Type | Film production |
---|---|
Industry | Entertainment |
Founded | 1924 |
Founder | W. Ray Johnston |
Defunct | 1933 |
Fate | merged with Sono Art-World Wide Pictures and acquired by Monogram Pictures |
Rayart Pictures was one of the early film production and distribution companies operating independently of the major Hollywood studios in the United States during the later silent film era from the mid-to-late 1920s and into the early "talkies" era of early films with sound in the late 1920s and early 1930s. It established its own distribution network, [1] specialising in westerns. [2] It was begun by W. Ray Johnston in 1924, after whom the company was named. It was originally created as a low budget release agent, [3] and like the other so-called Poverty Row studios, was based in a small plot off Sunset Strip, by Gower Street. [4] An early Poverty Row studio, [5] it was a forerunner of Monogram Pictures, whom was also founded by W. Ray Johnston. [6]
In 1929, Rayart produced a series of musical pieces—featuring Tommy Christian and His Palisades Orchestra— as well as shorts and the feature-length film Howdy Broadway , a musical set in college with "an entirely predictable" script. [7]
Rayart was renamed Raytone with the advent of sound in films.[ citation needed ] The company became part of Monogram Pictures in a merger with Sono Art-World Wide Pictures in 1933.
Rex Lloyd Lease was an American actor. He appeared in over 300 films, mainly in Poverty Row westerns.
Frankie Darro was an American actor and later in his career a stuntman. He began his career as a child actor in silent films, progressed to lead roles and co-starring roles in adventure, western, dramatic, and comedy films, and later became a character actor and voice-over artist. He is perhaps best known for his role as Lampwick, the unlucky boy who turns into a donkey in Walt Disney's second animated feature, Pinocchio (1940). In early credits, his last name was spelled Darrow.
Tom Tyler was an American actor known for his leading roles in low-budget Western films in the silent and sound eras, and for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the 1941 serial film The Adventures of Captain Marvel. Tyler also played Kharis in 1940's The Mummy's Hand, a popular Universal Studios monster film.
William Nigh was an American film director, writer, and actor. His film work sometimes lists him as either "Will Nigh" or "William Nye".
Sidney Bracey was an Australian-born American actor. After a stage career in Australia, on Broadway and in Britain, he performed in more than 320 films between 1909 and 1942.
Howard "Duke" Worne was an American director and actor of the silent era. He directed more than 70 films between 1919 and 1931. He also appeared in 27 films between 1914 and 1928. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and died in Los Angeles, California. In 1930, Worne married silent film actress Virginia Brown Faire, to whom he remained married until his death three years later in 1933.
Ernest Hilliard was an American actor. He appeared in more than 90 films between 1921 and 1947. He was born in New York City and died in Santa Monica, California, from a heart attack.
Tiffany Pictures, which also became Tiffany-Stahl Productions for a time, was a Hollywood motion picture studio in operation from 1921 until 1932. It is considered a Poverty Row studio, whose films had lower budgets, lesser-known stars, and overall lower production values than major studios.
Pathé Exchange, commonly known as Pathé, was an American film production and distribution company, largely of Hollywood's silent era. Known for its groundbreaking newsreel and wide array of shorts, it grew out of the American division of the major French studio Pathé Frères, which began distributing films in the United States in 1904. Ten years later, it produced the enormously succeesful The Perils of Pauline, a twenty-episode serial that came to define the genre. The American operation was incorporated as Pathé Exchange toward the end of 1914 and spun off as an independent entity in 1921; the Merrill Lynch investment firm acquired a controlling stake. The following year, it released Robert J. Flaherty's influential documentary Nanook of the North. For much of the 1920s, Pathé distributed the shorts of comedy pioneers Hal Roach and Mack Sennett and innovative animator Paul Terry. Beginning in 1927, the studio changed hands several times in quick succession: it came under the control of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain, then financier and Hollywood maestro Joseph P. Kennedy, and finally, in January 1931, RKO Pictures. Its semiautonomous production of features as RKO Pathé ended by late 1932, though RKO released Pathé-branded newsreels and shorts for many years afterward. The Pathé News operation was purchased in 1947 from RKO by Warner Bros., which shut it down in 1956. A few of Pathé's minor assets, including its film lab facilities, were not included in the RKO acquisition and subsequently reorganized, first as the Pathé Film Corporation and ultimately as Pathé Industries. The latter reentered the movie production business for a half-decade in the 1940s with its purchase of Producers Releasing Corporation.
Fred Myton was an American screenwriter. He wrote 168 films between 1916 and 1952, mostly low-budget "B" pictures for Poverty Row studios and independent producers. He wrote many films for Producers Releasing Corporation.
Sono Art-World Wide Pictures was an American film distribution and production company in operation from 1927 to 1933. Their first feature film was The Rainbow Man (1929), while one of their most prominent was The Great Gabbo (1929) starring Erich von Stroheim and directed by James Cruze for James Cruze Productions, Inc. One of the last films distributed by the company was A Study in Scarlet (1933) starring Reginald Owen as Sherlock Holmes.
Hermon Reed Howes was an American model who later became an actor in silent and sound films.
Tremlet C. Carr was an American film producer, closely associated with the low-budget filmmaking of Poverty Row. In 1931 he co-founded Monogram Pictures, which developed into one of the leading specialist producers of B pictures in Hollywood.
Chadwick Pictures was an American film production and distribution company active during the silent and early sound eras. It was originally established in New York by Isaac E. Chadwick in 1920 to release films, but from 1924 also began to produce them. In later years the company's independent films were similar to those of other small studios on Poverty Row. Following the introduction of sound, its releases were handled by Monogram Pictures. In 1933 it ceased production entirely.
W. Ray Johnston was an American film producer. He was associated with low-budget filmmaking, in particular with the larger Poverty Row studios Rayart Pictures and Monogram Pictures. Before founding Rayart in 1924, he also acted in a handful of films.
Samuel Zierler (1895–1964) was an American film producer of the silent and early sound era. As well as working for various studios, in the late 1920s he controlled his own production company, Excellent Pictures. His final film work was for RKO Pictures in 1933.
Jules Cowles was an American film actor. He was also billed as J. D. Cowles and Julius D. Cowles.
Bert Longenecker (1876–1940) was an American cinematographer. He was active in Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s, primarily on westerns at lower-budget Poverty Row companies including Aywon, Monogram and Republic Pictures. He frequently worked with the prolific director Robert N. Bradbury.
George W. Pyper (1886–1965) was an American screenwriter of the silent era. He was also a novelist. Pyper wrote the scripts for many productions made by FBO and Rayart Pictures, generally action films and westerns. He also worked on several serials for Universal Pictures.
Byron Robinson (1900–1957) was an American film editor. He worked for a variety of studios including Tiffany Pictures, Universal Pictures, Mayfair Pictures and Columbia Pictures.