Fallen Republic

"We have one problem--getting out of the motion-picture business." Herbert J. Yates, president of Republic Pictures, thus explained the situation last week to the company's annual stockholders' meeting in Manhattan.

From the floor, several stockholders rose to ask for more detailed explanations. "What happened to your vision, Mr. Yates?" cried one. Asked another: Why had Yates's wife, Actress Vera Ralston, been put in starring roles in flop after Republic flop? Why, with the company wobbling, did the president ask for and get a salary of $150,000 this year?

With a net loss last year of $1,362,420, Republic has closed all but two of its foreign distribution branches, cut its domestic offices from 36 to 19 ("And the sooner we close all of them, the better"). Yates said that Republic hopes to be completely done with motion-picturemaking by July1, will continue to rent out its studios and sell its film library to TV.

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