Happy St. Patrick’s Day From Classic Hollywood’s Irish Mafia!

Move over, The Rat Pack. The Irish Mafia’s in town.

Before Sinatra, Sammy, and Dino ruled Hollywood, there was another pack of rascally pals you’ve probably never heard of: The Irish Mafia.

Throughout the late 1930s, James Cagney, Pat O’Brien, Frank McHugh and Spencer Tracy held court together at restaurants all over Hollywood on a weekly basis. All Irish-Americans, they’d laugh, talk, eat, and generally have a ball with each other — often to the envy of those around them who wanted ‘in’ on the fun — and it earned them the nickname “The Irish Mafia” from Hollywood gossip columnist Sidney Skolsky. The boys, themselves, preferred to call it “The Boy’s Club,” but the catchier moniker stuck.

Here at Warner Archive, we’re fortunate to have a bevy of the boys’ best movies, streaming now in glorious HD! Join now and receive a FREE Roku with your annual subscription!

James Cagney was born in New York City’s Lower East Side in 1899, and both his parents were of Irish descent. Spencer Tracy was born in Milwaukee in 1900 to a strict Irish Catholic family. Pat O’Brien, also from Milwaukee, was born in 1899 to a family originally from County Cork, Ireland. And Frank McHugh was born in Homestead, PA in 1898, also of Irish descent.

Cagney and O’Brien first met in 1926, and when both ended up at Warner Bros they appeared together in 9 movies — solidifying their friendship into one that would last their entire lives. O’Brien once said, “Cagney was the best man I ever met in the course of my long life — and I’ve meant many and many a man.” When O’Brien passed in 1983, Cagney echoed this by saying that he was ‘the dearest friend I ever had.’

The same was true of O’Brien and Spencer Tracy, who first met as teenagers when both worked at a Milwaukee lumber yard for two and a half bucks a week. Their destinies led them both to the New York stage in the early 1920s, where they were roommates. One of Warner Bros’ best character actors, Frank McHugh, became a friend of Cagney’s after playing supporting character in hits like Footlight Parade and City for Conquest.

The four were natural best buddies, and it was Frank McHugh who was responsible for creating one of Hollywood’s most famous old boys’ clubs:

“I was sent an autograph book from a church in Hartford with a request to Spence Tracy, Pat O’Brien, Jim Cagney, and me to sign it, then return it to be auctioned off at a church benefit. Pat and Jim being with Warner Bros were easy targets, but Spence was at MGM and I didn’t have his address or phone number.

So I sent a blank page of the autography to him at the studio, asking him to sign. He did so, returning it with a note that he thought it sad old friends living in the same town had to reach each other by mail, suggesting the four of us get together for dinner. Jim and Spence got together first, then the four of us, and I became sort of the secretary making the reminder phone calls.”

The purpose, as McHugh put it, was to get together for conversation and laughs. Generally, the conversation was about wine, women and song, but industry news also crept up often. The always practical Spencer Tracy was particularly blunt about their meetings: “Skolsky had to make it a big thing and call it the ‘Irish Mafia.’ Such nonsense. We happened to be people who liked each other, and that is all.”

One time, Zachary Scott came over to their table while the boys were holding court and he stood there, smiling. He asked, “How do you join this Irish Mafia?”

McHugh responded, “You don’t get to to. You’re asked.”

Cagney, in his old age said, “Those were the finest and dearest men I ever knew. How honored and privileged I was to know them.”

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