Mute Major

The penny-pinching proclivities of Republic, largest of the independent studios, have been a longstanding joke to spendthrift Hollywood. Example: mute extras earn $7.50 a day; those who speak so much as one word get $25. In many a Republic Western the hero rides up to a corral character and asks: "Did so-and-so pass here?" The extra nods. "Which way?" The extra points. "How many with him?" The extra holds up the necessary number of fingers. Total payroll saving: $17.50.

When Republic became a "major" studio recently by joining the Association of

Motion Picture Producers, the laugh was on Hollywood. Unlike its corpulent new companions, the newcomer has no bank loans (therefore no bankers to please). This enviable position is due to the astuteness of a Manhattan financier named Herbert John Yates, who formed the studio from three independents six years ago, has run it himself ever since.

Unlike its big-time competitors, who counted on the foreign market for some 35% of their gross, Republic, which took its exports as just so much gravy, made Westerns, serials, etc. for some 11,000 small-town U.S. cinemas, little cinemas in large towns. This neglected cheap-picture market netted Republic a modest $500,000 last year, promises to do much better for 1941.

With 30 tried-&-true Westerns, four cliffhangers (serials) on its schedule, Republic is celebrating its majority by budgeting 32 feature pictures. If these should flop, the studio can always beat its way back to the brush with its ace box-office star, Gene Autry, the singing cowboy.

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