Ducky boys nationality ? - The Wanderers (1979) Discussion

im pretty sure they were irish

Dont *beep* With The Ducky Boys=The Wanderers

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Yes they were Irish...
You can notice that when they are in the church...
(The real gang was (as i have heard) also Irish)

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[–] jimbob298 19 years ago

Actually, I read somwhere that they were Polish, which still fits in with the church scene.

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[–] kevinstoove 19 years ago

Thats true, by the looks of them and the churchscene they could be Polish...
But the novel (i know the movie doesn't follow the novel 100% but anyhow) says that it was a gang of Irish and Irish-Decent members...

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[–] edgarza926 18 years ago

The Ducky Boys are Catholic for sure. I am 99.999 percent sure that the Ducky Boys are Irish.

P.S. The Pharoahs are the only Jewish gang mentioned in the movie. Also,
the movie takes place in the Bronx, New York City....where are the Puerto
Rican gangs?

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[–] Se55jo 18 years ago

I grew up in the Bronx. I'm now 52. My brother is 58. Although I don't remember the gangs, my brother remembers them. He remembers the Fordham Baldies and he remembers the Ducky Boys. the Ducky Boys were an Irish gang

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[–] John_Milner 18 years ago

Hi Se55jo. Do you have any idea how large the real Ducky Boys gang was? The impression you take away from the film is that this was by far the largest gang of the time. All the other gangs combined still didn't seem to come close to the turn-out of the Ducky Boys at the football game. Regards.

-------

"Jesus Milner, you're really in a great mood tonight, you know that?"

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[–] kemicon 18 years ago

I could be wrong but I thought the Ducky Boys were from the Lower East Side in Manhattan. I haven't seen this film in about five-six years so I could be way off.

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[–] DBrabes 18 years ago

I believe they were from the Jerome Avenue neighborhood in the low 200's, or thereabouts.

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[–] SetzersGretsch 18 years ago

I'm led to believe the Ducky Boys were of Polish descent.

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[–] EsB818 18 years ago

I am reading the book and they are mostly Irish, all really short and there are hundreds of them (largest gang). I think Kauffman did a really amazing job with the movie, which is significantly different from the book. He takes a lot of characters and mixs/matches/combines elements from each of them in a really cool way.

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[–] tony_wog_boy 18 years ago

HI im from Australia and i saw the movie wen i was a kid and i can honoustly say the duckie boys scared the crap out of me.......... untill you all started talking aobut it i thourght the duckie boys were just like a hole neibourhood of druggies people who were on drugs because they never spoke and there was old and young members

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[–] Bacalao2929 15 years ago

Irish all the way,- not to many Polish people in the Bronx,- but there is or was an Irish Bar on almost ever block in the Bronx at one time,

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[–] stormyweathers-1 15 years ago

This is what i found out about the real ducky boys

The Duckies got their name because the original guys hung out at the Duck pond in the Bronx Botanical Gardens and shot at the ducks with slingshots, therefore, they eventually called themselves "Duckies".

A Retired member described the Duckies, a gang featured in the Movie "The Wanderer": "The Ducky Gang (not just boys) lol. Not embarrassed to say I was a member and yes, they were very real. The balcony on 204th and the 'tunnels', and the whole area surrounding Twin Lakes was our turf! Was a wild time growing up, some bad, some good, but many learning experiences came from those times. The Ducky was not predominantly irish or anything else, but yes, we were certainly a 'large' group. On any given weekend night, as you reached the 'balcony', you started the Ducky 'whistle'. This let anyone down in the park know you were coming. We also used the 'whistle' as an all clear after the cops had given up chasing us around and it was safe to come back out. We burned fires in the tunnels in the winter to stay warm, and we went swimming in the Bronx river when it was hot. On weekdays, there was always some 'ducky members' to be found playing hooky." "I was a member of that Ducky gang, did some streetsmart growing up with them.

I've watched the movie The Wanderers each time it's been on, and still get a kick out of how the Ducky gang was supposed to be represented. lol"

Another former gang member from the Garrisons had this to say about the Duckies: "If you were planning to visit the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx you needed to concern yourself with the "Duck(ie)s." Legend has it, if you are visiting the Bronx Botanical Gardens and blast out a 'Duckie Whistle', Duckies will show up to greet you till this day!

Hope this clears it up

I once had a large gay following....

.....but i ducked into an alley and lost him

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[–] marioaguero 16 years ago

Puerto Ricans hadn't arrived in great numbers to the Bronx at that time. They lived mostly in Manhattan, near East 116th street, or downtown in Orchard Street.

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[–] gerritsenbeachbk 17 years ago

Their nationality is American.

Their ancestry is Irish.

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[–] glenn-ross1 17 years ago

The Ducky Boys were Irish.

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[–] mapainter71 17 years ago

IRISH Predominately & all Catholic probably some Italians & Polish as were most of the white ethnic Gangs in N.Y & Chicago of that era. See the article in Wikipedia about the Wanderers which is based on actual NY gangs of the period. They were the largest Gang in the area with over 500 members.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderers_%28film%29

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[–] Earl5265 17 years ago

They were sure some freaky dudes, whatever their descent.
I hope they got a deal on all those fog machines they must have purchased.

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[–] omenous21 17 years ago

I'm glad this question was raised. I came to the boards today to ask this same question.

I own a copy of the dvd and as I finished watching it again today, I came to realize they are Catholic (based on the Church scene and the holy communion at the Church). That then led me to conclude they were Irish or Italian. But I got to thinking, 'if they were italian, why were they not with the Wanderers', so that led me to deduce they were Irish. The 'fighting' Irish.

*spoiler ahead for Snatch movie, stop reading if you have not seen Snatch*
For some reason I some how connect the Ducky Boys' "don't mess with us, we'll *beep* up your sh!t" and violent temperament to the revengeful mean streak of the Irish pixies(correction?) in the movie Snatch after Brad Pitt's character's mom is murdered.

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[–] mybrokenwingscarrymenomore 17 years ago

That would be pikeys, from Snatch, my friend. :)

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[–] melli7711-1 17 years ago

they were irish because they were at a catholic church and most irish are catholic

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[–] malcolm-20 16 years ago

The impression I got was that the Ducky boys were not a gang like the other gangs in the movie. They were almost a metaphysical evil force.

More like zombies from "Night of the Living Dead" than anything that could be understood in the same context as the other gangs in the film. They seemed to be instinctively opposed to the comraderies and brotherhoods the other gangs represented.

As if there were gangs of various nationalities and cultures on the one hand and then, on the other, this one huge, soul-less mass of cretins that didn't fit in to them and was thus dedicated to their absolute destruction.

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[–] vincebruno11 16 years ago

in the richard price novel, they are mostly irish, and the only people they respect are catholic priests and nuns. richard price describes them as murderous psychos who devoutly go to church, then terrorize the city.

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[–] ollirrap 13 years ago

The movie is not only a coming of age, but a widening of experience beyond the neighborhood...especially with JFK assassination. I think the Duckies represented the heightening of the cold war. A gang, but a strange gang that has some other bonding force than the traditional brotherhood of the "known" gangs. I think this aspect of the film was a broader commentary on "communism."

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[–] Prismark10 13 years ago

There was certainly as surreal element to this gang each time they showed up in the film. Seems there was some sub text with them.

Its that man again!!

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[–] Necramonium 12 years ago

Ace Frehley, former guitarist of KISS, was living in the Bronx when the Ducky Boys came to live, he stated in his new book they where dominantly Irish, but with a sprinkling of Italian and German in it. You can read 60 pages of his new book here:

http://books.simonandschuster.com/No-Regrets/Ace-Frehley/9781451613940/browse_inside

From page 10 you can read about how he dealt with the Ducky Boys and how he actually eventually joined them!

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[–] mh0830 12 years ago

Who are the gang with the green coats? I thought they were the irish gang..? Ducky Boys are catholic... but.. mmmm

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