RKO Pictures
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Founded | January 25, 1929 | (as RKO Productions Inc.)|
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RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the
RKO has long been renowned for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid- to late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio. Cary Grant was a mainstay for years, with credits including touchstones of the screwball comedy genre with which RKO was identified. The work of producer Val Lewton's low-budget horror unit and RKO's many ventures into the field now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after the fact, by film critics and historians. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history: King Kong and producer/director/star Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. RKO was also responsible for notable coproductions such as It's a Wonderful Life and Notorious, and it distributed many celebrated films by animation pioneer Walt Disney and leading independent producer Samuel Goldwyn. Though it often could not compete financially for top star and director contracts, RKO's below-the-line personnel were among the finest, including composer Max Steiner, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, and designer Van Nest Polglase.
Maverick industrialist
Origin
In October 1927,
Seeking a customer for Photophone, then general manager of RCA
At that same time, the allied Keith-Albee and Orpheum theater circuits, built around the then fading medium of live
Assisted by Murdock and with Blair & Co.'s backing, Kennedy quickly maneuvered to interlock KAO and FBO, selling the exhibitor a substantial stake in his studio while buying up copious amounts of KAO stock. Within months, he had installed himself as chairman of the theater chain's new board of directors. When Albee, still KAO president, visited his office, Kennedy reportedly asked, "Didn't you know, Ed? You're washed up. You're through." DeMille departed with a large payout in April and later in the year signed a three-picture deal with MGM. Sarnoff and Kennedy began talks about setting up a holding company funded by RCA cash and KAO securities, but plans stalled as Sarnoff grew frustrated with Kennedy's reluctance to pay for the Photophone work proceeding, if slowly, at FBO and Pathé. An attempt by Kennedy to reorganize yet another studio that had turned to him for help, now ERPI-aligned First National, further strained his relationship with Sarnoff and raised the threat that Photophone would be locked out of the industry entirely. Though Kennedy's deal with First National collapsed within weeks, the RCA executive saw that it was time to make his move.[4]
In September, while Kennedy was traveling in Europe, Sarnoff began negotiations with Walker, whose firm was now heavily invested in KAO, to merge the exhibition circuit with Film Booking Offices under RCA control. Soon after Kennedy's return at the end of the month, he closed the deal, arranging to sell off his FBO and KAO shares, options, and convertibles at enormous profit. On October 23, 1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. holding company, with Sarnoff as board chairman. The new administration made clear that Kennedy's services were no longer needed and he stepped down from his board and executive positions in the merged businesses, leaving him with co-ownership and management of Pathé and the PDC assets that it had absorbed.[5][b] RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO, 22 percent (in the early 1930s, its stake rose as high as 60 percent).[6] On January 25, 1929, the new company's production arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I. Schnitzer, was unveiled as RKO Productions Inc.[7] A week later, it filed for the trademark "Radio Pictures".[8]
Golden Age studio
Early years
While the main FBO studio in Hollywood was refitted for sound, production of shorts began in New York at the RKO Gramercy studio Sarnoff had just opened.[9] RCA's radio network, NBC, began broadcasting a weekly variety show, The RKO Hour, that became a prime promotional vehicle for the studio's films.[10] The first two features released by the new company were musicals: The melodramatic Syncopation, which actually completed shooting before FBO was reincorporated as RKO, premiered on March 29, 1929.[11] The comedic Street Girl debuted July 30. This was billed as RKO's first "official" production and its first to be shot in Hollywood.[12][c] As with many early RKO films, the producer was studio chief William LeBaron, who had held the same position at FBO.[13] A few nonsinging pictures followed, but RKO's first major hit was again a musical. The studio spent heavily on the lavish Rio Rita, including a number of Technicolor sequences. Opening in September to rave reviews, it was named one of the ten best pictures of the year by Film Daily.[14] Cinema historian Richard Barrios credits it with initiating the "first age of the filmed Broadway musical".[15] By the end of the year, RKO was making use of an additional production facility—five hundred acres had been acquired near Encino in the San Fernando Valley as a movie ranch for exteriors and large-scale standing sets.[16]
With RKO Productions' films handled by sibling subsidiary RKO Distributing Corp., the studio released a limited slate of twelve features in its first year; in 1930, the figure more than doubled to twenty-nine.[17] That July, RKO Productions Inc. was renamed RKO Radio Pictures Inc.[18] RKO Pictures Ltd. was set up to handle British distribution.[19] Encouraged by Rio Rita's success, RKO produced several costly musicals incorporating Technicolor sequences, among them Dixiana and Hit the Deck, both scripted and directed, like Rio Rita, by Luther Reed.[20] Following the example of the other major studios, RKO had planned to create its own musical revue, Radio Revels. Promoted as the studio's most extravagant production to date, it was to be photographed entirely in Technicolor.[21] The project was abandoned, as the public's taste for musicals temporarily subsided. From more than sixty Hollywood musicals in 1929 and over eighty the following year, the number dropped to eleven in 1931.[22]
Rio Rita star Bebe Daniels, who had joined the new studio as its top female name after the final months of her contract at Paramount were bought out, fell victim to the shifting market. Her big musical follow-up, Dixiana, had been a big money loser, and in January 1931 her contract was sold to Warner Bros.[23] RKO, meanwhile, was in a contractual bind that it could not get out of: it was committed to producing two more features with Technicolor's system, even as audiences had come to associate color with the momentarily out-of-favor musical genre. Fulfilling its obligations, RKO produced two all-Technicolor pictures, The Runaround and Fanny Foley Herself (both 1931), containing no musical sequences. Neither was a success.[24]
Despite these issues—and the foundering US economy—RKO had gone on a spending spree, buying up theater after theater to add to its exhibition chain. In October 1930, the company purchased a 50 percent stake in the New York
There was an undeniable plus side to the merger: when Pathé's
Success under Selznick
Exceptions like Cimarron and Rio Rita aside, RKO's product was largely regarded as mediocre, so in October 1931 Sarnoff hired twenty-nine-year-old David O. Selznick to replace LeBaron as production chief.[35] In addition to implementing rigorous cost-control measures, Selznick championed the unit production system, which gave the producers of individual movies much greater independence than they had under the prevailing central producer system. "Under the factory system of production you rob the director of his individualism", said Selznick, "and this being a creative industry that is harmful to the quality of the product made."[36] Instituting unit production, he predicted, would also result in cost savings of 30–40 percent.[36] To make films under the new system, Selznick recruited prize behind-the-camera personnel, such as director George Cukor and producer/director Merian C. Cooper, and gave producer Pandro S. Berman, aged twenty-six, increasingly important projects.[37] Selznick discovered and signed a young actress who would quickly become one of the studio's big stars, Katharine Hepburn. John Barrymore was also enlisted for a few memorable performances.[38]
In November 1931, just as Selznick was assuming his new post, the separate Pathé distribution network was folded into RKO's. After less than a year of largely independent operation out of Culver City, the Pathé feature film division soon followed (due to exhibition contracts, features from the division continued to come out under the combined brand until the following November). RKO Pathé was now effectively the studio's newsreel-and-shorts subsidiary.
Selznick spent a mere fifteen months as RKO production chief, resigning over a dispute with new corporate president Merlin Aylesworth concerning creative control.
Cooper at the helm
Cooper took over as production head after Selznick's departure and oversaw two hits starring Hepburn:
Along with
Lacking the financial resources of industry leaders
As a group, the studio's craft divisions were among the strongest in the industry.
Briskin and Berman
In October 1935 the ownership team expanded, with financier Floyd Odlum leading a syndicate that bought 50 percent of RCA's stake in the company; the Rockefeller brothers, also major stockholders, increasingly became involved in the business.[75] While RKO kept missing the mark in building Hepburn's career, other actors became regular headliners for the studio. Ann Sothern played the lead in seven RKO films between 1935 and 1937, paired five times with Gene Raymond.[76] Stars Barbara Stanwyck and Cary Grant each signed on for several pictures. Both were sound-era trendsetters, working as freelancers under nonexclusive studio deals. Stanwyck had appeared in major studio films since 1929 without a binding long-term contract, as subsequently would several other top-billed women, including Dunne, Bennett, and Harding.[77] When Grant went freelance after wrapping up his Paramount contract in late 1936, it was still rare for a leading man to do so while his star was on the rise.[78][f] He ultimately appeared in fourteen RKO releases between 1937 and 1948.[79]
Soon after the appointment of a new production chief, Samuel Briskin, in late 1936, RKO entered into an important distribution deal with animator Walt Disney (Van Beuren consequently folded its cartoon operations).[81] For nearly two decades, the studio released his company's features and shorts; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the highest-grossing movie in the period between The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939).[82] The theater operation excepted, on December 31, 1936, most of the domestic RKO subsidiaries, including RKO Distributing Corp. and its exchanges, were folded into RKO Radio Pictures Inc.[83] Following the shift in print advertising a few years earlier, the screen brand on RKO's output, aside from the RKO Pathé line of newsreels and shorts, was likewise changed from "Radio Pictures" to "RKO Radio Pictures".[84] In February 1937, Selznick, now a leading independent producer, took over RKO's Culver City studio and Forty Acres, as the backlot was known, under a long-term lease. Gone with the Wind, his coproduction with MGM, was largely shot there.[85][g] In addition to its central Hollywood studio, RKO production now revolved around its Encino ranch. While the Disney association was beneficial, RKO's own product was widely seen as declining in quality and Briskin was gone by the end of the year.[86][87]
Pandro Berman—who had filled in on three previous occasions—accepted the position of production chief on a noninterim basis. He left the job before the decade's turn, but his brief tenure resulted in some of the most notable films in studio history, including Gunga Din, with Grant and McLaglen; Love Affair, starring Dunne and Charles Boyer; and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (all 1939).[88] Charles Laughton, who gave a now fabled performance as Quasimodo in the latter, returned periodically to the studio, headlining six more RKO features.[89] For Maureen O'Hara, who made her American screen debut in the film, it was the first of ten pictures she made for RKO through 1952.[90] Carole Lombard signed freelance deals for headlining roles in four films between 1939 and 1941—the last of her pictures to come out before her death in a plane crash.[91] After costarring with Ginger Rogers for the eighth time in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Fred Astaire departed the studio.[92]
The studio's B Western star of the period was
Kane and Schaefer's troubles
Pan Berman had received his first screen credit in 1925 as a nineteen-year-old
That May, having granted twenty-five-year-old star and director
Rebound under Koerner
By the end of June 1942, Floyd Odlum had taken over a controlling interest in the company via his Atlas Corporation, edging aside the Rockefellers and Sarnoff. Charles Koerner, former head of the RKO theater chain and allied with Odlum, had assumed the title of production chief some time prior to Schaefer's departure.[108] With Schaefer gone, Koerner could actually do the job. Announcing a new corporate motto, "Showmanship in Place of Genius: A New Deal at RKO", a snipe at Schaefer's artistic ambitions in general and his sponsorship of Welles in particular,[109] Koerner brought the studio much-needed stability until his death in February 1946.[110] The change in RKO's fortunes was virtually immediate: corporate profits rose from $736,241 in 1942 (the theatrical division compensating for the studio's $2.34 million deficit) to $6.96 million the following year.[111] The Rockefellers sold off their stock and, early in 1943, RCA dispensed with the last of its holdings in the company as well, cutting David Sarnoff's ties to the studio that was largely his conception.[112] A new RKO Pathé "news magazine" series, This Is America, had been launched the previous October to take the place of The March of Time after Time Inc. switched its distribution to Twentieth Century-Fox.[113] In June 1944, a subsidiary, RKO Television Corporation, was established to produce content for the fledgling medium. Talk Fast, Mister, an hour-long drama shot at the RKO Pathé studio in Manhattan and broadcast by the DuMont Laboratories–owned New York station WABD on December 18, 1944, was the first made-for-TV movie.[114] In collaboration with Mexican businessman Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta, RKO established Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City in 1945.[115]
With RKO on increasingly secure ground, Koerner sought to increase its output of handsomely budgeted, star-driven features. However, the studio's only remaining major stars with anything like extended deals were Grant, whose services were shared with Columbia Pictures, and O'Hara, shared with Fox.[117] Lacking in-house stars, Koerner and his successors under Odlum arranged with the other studios to loan out their biggest names or signed one of the growing number of freelance performers to short-term, "pay or play" deals. Thus RKO pictures of the mid- and late forties offered Bing Crosby, Henry Fonda, and others who were out of the studio's price range for extended contracts.[118] John Wayne appeared in 1943's A Lady Takes a Chance while on loan from Republic Pictures; he was soon working regularly with RKO, making nine more movies for the studio.[119] Gary Cooper appeared in RKO releases produced by Goldwyn and, later, the startup International Pictures,[120] and Claudette Colbert starred in a number of RKO coproductions.[121] Ingrid Bergman, on loan out from Selznick, starred opposite Bing Crosby in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), a coproduction with director Leo McCarey. The top box-office film of the year, it turned a $3.7 million profit for RKO, the most in the company's history.[122] Bergman returned in the coproductions Notorious (1946) and Stromboli (1950), and in the independently produced Joan of Arc (1948).[123] Freelancing Randolph Scott appeared in one major RKO release annually from 1943 through 1948.[124]
In similar fashion, many leading directors made one or more films for RKO during this era, including Alfred Hitchcock once more, with Notorious, and Jean Renoir, with This Land Is Mine (1943), reuniting Laughton and O'Hara, and The Woman on the Beach (1947).[125] RKO and Orson Welles had an arm's-length reunion via The Stranger (1946), an independent production he starred in as well as directed. Welles later called it his worst film, but it was the only one he ever made that turned a profit in its first run.[126] In December 1946, the studio released Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life; while it would eventually be recognized as one of the greatest films of Hollywood's Golden Age, at the time it lost more than half a million dollars for RKO.[127] John Ford's The Fugitive (1947) and Fort Apache (1948), which appeared right before studio ownership changed hands again, were followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Wagon Master (1950); all four were coproductions between RKO and Argosy, the company run by Ford and RKO alumnus Merian C. Cooper.[128] Of the directors under long-term contract to RKO in the 1940s, the best known was Edward Dmytryk, who first came to notice with the remarkably profitable Hitler's Children (1943). Shot on a $205,000 budget, placing it in the bottom quartile of Big Five studio productions, it was one of the ten biggest Hollywood hits of the year.[129][k] Another low-cost war-themed film directed by Dmytryk, Behind the Rising Sun, released a few months later, was similarly profitable.[52][130]
Focus on B movies
Much more than the other Big Five studios, RKO relied on B pictures to fill up its schedule. Of the thirty-one features released by RKO in 1944, for instance, ten were budgeted below $200,000, twelve were in the $200,000 to $500,000 range, and only nine cost more. In contrast, a clear majority of the features put out by the other top four studios were budgeted at over half a million dollars.[131] A focus on B pictures limited the studio's financial risk; while it also limited the potential for reward (Dmytryk's extraordinary coups aside), RKO had a history of making better profits with its run-of-the-mill and low-cost product than with its A movies.[6] The studio's low-budget films offered training opportunities for new directors, as well, among them Mark Robson, Robert Wise, and Anthony Mann.[132][133] Film editors Robson and Wise received their first directing assignments with producer Val Lewton, whose specialized B horror unit also included the more experienced director Jacques Tourneur. The Lewton unit's moody, atmospheric work—represented by films such as Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), and The Body Snatcher (1945)—is now highly regarded.[132][134] Richard Dix concluded his lengthy RKO career with the 1943 Lewton production The Ghost Ship.[135]
Film noir, to which lower budgets lent themselves, became something of a house style at the studio; indeed, the RKO B Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) is widely seen as initiating noir's classic period.[141] Its cinematographer, Nicholas Musuraca, who began at FBO in the 1920s and stayed with RKO through 1954, is a central figure in creating the look of classic noir.[142] Design chief Albert D'Agostino—another long-termer, who succeeded Van Nest Polglase in 1941—and art director Walter Keller, along with others in the department, such as art directors Carroll Clark and Jack Okey and set decorator Darrell Silvera, are similarly credited.[143] The studio's 1940s list of contract players was filled with noir regulars: Robert Mitchum (who graduated to major star status) and Robert Ryan each made no fewer than ten film noirs for RKO.[144] Gloria Grahame, Jane Greer, and Lawrence Tierney were also notable studio players in the field.[145] Freelancer George Raft starred in two noir hits: Johnny Angel (1945) and Nocturne (1946).[146] Tourneur, Musuraca, Mitchum, and Greer, along with D'Agostino's design group, joined to make the A-budgeted Out of the Past (1947), now considered one of the greatest of all film noirs.[147] Nicholas Ray began his directing career with the noir They Live by Night (1948), the first of a number of well-received films he made for RKO.[148]
HUAC and Howard Hughes
RKO, and the movie industry as a whole, had its most profitable year ever in 1946. A Goldwyn production released by RKO, The Best Years of Our Lives, was the most successful Hollywood film of the decade and won the Academy Award for Best Picture.[151] But the legal status of the industry's reigning business model was increasingly being called into doubt: the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bigelow v. RKO that the company was liable for damages under antitrust statutes for having denied an independent movie house access to first-run films—a common practice among all of the Big Five.[152] With profits at a high point, Floyd Odlum cashed in by selling off about 40 percent of his shares in the company to a group of investment firms.[153] After Koerner's death, Radio-Keith-Orpheum president N. Peter Rathvon and RKO Radio Pictures president Ned E. Depinet had exchanged positions, with Depinet moving to the corporate offices in New York and Rathvon relocating to Hollywood and doubling as production chief while a permanent replacement was sought for Koerner. On the first day of 1947, producer and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dore Schary, who had been working at the studio on loan from Selznick, took over the role.[154]
RKO appeared in good shape to build on its recent successes, but the year brought a number of unpleasant harbingers for all of Hollywood. The British government imposed a 75 percent tax on films produced abroad; along with similarly confiscatory taxes and quota laws enacted by other countries, this led to a sharp decline in foreign revenues.[155] The postwar attendance boom peaked sooner than expected and television emerged as a competitor for audience interest. Across the board, profits fell—a 27 percent drop for the Hollywood studios from 1946 to 1947.[156] In July, RKO Pathé's signature newsreel was sold to Warner Bros. for a reported $4 million.[157] The phenomenon later called McCarthyism was building strength, and in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began hearings into Communism in the motion picture industry. Two of RKO's top talents, Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott, refused to cooperate. As a consequence, they were fired by RKO per the terms of the Waldorf Statement, the major studios' pledge to "eliminate any subversives". Scott, Dmytryk, and eight others who also defied HUAC—dubbed the Hollywood Ten—were blacklisted across the industry.[158] Ironically, the studio's major success of the year was Crossfire, a Scott–Dmytryk film.[159] Odlum concluded it was time to exit the film business, and he put Atlas's remaining RKO shares—approximately 25 percent of the outstanding stock—on the market.[160] For her performance in The Farmer's Daughter (1947), a coproduction with Selznick's Vanguard Films, Loretta Young won the Best Actress Oscar the following March. It was the last major Academy Award for an RKO picture.[161]
In May 1948, eccentric aviation tycoon and occasional movie producer Howard Hughes spent $8.8 million to gain control of the company, beating out British film magnate J. Arthur Rank for Odlum's stake.[162] During Hughes's tenure, RKO suffered its worst years since the early 1930s, as his capricious management style took a heavy toll. Production chief Schary quit almost immediately due to his new boss's interference and Rathvon soon followed.[163] Within weeks of taking over, Hughes had dismissed three-fourths of the work force; production was virtually shut down for six months as the conservative Hughes shelved or canceled several of the "message pictures" that Schary had backed.[164] All of the Big Five saw their profits dwindle in 1948—from Fox, down 11 percent, to Loew's/MGM, down 62 percent—but at RKO they virtually vanished: from $5.1 million in 1947 to $0.5 million, a drop of 90 percent.[165] The production-distribution end of the RKO business, now deep in the red, would never make a profit again.[166]
Offscreen, Robert Mitchum's arrest and conviction for marijuana possession—he served two months in jail—was widely assumed to mean career death for RKO's most promising young star, but Hughes surprised the industry by announcing that his contract was not endangered.[167] Of much broader significance, Hughes decided to get the jump on his Big Five competitors by being the first to settle the federal government's antitrust suit against the major studios, which had won a crucial Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. Under the consent decree he signed, Hughes agreed to dissolve the old parent company, Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp., and split RKO's production-distribution business and its exhibition chain into two entirely separate corporations—RKO Pictures Corp. and RKO Theatres Corp.—with the obligation to promptly sell off one or the other. While Hughes delayed the divorcement procedure until December 1950 and did not actually sell his stock in the theater company for another three years, his decision to acquiesce was one of the crucial steps in the collapse of classical Hollywood's studio system.[168]
Turmoil under Hughes
Shooting at RKO picked up again in early 1949, but from an average of around thirty films annually before Hughes's takeover, production fell to just twelve that year. Sporting the new title of managing director of production, Hughes quickly became notorious for meddling in minute filmmaking matters and promoting actresses he favored—including two under personal contract to him, Jane Russell and Faith Domergue.[169] While his time at RKO was marked by both diminished production and a slew of expensive flops, the studio continued to turn out some well-received films under production chiefs Sid Rogell and Sam Bischoff, though both became fed up with Hughes's interloping and each in turn quit after less than two years. Bischoff was the last man to hold the job under Hughes.[170] There were B noirs such as The Window (1949), which turned into a hit,[171] and The Set-Up (1949), directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Ryan, which won the Critic's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival.[172] The Thing from Another World (1951), a science-fiction drama coproduced with Howard Hawks's Winchester Pictures, is seen as a classic of the genre.[173] In 1952, RKO put out two films directed by Fritz Lang, Rancho Notorious and Clash by Night. The latter was a project of the renowned Jerry Wald–Norman Krasna production team, lured by Hughes from Warner Bros. with great fanfare in August 1950.[174]
The company also began a close working relationship with
In early 1952, Hughes fought off a lawsuit by screenwriter Paul Jarrico, who had been caught up in the latest round of HUAC hearings; Hughes had fired him and removed his name from the credits of a recent release, The Las Vegas Story, a money-losing melodrama starring Jane Russell.[183] The studio owner subsequently ordered 100 RKO employees on "leave of absence" while he established a "security office" to oversee an ideological vetting system. "We are going to screen everyone in a creative or executive capacity", he declared. "The work of Communist sympathizers will not be used."[184] As more credits were expunged, some in the industry began to question whether Hughes's hunt for subversives served primarily as a convenient rationale for further curtailing production and trimming expenses.[185]
In September, Hughes and his corporate president, Ned Depinet, sold their RKO studio stock to a Chicago-based syndicate with no experience in the movie business; the syndicate's chaotic reign lasted until February 1953, when the stock and control were reacquired by Hughes.[186] The studio's net loss in 1952 was over $10 million, and shooting had taken place for just a single in-house production over the last five months of the year.[187] During the turmoil, Samuel Goldwyn ended his eleven-year-long distribution deal with RKO. Wald and Krasna escaped their contracts and the studio as well. The deal that brought the team to RKO had called for them to produce sixty features over five years; in just shy of half that time, they succeeded in making four.[188] The Encino ranch shut down permanently in 1953 and the property was sold off.[189] In November, Hughes finally fulfilled his obligations under the 1948 consent decree, divesting RKO Theatres; Albert A. List purchased the controlling interest in the business and renamed it List Industries.[190] Hughes soon found himself the target of no fewer than five separate lawsuits filed by minority shareholders in RKO, accusing him of malfeasance in his dealings with the Chicago group and a wide array of acts of mismanagement. "RKO's contract list is down to three actors and 127 lawyers", quipped Dick Powell.[191] Leery of the studio's mounting problems and sparring with it over the release of the forthcoming nature documentary The Living Desert, the Disney company exited its long-standing arrangement with RKO and set up its own distribution firm, Buena Vista.[192] Contractual obligations meant that one last Disney feature would be released by RKO in 1954, and it continued to handle Disney shorts into 1956.[193]
Looking to forestall the impending legal imbroglio, by early 1954 Hughes was offering to buy out all of RKO's other stockholders.[194] Before the end of the year, at a cost of $23.5 million, Hughes had gained near-total control of RKO Pictures Corp., becoming the first virtual sole owner of a studio since Hollywood's pioneer days—virtual, but not quite actual. Floyd Odlum reemerged to block Hughes's acquisition of the 95 percent ownership of RKO stock he needed to write off the company's losses against his earnings elsewhere. Hughes had reneged on his promise to give Odlum first option on buying the RKO theater chain when he divested it, and was now paying the price.[195] With negotiations between the two at a stalemate, in July 1955, Hughes turned around and sold RKO Radio Pictures Inc. to the General Tire and Rubber Company for $25 million, leaving himself and Odlum the shell of RKO Pictures Corp. and what were now, according to Fortune, its "sole assets ... $18 million in cash."[196] For Hughes, this was the effective end of a quarter-century's involvement in the movie business. Historian Betty Lasky describes Hughes's relationship with RKO as a "systematic seven-year rape."[197]
General Tire and demise
In taking control of the studio, General Tire restored RKO's close ties to broadcasting. General Tire had bought the Yankee Network, a New England regional radio network, in 1943.[198] In 1950, it purchased the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System,[199] and two years later, the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, owner of the WOR radio and television stations in New York City.[200] The latter acquisition gave General Tire majority control of the Mutual Broadcasting System, one of America's leading radio networks.[201] General Tire then merged its broadcasting interests into a new subsidiary, General Teleradio.[202]
The new owners of RKO made an initial effort to revive the studio, hiring veteran producer William Dozier to head production.[212] In the first half of 1956, the production facilities were as busy as they had been in a half-decade, with a planned slate of seventeen features.[209][213] RKO released Fritz Lang's final two American films, While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (both 1956), but years of mismanagement had driven away many directors, producers, and stars.[214] The studio was also saddled with the last of the inflated B movies such as Pearl of the South Pacific (1955) and The Conqueror (1956) that enchanted Hughes.[215] While the latter, starring John Wayne, was the biggest hit produced at the studio during the decade, that bar was low—it placed only eleventh among the year's top earners.[52][216] A major money loser in standard terms, its $4.5 million in North American rentals not coming close to covering its $6 million production cost, Hughes had paid RKO Teleradio millions to buy back the rights.[52][209] In March 1956 came the news that RKO Pathé was being dissolved.[217]
On January 22, 1957, after a year and a half without a notable success, RKO announced that it was closing its domestic distribution offices—
Now little more than a name and beneficiary of General Tire's doubtful largesse, RKO announced in early 1958 that it would continue as a financial backer, coproducing independently made pictures. Fewer than half a dozen resulted.[226] The final RKO film, Verboten!, a coproduction with director Samuel Fuller's Globe Enterprises, was released, fitfully, beginning in March 1959, first by Rank and then Columbia.[227] That same year, "Pictures" was stripped from the corporate identity; the holding company for General Tire's broadcasting operation and the few remaining motion picture assets was renamed RKO General.[228][m] In the words of scholar Richard B. Jewell, "The supreme irony of RKO's existence is that the studio earned a position of lasting importance in cinema history largely because of its extraordinarily unstable history. Since it was the weakling of Hollywood's 'majors,' RKO welcomed a diverse group of individualistic creators and provided them ... with an extraordinary degree of freedom to express their artistic idiosyncrasies.... [I]t never became predictable and it never became a factory."[229]
Later incarnations
Beginning with 1981's
Motion pictures | |
Founded | 1990 |
---|---|
Headquarters | LA Office: 11301 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 510, Los Angeles, CA 90064 NY Office: 750 Lexington Ave., Suite 2200, New York, NY 10022 |
Key people | Ted Hartley (Chairman and CEO) Mary Beth O'Connor (Vice Chair) |
Divisions | RKO Stage Productions RKO Radio |
Website | www |
In 1989, RKO Pictures, which had produced no films while under Wesray control, was sold off yet again. Actress and Post Cereals heiress Dina Merrill and her husband, producer Ted Hartley, acquired a majority interest and merged the company with their Pavilion Communications. After a brief period as RKO/Pavilion, the business was reorganized as RKO Pictures LLC.[235][236] With the inaugural RKO production under Hartley and Merrill's ownership, False Identity (1990), the company also stepped into the distribution business. In 1992, it handled the well-regarded independent production Laws of Gravity, directed by Nick Gomez.[237] RKO's next significant film came in 1998 with Mighty Joe Young, a remake of a 1949 RKO movie that was itself a King Kong knockoff; the Disney coproduction was distributed by Buena Vista.[238] In the early 2000s, the company was involved as a coproducer of TV movies and modestly budgeted features, about one a year.[239] In 2003, it coproduced a Broadway stage version of the 1936 Astaire–Rogers vehicle Swing Time, under the title Never Gonna Dance.[240]
That same year, RKO Pictures entered into a legal battle with Wall Street Financial Associates (WSFA). Hartley and Merrill claimed that the owners of WSFA fraudulently induced them into signing an acquisition agreement by concealing their "cynical and rapacious" plans to purchase RKO, with the intention only of dismantling it. WSFA sought a preliminary injunction prohibiting RKO's majority owners from selling their interests in the company to any third parties.[241] The WSFA motion was denied in July 2003, freeing RKO to deal with another potential purchaser, InternetStudios.com. In 2004, that planned sale fell through when InternetStudios.com apparently folded.[242] The company's minimal involvement in new film production continued to focus on its remake rights: Are We Done Yet?, based on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), was released in April 2007 to dismal reviews.[243] In 2009, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, a remake of a 1956 RKO film directed by Fritz Lang, fared even worse critically, receiving a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[244] A stage version of Top Hat toured Great Britain in the second half of 2011.[245] The most recent RKO film coproductions are the well-received A Late Quartet (2012) and the 2015 flop Barely Lethal.[246] Two months after Dina Merrill's May 2017 death,[247] independent producer Keith Patterson sued RKO, Hartley, and his second-in-command, Mary Beth O'Connor, over the collapse of plans to create multiple TV series based on RKO properties, starting with Citizen Kane. According to Patterson's suit, O'Connor controls access to Hartley and holds both his healthcare proxy and an option to acquire RKO and its intellectual property at a deep markdown after his death.[248] As of November 2022, Hartley, then 98 years old, was still making public appearances connected with his avocation as a painter.[249]
Library
RKO Pictures LLC owns the RKO Radio Pictures Inc. film copyrights, trademarks, and story library, with title to more than 500
The actual films and their television, video, and theatrical distribution rights are in other hands.In 1971, the US and Canadian TV—and consequently, video—rights to most of the RKO film library were sold at auction after the holders, TransBeacon (a corporate descendant of C&C Television), went bankrupt. The auctioned rights were split between United Artists (UA) and Marian B. Inc. (MBI). In 1984, MBI created a subsidiary, Marian Pictures Inc. (MBP), to which it transferred its share of the RKO rights. Two years later GenCorp's subsidiaries, RKO General and RKO Pictures, repurchased the rights then controlled by MBP.[251] In the meantime, United Artists had been acquired by MGM. In 1986, MGM/UA's considerable library, including its RKO film negatives and rights, was bought by Turner Broadcasting System for its new Turner Entertainment division. When Turner announced plans to colorize ten of the RKO films, GenCorp resisted, claiming copyright infringement, leading to both sides filing lawsuits.[252] During RKO Pictures' brief Wesray episode, Turner acquired many of the distribution rights that had returned to RKO via MBP, as well as both the theatrical rights and the TV rights originally held back from C&C for the cities where RKO owned stations.[253] The new owners of RKO also allowed Turner to move forward with colorization of the library.[254] Early in 1989, Turner declared that no less than the historic Citizen Kane would be colorized; upon review of Welles's ironclad creative contract with RKO, that plan was abandoned.[255] In October 1996, Turner was merged into Time Warner—as Warner Bros. Discovery, it today owns the bulk of the RKO library and controls its distribution in North America.[256] In 2007, Warners' Turner Classic Movies channel obtained the rights to six "lost" RKO films that Merian Cooper acquired in a 1946 legal settlement with his former employer and later transferred to a business associate as a tax shelter.[257]
The Disney films originally distributed by RKO are owned and fully controlled by the
European rights
Ownership of the major European TV and video distribution rights to the RKO library differs by country: In the UK, the RKO rights, long held by Universal Studios, are now under Warner Bros.' control.[270] The German rights were acquired in 1969 by KirchGruppe on behalf of its KirchMedia division, which went bankrupt in 2002. EOS Entertainment's Beta Film purchased many of KirchMedia's rights in 2004, and the library as of 2010 was distributed by Kineos, created five years earlier as a Beta Film–KirchMedia joint venture.[271] At the end of 2014, Warners took over the French rights from longtime distributor Éditions Montparnasse.[272] Rome's Red Film claims the rights in Italy.[273] Vértice 360 (formerly Manga Films) holds the Spanish rights.[274]
Logos
Most of the films released by RKO Pictures between 1929 and 1957 have an opening logo displaying the studio's famous trademark, a spinning globe and radio tower, nicknamed the "Transmitter." It was inspired by a 200-foot (61 m) tower built in
See also
Notes
- ^ The claim in the January 1928 New York Times article cited here that FBO would be able to book its films "in practically 700 theatres which make up the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuits and affiliated houses in America and Canada" is misleading. First, "affiliated houses" almost certainly constituted the vast majority of that figure. Time (1927) indicates that, as of May 1927, Keith-Albee (legally the B. F. Keith Corp.) had 50 theaters and Orpheum had 47—presumably counts of their fully owned venues. More important, per Jewell (2012): "Many of the vaudeville houses would not be converted into sound film theaters. In actuality, the original chain of K-A-O motion picture theaters would number fewer than two hundred" (p. 14). Crafton (1997) refers to "KAO and its 200 theaters" at the time of RKO's founding (p. 141) and states that in 1930, "The number of theaters owned outright by RKO increased to 180" (p. 208). While he references no contemporary sources for those figures, he does cite Film Daily in a description of RKO as controlling 250 theaters in mid-1930, following the major studios' "buying binge" (p. 256: "Big 6 Have Less than 20% of Houses". Film Daily. July 9, 1930. pp. 1–2. Retrieved December 28, 2022.) Schatz (1998) describes an "RKO chain of 161 theaters" around the time David O. Selznick became production chief in October 1931 (p. 128).
Moving forward nearly a decade, Schatz (1999) writes that, as of 1940, RKO had "slightly more than 100 theaters" (p. 17). He explains that "the figures on studio-affiliated theaters vary considerably, owing to the number of houses in which the studios held only partial interest—as little as 5 percent in some cases" (p. 484, n. 24). Supporting Schatz's 1940 tally, that November, Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. submitted a court filing in an antitrust case stating that the company and its exhibition subsidiaries operated 103 theaters, of which 43 were in New York City.[283] A 1944 book, Economic Control of the Motion Picture Industry, includes the table "Theater holdings of the major companies are approximately as follows"—RKO is listed as holding 222 theaters.[284] Lasky (1989) indicates that a 1953 Fortune article tallied the RKO circuit in 1948, at the time of Hughes's purchase, at "124 theaters, plus a share in about 75 others" (p. 205). Porst (2015) states then when RKO agreed, in late 1948, to divest its theaters, it had "only 109" (p. 115). - ^ The online edition of Encyclopædia Britannica erroneously states that RKO resulted "from the merger of the Radio Corporation of America, the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theatre chain, and the American Pathé production firm." See "RKO Radio Pictures, Inc." (retrieved October 22, 2022). Many other sources make the same false claim. Note also the following:
- Some sources incorrectly describe Keith-Albee-Orpheum as the union of three theater chains; in fact the name describes the union of just two chains, B. F. Keith Corp. (doing business as Keith-Albee) and The Most Dangerous Game, which premiered September 9, 1932.[289]
- ^ Grant biographer Graham McCann's paean, "No one of [Grant's] stature had contemplated acting as a freelance performer since the days before the studio system took hold of Hollywood",[290] ignores two women: Stanwyck and Miriam Hopkins had both previously gone freelance before they were major box-office draws or Oscar nominees (Becky Sharp, Hopkins's freelance debut, garnered her first and only Academy Award nomination). It also overlooks one man who took that route when of comparable youth and as yet forming "stature": among still-ascendant male stars, Grant was preceded as a freelancer by Fredric March, admittedly more established when he bid on himself in 1933.[291] In July 1935, Variety identified other prior male members of the "itinerant class": Leslie Howard (eleven years Grant's senior), easing-out-of-his-prime Adolphe Menjou, well-past-his-prime Richard Barthelmess, evergreen Walter Huston, B-movie lead Lee Tracy, and character actor Edward Everett Horton.[292] Ronald Colman (thirteen years Grant's senior) had also freelanced since 1934.[293] For a discussion of the terms and application of the "option contract" standard in Hollywood for most of the 1930s, binding an actor for seven years while giving the studio the "option" every six months to terminate them (the actor had no reciprocal "option" to walk away), see Regev (2018), pp. 123–27.
- ^ By August 1940, the lease was no longer exclusive—see "Screen News Here and in Hollywood," New York Times, August 28, 1940. By mid-1949, Selznick had left the studio entirely—see two articles by Thomas F. Brady: "Republic to Make Film on Baseball," New York Times, April 8, 1949; and "Hollywood Buys More Stories," New York Times, May 1, 1949.
- ^ Thomas Schatz's brief description of Mr. and Mrs. Smith as a "critical and commercial failure" is evidently incorrect.[294] According to historian Leonard Leff, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a happy ending: good reviews and modest box office success."[295] Emily Carman, who examined the studio ledgers, describes it as an unqualified "box-office success, with total domestic and foreign gross amounting to $1,311,855, thus bringing in $582,000 in total profits for RKO."[296] Ed Sikov characterizes it as a "solid commercial hit".[297] Donald Spoto's report on its release lends further support to this position.[298] United Artists' To Be or Not to Be (1942), headlined by Lombard, was released a month after her death.
- ^ Though Citizen Kane was technically structured through a set of three contracts originally drawn up in 1939 as a coproduction between RKO and Welles's then newly formed Mercury Productions Inc. (and, indeed, was billed on a title card as "A Mercury Production"), in bottom-line terms it was an RKO production: the studio provided the entire budget and production facilities, assumed all the financial risk, and held all the rights once Welles delivered his final, inviolable cut.[255][299]
- ^ Citizen Kane lost $150,000–$160,000 on original release (the production cost was precisely $805,527.53); The Magnificent Ambersons lost $624,000 (production cost $1.125 million); and the unreleased It's All True cost the studio an estimated $1.2 million.[300] The studio operation itself was almost certainly a bigger money-loser than the cited figures suggest, with profits coming from the corporation's theatrical division.[301]
- ^ Jewell (1982) states that it "attracted $3,355,000 in film rentals" (p. 181); Lasky (1989) refers to an article in The Hollywood Reporter on the film, published seven months after its premiere, predicting it "would do better than $3 million in the U.S. alone" (p. 185). It is not listed in Schatz's (1999) appendix of annual top box-office films of the 1940s (p. 466), based on a 1992 Variety reckoning, perhaps because of its unusual production history. Assuming Jewell's figure is accurate, and the Schatz/Variety list is otherwise accurate and complete, Hitler's Children was the ninth biggest earner of 1943, an impressive feat for a movie with a B budget and star (Tim Holt).
- ^ While the historical record is not definitive as to whether RKO Radio Pictures was reorganized as an integrated division of RKO Teleradio Pictures Inc. or maintained as a legal subsidiary, the weight of the available evidence clearly points to the former. According to the November 1955 Television Digest item cited herein, General Tire planned to organize RKO Teleradio Pictures Inc. "into 2 main divisions—General Teleradio and RKO Radio Pictures." In addition, twenty-one items in the July–December 1959 Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entries for "Motion Pictures and Filmstrips—Renewal Registrations" reference "RKO Radio Pictures, a division of RKO Teleradio Pictures Inc." (pp. 91, 92, 94–98, 100; two similar mentions on p. 95 follow "RKO Radio Pictures" with "Inc."). The listing of "RKO Radio Pictures Inc." in the Name Index on p. 106 is evidently of the same order—original "producing and releasing companies" (p. 101)—as that of "RKO Pathe Pictures Inc.," which was certainly no longer an operational subsidiary by this point.
- ^ Many online sources give RKO General's year of inception as 1958, without evidence; O'Neill's 1959 dating is supported by the fact that there is no mention of RKO General in either the New York Times or the Los Angeles Times before February 1960. Following evidently informal references dating back years to "RKO–General Teleradio" or "RKO General Teleradio," the first definitive mention of "RKO General" in Variety appears in the August 24, 1960, edition.[302] A 1961 plaintiff's exhibit filed in a C&C lawsuit against RKO General (while it apparently errs in suggesting that General Teleradio was merged into RKO Radio Pictures rather than the other way around) asserts that "in or about the month of October, 1959, RKO Teleradio Pictures, Inc. changed its name to RKO General, Inc."[303]
- ^ RKO Pictures LLC, while it owns the copyright to the original movie and its 1933 sequel, does not control the remake or other ancillary rights to what would be by far its most valuable property: King Kong. Certain elements of the concept are in the public domain, while some are controlled by the Merian Cooper estate and Universal Pictures, among others.[304]
- Some sources incorrectly describe Keith-Albee-Orpheum as the union of three theater chains; in fact the name describes the union of just two chains, B. F. Keith Corp. (doing business as Keith-Albee) and
References
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 9; Lasky (1989), pp. 22–24; Gomery (1985), pp. 63–65; Crafton (1997), pp. 68, 129–31, 140; Finler (2003), pp. 31, 230.
- ^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 348, 375; Jewell (1982), p. 9; Lasky (1989), pp. 24–25; Gomery (1985), p. 65; Crafton (1997), pp. 136, 138; Nasaw (2012), pp. 111–12.
- ^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 375–76; Jewell (1982), p. 9; Lasky (1989), pp. 25–26; Gomery (1985), p. 65; Crafton (1997), pp. 135–39; Beauchamp (2009), pp. 141–45, 147–52, 155–57, 169–74; Eyman (2010), pp. 211–12, 219–20, 223–27, 238–41; Nasaw (2012), pp. 112–13, 115–16; Erickson (2020), p. 12. "Cinemerger". Time. May 2, 1927. Retrieved November 5, 2022. "Pathe Stockholders Ratify Expansion: P.D.C.-K.A.-Orpheum Deal Sanctioned; Line-up Disclosed". Film Daily. May 13, 1927. pp. 1, 7. Retrieved July 7, 2023. "700 Theatres Merged in Vaudeville Circuit; Keith-Albee and Orpheum Now Largest in Country—Final Papers Signed", New York Times, January 27, 1928.
- ^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 375–79; Jewell (1982), pp. 9–10; Lasky (1989), pp. 26–29; Crafton (1997), pp. 138–41, 193, 195; Beauchamp (2009), pp. 169–74, 192–211; Eyman (2010), pp. 254–55; Nasaw (2012), pp. 116–17, 120–29; Erickson (2020), pp. 12–14. Goodwin and Eyman offer widely differing perspectives on the Kennedy–DeMille dealings.
- ^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 379–80; Jewell (1982), p. 10; Lasky (1989), pp. 33–34; Gomery (1985), pp. 65–66; Crafton (1997), pp. 141–42; Beauchamp (2009), pp. 142, 169–71, 211–14, 218–24, 230–31; Nasaw (2012), pp. 112, 129–31; Erickson (2020), pp. 12–14. Vischer, Peter (October 27, 1928). "Radio-Keith-FBO Deal Closed with Sarnoff as Board Head". Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World. p. 21. Retrieved December 28, 2022.
- ^ a b Crafton (1997), p. 210.
- ^ Jewell (2012), pp. 20, 18, 25.
- ^ "Radio Pictures Trademark Information". Trademarkia. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
- ^ Jewell (2012), p. 22; Koszarski (2008), pp. 164–69; "$250,000 for Construction Program at RKO Studio". Film Daily. January 23, 1929. p. 6. Retrieved December 5, 2015.
- ^ Korwar (2013), p. 257; Terrace (1999), p. 285.
- ^ Koszarski (2008), pp. 169–71; Barrios (1995), pp. 86–88, 209.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 20; Lasky (1989), pp. 46–47; Barrios (1995), pp. 209, 226.
- ^ Jewell (2012), pp. 12, 18–19, 21–25; Lasky (1989), pp. 15, 45–46, 51–55.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 42–47; Barrios (1995), pp. 225–29.
- ^ Barrios (1995), p. 225.
- ^ Jewell (2012), p. 22.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 20, 24.
- ^ Moody's (1935), p. 2152.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 298.
- ^ Barrios (1995), p. 127; Lasky (1989), p. 52.
- ^ Bradley (1996), p. 260; "R.-K.-O. Signs More Noted Names", Los Angeles Times, June 20, 1929; "Studios Plan Huge Programs", Los Angeles Times, July 21, 1929.
- ^ Bradley (1996), p. 279.
- ^ Jewell (2012), pp. 24, 28, 36, 38; Jewell (1982), p. 29; Lasky (1989), pp. 44–47, 52.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 38, 41. For Technicolor contracts during this era, see Kalmus, Herbert (October 28, 1938). "Technicolor Adventures in Cinemaland". Widescreen Museum. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- ^ Crafton (1997), pp. 207–8, 210; Barrier (2003), p. 169.
- ^ Beauchamp (2009), pp. 229–30, 310–23; Nasaw (2012), pp. 158–61; Goodwin (1987), pp. 422–24; Jewell (2012), pp. 30–32; Lasky (1989), pp. 58–59; Crafton (1997), pp. 208, 210; Ward (2016), pp. 141–45, 147–48. For further details, see Exhibits I and II Annexed to Affidavit of William Mallard, New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division–First Department, Turin Theatre Corporation v. Pathe Exchange, Inc., Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corporation, and R.K.O. Pathe Distributing Corporation, Papers on Appeal from Order, May 29, 1931.
- ^ Beauchamp (2009), pp. 232, 311, 315; Goodwin (1987), p. 422; Jewell (2012), pp. 30–32; Lasky (1989), pp. 58; Ward (2016), pp. 146–48.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 58, 74; Jewell (2012), p. 31; Crafton (1997), p. 195; Ward (2016), pp. 138, 148.
- ^ Schatz (1998), pp. 131; Jewell (1982), p. 54; Ward (2016), p. 149.
- ^ Crafton (1997), p. 552; Lasky (1989), p. 55.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 30; Carman (2012), p. 17; Carman (2016), pp. 48–49, 151, 153–54.
- ^ Finler (2003), pp. 221, 223.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 214; Jewell (1982), p. 40, 42, 44, 47, 49–51, 54, 56, 58, 62, 64.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 214.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 67–70.
- ^ a b Bordwell et al. (1985), p. 321.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 74–76; Jewell (1982), p. 17.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 77–80, 93.
- ^ Jewell (2012), pp. 32, 35, 43, 56; Ward (2016), pp. 146–50; Jewell (1982), pp. 32, 44, 54.
- ^ "Six Best Money Stars". Variety. January 5, 1932. p. 1. Retrieved November 28, 2022. The roll actually included seven names, with Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo somehow tied on an alphabetical list.
- ^ RKO Radio Picture Book, 1932–1933 (1932). New York: RKO Radio Pictures.
- ^ Kroessler (2002), p. 219.
- ^ Korwar (2013), p. 257; Hilmes (1990), pp. 57–60.
- ^ Schatz (1998), pp. 131–33; Lasky (1989), pp. 81–82.
- ^ Schatz (1998), p. 133; Lasky (1989), p. 83.
- ^ Mueller (1986), p. 7.
- ^ Schatz (1998), pp. 131.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 78–79, 93–95; Jewell (1982), pp. 52, 60.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 81–82; Gomery (2005), chap. Paramount, chap. RKO and Disney.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 221.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 100–1.
- ^ a b c d e Finler (2003), p. 219.
- ^ Lasky (1989), p. 98; Jewell (1982), p. 62.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 98–99.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 69.
- ^ Lasky (1989), p. 112; Finler (2003), p. 229.
- ^ Harvey (1998), p. 290.
- ^ See, e.g., Di Battista (2001), p. 90.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 109–10.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 224.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 71, 84, 103, 126, 128, 134, 168, 172, 196, 228, 241, 283.
- JSTOR 120995. (registration required)
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 77, 88; Lasky (1989), p. 117.
- ^ a b Finler (2003), p. 227.
- ^ Albrecht, Donald (June 2009). "The Art of RKO—Van Nest Polglase and the Modern Movie Set: A Pioneer Who Changed the Cinematic Landscape". Architectural Digest. Retrieved May 3, 2010.
- ^ Naremore (1989), pp. 17–18.
- ^ Rode (2007), pp. 58–59.
- ^ Morton (2005), p. 43.
- ^ Cotta Vaz and Barron (2002), p. 59.
- ^ "What? Color in the Movies Again?" Fortune, October 1934 (available online); Morton (2005), pp. 111–12; Lasky (1989), p. 104.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 87; Lasky (1989), pp. 115–16.
- ^ Finler (2003), pp. 229, 231.
- ^ Wegele (2014), pp. 68–69.
- ^ Brunelle (1996); Morton (2005), pp. 75–77, 108–9.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 118–19; Jewell (1982), p. 19.
- ^ a b Finler (2003), p. 215.
- ^ Carman (2012), pp. 9, 17–18, 20–22, 24, 169 n. 33.
- ^ Carman (2012), pp. 21–22; McCann (1998), pp. 79–80, 144.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 110, 117, 128, 132, 148, 167, 177, 183, 198, 212, 221, 224, 230, 232.
- ^ Dickstein (2002), p. 48.
- ^ Barrier (2003), p. 170; Lasky (1989), p. 137; Jewell (1982), p. 92.
- ^ Finler (2003), pp. 36, 47, 319.
- ^ Moody's (1941), p. 2635.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 102.
- ^ "News of the Screen," New York Times, February 16, 1937; Schatz (1998), p. 181.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 18–19, 102.
- ^ "Briskin Resigns as RKO Radio Production Head". The Film Daily. November 4, 1937. p. 1. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 154–57; Jewell (1982), pp. 19, 128–29, 138.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 138, 152, 171, 178, 181, 246, 260.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 138, 148, 150, 158, 178, 186, 206, 217, 235, 264.
- ^ Carman (2016), pp. 1–2, 75–76.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 153–54.
- ^ a b Finler (2003), pp. 214–15.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 136.
- ^ Bordwell et al. (1985), p. 349. For Walker's earlier work on King Kong: Morton (2005), pp. 30, 43, 52.
- ^ "100 Best Films of the 20th Century". Village Voice. Filmsite.org. 2001. Archived from the original on March 31, 2014. Retrieved August 14, 2023. "Top Ten Poll". Sight and Sound. BFI. 2002. Archived from the original on November 5, 2002. Retrieved August 29, 2009.
- ^ Kear (2009), p. 144.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 152, 156–57; Jewell (1982), p. 116.
- ^ For Breen's position, see Jeff and Simmons (2001), pp. 119, 122–125.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 140.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 304; Schatz (1999), p. 57; Jewell (2012), p. 253.
- ^ Jewell (2012), pp. 231–34; Jewell (1982), pp. 156, 167.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 161–65.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 167, 176–80.
- ^ For ambitious box office failures: Jewell (1982), pp. 144, 146 (Abe Lincoln in Illinois), 152 (They Knew What They Wanted), 156, 166 (All That Money Can Buy); Lasky (1989), p. 165; Schatz (1999), p. 57. For Rogers: Jewell (1982), pp. 156, 211, 288; Schatz (1999), p. 57; Carman (2016), p. 133.
- ^ "Ned Depinet Heads RKO Pictures Unit; Ex-Vice President in Charge of Distribution Is Elected to Succeed G. J. Schaefer", New York Times, June 26, 1942.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 142, 168.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 167–68, 174–76.
- ^ McBride (2006), p. 63; Server (2002), p. 78.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 142, 168, 208.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 168, 178.
- ^ Lasky (1989), p. 187.
- JSTOR 1225493. (registration required)
- ^ Schatz (1999), p. 430; "Television Groups to See First Film Made for Medium". Motion Picture Herald. December 9, 1944. p. 15. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
- ^ Fein (2000), passim; Lasky (1989), p. 228.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 213.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 222; Lasky (1989), p. 176.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 200, 208, 226.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 187, 198, 204, 211, 225, 241, 259, 286, 290, 295.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 164, 168, 192, 203, 232.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 209, 211, 241, 248, 283.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 206; Finler (2003), p 177.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 212, 247, 232.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 184, 196, 203, 211, 218, 229.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 212, 178, 220.
- ^ Thomson (1997), p. 268; Brady (1990), pp. 378–81.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 215. For its later status, see, e.g., "100 Best Films of the 20th Century". Village Voice. Filmsite.org. 2001. Archived from the original on March 31, 2014. Retrieved January 11, 2018. (Sixteenth overall, fifth among Hollywood movies made between 1929 and 1959.)
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 228, 241, 248.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 181; Lasky (1989), pp. 184–85. For budgets of Big Five releases the following year: Schatz (1999), p. 173, table 6.3.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 186.
- ^ Schatz (1999), p. 173, table 6.3.
- ^ a b Schatz (1999), p. 232; Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 23.
- ^ For B films and slightly higher budgeted "intermediates" directed by Robson: Jewell (1982), pp. 187, 190, 195, 204, 211, 238. By Wise: Jewell (1982), pp. 193, 195, 201, 206, 215, 219, 231, 236. By Mann: Jewell (1982), pp. 202, 205, 212, 219.
- ^ Finler (2003), pp. 219–20.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 190.
- ^ Finler (2003), pp. 214–15, 221–22.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 151, 171, 180, 186, 197, 211.
- ^ Erickson (2012), pp. 102–4; Senn (2018), chap. Zombies on Broadway (1945).
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 164.
- ^ Pitts (2015), pp. 80–89, 133–34; Hanson and Dunkleberger (1999), pp. 609–12, 931–32. For Schlom's supervision of Tim Holt's 1947–52 Westerns, see Stempel, Tom (November 2013). "Tim Holt and the B Western". Offscreen. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
- ^ See, e.g., Ballinger and Graydon (2007), p. 19; Finler (2003), p. 216.
- ^ Spicer (2014), pp. 17, 49–50, 55; Finler (2003), p. 216.
- ^ Cook (2007), p. 22; Stephens (1995), p. 102; Jacobs (2007), pp. 315–16.
- ^ Ballinger and Graydon (2007), pp. 196–98, 205–6. For noir and noir-related films featuring Mitchum: Jewell (1982), pp. 216, 222, 223, 231, 237, 250, 255, 256, 259, 265, 267, 272, 274. Featuring Ryan: Jewell (1982), pp. 220, 222, 227, 236, 247, 248, 252, 255, 259, 262, 266.
- ^ Ballinger and Graydon (2007), pp. 100–2, 152, 189–90, 210; Lasky (1989), p. 198; Schwartz (2005), p. 60.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 205, 216.
- ^ See, e.g., Ballinger and Graydon (2007), pp. 56, 151–52; Schatz (1999), p. 364; Ottoson (1981), p. 132.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 225.
- ^ Dixon (2005), p. 112.
- ^ Langdon-Teclaw (2007), p. 168.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 357; Jewell (1982), p. 214.
- ^ Glick, Reymann, and Hoffman (2003), pp. 35–36; Schatz (1999), pp. 16–17.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 203–4.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 192–93, 195.
- ^ Schatz (1999), pp. 299, 331; Lasky (1989), p. 202; Jewell (1982), p. 216.
- ^ Schatz (1999), pp. 290–91.
- ^ Koszarski (2021), pp. 36–37, 45; Ward (2016), pp. 149–50.
- ^ Friedrich (1997), pp. 333–36; Lasky (1989), pp. 198–202.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 194–98, 202.
- ^ Brown and Broeske (2004), p. 281.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 231; Jewell (1982), pp. 306–7.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 204–5; Dietrich and Thomas (1972), pp. 235–36.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 206, 216–17.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 216–17; Jewell (1982), p. 143.
- ^ Analysis based on Schatz (1999), p. 330, table 10.2. See Jewell (1982), pp. 216, 226, for confirmation of RKO figures.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 220.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 226.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 218–20, 223, 227; "Part 6: The Supreme Court Verdict That Brought an End to the Hollywood Studio System, 1948". The Independent Producers and the Paramount Case, 1938–1949. Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. Retrieved July 22, 2006.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 143, 234, 249–50; Lasky (1989), pp. 205, 219–23; Dietrich and Thomas (1972), pp. 188, 234–37.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 246, 254.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 237.
- ^ Ottoson (1981), p. 155.
- ^ See, e.g., Finler (2003), p. 216.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 220–21.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 222.
- ^ Lasky (1989), pp. 205, 219.
- ^ Server (2002), pp. 219–22.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 262, 266.
- ^ Muller (1998), pp. 176–77; Jewell (1982), pp. 251, 257, 271.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 265.
- ^ Finler (2003), pp. 358–59.
- ^ Ward (2016), p. 150; Koszarski (2021), pp. 49, 318–21. Day of the Fight was released as an episode of This Is America, in its final year; Flying Padre, as part of the RKO Pathé Screenliner series.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 263.
- ^ Quoted in Lasky (1989), p. 224.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 243; Lasky (1989), pp. 223–24.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 243–44, 262, 270; Lasky (1989), pp. 225–26; "An Old Flame Returns". Time. February 23, 1953. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 262.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 246, 262; Lasky (1989), pp. 221, 223, 225.
- ^ Crosby (2009), p. 75.
- ^ Conant (1981), p. 567.
- ^ Quoted in Lasky (1989), p. 226.
- ^ Gabler (2006), pp. 518–20; Barrier (2008), pp. 208, 262–63; Smith (1996), pp. 127, 294, 298.
- ^ Smith (1996), p. 407; Jewell (1982), pp. 276–77.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 244, 276; Lasky (1989), pp. 226–27.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 244–45; Lasky (1989), pp. 218–19, 223, 227–28.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 245; Lasky (1989), pp. 228–29; "New O's at RKO". Fortune. September 1955. p. 44. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
- ^ Lasky (1989), p. 229.
- ^ "Rubber Yankee". Time. January 18, 1943. Retrieved November 26, 2022.
- ^ Howard (1979), p. 151; "Don Lee Sale Approval Asked," Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1950; "Sale of Don Lee System Approved: Cash Payment of $12,320,000 Involved in FCC Decision," Los Angeles Times, December 28, 1950.
- ^ "Radio-TV Merger Approved By F.C.C.; Deal Covers Macy's Transfer of WOR Interests to General Tire's Don Lee System," New York Times, January 18, 1952.
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- ^ "An Open Letter to TV Station Owners and Managers", Billboard, September 8, 1956. Life reported that "according to an estimate made before the purchase, the RKO library contain[ed] 599 features 'suitable for television release.' Of these, 180 [were] of 'superior quality'". Coughlan, Robert (December 5, 1955). "The O'Neils' Money Machine". Life. p. 196 (article: pp. 186–90, 195–96, 199–200). Retrieved May 17, 2023.
- ^ "General Teleradio Merges / Biggest Film-to-TV Deal". Television Digest. November 26, 1955. pp. 1, 5. Retrieved May 17, 2023. "King Bros. Productions, Inc. v. RKO Teleradio Pictures, Inc., 208 F. Supp. 271 (S.D.N.Y. 1962)". Justia. July 30, 1962. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
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- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 290; Lasky (1989), pp. 219, 221, 223, 228.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 245, 280.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 245, 284.
- ^ Finler (2003), p. 216.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 282, 286.
- ^ "109 Top Money Films of 1956". Variety. January 2, 1957. p. 1. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
- ^ "Doors Closing: East RKO-Pathe Due to Wind Up Business," Billboard, March 3, 1956.
- ^ "RKO Shift to U Set for Feb. 1". Variety. January 23, 1957. p. 3. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
- ^ Jewell (1982), pp. 245, 290.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 298; "Disney, British Firm Co-Own RKO Japan, Ltd". Motion Picture Daily. Vol. 86, no. 3. July 6, 1957. pp. 1, 6. Retrieved April 12, 2018. "RKO Radio Pictures Ltd—Regarding Contracts for Films Shown". Discovery. National Archives. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 245; Lasky (1989), p. 3.
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- ^ "Initial Plans for Movie Studio Backlot Approved", Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1975.
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- ^ Dombrowski (2008), pp. 116, 120; Jewell (1982), p. 296.
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- ^ Fritz, Ben (March 31, 2012). "Warner Bros. to Release Classic Samuel Goldwyn Movies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 11, 2018. "Miramax to Manage Films from Samuel Goldwyn's Library". Deadline. April 2, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2016. Szalai, Georg (April 3, 2020). "ViacomCBS Closes Acquisition of 49 Percent Miramax Stake in $375 Million Deal". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
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- ^ Slide (1998), p. 173; Jeffrey, Don (February 19, 1994), "Blockbuster Tops $2 Billion", Billboard, p. 62; Fitzpatrick, Eileen (September 6, 1997), "Shelf Talk: Spelling Ends Republic's Rentals", Billboard, p. 96; Holt (2011), p. 152.
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- ^ Pierce (2007), pp. 133, 137.
- ^ Pierce (2007), p. 141 n. 17; Hall, Phil (November 3, 2006). "The Bootleg Files: 'The Outlaw'". Film Threat. Retrieved May 17, 2023.
- ^ "AFI Catalog of Feature Films: The Conqueror (1956)". American Film Institute. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
- ^ "Warner Bros. Entertainment UK Ltd". Production Guild of Great Britain. Retrieved March 1, 2023. Couzens, Gary (December 12, 2005). "The Val Lewton Horror Collection: Introduction". Digital Fix. Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2010. No professional media coverage of the shift to Warners has yet been identified, but the following exemplifies many anecdotal reports dating back at least as far as 2011: GG88 (July 14, 2021). "Blu-ray Forum: The Criterion Collection". Blu-ray.com. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "TaurusHolding GmbH & Co. KG—Company History". Funding Universe. 2002. Retrieved May 12, 2010. Koval, Ramona (October 4, 2002). "German Film and TV Giant KirchMedia Collapses". Australian Broadcasting Corporation—Radio National/Night Club. Retrieved May 12, 2010. Ewing, Jack; Rossant, John (July 28, 2003). "KirchMedia: Opportunity Lost". BusinessWeek Online. Retrieved May 12, 2010."DLA Piper Advises KirchMedia GmbH & Co. KGaA in the Sale of the National Film Library". DLA Piper. May 13, 2005. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved May 12, 2010. "Kineos". Beta Film. Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved July 4, 2010.
- ^ Gautreau, Philippe (May 19, 2015). "Catalogue RKO, second clap". DVDFr.com. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
- ^ "Membership: Red Film". Audiovisual Producers Association. Retrieved October 22, 2022. "Italian Pavilion Companies: MIPTV" (PDF). Audiovisual Producers Association. March 2023. p. 39. Retrieved December 28, 2023.
- ^ "Vértice emitirá sus películas con publicidad en Youtube". La Información. April 2, 2021. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
- ^ Deyo and Leibowitz (2003), pp. 5–6.
- ^ Jewell (2012), p. 20; Shull and Wilt (1996), pp. 146, 148.
- ^ Quoted in Thomson (1997), p. 170.
- ^ Ward (2016), p. 146.
- ^ For popularity of lightning bolt design element at the time, see Nye (1992), p. 157.
- ^ "RKO Radio Pictures/Logo Variations". Audiovisual Identity Database. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- ^ Culhane (1999), passim.
- ^ Mitchell, Rick. "Everything You Wanted to Know about American Film Company Logos but Were Afraid to Ask: RKO". Hollywood Lost and Found. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
- ^ Transcript of Record, Supreme Court of the United States, October Term, 1947, Vol. VIII, pp. 3242, 3247–48, 3260.
- ^ Huettig (1944), p. 296.
- ^ Haupert (2006), p. 17.
- ^ See, e.g., Lasky (1989), p. 120.
- ^ See also Sherwood (1923), pp. 150, 156, 158–59.
- ^ Crafton (1997), p. 549.
- ^ Senn (1996), p. 109.
- ^ McCann (1998), p. 79.
- ^ Carman (2016), pp. 7, 9, 55, 89–90, 110–12, 157, 159–61.
- ^ "Only 10 Exclusive Stars: Loan, Exchange Drain Studios". Variety. July 3, 1935. pp. 3, 23. Retrieved January 3, 2023. See also Carman (2016), p. 188 n. 168.
- ^ Carman (2020), pp. 68–69.
- ^ Schatz (1999), p. 89.
- ^ Leff (1999), p. 92.
- ^ Carman (2016), p. 76.
- ^ Sikov (1996), p. 152.
- ^ Spoto (1983), p. 250.
- ^ Carringer (1985), pp. 1, p. 151 n. I-1.
- ^ For Citizen Kane: Brady (1990), pp. 288, 311; Jewell (1982), p. 164. For The Magnificent Ambersons: Jewell (1982), p. 173. For It's All True: Brady (1990), p. 346. For corporate deficit and profit: Jewell (1982), pp. 144, 156.
- ^ Jewell (1982), p. 168.
- ^ "RKO General Wants 'Warranties' Before Buying NTA's Post-'48 Bundle". Variety. August 24, 1960. p. 36. Retrieved May 14, 2023.
- ^ "Papers Read in Support of Motion: Exhibit A, Annexed to Affidavit of Martin Schildkraut". Records & Briefs, New York State Appellate Division: Television Industries Inc. et al. v. RKO General, Inc. New York: Reporter Company. 1962. p. 27.
- ^ Perry, Spencer (April 2, 2021). "The Wild and Complicated Story of the Rights to King Kong". ComicBook.com. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
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External links
- The Early Sound Films of Pathé list of RKO Pathé–branded films of 1931–32; part of Vitaphone Video Early Talkies
- RKO Theater Chain list of classic movie houses belonging to RKO chain; part of Cinema Treasures
- C&C RKO 16mm Prints extensive discussion of RKO preservation and rights issues, by David Chierichetti; part of eFilmCenter
- RKO Radio Pictures: Main Logos gallery and analysis; part of the Audiovisual Identity Database
- RKO Radio Pictures Logo History video survey of the evolving Transmitter and more