Nat Levine moved to Hollywood in 1925, setting out to produce his own movies.
15 Facts About Nat Levine
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Nat Levine had made many friends in film distribution, and arranged with them to release his films on the independent state's rights market.
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Nat Levine filled that demand with western and dramatic serials.
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Nat Levine was well aware that small-town exhibitors were slow to convert to the new talking-picture technology, so he concentrated on silent pictures until the end of the silent-film era.
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Nat Levine released his 1929 serial The King of the Kongo in both talking and silent versions.
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Nat Levine hired Walt Disney's recording equipment for his early sound films, until he was able to afford his own.
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Nat Levine was careful with his production budgets, filming largely outdoors to save money on constructing sets, and hiring mostly less expensive silent-film actors whose names still meant something at the boxoffice.
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When Warner Brothers dropped its enormously popular Rin Tin Tin series of silent features, Nat Levine signed the dog and his trainer, Lee Duncan, to work in Mascot serials.
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Nat Levine continued to produce lightweight features with bygone names like William Haines and Erich von Stroheim, but its main output was still action serials.
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Nat Levine valued Darro so highly that he raised Darro's salary from $1,000 weekly to $2,000, then to $3,000, $4,000, and $5,000.
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Nat Levine used some of the profits to expand his operation, buying the former Mack Sennett studio.
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Nat Levine, accustomed to being his own boss, was uncomfortable with the new setup, and Yates bought out Nat Levine and his interests for one million dollars.
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Nat Levine was reckless with the windfall, and after a brief association with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1938, he raised some cash by reissuing a few of his more popular serials, still using the Mascot brand name, in 1940.
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Nat Levine finally became the manager of a movie theater in Redondo Beach, California, and held this position through the 1960s.
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Nat Levine became a resident of the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California, where he died in 1989.