Republic Pictures

Republic Pictures Corporation (aka Republic Entertainment) is an independent film, television, and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, best known for its specialization in quality B pictures, westerns and movie serials.

Corporate History

Created in 1935 by Herbert J. Yates, a long-time investor in film and music properties, Republic was the result of a union of three smaller poverty row studios. In its early years Republic was sometimes labeled a "poverty row" company. But the studio, created at the time major companies were withdrawing from the B-picture market, showed more ambition than such a label would indicate. By the mid-1940s Yates was producing better-quality pictures, even mounting big-budget fare like The Quiet Man, Sands of Iwo Jima, Johnny Guitar, and The Maverick Queen. The heart of the company was its franchise in westerns, and many western-film stars, among them John Wayne, Gene Autry, Rex Allen, and Roy Rogers, began at Republic.

Related Topics:
1935 - Herbert J. Yates - Poverty row studios - 1940s - The Quiet Man - Sands of Iwo Jima - Johnny Guitar - The Maverick Queen - Westerns - John Wayne - Gene Autry - Rex Allen - Roy Rogers

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In the depths of the 1930s depression, Yates foreclosed on three small production companies, each heavily in debt to his Consolidated Film Labratories. The largest of the three was Monogram Pictures, run by Trem Carr and W. Ray Johnston, specializing in B-films, and controlling a nation-wide distribution system. The others were M. H. Hoffman's Liberty Films, from which Republic took its original "Liberty Bell" logo, and Nat Levine's Mascot Pictures. The most advanced technically, Mascot had been making serials and westerns since the mid-1920s. Mascot also had a first-class studio, the former Mack Sennett - Keystone lot in Studio City. As a result, Republic began life with a skilled production staff, a complete distribution system, and a functioning studio.

Related Topics:
Consolidated Film Labratories - Monogram Pictures - Trem Carr - W. Ray Johnston - M. H. Hoffman - Liberty Films - Nat Levine - Mascot Pictures

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While taking on feature production, the new company also continued to produce numerous serials; while sometimes fantastically plotted, they were technically first-rate, with production values far better than those of others' serials. Fast-paced and well staged, Republic's serials featured choreographed fight scenes, and superb model-work, explosions and other effects by the Lydecker brothers. Republic produced serials until 1955, long after rivals had abandoned the field.

Related Topics:
Serial - Lydecker brothers - 1955

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Republic was the first Hollywood studio to offer its film library to television, in 1951 creating a subsidiary, Hollywood Television Service, to peddle its vintage westerns and action thrillers. Also, in 1952 the Republic studio lot became the first home of MCA's series factory, Revue Productions. While it would appear that Republic was well-suited for television-series production, it did not have the finances or vision to do so. Yet by the mid-fifties, thanks to its sale of old features and leasing of studio space to MCA, television was the prop holding up Republic Pictures. Talent-agent MCA exerted influence at the studio, bringing some high-paid clients in for occasional features, and it was rumored at various times that either MCA or deposed MGM head Louis B. Mayer would buy the studio outright.

Related Topics:
Hollywood Television Service - MCA - Revue Productions - MGM - Louis B. Mayer

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From the mid-1940s onward, occasional Republic films featured Vera Hruba Ralston, a former Czechoslovakian ice-skater who had won the heart of the studio boss, becoming the second Mrs. Yates in 1949. Billed as "the most beautiful woman in films," her charms were lost on the movie-going public, as well as some of her co-stars. Years later, John Wayne allowed that the reason he left Republic in 1952 was the threat of having to make another picture - he had endured two - with Miss Ralston.

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As the demand and market for B-pictures declined, Republic began to cut back, slowing production from forty features annually in the early 1950s to about eighteen in 1957. A tearful Herbert Yates informed shareholders at the 1958 annual meeting that feature-film production was ending; the distribution offices were shut down the following year. In the early 1960s, Republic sold its library of films to National Telefilm Associates (NTA). Having used the studio for series production for years, CBS bought Republic's studio lot; today it is known as CBS's "Studio Center", and in 2006 is to become home to the network's Los Angeles stations, KCBS and KCAL.

Related Topics:
National Telefilm Associates - CBS - KCBS - KCAL

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The studio's parent company, Republic Corporation, survived for some years on Yates's other interests, among them Consolidated Film Labratories and the manufacture of household appliances. Other than producing a package of 26 made-for-TV movies edited from some of the Republic serials, its role in Hollywood ended with the sale of the studio lot.

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