The "Dead End Kids" - Tommy Traditional Cache
Hidden : 11/22/2011
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

"Tommy" Played by Billy Halop, was one of the original "Dead End Kid" actors for the stage play and movie "Dead End".

In the filthy slums of New York, wealthy people have built luxury apartments there because of the view of the picturesque East River. While they live in opulence, the destitute and dirt poor live nearby in crowded, filthy tenements.

At the end of the street is a dock on the East River; to the left are the luxury apartments and to the right are the slums. The Dead End Kids, led by Tommy Gordon (Billy Halop), are a petty gang of street urchins who are already well onto a path to a life of crime. Members of the gang besides Tommy include, Dippy (Huntz Hall), Angel (Bobby Jordan), Spit (Leo Gorcey), T.B. (Gabriel Dell), and Milty (Bernard Punsly), the new kid on the block in search of friends. Spit is a bit malicious with a cruel streak and initially bullies the newcomer and takes his pocket change. However, Tommy eventually lets Milty join the gang and turns out to be both a loyal and generous friend.

Halop, in an interview in his later years, he claimed that he was paid more than the other 'Dead End' actors, which had contributed to bad feelings in the group, and that he hated the name 'Dead End Kids'.[2] He also played the vicious bully Flashman in the 1940 Tom Brown's School Days opposite Cedric Hardwicke and Freddie Bartholomew.

After serving in World War II, Halop found that he had grown too old to be effective in the roles that had brought him fame. At one point, he was reduced to starring in a cheap East Side Kids imitation at PRC studios, Gas House Kids (1946). Diminishing film work, marital difficulties, and a drinking problem eventually ate away at Halop's show business career.

After becoming a Registered Nurse, Halop supplemented his nursing income with film and television roles, including the recurring role of Bert Munson on All in the Family

William "Billy" Halop Died in 1976 at the age of 56.

In total the various teams that began life as 'The Dead End Kids' made 89 films and three serials for four different studios during their 21 year long film career. The team was awarded a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, which can be found at the corner of La Brea and Hollywood. One notable aspect of the group's history is their transition from stark drama to comedy. When they began, in "Dead End" and their other early films, their characters were serious, gritty, genuinely menacing young hoodlums. But by the height of their career, their movies were essentially comedies, with the Kids depicted as low-class but basically harmless, likable teens - comic caricatures of their former selves.
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