1) RICHARD DOUGLAS FANNIN

Founder and president of Double-Action Pictures Corporation from 1936-1949. Born 1896 in the City of Angels, son of a banking and real estate family (Pacific Coast National Bank). He apparently became interested in the motion picture business when assigned to an Army Signal Corps film unit while serving in the army 1917-19. It was in the unit he first met Harold Tovar and after the war, worked with him at several film companies primarily as an accountant and bookkeeper, jobs that allowed him to become well-acquainted with the perils and rewards of the motion picture business, especially small, independent companies. Later, he worked at PCNB, arranging film financing, but left the bank to organize Double-Action in 1936, arranging the merger of Star Spangled Studios,

Donnybrook Film Productions, and the Rialto-Grand American Theatre chain.  Although listed as president, he was directly in charge of serials from 1939 to 1949.

2) HAROLD M. TOVAR

Born in New York in 1890, Tovar came from a family of theatrical producers and theatre owners. He became interested in the motion picture business as a teenager, working at many different jobs and for a number of companies until arriving at Pathe about 1916 where he found his niche in serial production. He left Pathe in 1922 to produce independent serials for cliffhanger queen Mary Meredith, turning out a dozen serials between 1922 and 1927 when Ms. Meredith retired to Europe a wealthy woman. Mr. Tovar worked on serials as they transitioned into sound, eventually running the serial unit at upstart Star Spangled Studios. When the ill-financed Star Spangled merged into what became Double-Action Pictures, Tovar became its first head of production, supervising all the studio's output, though it is clear most of his time was spent on the serial department. He left the studio in 1939, in order to become an independent film producer of feature films. He was to do a number of feature films for D-A including "Pirate Queens of Port Royal", "Daggers Drawn", "Swords of the Whie Mask", "Girls of the Big House", "Renegades",  and "Fort Fury".

3) D.F. (DOROTHY FRANCIS) DODGE

Writer, director, the creator of the Donnybrook Girls series of action comedies, "Dorrie" as she was known to her friends was the major directing force behind Double-Action's "Golden Age", directing such groundbreaking films as "The Beauty Pageant Murders", "Pinup Punchers", "Girls of the Big House", "Renegades" and "Fort Fury." Born Dorothy Alma Francis in the City of Angels in 1900, by 1922 she was an elementary school teacher looking for something different which led her into becoming a tutor for the child actors employed by various independent studios that often had trouble affording the more elaborate "studio schools" of the bigger studios. This eventually led her into meeting J Donovan Dodge (1882-1932), pioneer writer-director-producer, by then directing silent serials for "Mary Meredith Productions" with Harold Tovar as the producer. Somewhere in this period, Dorothy began to contributing the chapter plays and general serving as an assistant for Dodge and Tovar. When Harold Tovar set up his own serial production company, the Dodges (they had married in 1926) came along with "J.D." as he was called, the principle director. (The one complete surviving example of these late silent serial, released by D-A predecessor Star Spangled Pictures in 1927 is XANDRIA starring ALLA KIROVA, BUSTER STEELE,  REBECCA RAYMOND, and MILA KIROVA). The advent of talking pictures did not seem to trouble J.D, Dodge too much, but a decision to go into independent film production, not helped by the stock market crash of 1929 that curtailed film investor enthusiasm, led to financial difficulties. (Also not helping was Dodge's growing drinking problem). The Dodges then launched Donnybrook Film Company to make short subjects for release by Star Spangled. These were "the only serious challenge to Hal Roach's 'Our Gang' comedies", THE DONNYBROOK KIDS. With 32 releases between 1930 and 1933, they 2-reelers were an gold mine for the struggling studio. Although J. Donovan Dodge is listed as producer & director, even  before his death in 1932 (from pneumonia), it is now clear most of the series was the work of Dorothy Dodge covering for her increasingly incapitated husband.)  of particular interest to Double-Action fans are the earliest appearances of such later D-A stars as SARAH MAY GREGORY and ELIZA DUNCAN (billed simply as "Sarah" and "Eliza" in the credits, it often surprises some fans to learn theyactually began as child performers, though they outgrew these roles by 1933 and had to endure lean years until making comebacks in the late 1930's, clearly helped along by Mrs, Dodge). In 1933, the owners of Star Spangled decided to end the DONNYBROOK KIDS series and replace them with a series of true (or sort-of-true) tales called LEGENDS OF THE OLD WEST (in later years called "WINDY RHODES' TALES OF THE WEST"). Mrs. Dodge produced, directed and wrote the first 6 in the series, but soon drifted away from the series as she became the unofficial head of the Star Spangled Story Department basically in charge of hiring (and firing) of writers as well as keeping an eye out for filmable properties. With the creation of DOUBLE-ACTION PICTURES she was made formal head of the Story Department, but anxious to direct feature films, having directed the mystery drama CURSE OF THE DEVIL'S DOUBLOONS in the period up to the creation of D-A,  she was able finally to talk her way out of the Front Office in 1938 turning this function over to the able PAUL & CHARLOTTE CHANDLER.

Dodge's early directing career  up to her return to features in 1938's NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM was in doing certain "second-unit" action scenes for the first 6 D-A serials and the "RANGE MAVERICK " Western series: namely the female fighting scenes scenes. A fine example of this early work can be seen in the 1937 serial "DEADLY INHERITANCE" wherein early D-A stars JENNA CONNELLY (Jennifer Connelly), HEATHER LANGE (Heather Langenkamp) and JAMIE LEE (Jamie Lee Curtis) are in extremely well-choreographed 3-way catfight, one of the earliest example of Dodge's (and eventually D-A's) trademark multi-fighter fem fights. There also a splendid Western fistfight in 1937's NIGHT RIDERS OF THE SIERRA with heroine JAMIE LEE trading punches for a solid four minutes with villainess JANE BARRETT (Jessica Biel) before finally knocking the stubborn bad girl out.

Of course, Dodge's breakthrough picture was 1939's FEDERAL FISTS (written by EMILY LEVIN) and starring JENNIFER GARNETT (Jennifer Garner), REBECCA RAYMOND (Rebecca Romijn) and a small, but memorable role JANE BARRETT (Jessica Biel).

4) AGNES MAYE ("Edna May")

Officially, Agnes Ruth Maye, was the "Executive Secretary to the President", but this sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued lady with a heart of a gold, appears in virtually every memoir of a former D-A employee. (She was called "Edna May" because of her strong resemblance to character actress Edna May Oliver, though never to her face).

She seems to have been the one actually riding herd on the sometimes tempestous actresses under contract to the studio. "I started out teaching in an all-girls school. It turned to be perfect training for my later career at the studio," she says in her own memoirs).

5) EMILY LEVIN

Originally hired to writing publicity copy, former newspaperwoman Emily Levin she was able to take advantage of her personal knowledge of the fight promotion game (her father was publicity man for New York City promoters), she wrote the  script for the 1939 breakthrough hit FEDERAL FISTS. There after she wrote many boxing related pictures and by the mid-1940's had begun to direct. Most notable being the JENNNIFER GARNETT/NEVE NORTHWOOD: "BATTLING QUEENS OF THE BARBARY COAST". It was said that "if the movie had boxing in it, Emily wrote it or at least revised the boxing scenes).

6) MILA KIROVA VAN WITT

An ingenue in late silent and early talking pictures, where she often co-starred with her older sister ALLA KIROVA. Around 1933  Ms. Kirova concluded her true talents lay in screen writing and she contributed screen stories and screenplays to D-A's predecessor company Star Spangled Pictures. In 1936 she married a young attorney named Philip Van Witt (he was a member of the legal firm that assisted in the merger. He eventually became a key legal adviser for D-A founder Richard Fannin. ). She continued producing screen stories, primarily for her friend Dorothy Dodge as a lucrative hobby She  something of a specialist in mystery films. her most notable scripts include 1936's CURSE OF THE DEVIL'S DOUBLOONS (one of the few films of this period wherwe she was able to do both sreenplay and screen story),  1938's THE MUSEUM AT MIDNIGHT & ONE LOST NIGHT; 1939's CITY OF MISSING GIRLS, STREET OF FEAR & DEADLINE and 1940's THE BEAUTY PAGEANT MURDERS.

She also contributed to the stories of such early D-A serials as DEADLY INHERITANCE (1937), 7 DIAMONDS OF DOOM (1938), MASK OF THE MAGICIAN (1939) and especially MYSTERIES OF ADVENTURE ISLAND (1941).

Later in the 1940's she wrote for  nearly all D-A's mystery series CO-ED DETECTIVE, THE CAT,  DANCING DETECTIVE, TWO ON A CLUE and most impressively the darkly noirish  UNDERCOVER AGENT series (using the pen name "Mark Alexander"),

Mrs. Van Witt used the pen name "Mary Kirkwood" for most of her D-A screen stories, though she used "Roan Ryder" for her occasional westerns (SILVER SPURS & the serial THE FARRADAY BRAND, for example).

It should be noted that she was one of the favorite screenwriters of Jennifer Garnett contributting to the later Garnett serials QUEEN OF DIAMONDS (1944)  and THE CAT RETURNS: VENGEANCE OF THE VIXEN (1945) as well as several of Miss Garnett's "noirish" mysteries of the mid-40's: DARK OF NIGHT, SILVER SPURS & AFTER MIDNIGHT, a style she was able to perfect in a number of her UNDERCOVER AGENT scripts.

It is said that Mila was an enthusiastic wrestling fan ("she was to wrestling pictures what Emily Levin was to D-A boxing", one D-A historian has commented) and this is reflected in a number of her scripts.

Mila  and Alla Kirova's older brother was composer/musician Dmitri Kirov, who worked first for Howard Tovar in his Mary Meredith period then at Star Spangled Pictures and finally with Double-Action where he became the studio's musical director composing and arranging many of tjhe studio's music scores, all under the name "David Kirk" (so as not to tarnish his work as a classical composer).

7) OLIVER HART

Hart was considered a competent, but uninspired screenwriter, primarily of Westerns before coming to work for D-A. Here he finally discovered his niche: he was very good at writing female fight scenes and coming up with new twists on why they were fighting. This got him assignments for "Range Mavericks" and "Trail Busters" series. His most notable script of this period being THE GIRL FROM WACO, the Range Maverick film that introduced Jenni-Love Harris. Not surprisingly he also wrote several early "Six Gun Sisters" and most of "The Midnight Rider" series for Kara Harcourt. He eventually became a producer and took over the Six Gun Sisters series for the finale 1945-47. He soon moved on to the FRONTIER DETECTIVES series as well as it's famous climax the serial BATTLING THE GHOST LEGION. Hart also contributed to a number of D-A Western serials including WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE; THE FARRADAY BRAND: QUEEN OF THE BORDER BANDITS & TRAIL OF THE FLAMING ARROWS.

8) TAYLOR COLT

The sister of D-A Western star Travis Colt, she started out as a bit player/stunt woman. She enlarged her roles both as an actress and stunt person. She became D-A's first female stunt co-ordinator and second-unit direc tor, directing major action scenes. In the late 1940's she directed a number of UNDERCOVER AGENT and ROSE DAREWOOD films.

9) MICHAEL WATSFORD

One of the unsung heroes of the D-A saga. This English-born set and production designer was brought into the studio in 1937 to overhaul it's entire set department. Operating on a strict budget he neverless was able to give D-A productions a handsome, "Big Studio" look that did much to establish the new studio. He was the father of D-A's late Forties juvenile favorite EMMA ("Rose Darewood") WATSFORD.

10 & 11) PAUL and CHARLOTTE CHANDLER

Husband and wife team of producer-screenwriters. They had worked at several studios before landing in the D-A Story Department in 1937 as the principle assistant to DOROTHY DODGE and succeeded her as heads of the Story Department 1938-1940, when they joined the "Donnybrook Girls" unit, taking over the series with the third installment. Paul Chandler usually handled the production aspects while Charlotte supervised the writing (and Dorothy Dodge did the actual directing). They later created and produced "The Girl Called Trouble" series and, after the end of the D-A era moved in a long and successful careers in television.

12) FREDERICK OSTROW

Producer-writer and from 1940-1949, head of the "Horror Unit" at Double-Action. He began his career in Europe, coming to the USA in 1929. He worked at a number of studios, chiefly Universal Pictures where he became something of a specialist in horror films. As such he was a natural for Richard Fannin to sign up when he needed someone to take over the studio's struggling horror film line. Ostrow brought along with him two young directors BEN THORNE and RUDOLPH KINGSLEY (born Koenig in his native Germany which he had fled after the rise of Hitler). Ostrow developed (with the literary help of MILA KIROVA VAN WITT) the Vampire Queen Series. At the height "Ostrow Unit" would produce 2 Vampire Queens and 2 non-series horror films each year with Thorne and Kingsley alternating directing chores. Probably the most notable decison made by Ostrow was to recast the central roles after original stars KRYSTAL KRAMER & CLARE KNIGHT had left the series in 1945 with JENNA DONOVAN & APRIL BROOKE, a move that while still controversial, was successful in maintaining the franchise for several more years. The success of the Vampire Queen series led to Ostrow being given additional producing assignments such as the 1942 JENNIFER GARNETT (Jennifer Ganer) suspense thrills DEADLY DOUBLE & DARK OF NIGHT or the JANE BARRETT (Jesica Biel) mystery dramas ADDRESS UNKNOWN (1944) and THE BIG SWINDLE (1945). He also produced one of last great D-A releases, the suspense classic STRANGERS ON A HIGHWAY (1949) with KRISTEN BELMONT (Kristen Bell)  & ADRIANNE PALMER (Adrianne Palicki).

13) THEODORE ("TEX") TAGGART

Often over-looked by D-A fans are the contributions of "Tex Taggart" whose "Range Mavericks" (1936-1940) and "Trail Busters" (1941-1945) B-Westerns helped establish the studio financially and gave many a D-A starlet her first screen appearance. Taggart himself had a long history of Western movie making having started out in the 1920's working for pioneer Thomas Ince. He founded his own low-budget Western production company "Target Western Films Inc." in 1930, which released a number of it's later films through Star Spangled Pictures. He was considered such an important hire for the new studio that part of the merger agreement was the purchase of Target Westerns at a handsome profit for Mr. Taggart. Taggart's B-Westerns had long shown an interest in female fighting, but when he hired OLIVER HART to write the "Range Mavericks" series, Hart's flair for fem fight scenes made fans notice and want more. Taggart also showed a surprising ability to get the best out of his fledging actresses. (They reciprocated by calling him "Uncle Tex"). Taggart was also responsible for three secondary D-A western film series, those starring Buster Steele, those featuring Luke Lassister, and The Nevada Kid series starring a young actor who billed himself as Johnny Dallas (he left D-A in 1940 and adapted the screen name Clayton Moore)

14) MALCOLM UNDERWOOD

Underwood had been a writer of historical fiction and several modest best sellers when he was lured out to Tinseltown to work on historical pictures at a series of major studios. Unfortunately for him, he spent most of his time rewriting other screenwriters' work and getting his own ideas rejected. In particular a script called "The Pirate Queens" had been rejected by story department after story department usually with the comment: "Who wants to see two women sword fight?" In early 1940, he found the answer to the question: Double-Action Pictures as the script was brought to the attention of producer Harold Tovar, former serial king now anxious to produce feature films. Tovar bought the script and had D-A veteran Oliver Hart do a re-write to make it fit the budget and technical constraints of the small studio. Never the less, it was the mosrt expensive and complicated D-A production to date. With REBECCA RAYMOND/Rebecca Romijn) and JENNIFER GARNETT (jennifer Garner) in the lead roles, it went on to be a major success. Underwood and Tovar turned out more such features over the next few years: DAGGERS DRAWN, DAUGHTER OF CLEOPATRA, SWORDS OF THE WHITE MASK. BLADES OF VENGEANCE and DAUGHTER OF SHERWOOD FOREST. Underwood then left the studio in 1945 for what tyurned out to be another frustrating round of work at the bigger studios, before returning in 1947 where he finished his D-A career turning out screen adaptations for the ROSE DAREWOOD series.