MASCOT PICTURES
Founded
1927
Defunct
1935
Successor Republic Pictures
Headquarters
First: Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States
Later: Studio City, Los Angeles, California, United States
Key People
Nat Levine
Products
The King of the Kongo (1929)
The Shadow of the Eagle (1932)
In Old Santa Fe (1934)
The Phantom Empire (1935)
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Mascot Pictures- Wikipedia
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Movies made and distributed by Mascot Pictures
The Mascot Pictures Corporation
was a minor film company of the 1920s and 1930s
best known for producing film serials and B-westerns.
Mascot's serial The King of the Kongo (1929)
was the first serial to include sound, beating Universal Studios by several months.
Mascot was formed in 1927 by Film producer Nat Levine.
In 1935 it merged with other companies to form Republic Pictures.
Early Years
Mascot Pictures Corporation,
was created by Nat Levine, a former personal secretary to
Marcus Loew, in 1927 after the success of his independent serial
The Silent Flyer (1926).
In the beginning the production company operated out of the
upstairs offices of a contractor's business on Santa Monica Boulevard.
The company rented all of its equipment and facilities.
In 1929 the studio made serial history with the production of
The King of the Kongo.
This was the first serial, from any production company,
to be made with sound.
Mascot's first All-Talking production was The Phantom of the West (1931)
..
In 1932, Nat Levine of Mascot offered Duke
a part in a serial he was producing,
The Shadow of the Eagle.
Although it was a Poverty Row studio,
it was a stepping stone, which led to him starring in two other serials,
The Hurricane Express and
The Three Musketeers
Sennett Studios
It was from small Mascot Pictures, but Ladies Crave Excitement (1935)
still packed "Bursting Action, Deep Drama...And Up To Date Romance"into its 73 minutes.
Supervising editor Joseph H. Lewis would soon become a prolific director
of B Westerns. His later film noirs, including the independently
produced Gun Crazy (1949), would become renowned.
By 1933, Mascot was successful enough to rent, and later buy,
Sennett Studios after the original owner, famous producer-director
Mack Sennett, went bankrupt because of the Great Depression.
This made the company a true film studio.
..
Mascot was responsible for the popularity of the concept
of the "singing cowboy" and the "musical Western".
In 1935, the studio produced The Phantom Empire
with the then untried Gene Autry as the lead.
Republic Pictures
Mascot's film developer was Consolidated Film Corporation.
In 1935, under pressure from that company's owner, Herbert Yates,
Mascot merged with Consolidated Film and Monogram Pictures
to form the larger Republic Pictures.
Mascot became the serial and B-Western elements of the company,
along with their studio.
Along with other things, Monogram provided their distribution network
and technical and financial elements came from Consolidated Film.
Two other companies, Liberty Pictures and Majestic Pictures,
rejected the offer and soon went out of business.
Legacy
Several careers began at Mascot Pictures.
Actors
* Gene Autry
* Smiley Burnette
* John Wayne
Production crew
* Ford Beebe
* B. Reeves Eason
* Joseph Kane
* The Lydecker brothers
* William Witney
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Studios, Backlots and Ranches
N.B
All information correct at original posting, for updated information
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