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. They were also responsible for one notable Shakespeare film, the Orson Welles "Macbeth".

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 itself 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.

In the depths of the 1930s depression, Yates foreclosed on three small production companies, each heavily in debt to his Consolidated Film Laboratories. 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.

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.

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. During this period, Republic produced Commando Cody; unsuccessful as a theater release, the 12-part serial was later sold for to NBC for television distribution. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Aftermath

During the early 1980s, NTA re-syndicated most of the Republic film library for use by then-emerging cable television, and by 1986 found itself so successful with these product lines that it bought the Republic Pictures name and logo. A television-production unit was set up under the Republic name, and offered, among other things, the CBS series Beauty and the Beast and the popular CBS daytime game show Press Your Luck. There were also a few theatrical films, including Freeway, Ruby in Paradise, and Bound. The "new" Republic also began marketing the original's serial library on videotape.

Bought by Aaron Spelling's Spelling Entertainment, Republic won a landmark legal decision re-activating the copyright on Frank Capra's 1946 RKO film It's a Wonderful Life; (under NTA, they had already acquired the film's negative, music score, and the story on which it was based, "The Greatest Gift").

Soon after, Spelling consolidated its many divisions, reducing Republic Pictures to a marketing brand-name. Republic's video division shut down in 1995, allowing the video rights to the Republic library to be leased to Artisan Entertainment, while the library itself continued to be released under the Republic name and logo. By the end of the decade, Viacom bought the portion of Spelling it did not own previously, thus Republic became a wholly-owned division of Paramount. Artisan (later sold to Lions Gate Home Entertainment) continued to use the Republic name, logo, and library under license from Paramount.

As of 2006, Republic Pictures' holdings consist of a catalog of 3,000 films and TV series, including the original Republic library (except for the Roy Rogers and Gene Autry catalogs, owned by their respective estates); the pre-1973 NBC library (including Bonanza), most of the Quinn Martin (The Fugitive, The Streets of San Francisco, etc.) and Aaron Spelling (The Love Boat, Twin Peaks, Beverly Hills 90210, etc.) catalogs; select pre-1952 UA (High Noon, Copacabana, etc.) and NTA holdings (Fleischer cartoons, It's a Wonderful Life, etc.). Lions Gate Home Entertainment's home video rights expired in late 2005, and now Paramount holds home video and theatrical-distribution rights, while television distribution is now the responsiblity of CBS Paramount Television (since the Viacom/CBS corporate split that took effect at the beginning of 2006).

Notable Republic Pictures

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Corporate History

Aftermath

Notable Republic Pictures

1930s and 1940s

1950s

1990s