That dapper little urchin front row center is none other than Jackie Coogan, the child actor who played the kid to Charlie Chaplin's tramp in The Kid, Oliver Twist to Lon Chaney's Fagin in the 1922 silent version of the Dickens classic, and the orphan Tim Kelly who goes to live with a junk man in a great film called The Rag Man I caught on TCM years ago and haven't been able to find since. That's like a street urchin film trifecta. This photo was taken when Coogan was visiting his adoring Detroit fans at the Fisher Theater. Look at how cool he is.
In the 1960s, Coogan played Uncle Fester on the Addams Family TV series.
Nearly all of these urchins were discovered in the photography archives of the Library of Congress (and available without copyright restrictions online). Otherwise, urchin photos will be credited to the appropriate photographer with a link to its source (unless they come from my own collection of photographs from unknown photographers). If there is ever a copyright concern, do not hesitate to contact me.
