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.
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.
The company continued to produce lightweight features with bygone names like William Haines and Erich von Stroheim,[1] but its main output was still action serials.
"[4] Levine's biggest coup was luring cowboy superstar Tom Mix out of retirement to star in a deluxe serial, The Miracle Rider (1935).
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.
Levine became the manager of the Picfair Theater on Pico and Fairfax in West Los Angeles until the early 1960's when he moved on to the Rolling Hills Theatre in Torrance, California, and held this position through the 1960s.