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_ PETE HARRIS
THE OTHER REPUBLIC: As any adherent of Republic Pictures knows, that particular studio came into being in 1935 as the result of a corporate shuffle involving, principally, Monogram Pictures and thereafter turned out the serials and BWesterns we have grown to love over the years, symbolized eventually by the Republic eagle, But, during some research deep into the Vast Whizzbang Organization archives, I made a startling discovery--there was another Republic as early as 1933 with, judging by the ad reproduced on our cover, an eagle as its trademark,
The difference was, apparently, that our Republic, the Republic of Fighting Devil Dogs, Spy Smasher, The Three Mesquiteers etc, produced its own films, while the 1933model Republic was in the business of renting out studio space, technical facilities and staff for independent producers including (as nearly as I can determine) Hollywood Pictures, Allied Pictures, Chesterfield, Artclass, Audible, and Majestic.
Republic Studios Inc, had previously operated as Tec Art Studios Inc,, a company dating back at least to the early 1920s, After its oneyear sojourn under the Republic banner, the company emerged in 1934 as Prudential Studios, same address, but with Harry Sherman as the chief executive instead of Alfred T. Mannon who had been connected with Tec Art well back into the 20s, The following year, Prudential was at a different address, 650 N. Bronson; Sherman was still the head honcho, but had also established Harry Sherman Productions at the same address to start turning out the Hopalong Cassidy series with William Boyd, But that's another story.
Anyway, I think it's interesting that there was, if only for a year, another Republic, An interesting sidelight: The art director at Republic Studios in '33 was listed as Mack D'Agostino; the same name crops up as unit manager on Republic Pictures’ serials No, 9 through 30--The Lone Ranger through Secret Service In Darkest Africa-plus Republic serials No, 32 and 33--Captain America and Tiger Woman.
* * * MORE ON REPUBLIC: I recently mentioned a new compilation movie called Meanwhile, Back At The Ranch featuring film clips of such people as Buck Jones, Gene Autry, Ken Maynard, John Wayne and many more and quoted the punch line appearing in the ad for the feature in Variety: "Principal photography completed... July 1947," Now, in the Nov. 10 Variety, there's a story quoting producer Patrick Curtis as saying much of the material he's using is in public domain. He claims "all of Republic's oaters pre-1947 were not copyrighted, apparently because it was felt ‘they weren't worth anything’ at the time. Other studios did selective copyrighting, as per Columbia with its Durango Kid series." Curtis goes on to say: “The stuff that is not public domain we're dealing on, Gene Autry owns all of his own films-people like that who have control over their destiny realize what we've been trying to do, "