The first of 48 Bowery Boys movies released from 1946 to 1958. In 1945, when East Side Kids producer Sam Katzman refused to grant Leo Gorcey's request to double his weekly salary, Gorcey quit the series, formed his own production company (owning 40% of it) with his agent Jan Grippo called Jan Grippo Productions, revamped the format including getting rid of the teen-aged stories, and rechristened the series The Bowery Boys (i.e., "Leo Gorcey and The Bowery Boys").
This was the first film in what became known as the "Bowery Boys" series. It is not known if creators Jan Grippo and Leo Gorcey were aware that "Bowery Boys" was originally the name of a notorious gang in the 19th Century.
The early films in the "Bowery Boys" series were a mixture of crime, social drama and comedy. As the series progressed, the films moved toward straight comedy.
When "Dead End," their first film as the Dead End Kids, premiered, the "boys" were already too old to be teenagers at around 20 years of age. When they became the Bowery Boys in "Live Wires" they were approaching 30. By the time the franchise ended they were about 40 years old.
This launched the "Bowery Boys" franchise which grew into a highly successful series for Monogram. Exhibitors that normally paid a flat fee to book a typical Monogram release would pay a much higher fee to book one of the "Bowery Boys" features.