Dead End (play)

Dead End is a stage play written by playwright Sidney Kingsley. The play premiered on Broadway in October 1935 and ran for two years. It is notable for being the first project to feature the Dead End Kids, who would go on to star in several Hollywood films and later branched out into the Little Tough Guys, the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys series.

Dead End concerns a group of adolescent children growing up on the streets of New York City during the Great Depression. Bonnie Stephanoff, author of a book on homelessness during the Depression, wrote that it "graphically depicted the lives and longings of a group of boys who swam in a polluted river, cooked food over outdoor fires, smoked cigarettes, gambled, swore, fought, carried weapons and became entangled in [crime] on Manhattan's Lower East Side."

Gimpty is a would-be architect who struggles with unemployment. Having being a gang member in his youth, he managed to turn his life around, finish high school and go on to college. He dreams of rebuilding the neighbourhood with clean housing units, but poverty and hardships have forced him to search for work wherever possible. Drina is a working-class girl who has been struggling to keep her younger brother Tommy off the streets since their parents died. Meanwhile, local gangster Baby-Face Martin returns to his old neighbourhood to visit his mother.

Kingsley first conceived the idea of Dead End in 1934. The play featured fourteen children who were hired to play various roles among the cast, including Gabriel Dell as T.B, Huntz Hall as Dippy, Billy Halop as Tommy, Bobby Jordan as Angel, Bernard Punsly as Milty, with David Gorcey and Leo Gorcey as the Second Avenue Boys. Charlie Duncan, the original actor for Spit, quit the production to take part in another play before Dead End's premiere. Consequently, Duncan was replaced in the role by his understudy Leo, who was originally recruited by his younger brother David to audition for the play. In time, Gorcey would soon become the group's de facto leader and most recognizable of the young actors, eclipsing the rest of them in popularity.

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