The Dead End of E. 53rd Street
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The popular Broadway play featured the rough-and-tumble lives of the Dead End Kids, and Hollywood producers signed the same kids up to play in the movie version. The original play featured a legendary set by Norman Bel Geddes that heightened the drama of the contrasting architecture. In his design, the front of the stage represented a cove, and the orchestra pit functioned as the East River. During the course of the play characters jumped into the river pit.
The Dead End Kids went on to make a series of movies in the late 1930s, and these were followed by the East Side Kids and then the Bowery Boys in the 1940s. A few of the original kids from Broadway stayed through many of these pictures.
Streetscapes/The Foot of East 53rd Street; From 'Dead End' Contrast to Homogeneous Luxury by Christopher Gray of the NYT discusses the transition of the street in this insightful article from 1995.
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