from the author online at www.leogorcey.com or from www.amazon.com.