Mascot Pictures Corporation

Infobox Defunct Company
company_name = Mascot Pictures Corporation
company_logo =
slogan =
fate = Merged
successor = Republic Pictures
foundation = 1927
defunct = 1935
location = First: Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, United States Flagicon|USA
Later: Studio City, Los Angeles, California, United States Flagicon|USA
industry = Film studio
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)
num_employees =
parent =
subsid =

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)

ennett 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

* Gene Autry
* Smiley Burnette
* John Wayne

Production crew

* Ford Beebe
* B. Reeves Eason
* Joseph Kane
* The Lydecker brothers
* William Witney

Filmography

*"Men with Steel Faces" (1940)
*"Doughnuts and Society" (1936)
*"The Fighting Marines" (1935)
*"Harmony Lane" (1935)
*"Confidential" (1935)
*"Waterfront Lady" (1935)
*"Streamline Express" (1935)
*"The Adventures of Rex and Rinty" (1935)
*"Ladies Crave Excitement" (1935)
*"The Headline Woman" (1935)
*"One Frightened Night" (1935)
*"The Miracle Rider" (1935)
*"Behind the Green Lights" (1935)
*"The Phantom Empire" (1935)
*"Little Men" (1934)
*"Mystery Mountain" (1934)
*"Burn 'Em Up Barnes" (1934)
*"The Marines Are Coming" (1934)
*"In Old Santa Fe" (1934)
*"Crimson Romance" (1934)
*"Young and Beautiful" (1934)
*"The Law of the Wild" (1934)
*"Burn 'Em Up Barnes" (1934)
*"The Lost Jungle" (1934)
*"The Lone Defender" (1934)
*"The Lost Jungle" (1934)
*"The Mystery Squadron" (1933)
*"The Wolf Dog" (1933)
*"Laughing at Life" (1933)
*"Fighting with Kit Carson" (1933)
*"The Whispering Shadow" (1933)
*"The Three Musketeers" (1933)
*"The Devil Horse" (1932)
*"Pride of the Legion" (1932)
*"The Hurricane Express" (1932)
*"The Last of the Mohicans" (1932)
*"The Shadow of the Eagle" (1932)
*"The Lightning Warrior" (1931)
*"The Galloping Ghost" (1931)
*"The Vanishing Legion" (1931)
*"King of the Wild" (1931)
*"The Phantom of the West" (1931)
*"The Lone Defender" (1930)
*"The King of the Kongo" (1929)
*"The Fatal Warning" (1929)
*"Vultures of the Sea" (1928)
*"The Vanishing West" (1928)
*"Heroes of the Wild" (1927)
*"Isle of Sunken Gold" (1927)
*"The Golden Stallion" (1927)

Additionally,

*"The Silent Flyer" (1926) was created by Nat Levine but was not strictly a Mascot production

ee also

* List of film serials by studio includes a list of serials produced by Mascot.

Further reading

* "The Vanishing Legion: A History of Mascot Pictures 1927-1935"; Tuska, Jon; 1999 (McFarland Classics); ISBN 978-0786407491

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/company/co0130486/ Mascot Pictures at the Internet Movie Database]
* [http://www.searchmytrash.com/cgi-bin/articlecreditsb.pl?mascot(9-05) Mascot Pictures at (re)Search my Trash]
* [http://www.b-westerns.com/levine.htm Nat Levine & Mascot Pictures at B-Westerns]