Poverty Row

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Poverty Row ( dt. Slum , where Row not only for series , but also for spectacle, slapstick could be) was a term that in Hollywood slang for the group of smaller and smallest movie studios was used in the cheaper area of Hollywood, away from Sunset Boulevard around what is now Gower Street and mostly released low-budget films .

To distinguish it from the big Hollywood studios ( MGM , Paramount , Fox , Warner , RKO , Universal , Columbia , United Artists ), the term was coined towards the end of the silent film era and soon referred to all small film companies - regardless of their geographic location, who initially had no stars of their own , often had to borrow equipment and produced so-called B-movies with little effort . Most of the Poverty Row Studios disappeared after a short time.

Republic Pictures gained importance , in which John Wayne appeared in several low-budget westerns, but also the John Ford classic The Winner , and Harry Cohn's CBC film company, from which Columbia Pictures emerged . The more well-known studios also included the long-lived Monogram Pictures with u. a. the series about Charlie Chan (originally from Fox) and the East Side Kids / Bowery Boys as well as PRC ( Producers Releasing Corporation ) with u. a. various fuzzy westerns and the recognized film noir classic diversion .

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