- When he was deposed as head of production at Republic Pictures in the 1950s, it was largely due his penchant for casting Czech skating star Vera Ralston (who was his mistress and later his wife) in lavishly budgeted projects which, even when co-starring the studio's biggest box office attraction John Wayne, almost always lost money.
- Discreetly helped finance (along with Bank of America, Joseph M. Schenck and Louis B. Mayer) Darryl F. Zanuck 's Twentieth Century Pictures in 1933. Zanuck's new studio would become a major customer of Yates' Consolidated Film Industries.
- Uncle of screenwriter George Worthing Yates.
- His Republic Pictures boasted the best special effects (then called "miniatures") department in the entire film industry, courtesy of brothers Howard Lydecker and Theodore Lydecker. Republic was mostly a "Poverty Row" studio but its miniature work far outclassed anything done by the majors; in fact, Republic was often contracted by the major studios to provide special effects and miniature work for them. The proficiency of this department can best be seen in Flying Tigers (1942); although the film is chock full of very realistic dogfights, bombing and strafing runs and other action aerial shots, other than a few full-scale mock-ups for close-up shots, every aircraft in it is a miniature.
- Republic Pictures' name was resurrected from Yates' first WWI-era stab at motion picture production. He produced a handful of silent films but found his Consolidated Film Laboratories (CFI) to be far more lucrative. Always cunning, Yates would allow marginally funded film companies to go into debt to him for raw stock, processing and print duplication and then foreclose, and in 1935 he did just that with the acquisition of several small independent production companies and studio facilities, and re-formed Republic Pictures. These tactics did not endear him to his industry peers but made him extremely wealthy.
- For years leased the penthouse at 1776 Broadway in New York City.
- Great-great-grandfather of Brayden Titus.
- Brother-in-law of Rudy Ralston.
- Educated at Columbia University. Founder of Republic Pictures. Retired in 1959.
- Bought the Biograph Studios production facilities and film laboratory in the Bronx, NY, in the early 1930s, since Biograph had to liquidate the studio property to satisfy its debts to the Empire Trust Co.
- His Consolidated Film Industries bought the American Record Corp. in 1929. The company was formed from a merger of three record companies, all of which produced 35-cent "dime store" records. ARC took over Brunswick Records (and its subsidiary labels) in December 1931 from Warner Bros as a lease agreement. In late 1934 ARC bought Columbia Records for a mere $75,000. During the Depression ARC dominated the "dime store" market, as well as having the prestige 75-cent Brunswick (and what was left of the Columbia and OKeh labels). The entire ARC company was purchased by CBS in 1938 for $700,000.
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