| Rayart Pictures | |
| Industry: | Entertainment |
| Type: | Film production |
| Founder: | W. Ray Johnston |
| Foundation: | 1924 |
| 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 independent 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] specializing in westerns.[2] It was started 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, which 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. The company became part of Monogram Pictures in a merger with Sono Art-World Wide Pictures in 1933.