Ralph M. Like(1894-1955)

Ralph M. Like bought the old Charles Ray Studios in 1927 to begin producing low-budget pictures starring his wife, actress Blanche Mehaffey. He formed Action Pictures, Inc., and began to churn out a series of westerns, crime dramas and action/adventure pictures (all the while keeping his main job as a studio sound engineer). In 1932 he changed the company's name to Mayfair Pictures, but the product was still the same: very low-budget, somewhat cheesy melodramas and actioners (e.g., Midnight Morals (1932), Riot Squad (1933)) with talent on both sides of the cameras either on their way up or on their way down. His pictures were distributed via the states rights system, which meant that they basically didn't get much distribution at all, and the company went out of business in 1934. Like went back to his sound engineer profession, but made one more stab at producing with You Can't Beat the Law (1943), a low-budget quickie for Monogram, which was his swan song as a producer.