Republic Pictures Corporation - New York

Beautiful engraved specimen certificate from the Republic Pictures Corporation incorporated in 1927. This historic document was printed by Hamilton Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of two allegorical women flanking the company's logo. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's Vice-President and Secretary.


Certificate Vignette

Created in 1935 by Herbert J. Yates, a long-time investor in film and music properties and founder and president of Consolidated Film Industries, Republic was the result of a union of five smaller Poverty Row studios. In its early years Republic was itself sometimes labeled a "Poverty Row" company as its primary product were b-films and serial films. Republic, however, showed more interest in, and provided larger budgets to, these films than many of the larger studios were doing and than other independents were able. The heart of the company was its b-westerns, and many western-film stars, among them John Wayne, Gene Autry, Rex Allen, and Roy Rogers, began at Republic. However, 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.

In the depths of the 1930s depression, Yates convinced the heads of five established poverty-row companies to merge under his leadership and form Republic Pictures Corporation as a collaborative, b-film-oriented enterprise. The largest of the five was Monogram Pictures, run by Trem Carr and W. Ray Johnston, specializing in B-films, and controlling a nation-wide distribution system. The most advanced technically was Nat Levine's Mascot Pictures, which had been making serials almost exclusively since the mid-1920s and had a first-class studio, the former Mack Sennett - Keystone lot in Studio City. Mascot also had just discovered Gene Autry and signed him to a contract as the first singing cowboy star. Acquiring these companies allowed Republic to begin life with a skilled production staff, a company of experienced b-film supporting players and at least one highly promising star, a complete distribution system, and a functioning studio. The other companies which merged were M. H. Hoffman's Liberty Films, from which Republic took its original "Liberty Bell" logo (and not to be confused with the Liberty Films that produced Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, ironically now owned by Republic), Chesterfield Pictures and Invincible Pictures which had skill in producing low budget melodramas and mysteries. In exchange for merging, the personnel of these companies' owners were promised independence in their productions under the Republic aegis, and higher budgets with which to improve the quality of the films which would hold their names on the credits.

While the better budgets were certainly forthcoming, after he had "learned the ropes" of film production and distribution from his partners, he began asserting more and more authority over "their" film departments, and dissention arose in the ranks. Carr and Johnston left and reactivated Monogram Pictures; Levine left and never recovered from the loss of his studio, staff and stars, all of whom now were contracted to Republic and Yates. Freed of partners, Yates set about presiding over what was now *his* film studio and acquiring senior production and management staff who would service him as employees, not experienced peers with independent ideas and agendas for the films assigned to or developed by them.

Republic also acquired Brunswick Records to record their singing cowboys Gene Autry and Roy Rogers and hired Cy Feuer as head of their music department.

James Madison Walters, the famous set decorator and Mary Field, the famous character actress both worked for Republic Pictures.

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. Hollywood Television Service also produced television shows filmed in the same style as Republic's serials such as The Adventures of Fu Manchu (1956). 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.

Although Republic made most of its films in black and white, it very occasionally would produce a higher-budget film, such as The Red Pony (1949) and The Quiet Man (1952), in Technicolor. During the 1940s and 1950s, Yates also utilized a low-cost Cinecolor process called Trucolor in some of his films, notably Johnny Guitar (1954), The Last Command (1955 film), and Magic Fire (1956).

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 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 Laboratories and the manufacture of household appliances. Other than producing a 1966 package of 26 "Century 66" 100 minute made-for-TV movies edited from some of the Republic serials to cash in on the popularity of the Batman (TV series), its role in Hollywood ended with the sale of the studio lot.

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About Specimens

Specimen Certificates are actual certificates that have never been issued. They were usually kept by the printers in their permanent archives as their only example of a particular certificate. Sometimes you will see a hand stamp on the certificate that says "Do not remove from file".

Specimens were also used to show prospective clients different types of certificate designs that were available. Specimen certificates are usually much scarcer than issued certificates. In fact, many times they are the only way to get a certificate for a particular company because the issued certificates were redeemed and destroyed. In a few instances, Specimen certificates we made for a company but were never used because a different design was chosen by the company.

These certificates are normally stamped "Specimen" or they have small holes spelling the word specimen. Most of the time they don't have a serial number, or they have a serial number of 00000. This is an exciting sector of the hobby that grown in popularity over the past several years.