In 1940, when producer Sam Katzman brought some of the kids to Monogram Pictures.
The kids (who eventually included Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Billy Halop, and others) had started out as the “Dead End Kids” in Dead End (1937, Samuel Goldwyn).
They had gone on to work for Warner Brothers and Universal. Their first Monogram film was East Side Kids (1940).
They become the “Bowery Boys” in 1946, with In Fast Company, also at Monogram. There were a total of seventy “East Side” and “Bowery Boys” films.