RKO was conceived in 1927, when RCA president David
Sarnoff approached Joe Kennedy who owned Film Booking Office of America (FBO).
RCA was being left out of the sound boom in the film industry and Sarnoff
wanted an outlet for the RCA sound systems. What followed was a miriad of
financial maneuvers and circumstances.
Kennedy saw opportunity knocking in January 1928, when
Orpheum Circuit Inc was formed to consolidate the holdings of the B. F. Keith
Corporation, B. F. Keith-Albee Vaudeville Exchange, Greater New York Corporation,
Vaudeville Collection Agency, and Martin Beck's Orpheum Circuit. This holding
company was to manage the ownership of the the theater chains in the US and
Canada with seating capacity of over a million theater seats and move them
from vaudeville theaters into film theaters. Orpheum Circuit Inc had acquired
American Pathe and Cecil B. DeMille's Producers Distributing Corp. to supply
their theaters.
In May 1928, Kennedy acquired controlling interest of
Orpheum Circuit Inc. which included their subsidiary, American Pathe Films
and by October 1928 the merger of Orpheum Circuit Inc, including the Keith-Albee-Orpheum
(KAO) theater chains and their subsidiary American Pathe and DeMille's Producers
Distributing Corp (PDC), FBO studios, and Radio Corporation of America's Photophone
division to form RKO was announced.
RCA would have controling interest of RKO, with Sarnoff
as chairman of the board, and announced that only 'sound' pictures would be
made at RKO. Sarnoff made sure that 'Radio' and the broadcast tower were the
dominant symbols. In 1929 the name was official changed to Radio Pictures
Inc and later RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
RKO started production in the FBO studios with former
FBO vice-president Joseph I. Schnitzer over production and distribution and
William LeBaron as head of production.
Kennedy wanted DeMille's Culver City studio, so DeMille
was bought out and American Pathe moved into the DeMille studios with Kennedy
having controlling interest. Undoubtedly, something else either was suppose
to happen or didn't happen, because Kennedy became disgruntled and sold out
Pathe and the Culver City studio to RKO on Jan. 29, 1931 (with their productions
being released as RKO Pathe).
RKO dove heavily into musicals. Initially they were
an overwhelming success but by 1931 the taste of the American public had changed
and RKO was quickly in a financial bind.
In 1931 Sarnoff hired 29-year-old David O. Selznick
to replace LeBaron as production chief. Selznick immediately implemented cost
cutting methods and streamlined RKO into lower budget films. Selznick brought
in directors George Cukor and Merian Cooper. He also signed Fred Astaire,John
Barrymore, and Katherine Hepburn.
By 1932, releases were under the RKO Radio Pictures
banner and Pathe was moved to producing newsreels and documentaries only.
Selznick made a remarkable turnaround in RKO but the pre Selznick spending
sprees were too hard to over come. Selznick only lasted 15 months with his
last film that he put into production being King Kong by Merian Cooper.
Merian Cooper became head of production and even though
the studio went into receivership, Cooper produced numerous successes especially
with the coupling of Rogers and Astaire.
In October 1935, Floyd Odlum lead a syndicate that acquired
50% of RCA's ownership in RKO. Samuel Briskin was named as new head of production,
but he only lasted a few months and Pandro Berman became head of production.
At the time, RKO cartoons were being supplied by Van
Buren. An important move that the new management did was to drop Van Buren
and sign a distribution deal with Walt Disney that would last from 1936 until
1954.
In 1937, Selznick approached RKO for a long term lease
of the Culver City studio where Pathe had been headquartered. This set up
the production lot for an MGM-Selznick production of Gone With the Wind which
was shot primarily on the Culver City lot.
In 1938, George Schaefer would become president of RKO.
Schaefer lead RKO through several successes with the top being Citizen Kane
in 1941, but Welles sequel would become the undoing of Schaefer with over
budgeting and cost overruns.
In June 1942, Scaefer resigned and Odlum bought a larger
stake in RKO. Odlum took control of the studio and placed Charles Koerner,
former head of the RKO theater chain, as production chief. Odlum signed a
distribution deal with Samuel Goldwyn and several others. By 1943, Sarnoff
sold off all RCA interest in RKO.
With US involvement in WWII and new management, RKO
increased in profit and strength over the next few years.
1946 was a major turning point. There was change in
the air with the end of the war and it wasn't good. As an after war reconstruction
move, the UK and other European countries put restrictions of US studio involvement
in their film industries. Koerner died and was replaced by Dore Schary. Disgruntled,
Oldum sold off 40% of his RKO stock and backed away from the studio.
Profits fell across all the studios as McCarthyism ran
through the film industry and caused Odlum to put up the remainder of his
stock for sale.
Howard Hughes bought controlling interest in RKO in
1948, but it only worsened the situation. Within weeks of the Hughes takeover,
Hughes had dismissed three-fourths of the work force. Production was virtually
shut down for six months as Hughes ordered investigations into the politics
of all remaining studio employees causing a 90% decline in RKO revenue.
To stop the government anti-trust suits that was giving
the major studios headaches, Hughes was first to separate production and theaters
by dividing them into separate corporations.
Strained production and lack of stability had brought
RKO to a complete halt by 1952. Hughes sold his interest to a Chicago based
syndicate that couldn't handle it and Hughes re-acquired it again in 1953.
Hughes sold off the Encino production lot with stockholders
screaming of mismanagement. Racked with lawsuits, distribution deals including
Goldwyn started collapsing. By 1954, Disney was also convinced that RKO was
sinking and opened Buena Vista for their own distribution.
Hughes made a bold move to buy out the stockholders
which cost him almost $24 million with the idea to sell off pieces to offset
some of Hughes losses.
More lawsuits ensued and Hughes final sold RKO to General
Tire for $25 million.
General Tire, which owned both radio and television
stations, moved the RKO films to television. Even though
an effort was made to put the studio back into production by hiring William
Dozier as head of production, by 1957 film production was shut down for good
and RKO distribution closed. The Culver City studios was sold to Desilu Productions.
In 1959, the word 'Pictures' was removed and the name
changed to RKO General absorbing remaining RKO assets.
Here's what we have listed in our database on RKO
