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Mascot Pictures Corporation
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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 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)
Sennett Studios
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 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
Production crew
Filmography
The Hurricane Express (1932)
Additionally,
See also
Further reading
- The Vanishing Legion: A History of Mascot Pictures 1927-1935; Tuska, Jon; 1999 (McFarland Classics); ISBN 978-0786407491
External links
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Mascot serials |
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Serials |
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Silent Serials
(1926-1929)
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Part-Sound Serials
(1929)
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All-Sound Serials
(1930-1935)
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People |
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Actors and Actresses
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Stunt Performers
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Production Crew
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