For example, the gang that is riding the school bus early on that the Warriors have to outrun to make the train, were there really gangs that would go riding along NYC streets in a vehicle like that, or was that more just Hollywood? And was there a variety of gangs of different ethnicities (white and black), along with multiethnic gangs like the Warriors, or was that all Hollywood as well?
shareOf course not. No wait there was a mime gang...no wait...In all seriousness, the gangs at that time in NYC looked the most like the Warriors....
shareI couldn't imagine so many different gang members concentrating on getting their grooming, make-up and matching ensembles just right, like we see in this movie.🐭
shareThere was a serious gang problem in NYC in the 70s. However. most gangs looks like the Warriors. They had their own jacket or vest to mark membership, but the makeup, tall hats, etc that was all Hollywood.
shareI remember that gangs seemed to keep a fairly low profile back then, maybe to avoid too much attention from the police or other gangs - I'm not sure. A causal observer or even some long-time residents might have trouble spotting them. (I lived in the Bronx and Brooklyn during that era.) From what I've heard gangs had more street presence in places like Los Angeles but I don't have first hand experience with that.
There was a gang near where I lived in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in the early 1980s; they were called The Dirty Ones. Their clothing seemed mostly unremarkable except that they often sported what looked like Civil War forage caps. Their one bit of boldness was that they had a storefront headquarters and they put a sign in front with their name. This was on Fourth Avenue between 58th and 59th Street.
Any kind of racial or ethnic integration within gangs was probably rare. The Dirty Ones was a Latino - I assume Puerto Rican- gang.
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Yes, many of those names appear to have connections to California, specifically Los Angeles gangs. I'm speculating that those may have come in during the crack cocaine era which would have been from the 1980s through the early 1990s.
Right now in the Bronx gangs seem to have a low profile again. They must be around but I generally am not aware of their presence. One exception may be in the Fordham area where drug sales have long been an issue on 194th Street between Valentine and Webster.
I never heard of skinheads in New York like the Turnbull ACs from the movie. (And definitely no "attack buses.") I see in the video games that they are also identified as "punks." There was a punk movement in New York but I don't recall it being involved in violence or criminal activities.
Great Documentary on Netflix called "Rubble Kings" explains it all
shareIt's very real. I remember the Baseball Furies in and around the vicinity of the ball park. Whenever we went to see Yankees games, they would be there... dressed in baseball uniforms and face makeup. They would beat the crap out of innocent people with their baseball bats.
One other gang not shown in the movie was the Pizza Brothers. This was an Italian gang who would dress like pizza makers, except with face paint. They would walk around twirling pizza dough in a threatening fashion. They were quite adept at twirling dough and would stand on the corner twirling, endlessly tossing and twirling dough on their home turf. If provoked, they would bake their pizzas and throw them at foes like frisbees. The combination of hard crust and hot ingredients was a formidable weapon.
Now when the Baseball Furies and the Pizza Brothers brawled... THAT was a sight to see.
The Mimes....please tell us about that gang....LOL
We applied Rule .303. We caught them and we shot them under Rule .303!
Even I know that. Instead of using guns they would point a finger and gesture with the other hand to demand money.
Not the most successful gang but they stayed true to their code.
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I lost it at the dough twirling. Well done. Well done.
share I was a witness to one of their brawls. A pizza brother threw a large deep dish pizza like a frisbee towards a baseball fury who caught it on the top of his bat with the pizza still spinning. I remember being caught up in the moment and not believing what I had just witnessed.
shareNo, just another bunch of Hollywood crap.
shareSome aspects of life for youth of that time frame are kind of accurate.
Like the DJ, radio DJs in the 70s/80s, particularly KTU and BLS did speak directly with the audiences as a whole. Way more than DJs do now.
Also the grafiti tagging, it was a big dis to tag someone elses grafiti back then.
Yes, absolutely. The Baseball Furies and The Orphans are still operating to this day in New York City. They were recently in the headlines for stealing children's lunch money.
shareThe movie is set in a "near future".
No "Hollywood crap", this is a masterpiece. Dystopian fiction.
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