I recently got one of Alan Barbour's "Screen Facts" serial books out of the library--it was called "The Serials of Columbia." In the back were listed several other books--the Serials of Republic, Serial Quarterly #1, 2, 3, 4, and six issues of Serial Still Sets. I checked and only the Republic one is available inter-library loan. Does anyone know where the others are to be found? Can they be bought for a reasonable price?

Alan Barbour wrote many different books in varying formats during his career. He died in February of 2002.
He published full sized books on serial and the movies such as The Serials Of Republic, 1972's Cliffhanger, and Days Of Thrills And Adventure. Three of his books were combined into one big volume entitled SATURDAY AFTERNOON AT THE MOVIES and it contained Days of Thrills and Adventure, A Thousand and One Delights, and The Thrill Of It All.
He also published many little digest sized booklets entitled Serial Quarterly and Great Serial Ads. These are sought after for their rare publicity photos and background material. All of his publications sometimes pop up on Ebay and are worth bidding on.

Thanks for that info, CC. I'll keep my eye out for them on Ebay, in that case.

Jerry:
I have copies of Barbour's Serial Quarterly #'s 1, 2,3,4 and 6. As far as I know these booklets of serial synopsis' published in 1966 and 1967 have not been available for some time. Back in the early 90's a good friend of mine in Baltimore named Phil Perry who is a Serial and B-Western collector obtained a large amount of unsold periodicals from Barbour. At that time he inquired as to the availability of the Serial Quarterly's and his Screen Facts Reference Books The Serial Volume 1 and Volume 2. Alan told Phil that aside from the set he kept for himself all others were in the hands of collectors. I also have The Serial Volume 2 which gives the synopsis of various serials from the Big 3 as well as ads and poster art. Volume 1 spent more time on Republic.

Included among the periodicals Phil obtained from Alan were duplicate and triplicate copies of the following of which I bought from Phil:

2 releases of Alan G. Barbour's 'Screen Nostalgia Illustrated'

#12 - A Poster Salute to B-Westerns - 46 pages of Republic stills of Western Stars and Move Posters - 1975

#13 - Movie Ads of the Past - Silent and Early Talkies - 46 pages of pictures and ads of Silent Stars and their Movies - 1976

In 1983 Barbour started up Screen Nostalgia Illustrated again, this time in Comic Book size usually running around 16 pages.
Listed below are the 3 I have:

#2 - Goodbye, Buster. The whole issue was dedicated to Buster Crabbe with photos from most of his serial roles.

#4 - Now Playing. In this issue he supplied photos and ads from all the studios producing B-Westers during the 40's and 50's.

#6 - Now Playing - Serial Portraits. Again Alan supplied portraits from all the studios covering the late 30's thru 1955.

My favorite of these is #6. He supplied photos of Dick Curtis as Fang from Terry and the Pirates, Betty Jane Rhodes as the Lioness Goddess from Jungle Jim just to name a few. These are really nice books of movie memorabilia, and some of the photos included here I've never seen in and any other publication. If your ever able to pick any of these publications up, don't hesitate.

Barcroft

I've just ordered "The Republic Chapterplays: A Complete Filmography of the Serials Released by Republic Pictures Corporation, 1934-1955" by R. M. Hayes from Amazon (US$25). I'm looking forward to reading it. Does anyone have any thoughts on this book ?

SQ4:

The Republic Chapterplays -R. M. Hayes book is basically what the complete title implies that he gives the titles with a minimum of pictures for each Republic Serial along with cast, credits, chapter titles, and brief notes about the serial, i.e. Darkest Africa was later released as a 7 reel feature version. Later as part the Century 66 package it was released as Batmen of Africa.

At the beginning of the book he has an introduction which gives an overview of the history of serials and Republic in particular. He goes on to explain what happened at Republic from it's heyday to the very end of it's existence. A nice little book about Republic. If you really want a couple of good books about Republic try picking up "Valley of the Cliffhangers Supplement" or "Republic Confidential - Volume 1 - The Studio" both by Jack Mathis.

Barcroft

This small book is a good reference volume with some nice pictures, but it is mainly filled with cold, hard facts about the serials such as running times, chapter titles, credits etc. An invaluable tool for reserch, but not for fun reading.

The Corner Barbershop