NationMaster - Encyclopedia: RKO Pictures

RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As Radio Pictures Inc. and then RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the so-called Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chains and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America (FBO) studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928.^[1] RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger in order to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone. By the mid-1940s, the studio was under the control of investor Floyd Odlum. Randal Randy Keith Orton[1] (born on April 1, 1980), nicknamed The Legend Killer, is an American professional wrestler currently signed to World Wrestling Entertainment wrestling on its RAW brand. ... Randy Orton performing his RKO finisher (One-handed jumping cutter) on Shawn Michaels In professional wrestling, a cutter is a common term which refers to the three-quarter facelock bulldog maneuver. ... RKO Radio Pictures logo This is a copyrighted and/or trademarked logo. ... For other uses, see Corporation (disambiguation). ... Year 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1959 (MCMLIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... This article is about motion pictures. ... The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1950s. ... A major film studio is a movie production and distribution company that releases a substantial number of films annually and consistently commands a significant share of box-office revenues in a given market. ... ... American cinema has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. ... The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of a chain of vaudeville and motion picture theatres. ... Joseph Joe Patrick Kennedy, Sr. ... Poster for The Cowboy Cop (1926), starring Tom Tyler, one of the best known of FBOs many Western stars. ... RCA, formerly an initialism for the Radio Corporation of America, is now a trademark used by two companies for products descended from that common ancestor: Thomson Consumer Electronics, which manufactures RCA-branded televisions, DVD players, video cassette recorders, direct broadcast satellite decoders, camcorders, audio equipment, telephones, and related accessories; and... Sarnoff redirects here. ... Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same film strip of film carrying the picture. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Floyd Bostwick Odlum born March 30, 1892 in Union City, Michigan, United States – died June 17, 1976 in Indio, California, was a wealthy lawyer and industrialist and husband of aviatrix Jackie Cochran. ...

RKO has long been celebrated for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the mid- to late 1930s. Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio. Cary Grant was a mainstay for years. 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 left its deepest mark with two of the most famous films in motion picture history: King Kong and Citizen Kane. Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 â€“ June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath, July 16, 1911 â€“ April 25, 1995) was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress and singer. ... Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 â€“ June 29, 2003) was an iconic American actress of film, television and stage. ... Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 â€“ July 1, 1997) was an Academy award nominated American film actor and singer. ... For the vocal coach, see Carrie Grant. ... Val Lewton Vladimir Ivan Leventon (7 May, 1904-14 March, 1951) was an American screenwriter and producer who was born in what is now Yalta, Ukraine. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... This is about the original movie and novel. ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. ...

In its later years, RKO was taken over by maverick industrialist Howard Hughes and finally by the General Tire and Rubber Company. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and was effectively dissolved two years later. In 1981, broadcaster RKO General, the corporate heir, revived it as a production subsidiary, RKO Pictures Inc. In 1989, this business—with its few remaining assets, the trademarks and remake rights to many classic RKO films—was sold to new owners, who now operate the small independent company RKO Pictures LLC. For the Welsh murderer, see Howard Hughes (murderer). ... The General Tire and Rubber Company was founded in 1915 in Akron, Ohio by William ONeill. ... The classic logo of RKO Radio Pictures. ... The Bass Red Triangle, was the first trademark registered in Britain in 1876. ... In film, a remake is a newer version of a previously released film or a newer version of the source (play, novel, story, etc. ...

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (733x1096, 382 KB)[edit] Summary Original poster for Top Hat (1935) [edit] Licensing This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (733x1096, 382 KB)[edit] Summary Original poster for Top Hat (1935) [edit] Licensing This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either the publisher of the movie or the studio which produced... Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 â€“ June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath, July 16, 1911 â€“ April 25, 1995) was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress and singer. ... Duke Ellington wearing a top hat. ... Image File history File links MacaoPoster. ... Image File history File links MacaoPoster. ... Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 â€“ July 1, 1997) was an Academy award nominated American film actor and singer. ... With Bob Hope in 1944. ...

The birth of RKO

Shut out of the profitable sound-film conversion business driven by the success of Warner Bros.' October 1927 release The Jazz Singer, RCA bought its way into the motion picture industry to gain an outlet for the optical sound-on-film system, Photophone, recently developed by General Electric, RCA's parent company. All of the major studios and their theater divisions were in the process of signing with ERPI, a subsidiary of AT&T's Western Electric division, to handle conversion. Hoping to join in the anticipated boom in sound movies, David Sarnoff, general manager of RCA, approached Joseph Kennedy in late 1927 about using the Photophone system for Kennedy's modest-sized studio, Film Booking Offices of America (FBO). Negotiations resulted in General Electric acquiring a substantial interest in FBO, the first step in a broader plan that appears to have been largely conceived by Sarnoff. Next on the agenda was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned. Around the same time that Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase, the large Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) circuit of theaters, built around the now fading medium of live vaudeville, was attempting a transition to the movie business. In spring 1927, the filmmaking operations of Pathé (U.S.) and Cecil B. De Mille had united under the control of the theater group. Early in 1928, KAO general manager John J. Murdock, who had assumed the presidency of Pathé, turned to Kennedy as an advisor in consolidating the studio with De Mille's company, Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC). This was the relationship Sarnoff and Kennedy were looking for.^[2] Image File history File linksMetadata RadioKeithOrpheum. ... Image File history File linksMetadata RadioKeithOrpheum. ... Image File history File linksMetadata RADIOPic3. ... Image File history File linksMetadata RADIOPic3. ... 1902 poster advertising Gaumonts sound films, depicting an optimistically vast auditorium A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. ... â€œWBâ€ redirects here. ... The Jazz Singer (1927) is a U.S. movie musical and the first feature-length motion picture with talking sequences. ... â€œGEâ€ redirects here. ... AT&T Corporation (originally American Telephone & Telegraph Company) provided voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. ... Company Masthead Logo Logo until circa 1969, also current logo on company web site Logo 1969â€“1983 Hi Dan! Western Electric (sometimes abbreviated WE and WECo) was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. ... Benjamin Franklin Keith (1846-1914) in 1902 Keith Memorial Theatre, Boston Benjamin Franklin Keith (January 26, 1846 â€“ March 26, 1914) was an American impresario who founded a chain of vaudeville theatres. ... Edward Franklin Albee II (October 8, 1857 â€“ March 11, 1930) was a vaudeville impresario, and the adoptive grandfather of Edward Franklin Albee III, the playwright. ... Orpheum Circuit, Inc. ... The Keith-Albee-Orpheum Corporation was the owner of a chain of vaudeville and motion picture theatres. ... This article is about the musical variety theatre. ... PathÃ© or PathÃ© FrÃ¨res is the name of various businesses founded and originally run by the PathÃ© Brothers of France. ... Cecil Blount DeMille (August 12, 1881 - January 21, 1959) was one of the most successful filmmakers during the first half of the 20th century. ...

With Murdock's support, Kennedy led a syndicate that acquired KAO on May 10, 1928.^[3] De Mille was soon bought out and Pathé took over his production facilities in Culver City. After an aborted attempt by Kennedy to bring yet another studio that had turned to him for help, First National Pictures, into the Photophone fold, RCA was ready to step back in: the company acquired Kennedy's stock in both FBO and the KAO theater business. On October 23, 1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, with Sarnoff as chairman of the board. Kennedy, who stepped aside from his executive positions in the merged companies, kept Pathé separate from RKO and under his personal control.^[4] RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO, 22 percent; in the early 1930s, RCA's share of stock in the company would rise as high as 60 percent.^[5] The company's production and distribution arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I. Schnitzer, was incorporated early in 1929 as Radio Pictures.^[6] Looking to get out of the film business the following year, Kennedy arranged in late 1930 for RKO to purchase Pathé from him. On January 29, 1931, Pathé, with its contract players, well-regarded newsreel operation, and Culver City studio and backlot, was merged into RKO as Kennedy sold off the last of his stock in the company he had been instrumental in creating.^[7] is the 130th day of the year (131st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Culver City sign near the intersection of the 405 and the 90. ... The First National Exhibitors Circuit was founded 1917 by the merger of 26 of the biggest First Run cinema chains in the United States of America, controlling more than 600 cinemas, more than 200 of them were First Run cinemas. ... is the 296th day of the year (297th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1931 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (533x800, 142 KB)[edit] Summary low-res image of poster for RKOs Rio Rita (1929); used in RKO Pictures article [edit] Licensing This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (533x800, 142 KB)[edit] Summary low-res image of poster for RKOs Rio Rita (1929); used in RKO Pictures article [edit] Licensing This image is of a movie poster, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by either... Rio Rita is a 1929 RKO musical starring the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. ...

The early years

Declaring that it would make only all-talking films, RKO began shooting at the former FBO facility in early 1929. In charge of production was William LeBaron, who had held the same position at FBO. The new studio's first two releases were musicals, the melodramatic Syncopation, which premiered March 3, and the comedic Street Girl (RKO's first "official" production, following the formal incorporation of Radio Pictures), which debuted July 30. For the lavish musical Rio Rita, RKO spared no expense, including a number of Technicolor sequences. Opening in September to rave reviews, it was the studio's first major hit and was named one of the ten best pictures of the year by Film Daily. Encouraged by its success, RKO produced several costly musicals incorporating Technicolor sequences in 1930, among them Dixiana and Hit the Deck, both scripted and directed, like Rio Rita, by Luther Reed. Following the example of the other major studios, RKO planned to create its own musical revue, Radio Revels.^[8] Promoted as the studio's most extravagant production to date, it was to be photographed entirely in Technicolor. A second all-color musical was also planned, the first screen version of Victor Herbert's operetta Babes in Toyland, to be directed by Reed.^[9] The projects were abandoned, however, as the public's taste for musicals temporarily subsided. From a total of more than sixty Hollywood musicals in 1929 and over eighty the following year, the number would drop to eleven in 1931.^[10] RKO was left in a bind: it still had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more features with its system. Complicating matters, audiences had come to associate color with the momentarily out-of-favor musical genre due to a glut of such productions from the major Hollywood studios. 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.^[11] is the 62nd day of the year (63rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... A homeless violinist bring success to a combo. ... is the 211th day of the year (212th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Rio Rita is a 1929 RKO musical starring the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. ... Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc. ... Dixiana is a 1930 musical film which tells the story of a circus performer who falls in love with the son of a plantation owner in antebellum New Orleans. ... Hit the Deck is a musical theater production first staged at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway on April 25, 1927. ... A revue is a type of theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance and sketches that satirize contemporary figures, news, or literature. ... Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859â€“May 26, 1924) was a popular composer of light opera, and an accomplished cellist and conductor. ... See: Babes in Toyland (band) Babes in Toyland (operetta) by Victor Herbert Babes in Toyland (1934 movie) with Laurel and Hardy Babes in Toyland (1961 movie) with Annette Funicello and Tommy Sands Babes in Toyland (1986 movie) with Drew Barrymore and Keanu Reeves Babes in Toyland (1997 movie) - an animated... The Runaround is a song performed by Taylor Hicks, the first single to be released from his major label debut album, Taylor Hicks. ... Fanny Foley Herself (1931) is an All-Talking comedy drama that was photographed entirely in Technicolor. ...

Even as the U.S. economy foundered, RKO had gone on a spending spree, buying up theater after theater to add to its exhibition chain. By the early 1930s, RKO was producing over forty features a year, releasing them under the names "Radio Pictures" and, for a short time after the 1931 merger, "RKO Pathé." Cimarron (1931), produced by LeBaron himself, would become the only RKO production to win the Academy Award for Best Picture; nonetheless, having cost an astonishing $1.4 million to produce, Cimarron was a clear domestic money-loser on original release.^[12] The most popular RKO star of this pre-Code era was Irene Dunne, who made her debut as the lead in the 1930 musical Leathernecking and was a headliner at the studio for the entire decade. Other major performers included Joel McCrea, Ricardo Cortez, and Mary Astor. Richard Dix, Oscar-nominated for his lead performance in Cimarron, would serve as RKO's standby B-movie star through the early 1940s. The comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey, often wrangling over sweetie pie Dorothy Lee, was a bankable mainstay for years. Constance Bennett, Ann Harding, and Helen Twelvetrees came over with Pathé, whose distribution deal with the Van Beuren cartoon studio was also picked up. The Pathé acquisition, though a defensible investment in the long term for its physical facilities, was yet another major expense borne by the fledgling RKO, particularly as Pathé's stock price had been artificially inflated by some prepurchase finagling.^[13] After little more than a year of semiautonomous operation within RKO, Pathé was dissolved as a feature production unit. Cimarron is a 1931 film directed by Wesley Ruggles and based on the Edna Ferber novel Cimarron. ... // The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards, awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which are voted on by others within the industry. ... Pre-Code films were created before the Motion Picture Production Code or Hays Code took effect on 1 July 1934 in the United States of America. ... Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 - September 4, 1990) was a five-time Academy Award-nominated American film actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s. ... Joel Albert McCrea, (November 5, 1905 - October 20, 1990) was an American film actor. ... Ricardo Cortez, born Jacob Krantz (September 18, 1899 - April 28, 1977), was a film actor from Vienna, Austria. ... Mary Astor (May 3, 1906 â€“ September 25, 1987) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... Richard Dix publicity photo Richard Dix (July 18, 1893 - September 20, 1949) was an American actor. ... The Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the awards given to actors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; nominations are made by Academy members who are actors and actresses. ... The term B-movie originally referred to a film designed to be distributed as the lower half of a double feature, often a genre film featuring cowboys, gangsters or vampires. ... Bert Wheeler (born April 7, 1895 in Paterson, New Jersey - January 18, 1968) American comedian and one half of the comedy team of Wheeler & Woolsey. ... Robert Woolsey (born August 14, 1888 in Oakland, California - October 30, 1938) American film comedian and one half of the thirties comedy team Wheeler & Woolsey. ... For other persons named Dorothy Lee, see Dorothy Lee (disambiguation). ... Constance Campbell Bennett (October 22, 1904 - July 24, 1965) was a US actress known as much for her elegant persona as for her acting career. ... Ann Harding Ann Harding (August 7, 1901 â€“ September 1, 1981) was an American actress. ... Helen Twelvetrees (25 December 1908 - 13 February 1958) was an American stage and screen performer, considered a top female star in the early days of sound. ... Van Beuren Studios was an animation studio that produced theatrical cartoons from 1928-1936. ...

Success under Selznick

Exceptions like Cimarron and Rio Rita aside, RKO's product was largely regarded as mediocre, so in autumn 1931 Sarnoff hired 29-year-old David O. Selznick to replace LeBaron as production chief. In addition to implementing rigorous cost-control measures, Selznick was a champion of the so-called unit production system that gave the producers of individual movies much greater independence than they had under the prevailing central producer system. Instituting unit production at RKO, he predicted substantial benefits in both "cost and quality."^[14] 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 whiz kid producer Pandro S. Berman increasingly important projects. Selznick discovered and signed a young actress who would quickly become one of the studio's biggest stars, Katharine Hepburn. John Barrymore was also enlisted for a few memorable performances. From September 1932 on, print advertising for the company's features displayed the revised name "RKO Radio Pictures"; the Pathé name was used only for newsreels and documentaries.^[15] David O. Selznick David Oliver Selznick (May 10, 1902â€“June 22, 1965), was one of the icon Hollywood producers of the Golden Age. ... A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. ... Director Herbert Brenon with actress Alla Nazimova on the set of War Brides, 1916 A director is a person who directs the making of a film. ... George Dewey Cukor (July 7, 1899 â€“ January 24, 1983) was an American film director. ... Merian C. Cooper Merian Caldwell Cooper (October 24, 1893, Jacksonville, Florida, USA â€” April 21, 1973, San Diego, California, USA, died of cancer) was an American aviator, American Air Force and Polish Air Force officer, adventurer, director, screenwriter and producer. ... Pandro Samuel Berman (28 March 1905 â€“ 13 July 1996), known as Pandro S. Berman, was an American film producer. ... Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 â€“ June 29, 2003) was an iconic American actress of film, television and stage. ... This article is about John Barrymore, Sr. ...

Selznick spent a mere fifteen months as RKO production chief, resigning over a dispute with new corporate president Merlin Aylesworth concerning creative control.^[17] One of his last acts at RKO was to approve a screen test for an aging, balding Broadway song-and-dance man named Fred Astaire.^[18] Selznick's tenure was widely considered masterful: In 1931, before he arrived, the studio had produced forty-two features for $16 million in total budgets. In 1932, under Selznick, forty-one features were made for $10.2 million, with clear improvement in quality and popularity.^[19] He backed several major successes, including A Bill of Divorcement (1932), with Cukor directing Hepburn's debut, and the monumental King Kong (1933)—largely Merian Cooper's brainchild, brought to life by the astonishing special effects work of Willis O'Brien. Still, the shaky finances and excesses that marked the company's pre-Selznick days had not left RKO in shape to withstand the Depression; the company sank into receivership in early 1933, from which it would not emerge until 1940.^[20] Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ... This is about the original movie and novel. ... Screen Test was a British childrens quiz show produced by the BBC which ran from 1969 to 1984. ... For other uses of Broadway, see Broadway. ... Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 â€“ June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... Katharine Hepburn and David Manners in A Bill of Divorcement A Bill of Divorcement was a British play written by Clemence Dane that debuted in 1921 in London. ... This is about the original movie and novel. ... Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to create effects that cannot be achieved by normal means, such as depicting travel to other star systems. ... Willis OBrien with his Academy Award. ... For other uses, see The Great Depression (disambiguation). ... Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ...

Cooper at the helm

Cooper took over as production head after Selznick's departure and oversaw the hits Little Women (1933), with Cukor again directing Hepburn, and Morning Glory (1933), for which the actress won her first Oscar. Ginger Rogers had already made several minor films for RKO when Cooper signed her to a seven-year contract and cast her in the big-budget musical Flying Down to Rio (1933).^[21] Rogers was paired with Astaire, making his movie debut. Billed fourth and fifth respectively, the picture turned them into major stars. Along with Columbia Pictures, RKO became one of the two primary homes of the screwball comedy. As film historian James Harvey describes, compared to their richer competition, the two studios were "more receptive to experiment, more tolerant of chaos on the set. It was at these two lesser 'majors'...that nearly all the preeminent screwball directors did their important films—[Howard] Hawks and [Gregory] La Cava and [Leo] McCarey and [George] Stevens."^[22] The relatively unheralded William A. Seiter directed the studio's first significant contribution to the genre, The Richest Girl in the World (1934).^[23] Directors such as Stevens, John Cromwell, and John Ford made impressive films at the studio in this period: Cromwell's Of Human Bondage (1934) was Bette Davis's first great success. Stevens's Alice Adams and Ford's The Informer were each nominated for the 1935 Best Picture Oscar—the Best Director statuette won by Ford was the only one ever given for an RKO production. The Informer's star, Victor McLaglen, also took home an Academy Award; he would appear in thirteen movies for the studio over a span of two decades. This article is about the 1933 film . ... This article is about the plant. ... Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. ... Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath, July 16, 1911 â€“ April 25, 1995) was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress and singer. ... Flying Down to Rio is a musical film made by RKO and released on December 29, 1933. ... The Columbia Pictures logo from 1993 to the present Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. ... The screwball comedy has proven to be one of the most elusive of the film genres. ... Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896 â€“ December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ... Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 â€“ March 1, 1952) was an American film director best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door. ... Leo McCarey (October 3, 1898 - July 5, 1969) was a movie director, screenwriter and producer. ... George Stevens examining film from A Place in the Sun. ... William A. Seiter (b. ... John Philip Cromwell (11 September 1901 – 19 November 1943) was a submariner of the United States Navy. ... For other persons named John Ford, see John Ford (disambiguation). ... The 1934 film Of Human Bondage was the first film adaptation of the 1915 novel of the same name by the British author W. Somerset Maugham. ... For the singer, see Betty Davis, for the meteorologist, see Betty Davis (meteorologist). ... Alice Adams, also known as Booth Tarkingtons Alice Adams, is a 1935 romantic film remake made by RKO. It was directed by George Stevens and produced by Pandro S. Berman from a screenplay by Dorothy Yost, Mortimer Offner adapted by Jane Murfin from the novel, Alice Adams, by Booth... The Informer is a 1935 dramatic film. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... Victor Andrew de Bier McLaglen (December 10, 1886[1] - November 7, 1959) was a British boxer and Academy Award winning actor, who later became a naturalized American citizen. ...

Lacking the financial resources of industry leaders MGM, Paramount, and Fox, RKO turned out many pictures during the era that made up for it with high style, exemplified by such Astaire–Rogers musicals as The Gay Divorcee (1934) and Top Hat (1935). One of the figures most responsible for that style was another Selznick recruit: Van Nest Polglase, chief of RKO's highly regarded design department for almost a decade. Indeed, the studio's craft divisions were among the best in the industry across the board. Costumer Walter Plunkett, who worked with the company from the close of the FBO era through the end of 1939, was known as the top period wardrobist in the business. Sidney Saunders, innovative head of the studio's paint department, was responsible for significant progress in rear projection quality.^[24] On June 13, 1935, RKO premiered the first feature film shot entirely in advanced three-strip Technicolor, Becky Sharp. The movie was coproduced with Pioneer Pictures, founded by Cooper—who departed RKO after two years helming production—and John Hay "Jock" Whitney, who brought in his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney; Cooper had successfully encouraged the Whitneys to purchase a major share of the Technicolor business as well.^[25] Though judged by critics a failure as drama, Becky Sharp was widely lauded for its visual brilliance and technical expertise. RKO also employed some of the industry's leading artists and craftsmen whose work was never seen. From the studio's earliest days through late 1935, Max Steiner, regarded by many historians as the most influential composer of the early years of sound cinema, made music for over 100 RKO films.^[26] Murray Spivak, head of the studio's audio special effects department, made important advances in the use of rerecording technology first heard in King Kong.^[27] For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. ... Duke Ellington wearing a top hat. ... Production designer is a term used in the movie and television industries to refer to the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. ... Costume design is the design of the appearance of the characters in a theater or cinema performance. ... WALTER PLUNKETT (1902-1985) Famed Hollywood Costume Designer Born in 1902, Walter Plunkett first worked as an actor, much like his peers Orry-Kelly and Charles Lemair. ... In the performing arts, a period piece is a work set in a particular era. ... Rear projection effect is an in-camera special effects technique in film production for combining foreground performances with pre-filmed backgrounds. ... is the 164th day of the year (165th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar). ... Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc. ... The 1935 film Becky Sharp, based on the novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, tells the story of a lower-class girl who insinuates herself into an upper class family, only to see her life and the lives of those around her destroyed. ... John Hay Whitney (August 27, 1904 in Ellsworth, Maine â€“ February 8, 1982), colloquially known as Jock Whitney, was U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and a member of the Whitney family. ... C.V. Whitney, 2000 book cover Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (February 20, 1899 - December 13, 1992) was an American businessman, film producer, writer, and government official, as well as the owner of a leading stable of thoroughbred racehorses. ... Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner (born May 10, 1888 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary; died December 28, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an Austrian-American composer of music for theater production shows and films. ...

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.^[28] While the Astaire–Rogers team ran its course and RKO kept missing the mark in building Hepburn's career, major stars Cary Grant and Barbara Stanwyck joined the studio's roster—though Stanwyck would have little success during her few years there. Grant was a trendsetter, one of the first leading men of the sound era to work extensively as a freelancer, under nonexclusive studio deals, while his star was still on the rise.^[29] Ann Sothern starred in seven RKO films between 1935 and 1937, paired five times with Gene Raymond. Floyd Bostwick Odlum born March 30, 1892 in Union City, Michigan, United States – died June 17, 1976 in Indio, California, was a wealthy lawyer and industrialist and husband of aviatrix Jackie Cochran. ... The Rockefeller family, the family of John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937) (Senior) and his brother William Rockefeller (1841-1922), is an American industrial, banking, philanthropic, and political family of German American origin that made the worlds largest private fortune in the oil business during the late 19th and early... For the vocal coach, see Carrie Grant. ... Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 â€“ January 20, 1990) was an American actress of film, stage, and screen . ... Ann Sothern Ann Sothern (January 22, 1909 â€“ March 15, 2001) was an American film actress. ... Gene Raymond (August 13, 1908 - May 2, 1998) was a popular film actor of the 1930s and 1940s. ...

Soon after the appointment of a new production chief, Samuel Briskin, in late 1935, RKO dropped Van Beuren and entered into an important distribution deal with animator Walt Disney. From 1936 to 1954, the studio released his 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). Following the change in print branding a few years earlier, the opening and closing logos on RKO movies, other than the Pathé nonfiction line, were changed to "RKO Radio Pictures" in 1936.^[30] 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.^[31] In addition to its central Hollywood studio, RKO production now revolved around its Encino backlot. 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. For the company founded by Disney, see The Walt Disney Company. ... Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 animated feature, the first produced by Walt Disney. ... For the 1982 film of the same name, see Birth of a Nation (1982 film). ... Gone with the Wind is a 1939 film adapted from Margaret Mitchells 1936 novel of the same name. ... A 1965 aerial view of the back forty. Other names used were 40 acres and Pathe 40 Acre Ranch. ... For alternate meanings of MGM, see MGM (disambiguation). ... Encino is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley. ...

Pandro Berman—who had filled in on three previous occasions—accepted the position of production chief on a noninterim basis. As it turned out, he would leave 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). Charles Laughton, who gave a now fabled performance as Quasimodo in the latter, returned periodically to the studio, headlining six more RKO features. For Maureen O'Hara, who made her American screen debut in the film, it was the first of ten pictures she would make for RKO through 1952. Gunga Din is a 1939 RKO adventure film, based on the 1892 poem by Rudyard Kipling, about three British sergeants and their native water bearer who fight the Thuggee, a religious cult of ritualistic stranglers in colonial India. ... There is also a musical group named Love Affair. ... Charles Boyer (August 28, 1899 â€“ August 26, 1978) was a French-American actor who starred in several classic Hollywood films, TV director and TV producer. ... The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1939 American monochrome motion picture. ... Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 â€“ 15 December 1962) was an English stage and film actor. ... For the 20th century Italian poet awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959, see Salvatore Quasimodo. ... Maureen OHara Maureen OHara (born Maureen FitzSimons) on August 17, 1920 is an Irish film actress. ...

The studio's B Western star of the period was George O'Brien, who made 18 RKO pictures, 16 between 1938 and 1940. The Saint in New York (1938) successfully launched a B series featuring the character Simon Templar that would run through 1943. The series was supplanted by the adventures of Falcon, which resembled the Saint series so closely that "Saint" author Leslie Charteris sued RKO. George Sanders began the series, but bowed out after four films; his brother, Tom Conway, replaced him and the series became even more successful, ending in 1946. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... George OBrien, right, with actor Johnny Weissmuller. ... The Saint in New York, released in 1938 by RKO Pictures was a crime thiller that marked the first screen appearance of sleuth Simon Templar, alias the Saint. ... Simon Templar is a fictional character known as The Saint in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. ... The character of Gay Stanhope Falcon, also known simply as The Falcon, was created in 1940 by Michael Arlen in his short story, Gay Falcon, as a sort of freelance adventurer and troubleshooter, definitely on the hardboiled side, a man who makes his living keeping his mouth shut and engaging... Leslie Charteris (May 12, 1907, Singaporeâ€“April 15, 1993), born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. ... Do you mean: George Sanders (1906-1972), the British actor George Sanders, who was awarded the Victoria Cross on the first day of the Battle of the Somme This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Tom Conway (September 15, 1904 â€“ April 22, 1967) was an English actor. ...

The Wheeler and Woolsey comedy series lapsed in 1937 when Woolsey fell ill (he died in 1938). RKO filled the void by agreeing to release a number of independently produced features, including the Dr. Christian series and the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces. RKO soon had its own B comedy star in Lupe Vélez: The Girl from Mexico (1939) was followed by seven frantic installments of the Mexican Spitfire series, all co-starring Leon Errol, between 1940 and 1943; the series was curtailed by Velez's death. In 1940, Chester Lauck and Norris Goff brought their famous comic characters Lum and Abner from radio to RKO for a six-film run. Johnny Weissmuller starred in six Tarzan pictures for RKO between 1943 and 1948. Laurel and Hardy, in a promotional still from their 1937 feature film Way Out West. ... The Flying Deuces, also known as Flying Aces, is a comedy film starring Laurel and Hardy. ... Lupe VÃ©lez (July 18, 1908 â€“ December 13, 1944) was a Mexican American actress. ... Leonce Errol Simms (July 3, 1881 - October 12, 1951) was a comedian and actor popular in the 1940s. ... Chester Chet Lauck, (9 February 1902 _ 21 February 1980), played the character Lum Eddards on the classic American radio comedy Lum and Abner. ... Norris Goff (May 30, 1906 â€“ June 7, 1978) was an American comedian in radio and film best known for his portrayal of Abner Peabody on the rural comedy Lum and Abner. ... Lum and Abner was an American radio comedy which was on the air as a first-run network program from 1932 to 1954. ... Johnny Weissmuller (June 2, 1904 â€“ January 20, 1984) was an American swimmer and actor who was one of the worlds best swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals and one bronze medal. ... For other uses, see Tarzan (disambiguation). ...

The studio's technical departments maintained their reputation as industry leaders; Vernon Walker's special effects unit became famous for its sophisticated use of the optical printer and lifelike matte work, an art that would reach its apex with 1941's Citizen Kane.^[32] An optical printer with two projector heads, used in producing movie special effects. ... Mattes are used in photography and filmmaking to insert part of a foreground image onto a background image, which is often a matte painting, a background filmed by the second unit, or computer generated imagery. ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. ...

Image File history File links Kane1. ... Image File history File links Kane1. ... Citizen Kane is a 1941 mystery/drama film released by RKO Pictures and directed by Orson Welles, his first feature film. ...

Kane and Schaefer's troubles

Pan Berman had received his first screen credit in 1925 as a nineteen-year-old assistant director on FBO's Midnight Molly. He departed RKO in December 1939 after policy clashes with studio president George J. Schaefer, handpicked the previous year by the Rockefellers and backed by Sarnoff. With Berman gone, Schaefer became in effect production chief, though other men—including the former head of the industry censorship board, Joseph I. Breen—nominally filled the role.^[33] Schaefer, announcing his philosophy with a new studio slogan, "Quality Pictures at a Premium Price," was keen on signing up independent producers whose films RKO would distribute.^[34] In 1941, the studio landed one of the most prestigious independents in Hollywood when it arranged to handle Samuel Goldwyn's productions. The first two Goldwyn pictures released by the studio were highly successful: The Little Foxes, directed by William Wyler, is seen as one of Bette Davis's finest films, while the Howard Hawks–directed Ball Of Fire at last brought Barbara Stanwyck a hit under the RKO banner. However, Schaefer agreed to terms so favorable to Goldwyn that it was next to impossible for the studio to make money off his films.^[35] David O. Selznick loaned out his leading director under contract for two RKO pictures in 1941: Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith was a modest success and Suspicion a more substantial one, with an Oscar-winning turn by Joan Fontaine.^[36] An assistant director (AD) is a person who helps the film director in the making of a movie. ... George Schaefer (November 5, 1888 - August 8, 1981) was a movie producer and once the president of RKO in 1941 when Orson Wells made his classic film Citizen Kane. ... The Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of industry guidelines governing the production of American motion pictures. ... Samuel Goldwyn (July 1882 (some sources say 17 August 1882, others 1879 [1]) â€“ 31 January 1974) was an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award-winning producer, also a well-known Hollywood motion picture producer and founding contributor of several motion picture studios. ... </gallery> Image:Example. ... William Wyler (July 1, 1902 â€“ July 27, 1981) was a prolific, Oscar-winning motion picture director. ... Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 â€“ January 20, 1990) was an American actress of film, stage, and screen . ... For other uses see Mr. ... Suspicion DVD cover Suspicion (1941) is a film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. ... Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) is an Academy Award-winning British American actress, who became an American citizen in April 1943. ...

That May, RKO released Citizen Kane, coproducing with director Orson Welles's Mercury Productions. While it opened to strong reviews and would go on to be hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made, it lost money at the time and brought down the wrath of the Hearst newspaper chain on RKO. The next year saw the commercial failure of Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons—like Kane, critically lauded and overbudget—and the expensive embarrassment of his aborted documentary It's All True. The three Mercury productions combined to drain $2 million from the RKO coffers, major money for a corporation that had reported an overall deficit of $1 million in 1940 and a profit (perhaps "creative") of a bit more than $500,000 in 1941.^[37] Many of RKO's other artistically ambitious pictures were also dying at the box office and it was losing its last exclusive deal with a major star as well. Rogers, after winning an Oscar in 1941 for her performance in the previous year's Kitty Foyle, held out for a freelance contract like Grant's; after 1943, she would appear in just one more RKO production, thirteen years later.^[38] On June 17, 1942, Schaefer tendered his resignation.^[39] He departed a weakened and troubled studio, but RKO was about to turn the corner. Propelled by the box-office boom of World War II and guided by new management, RKO would make a strong comeback over the next half-decade. This article includes a list of works cited or a list of external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... For other people named William Randolph Hearst, see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation) William Randolph Hearst I (April 29, 1863 â€“ August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper magnate. ... The Magnificent Ambersons is an American film released in 1942 and directed by Orson Welles, his second film. ... Its All True was the title of an unfinished Orson Welles documentary about South America shot in 1942. ... Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 film which tells the story of a white-collar girl who falls in love with a young socialite, despite the objections of his family. ... is the 168th day of the year (169th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link will display the full 1942 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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. With Schaefer gone, Koerner could actually do the job; announcing a policy of "entertainment, not genius" (a snipe at Schaefer's artistic ambitions in general and his sponsorship of Welles in particular), he brought the studio much-needed stability until his death in February 1946.^[40] 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.^[41] 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.^[42]

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 star under anything like an extended contract was Grant, whose services were shared with Columbia Pictures. Lacking in-house stars, Koerner and his successors under Odlum made deals with the other studios to loan out their biggest names for top-drawer RKO productions. 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. John Wayne appeared in 1943's A Lady Takes a Chance on loan from Republic Pictures; he was soon working regularly with RKO, making nine more movies for the studio. Gary Cooper appeared in RKO releases produced by Goldwyn and, later, the startup International Pictures, and Claudette Colbert starred in a number of RKO coproductions. Ingrid Bergman appeared under a variety of hats for RKO—on loan out from Selznick in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), in the coproductions Notorious (1946) and Stromboli (1950), and in the independently produced Joan of Arc (1948). Freelancing Randolph Scott appeared in one major RKO release annually from 1943 through 1948. In similar fashion, many leading directors made one or more films at RKO during this era—most notably, 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). 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 co-productions between RKO and Argosy, the company run by Ford and RKO alumnus Merian C. Cooper. The best-known director under contract to RKO for much of the 1940s was Edward Dmytryk, who first came to notice with the remarkably profitable Hitler's Children (1943); shot on a budget placing it in the bottom 25 percent of Big Five studio productions, it was one of the ten biggest Hollywood hits of the year.^[43] Harry Lillis Bing Crosby (May 3, 1903 â€“ October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977. ... Henry Jaynes Fonda (May 16, 1905 â€“ August 12, 1982) was a highly acclaimed Academy Award-winning American film and stage actor, best known for his roles as plain-speaking idealists. ... For other persons named John Wayne, see John Wayne (disambiguation). ... Republic Pictures Corporation (aka Republic Entertainment) is an independent film, television, and video distribution company that was originally a movie production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, best known for its specialization in quality B pictures, westerns and movie serials. ... Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper May 7, 1901 â€“ May 13, 1961) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American film actor of English heritage. ... Claudette Colbert (September 13, 1903 â€“ July 30, 1996) was an Academy Award-winning French-born American actress. ... (pronounced in Swedish, but usually in English, IPA notation) (August 29, 1915 â€“ August 29, 1982) was a three-time Academy Award-winning and two-time Emmy Award-winning Swedish actress. ... The Bells of St. ... Notorious is a 1946 thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as two people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. ... Stromboli, aka Stromboli, terra di dio, is a 1950 Italian film by Roberto Rossellini, featuring Ingrid Bergman. ... Joan of Arc is a 1948 film. ... Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 â€“ March 2, 1987) was an American motion picture actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. ... Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (September 15, 1894 â€“ February 12, 1979), born in the Montmartre Quarter of Paris, France was a film director. ... This Land Is Mine is a 1943 war drama set in Nazi-occupied France and directed by Jean Renoir. ... The Fugitive is a 1947 film starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford. ... Fort Apache is a 1948 western film starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford. ... She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is a western film. ... Wagon Master is a 1950 Western film directed by John Ford and starring Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr. ... Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 - July 1, 1999) was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy era red scare. ...

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 each of the other Big Five were budgeted at over a half a million dollars.^[44] A focus on B pictures limited the studio's financial risk; while it also limited the potential for reward (Dmytryk's extraordinary coup aside), RKO had a history of making better profits with its run-of-the-mill and low-cost product than with its A movies.^[45] The studio's low-budget films were also training opportunities for new directors, among them Jacques Tourneur, Robert Wise, Mark Robson, and Anthony Mann. A number of RKO B's are highly regarded today, notably the movies created by producer Val Lewton's horror unit, such as Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), and The Body Snatcher (1945). Richard Dix concluded his lengthy RKO career with the 1943 Lewton production The Ghost Ship. Tim Holt was RKO's B Western star of the era, appearing in over fifty movies for the studio. Image File history File links IWalkedZombie. ... Image File history File links IWalkedZombie. ... Val Lewton Vladimir Ivan Leventon (7 May, 1904-14 March, 1951) was an American screenwriter and producer who was born in what is now Yalta, Ukraine. ... Jacques Tourneur, born November 12, 1904 – died December 19, 1977, was a French film director. ... Italian-born cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (October 25, 1892 - September 3, 1975) began his film career as the chauffeur for silent-movie producer J. Stuart Blackton. ... I Walked with a Zombie is a 1943 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. ... Jacques Tourneur, born November 12, 1904 – died December 19, 1977, was a French film director. ... Robert Wise (September 10, 1914 â€“ September 14, 2005) was a sound effects editor, film editor, and Academy Award-winning American film producer and director. ... Mark Robson (December 4, 1913 â€“ June 20, 1978) was a Canadian-born film editor, film director and producer in Hollywood. ... Anthony Mann (June 30, 1906 - April 29, 1967), was an American actor and film director. ... Val Lewton Vladimir Ivan Leventon (7 May, 1904-14 March, 1951) was an American screenwriter and producer who was born in what is now Yalta, Ukraine. ... This article is about the 1942 film; Cat People is also the name of a 1982 film. ... I Walked with a Zombie is a 1943 horror film directed by Jacques Tourneur. ... The Body Snatcher (also known as Robert Louis Stevensons The Body Snatcher) is a 1945 horror directed by Robert Wise based on the short story The Body Snatcher by Robert Louis Stevenson. ... The Ghost Ship starring Richard Dix The Ghost Ship is a black-and-white 1943 film starring Richard Dix. ... Tim Holt (February 5, 1919 â€“ February 15, 1973) was an American film actor. ...

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. 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. Albert D'Agostino—another long-termer who took over as head of the design department from Polglase in 1941—and his team, including art directors Jack Okey and Walter Keller and set decorator Darrell Silvera, are similarly credited. The studio's 1940s list of contract players reads like a noir who's-who: Robert Mitchum (who would graduate to major star status) and Robert Ryan each made no fewer than ten film noirs for RKO. Gloria Grahame, Jane Greer, Lawrence Tierney, and George Raft were also notable studio players in the genre. Tourneur, Musuraca, Mitchum, and Greer, along with D'Agostino's design group, would join to make Out of the Past (1947), now considered one of the greatest of all film noirs. Nicholas Ray began his directing career with the RKO noir They Live by Night (1948), the first of a number of well-received films he made for the studio. This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... Stranger on the Third Floor is a 1940 film noir. ... â€¹ The template below is being considered for deletion. ... Italian-born cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (October 25, 1892 - September 3, 1975) began his film career as the chauffeur for silent-movie producer J. Stuart Blackton. ... The term art director, is an overall title for a variety of similar job functions in advertising, publishing, film and television, the Internet, and video games. ... A set decorator is in charge of the set dressing on a film set, which includes the furnishings, wallpaper, lighting fixtures, and many of the other objects that will be seen in the film. ... Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 â€“ July 1, 1997) was an Academy award nominated American film actor and singer. ... Robert Ryan (November 11, 1909 â€“ July 11, 1973) was an Irish-American Oscar and Bafta award-nominated actor born in Chicago, Illinois. ... Gloria Grahame (November 28, 1923 - October 5, 1981) was an Academy Award-winning American film actress. ... Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947). ... Lawrence Tierney in Born to Kill (1947) Lawrence Tierney (March 15, 1919 â€“ (February 26, 2002) was an American actor. ... Raft in They Drive by Night George Raft (September 26, 1895 - November 24, 1980) was an American film actor most closely identified with his portrayals of gangsters in crime melodramas of the 1930s and 1940s. ... This article is about the 1947 film; there was also a 1998 documentary of the same name. ... Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911â€“June 16, 1979) was an American film director. ... They Live by Night is a Film noir released in 1949. ...

Image File history File links CrossfirePoster2. ... Image File history File links CrossfirePoster2. ... Crossfire is a 1947 film which dealt with the theme of anti-semitism, as did that years Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentlemans Agreement. ... Protestors opposing the jailing of the Hollywood Ten in 1950 (from the 1987 documentary Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist). ... Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 - July 1, 1999) was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy era red scare. ... HUAC hearings House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA) (1938â€“1975) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... Adrian Scott ( February 6, 1912, Arlington, New Jersey, USA - December 25, 1973, Sherman Oaks, California) was the producer of the film noirs Murder, My Sweet (dir. ...

HUAC and Howard Hughes

RKO (and the movie industry as a whole) had its most profitable year ever in 1946, and Floyd Odlum cashed in by selling off about 40 percent of his shares in the company to a group of investment firms.^[46] After Koerner's death, Radio-Keith-Orpheum president N. Peter Rathvon and RKO Radio Pictures president Ned 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, the talented screenwriter/producer Dore Schary took over the role.^[47] Dore Schary (born August 31, 1905 in Newark, New Jersey, United States - died July 7, 1980 in New York City) was a stage and motion picture personality. ...

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, followed by others, imposed limits on how much capital American movie companies could withdraw annually, curtailing one of the studios' primary sources of earnings. 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.^[48] The phenomenon that would become known as McCarthyism was building up steam, 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; blacklisted as members of the so-called Hollywood Ten, they were fired by RKO per the terms of the Waldorf Statement, the industry's "antisubversive" declaration.^[49] Ironically, the studio's major success of the year was Crossfire, a Scott–Dmytryk fim. Odlum concluded it was time to exit the film business, and he put his remaining RKO shares—approximately 25 percent of the outstanding stock—on the market.^[50] Before the turn of the year, the Pathé-branded newsreel was sold to Warner Bros.^[51] 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 would turn out to be the last major Academy Award for an RKO picture. A 1947 comic book published by the Catechetical Guild Educational Society warning of the dangers of a Communist takeover. ... HUAC hearings House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC or HCUA) (1938â€“1975) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives. ... Adrian Scott ( February 6, 1912, Arlington, New Jersey, USA - December 25, 1973, Sherman Oaks, California) was the producer of the film noirs Murder, My Sweet (dir. ... Protestors opposing the jailing of the Hollywood Ten in 1950 (from the 1987 documentary Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist). ... Protestors opposing the jailing of the Hollywood Ten in 1950 (from the 1987 documentary Legacy of the Hollywood Blacklist). ... The Waldorf Statement was a two-page press release issued on November 25, 1947 by Eric Johnston, President of the Motion Picture Association of America, following a closed-door meeting by forty-eight motion picture company executives at New York Citys Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. ... Crossfire is a 1947 film which dealt with the theme of anti-semitism, as did that years Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentlemans Agreement. ... For other uses, see The Farmers Daughter. ... Loretta Young in 1935 Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 â€“ August 12, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ...

In May 1948, eccentric multimillionaire and occasional movie producer Howard Hughes gained control of the company, beating out British film magnate J. Arthur Rank as the buyer of Odlum's interest.^[52] 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. Within weeks of taking over, 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. Completed pictures would be sent back for reshooting if the stars, especially female, weren't presented to his liking, or if a film's anticommunist sentiments weren't sufficiently blatant. 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.^[53] The production-distribution end of the RKO business, now deep in the red, would never make a profit again. Offscreen, Robert Mitchum's arrest and conviction for marijuana possession—he would serve 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.^[54] 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. 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 didn't actually sell his stock in the theater company until November 1953, his decision to acquiesce was one of the crucial steps in the collapse of classical Hollywood's studio system.^[55] For the Welsh murderer, see Howard Hughes (murderer). ... Joseph Arthur Rank, 1st Baron Rank (December 23, 1888 â€“ March 29, 1972) was a British industrialist and film producer, and founder of the Rank Organisation, now known as The Rank Group Plc. ... United States v. ... DECREE - The judgment or sentence of a court of equity which corresponds to the judgment of a court of law. ... The studio system was a means of film production and distribution dominant in Hollywood from the early 1920s through the early 1950s. ...

Hughes's mismanagement

While Hughes's time at RKO was marked by dwindling production and a slew of expensive flops (as well as further witch hunts for suspected Reds), the studio continued to turn out some good films under production chiefs Sid Rogell and Sam Bischoff, each of whom became fed up with Hughes's meddling and quit after less than two years. (Bischoff would be the last man to hold the job under Hughes.^[56]) There were B noirs such as The Set-Up and The Window (both 1949), whose reputation has only grown over the decades, and The Thing (1951), a thrilling science-fiction drama coproduced with Howard Hawks's Winchester Pictures. 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. The company also began a close working relationship with Ida Lupino. She would star in two memorable suspense films with Robert Ryan—Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground (1952, though shooting had been completed two years earlier) and Beware, My Lovely (1952), a coproduction between RKO and Lupino's company, The Filmakers. Of more historic note, Lupino was Hollywood's only female director during the period; of the five pictures The Filmakers made with RKO, Lupino directed three, including her now celebrated The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Exposing many moviegoers to Asian cinema for the first time, RKO distributed Akira Kurosawa's epochal Rashomon in the United States, sixteen months after its original 1950 Japanese release. Image File history File links BewareMyLovely. ... Image File history File links BewareMyLovely. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... Robert Ryan (November 11, 1909 â€“ July 11, 1973) was an Irish-American Oscar and Bafta award-nominated actor born in Chicago, Illinois. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Beware, My Lovely is a 1952 suspense film produced by Collier Young/Ida Lupinos production company The Filmakers Inc. ... Art director Harry Horner (1910 - 1994) was born in what is now Slovakia and found his way into the film business via his association with Max Reinhardt. ... Movie producer and writer Collier Young (August 19, 1908 - December 25, 1980) worked on many films in the 50s before becoming a television producer for such shows as Ironside and The Wild Wild West. ... A witch-hunt is a search for suspected witches; it is a type of moral panic. ... The Set-Up The Set-Up (1949) is an example of film noir. ... A young boy (actor Bobby Driscoll) witnesses a murder when he spies through a window. ... The Thing from Another World is a 1951 science fiction film which tells the story of an Air Force crew and scientists at a remote Arctic research outpost who fight a malevolent alien being. ... Friedrich Christian Anton Fritz Lang (December 5, 1890 â€“ August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-German-American film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known Ã©migrÃ©s from Germanys school of Expressionism. ... Rancho Notorious is a 1952 Western film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich as the matron of a criminal hideout called Chuck-a-Luck. ... Clash by Night is a 1952 black-and-white film noir/drama starring Barbara Stanwyck, Paul Douglas and Robert Ryan, with an effective appearance by Marilyn Monroe. ... Jerry Wald, born Jerome Irving Wald (16 September 1911 - 13 July 1962), was a producer and screenwriter for motion pictures and radio shows. ... Norman Krasna (born November 7, 1909â€“November 1, 1984) was an American screenwriter, playwright, and film director. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... On Dangerous Ground is a 1952 film released by RKO Radio Pictures, directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by John Houseman. ... Beware, My Lovely is a 1952 suspense film produced by Collier Young/Ida Lupinos production company The Filmakers Inc. ... For the episode of The Twilight Zone, see The Hitch-Hiker (The Twilight Zone). ... Kurosawa redirects here. ... Rashomon ) is a 1950 Japanese film directed by Akira Kurosawa, working in close collaboration with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa. ...

In September 1952, Hughes and his corporate president, Ned E. 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.^[57] During the turmoil, Samuel Goldwyn ended his 11-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.^[58] Nineteen fifty-two had been disastrous for the studio financially, and production had again virtually ground to a halt over the winter. The Encino backlot shut down permanently in 1953 and the property was sold off.^[59] Hughes soon found himself the target of no less 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.^[60] Looking to forestall the impending legal imbroglio, in early 1954 Hughes offered to buy out all of RKO's other stockholders. Convinced that the studio was sinking, Walt Disney ended his arrangement with RKO and set up his own distribution firm, Buena Vista Pictures. By the end of the year, at a cost of $23.5 million, Hughes had gained near-total control of RKO Pictures, 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 from acquiring 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.^[61] With negotiations between the two at a stalemate, in July 1955, Hughes turned around and sold RKO to the General Tire and Rubber Company for $25 million. Hughes retained the rights to pictures he had personally produced, including those made at RKO; he also kept the contract of his discovery Jane Russell. 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."^[62] Richard Ewing Dick Powell (November 14, 1904 â€“ January 2, 1963) was an American singer, actor, producer, and director. ... The Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group is a collection of affiliated motion picture studios, all subsidaries of The Walt Disney Company. ... The General Tire and Rubber Company is an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles. ... With Bob Hope in 1944. ...

General Tire and the end of RKO Pictures

In taking control of the studio, General Tire restored RKO's links to broadcasting. General Tire had bought the Yankee Network, a New England regional radio network based around WNAC (AM) in Boston, in 1943. In 1950, it purchased the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System, and two years later, the Bamberger Broadcasting Service, owner of the WOR TV and radio stations in New York City. General Tire then merged its broadcasting interests into a new division, General Teleradio. Thomas O'Neil, son of General Tire's founder William O'Neil and chairman of the broadcasting group, saw that the company's new television stations, indeed all TV outlets, were in need of programming. In 1953, O'Neil had approached Hughes about buying RKO's film library; with the 1955 purchase of the studio that library was his, and rights to the approximately 740 RKO films the studio retained clear title to were quickly put up for sale. The Yankee Network was an American radio network. ... WRKO is an AM radio station based in Boston, Massachusetts, currently owned by Entercom and broadcasting on 680 kHz. ...

C & C Television Corp., a subsidiary of beverage maker Cantrell & Cochrane, won the bidding and was soon offering 16mm prints of the films in syndication, with the RKO trademarks replaced by a "C & C Movietime USA" logo. Local stations broadcast the RKO features and shorts under the sponsorship of C & C Cola. The C & C prints were licensed to TV stations in perpetuity, so many stations across America are still playing these venerable film prints, five decades after their manufacture. Turner Classic Movies often consults C & C prints for broadcast on that cable network. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is a cable television channel featuring commercial-free classic movies, mostly from the Turner Entertainment and Warner Bros. ...

RKO Teleradio Pictures—the new company created from the merger of General Teleradio and the RKO studio—retained the broadcast rights for the cities where it owned TV stations. By 1956, RKO's classic movies were playing widely on television, allowing many to see such films as Citizen Kane for the first time. The $15.2 million RKO made on the deal convinced the other major studios that their libraries held profit potential—a turning point in the way Hollywood did business.^[63]

The new owners of RKO made a half-hearted effort to run the studio, hiring veteran producer William Dozier to head production. RKO Teleradio Pictures 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. The studio was also saddled with the last of the lumbering, inflated B-movies such as Pearl of the South Pacific (1955) and The Conqueror (1956) that enchanted Hughes. After a year and a half without a notable success, General Tire shut down production at RKO for good at the end of January 1957. The Hollywood and Culver City facilities were sold later that year for $6.15 million to Desilu Productions, owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, who had been an RKO contract player from 1935 to 1942.^[64] Desilu would be acquired by Gulf and Western Industries in 1967 and merged into G+W's other production company, Paramount Pictures; the former RKO Hollywood studio became home to Paramount Television (now CBS Paramount Television, owned by CBS Corporation), which it remains to this day. The renovated Culver City studio is now owned and operated as an independent production facility. Forty Acres, the Culver City backlot, was razed in the mid-1970s.^[65] Image File history File links JetPilotPoster. ... Image File history File links JetPilotPoster. ... This article is about the American media conglomerate. ... While the City Sleeps is a 1956 film directed by Fritz Lang. ... Beyond a reasonable doubt is the highest level of burden of persuasion typically employed in the criminal procedure. ... For the 15th-Century Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, see Mehmed II. The Conqueror was a 1956 film produced by Howard Hughes and starring John Wayne as the Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan. ... The Desilu logo, used in the 1960s. ... Desi Arnaz (born Desiderio Alberto Arnaz y de Acha III) (March 2, 1917 â€“ December 2, 1986) was a Cuban musician, actor, comedian and television producer. ... Lucille DÃ©sirÃ©e Ball (August 6, 1911 â€“ April 26, 1989) was an iconic American comedian, actress and star of the landmark sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show, and Heres Lucy. ... Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. ... Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and distribution company, based in Hollywood, California. ... CBS Paramount Television (formerly Desilu Productions, Paramount Television, among other companies) is an American television production/distribution company that was formed on January 17, 2006 by CBS Corporation merging Paramount Television and CBS Productions. ... CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS, NYSE: CBSA) is an American media conglomerate focused on broadcasting, publishing, billboards, and television production, with most of its operations in the United States. ...

With the closing down of production, RKO also shut its distribution exchanges; from 1957 forward, remaining pictures were released through other companies, primarily Universal-International. The final RKO film, Verboten!, a coproduction with director Samuel Fuller's Globe Enterprises, was released by Columbia Pictures in March 1959. 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.^[66] 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."^[67] This article is about the American media conglomerate. ... Samuel Fuller (1987) Samuel Michael Fuller (August 12, 1912 â€“ October 30, 1997) was an American film director. ... The Columbia Pictures logo from 1993 to the present Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. ... RKO redirects here. ...

The Astaire–Rogers RKO films

The initial team-up Image File history File links FlyingDowntoRio. ... Image File history File links FlyingDowntoRio. ... Ginger Rogers (Virginia Katherine McMath, July 16, 1911 â€“ April 25, 1995) was an Academy Award-winning American film and stage actress and singer. ... Fred Astaire (May 10, 1899 â€“ June 22, 1987), born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska,[1] was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. ... This article is about the film. ...

The classic cycle Flying Down to Rio is a musical film made by RKO and released on December 29, 1933. ... Dolores Del Rio Dolores del Río (August 3, 1905 - April 11, 1983) was a Mexican film actress. ... Gene Raymond (August 13, 1908 - May 2, 1998) was a popular film actor of the 1930s and 1940s. ... Eric Blore (December 23, 1887 - March 2, 1959) comic actor. ...

The Gay Divorcee is a 1934 film that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. ... Mark Sandrich (born August 26, 1900 in New York City, New York â€“ died March 4, 1945 in Hollywood, California) was an American movie director, writer and producer. ... Alice Brady (November 2, 1892 - October 28, 1939) was an Academy Award-winning American actress in the silent film era of the late 1910s and 1920s through the 1930s, during the Great Depression. ... Edward Everett Horton (March 18, 1886 - September 29, 1970) was an American actor with a long career including motion pictures, theater, radio, television and voice work for animated cartoons. ... Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Smoke Gets In Your Eyes from Roberta (1935): RKO publicity still Roberta is a 1935 musical film by RKO starring Irene Dunne, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, and Randolph Scott. ... William A. Seiter (b. ... Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 - September 4, 1990) was a five-time Academy Award-nominated American film actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s. ... Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 â€“ March 2, 1987) was an American motion picture actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. ... Duke Ellington wearing a top hat. ... Follow the Fleet (RKO) is a 1936 Hollywood musical comedy film with a nautical theme and stars Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard, Lucille Ball, and Betty Grable, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin. ... This article is about the film. ... George Stevens examining film from A Place in the Sun. ... Shall We Dance is the seventh in the sequence of ten Astaire-Rogers musical comedy films. ... Carefree is a 1938 film starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. ... Ralph Rexford Bellamy (June 17, 1904 â€“ November 29, 1991) was a Tony Award-winning American actor with a career spanning sixty-two years. ... The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle is a biographical musical comedy starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Edna May Oliver and Walter Brennan. ... Henry Codman Potter (November 13, 1904 - August 31, 1977) was an American theatrical producer/director and a motion picture director. ...

Hepburn and Grant at RKO

As costars Image File history File links BabyPoster2. ... Image File history File links BabyPoster2. ... Katharine Houghton Hepburn (May 12, 1907 â€“ June 29, 2003) was an iconic American actress of film, television and stage. ... Bringing up Baby is a 1938 screwball comedy which tells the story of a scientist who winds up in various predicaments with a woman who has a unique sense of logic and a leopard named Baby. ...

Other Katharine Hepburn RKOs Sylvia Scarlett is a 1935 romantic comedy film, directed by George Cukor. ... George Dewey Cukor (July 7, 1899 â€“ January 24, 1983) was an American film director. ... Bringing up Baby is a 1938 screwball comedy which tells the story of a scientist who winds up in various predicaments with a woman who has a unique sense of logic and a leopard named Baby. ... Howard Winchester Hawks (May 30, 1896 â€“ December 26, 1977) was an American film director, producer and writer of the classic Hollywood era. ...

Other Cary Grant RKOs Image File history File links MyFaveWifePoster. ... Image File history File links MyFaveWifePoster. ... For the vocal coach, see Carrie Grant. ... Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 â€“ March 2, 1987) was an American motion picture actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. ... My Favorite Wife is a 1940 screwball comedy film that tells the story of Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Irene Dunne), a young mother who returns home after seven years of being stranded on a tropical island only to discover that that very afternoon her beloved husband Nick (Cary Grant) has had... Katharine Hepburn and David Manners in A Bill of Divorcement A Bill of Divorcement was a British play written by Clemence Dane that debuted in 1921 in London. ... This article is about John Barrymore, Sr. ... Christopher Strong a 1933 RKO film directed by Dorothy Arzner and starring Katharine Hepburn in her second screen role. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Colin Clive (20 January 1900 â€“ 25 June 1937) was an English stage and screen actor most famous for portraying Dr. Frankenstein in James Whales two Universal Frankenstein films Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. ... This article is about the plant. ... Lowell Sherman (October 11, 1885 San Francisco - December 28, 1934 Hollywood, California) was an American actor and director. ... Adolphe Menjou Adolphe Jean Menjou (February 18, 1890 â€“ October 29, 1963) was an American actor of French and Irish descent. ... Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. ... This article is about the 1933 film . ... Joan Bennett on the December, 1945 issue of Movie Story Magazine Joan Geraldine Bennett (February 27, 1910 â€“ December 7, 1990) was an American film actress who also achieved success later in life as a television actress. ... Frances Dee in Becky Sharp (1935) Frances Dee (born November 26, 1909 (sources used to cite 1907 as her year of birth while she was alive); died March 6, 2004) was an actress. ... Lois Mae Green, known by her screen name Jean Parker, (August 11, 1915 - November 30, 2005), was an American movie actress born in Deer Lodge, Montana. ... Spitfire is a 1934 drama film based on the play Trigger by Lula Vollmer. ... John Philip Cromwell (11 September 1901 – 19 November 1943) was a submariner of the United States Navy. ... Robert Young or Bob Young may refer to several different people: Robert J Young (historian) Robert Young (politician) (1834â€“1904), New Brunswick politician and businessman Robert Young (Biblical scholar), author of Youngs Literal Translation of the Bible Robert Young (actor) (1907-1998), star of US television programs Father Knows... Richard Wallace may refer to: Richard Wallace (1818 - 1890), art collector Richard Wallace (1894-1951), motion picture director Richard Wallace (born 1960), Chairman of A.L.I.C.E. Artificial Intelligence Foundation Richard Wallace, author of Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend Richard Wallace, editor of The Daily Mirror newspaper... Devoutly Roman Catholic Joplin, Missouri-born actor (of German extraction) who began acting in the 1930s, opposite Katharine Hepburn, among others; he continued appearing in films during the war years while serving in Special Services as actor and director of Army Air Force camp shows and training films. ... Break of Hearts is a 1935 RKO film starring Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer. ... Charles Boyer (August 28, 1899 â€“ August 26, 1978) was a French-American actor who starred in several classic Hollywood films, TV director and TV producer. ... Alice Adams is a 1935 comedy/drama film. ... George Stevens examining film from A Place in the Sun. ... Fred MacMurray (August 30, 1908 â€“ November 5, 1991) was an actor who appeared in over one hundred movies and a highly successful television series during a career that lasted from the 1930s to the 1970s. ... Mary of Scotland is a 1936 RKO film starring Katharine Hepburn as the 16th century ruler, Mary I of Scotland. ... For other persons named John Ford, see John Ford (disambiguation). ... Fredric March (August 31, 1897 â€“ April 14, 1975) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor. ... Florence Eldridge (September 5, 1901 - August 1, 1988) was an American film actress. ... A Woman Rebels is a 1936 RKO film adapted from the novel Portrait of a Rebel by Netta Syrett and starring Katharine Hepburn as Pamela Thistlewaite, who rebels against the social mores of Victorian England. ... Mark Sandrich (born August 26, 1900 in New York City, New York â€“ died March 4, 1945 in Hollywood, California) was an American movie director, writer and producer. ... Herbert Marshall (1890-1966) was a popular English cinema and theatre actor who overcame the loss of a leg during World War I, to enjoy a long career, initially as a romantic lead and then in character roles. ... Quality Street is a 1937 Hollywood movie, made by RKO, directed by George Stevens and produced by Pandro S. Berman. ... Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 â€“ September 18, 1968) was an American actor. ... Stage Door is a 1937 film that tells the story of several would-be actresses who live together in a single boarding house. ... Gregory La Cava (March 10, 1892 â€“ March 1, 1952) was an American film director best known for his films of the 1930s, including My Man Godfrey and Stage Door. ...

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Rowland V. Lee is the director of the 1940 black-and-white film The Son of Monte Cristo, starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, George Sanders. ... Edward Arnold (actor) Eddy Arnold (country singer) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Frances Elena Farmer (September 19, 1913 â€“ August 1, 1970) was an American film, television and theater actress. ... Wikisource has original text related to this article: Gunga Din Gunga Din (1892) is one of Rudyard Kiplings most famous poems, perhaps best known for its often-quoted last line, Youre a better man than I am, Gunga Din![1] The poem is a rhyming narrative from the... Victor Andrew de Bier McLaglen (December 10, 1886[1] - November 7, 1959) was a British boxer and Academy Award winning actor, who later became a naturalized American citizen. ... In Name Only (1939) is a movie starring Cary Grant, Carole Lombard and Kay Francis. ... Carole Lombard (October 6, 1908 â€“ January 16, 1942) was an American actress. ... My Favorite Wife is a 1940 screwball comedy film that tells the story of Ellen Wagstaff Arden (Irene Dunne), a young mother who returns home after seven years of being stranded on a tropical island only to discover that that very afternoon her beloved husband Nick (Cary Grant) has had... Garson Kanin (November 24, 1912 â€“ March 13, 1999) was an American writer and director of plays and films. ... Irene Dunne (December 20, 1898 - September 4, 1990) was a five-time Academy Award-nominated American film actress and singer of the 1930s and 1940s. ... Randolph Scott (January 23, 1898 â€“ March 2, 1987) was an American motion picture actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. ... Suspicion (1941) is a film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. ... Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 â€“ April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ... Joan Fontaine (born October 22, 1917) is an Academy Award-winning British American actress, who became an American citizen in April 1943. ... Leo McCarey (October 3, 1898 - July 5, 1969) was a movie director, screenwriter and producer. ... Mr. ... Henry Codman Potter (November 13, 1904 - August 31, 1977) was an American theatrical producer/director and a motion picture director. ... Laraine Day (October 13, 1920 - November 10, 2007)[1][2] was an American actress. ... None but the Lonely Heart is a 1944 film which tells the story of a Cockney lad who returns home with no ambitions but finds that his family needs him. ... Clifford Odets photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1937 Clifford Odets (July 18, 1906 - August 18, 1963) was an American socialist playwright, screenwriter, and social protester. ... Ethel Barrymore (August 15, 1879 â€“ June 18, 1959) was an Academy Award-winning American actress and a member of the famous Barrymore family. ... Notorious is a 1946 thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as two people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. ... (pronounced in Swedish, but usually in English, IPA notation) (August 29, 1915 â€“ August 29, 1982) was a three-time Academy Award-winning and two-time Emmy Award-winning Swedish actress. ... Claude Rains (November 10, 1889 â€“ May 30, 1967) was a British-born theatre and film actor, who later held American citizenship, best known for his many roles in Hollywood films. ... www. ... Irving Reis (b. ... Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 â€“ December 14, 1993) was an American motion picture actress. ... Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928) is an American former child actress. ... The Bishops Wife is a 1947 romantic comedy film which tells the story of an angel who comes to earth to help a bishop to reconnect with his family. ... Henry Koster (May 1, 1905-September 21, 1988) was born Herman Kosterlitz in Berlin, Germany. ... Loretta Young in 1935 Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 â€“ August 12, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... Betsy Drake (b. ... This article is about the 1948 film. ... Myrna Loy (August 2, 1905 â€“ December 14, 1993) was an American motion picture actress. ... Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg (April 5, 1901 â€“ August 4, 1981), better known as Melvyn Douglas, was an American actor who won all three of the entertainment industrys highest awards, two Oscars, one Tony and an Emmy. ...

Robert Mitchum at RKO

Image File history File links LustyMenPoster2. ... Image File history File links LustyMenPoster2. ... Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 â€“ July 1, 1997) was an Academy award nominated American film actor and singer. ... The Lusty Men is a 1952 western film made by Wald-Krasna productions and RKO Radio Pictures. ... Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911â€“June 16, 1979) was an American film director. ... Nevada is a 1944 western movie based on a Zane Grey novel and starring a 27-year-old Robert Mitchum, with Anne Jeffreys and Guinn Big Boy Williams in supporting roles. ... Anne Jeffreys (born January 26, 1923 in Goldsboro, North Carolina) is an American actress and singer. ... Gordon Douglas (Gordon Douglas Brickner) (December 15, 1907 – September 29, 1993) was an American film director, who directed many different genres of films over the course of a five-decade career in motion pictures. ... Wally Brown (October 9, 1904 - November 13, 1961) was an actor, comedian, and long-time partner of Alan Carney. ... Alan Carney (Born David Boughal) (born December 22, 1909 in Brooklyn, New York; died May 2, 1973 in Van Nuys, California) was an American actor and comedian. ... Barbara Hale (born April 18, 1922 in DeKalb, Illinois) is an American actress best known as Perry Masons secretary Della Street. She first began appearing in motion pictures in 1943 after training at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. ... The Locket is a 1946 suspense film directed by John Brahm. ... John Brahm (August 17, 1893 - October 12, 1982) was a film and television directer possibly best known today for directing a dozen of the orginal Twilight Zone episodes including the now classic Time Enough at Last. ... Laraine Day (October 13, 1920 - November 10, 2007)[1][2] was an American actress. ... Brian Aherne (May 2, 1902 â€“ February 10, 1986) was an English film actor who found success in Hollywood. ... Edward Dmytryk (September 4, 1908 - July 1, 1999) was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy era red scare. ... Dorothy McGuire and Kent Smith in The Spiral Staircase Dorothy Hackett McGuire (June 14, 1916 â€“ September 13, 2001) was an American actress. ... Guy Madison Guy Madison (January 19, 1922 - February 6, 1996) was an American film and television actor. ... Crossfire is a 1947 film which dealt with the theme of anti-semitism, as did that years Academy Award for Best Picture winner, Gentlemans Agreement. ... Robert Young or Bob Young may refer to several different people: Robert J Young (historian) Robert Young (politician) (1834â€“1904), New Brunswick politician and businessman Robert Young (Biblical scholar), author of Youngs Literal Translation of the Bible Robert Young (actor) (1907-1998), star of US television programs Father Knows... Robert Ryan (November 11, 1909 â€“ July 11, 1973) was an Irish-American Oscar and Bafta award-nominated actor born in Chicago, Illinois. ... This article is about the 1947 film; there was also a 1998 documentary of the same name. ... Jacques Tourneur, born November 12, 1904 – died December 19, 1977, was a French film director. ... Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947). ... Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch Demsky December 9, 1916) is an iconic American actor and film producer known for his gravelly voice and his recurring roles as the kinds of characters Douglas himself once described as sons of bitches. He is also father to Hollywood actor and producer Michael Douglas. ... Rachel and the Stranger was a black-and-white 1948 western film starring Loretta Young, William Holden, and Robert Mitchum. ... Film director and movie actor Norman Foster (December 13, 1900 - July 7, 1976) may be best remembered for being married twice - both times to leading ladies. ... Loretta Young in 1935 Loretta Young (January 6, 1913 â€“ August 12, 2000) was an Academy Award-winning American actress. ... William Holden (April 17, 1918 â€“ ca. ... DVD cover of the French release of Blood on the Moon Blood on the Moon is an RKO black-and-white 1948 psychological western directed by Robert Wise with cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. ... Robert Wise (September 10, 1914 â€“ September 14, 2005) was a sound effects editor, film editor, and Academy Award-winning American film producer and director. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... The Big Steal is a 1949 black-and-white film noir/comedy reteaming Out of the Past stars Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer. ... Don Siegel (October 26, 1912 - April 20, 1991) was an influential American film director. ... Holiday Affair is a black-and-white 1949 romantic comedy film starring Robert Mitchum and Janet Leigh. ... Janet Leigh (July 6, 1927 â€“ October 3, 2004), born Jeanette Helen Morrison, was an American actress. ... Where Danger Lives is a 1950 film drama directed by John Farrow. ... John Farrow was an award-winning film director, producer and screenwriter, born John N.B. Villiers-Farrow on February 10, 1904 in Sydney, Australia. ... Faith Domergue (June 16, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana - April 4, 1999 in Santa Barbara, California) was a film actress. ... Claude Rains (November 10, 1889 â€“ May 30, 1967) was a British-born theatre and film actor, who later held American citizenship, best known for his many roles in Hollywood films. ... His Kind of Woman is a black-and-white 1951 film noir mystery film starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell. ... With Bob Hope in 1944. ... Robert Stevenson (March 31, 1905-November 4, 1986) was an English film writer and director. ... Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 â€“ January 25, 1990) was an Academy Award-nominated American film and television actress. ... Robert Mitchum as Police Captain Thomas McQuigg in The Racket The Racket is a remake of the 1928 film of the same name. ... John Philip Cromwell (11 September 1901 – 19 November 1943) was a submariner of the United States Navy. ... Lizabeth Scott (born September 29, 1922) is an American actress who achieved some success in films, particularly in the genre of film noir. ... Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons in Angel Face Angel Face is a 1952 black-and-white film shot in the film noir style. ... Otto Ludwig Preminger (December 5, 1906 â€“ April 23, 1986) was a film director. ... Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons in Angel Face Jean Merilyn Simmons (born January 31, 1929 in Crouch Hill, London, England, United Kingdom) is a British actress. ... The Lusty Men is a 1952 western film made by Wald-Krasna productions and RKO Radio Pictures. ... Nicholas Ray (born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle) (August 7, 1911â€“June 16, 1979) was an American film director. ... For other persons named Hayward, see Hayward (disambiguation). ... Arthur Kennedy (February 17, 1914 _ January 5, 1990) was an American actor. ... Josef von Sternberg (29 May 1894 â€“ 22 December 1969) was an Austrian-American film director. ... Tay Garnett was a movie director who has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. ... Ann Blyth Ann Marie Blyth (born August 16, 1928 in Mount Kisco, New York) is an American actress and singer, most often cast in Hollywood musicals, but who also succeeded in the dramatic roles she was given. ... Second Chance is a 1953 thriller film directed by Rudolph MatÃ© starring Robert Mitchum, Jack Palance, and Linda Darnell. ... Rudolph MatÃ© (January 21, 1898 - October 27, 1964) was an accomplished cinematographer and film director. ... Linda Darnell Monetta Eloyse Darnell, better known as Linda Darnell (born October 16, 1923; died April 10, 1965), was a American film actress. ... Jack Palance (February 18, 1919 - November 10, 2006) was an Academy Award-winning American film actor. ... Year 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Lloyd Bacon (1889-1955) was a screen, stage, and vaudeville actor and a film director. ... Robert Mitchum and Jean Simmons in Angel Face Jean Merilyn Simmons (born January 31, 1929 in Crouch Hill, London, England, United Kingdom) is a British actress. ...

RKO studios and buildings

... Poster for The Cowboy Cop (1926), starring Tom Tyler, one of the best known of FBOs many Western stars. ... CBS Paramount Television (formerly Desilu Productions, Paramount Television, among other companies) is an American television production/distribution company that was formed on January 17, 2006 by CBS Corporation merging Paramount Television and CBS Productions. ... Culver City sign near the intersection of the 405 and the 90. ... Thomas Harper Ince (November 6, 1882–November 20, 1924) was an American film director. ... A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio with permanent exterior sets for outdoor scenes in motion picture and/or television productions. ... Encino is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley. ... Estudios Churubusco is one of the oldest and largest movie studios in Latin America located in the Churubusco neighborhood of Mexico City. ... Churubusco is a neighbourhood of Mexico City. ... Emilio AzcÃ¡rraga Vidaurreta, Sr. ... Asheville City Hall. ... Lower Plaza at Rockefeller Center. ...

RKO General

One of North America's major radio and television broadcasters from the 1950s through the late 1980s, RKO General traces its roots to the 1943 purchase of the Yankee Network by General Tire. In 1952, the company united its newly expanded broadcasting interests into a division dubbed General Teleradio. With the tire manufacturer's acquisition of the RKO film studio in 1955, its media businesses were brought together under the rubric of RKO Teleradio Pictures. In 1959, following the breakup of the movie studio, the media division was given the name it would operate under for the next three decades, RKO General. In addition to its broadcasting activities, RKO General was also the holding company for many of General Tire's (and, after its parent company's reorganization, GenCorp's) other noncore businesses, including soft-drink bottling, hotel enterprises, and, for seventeen years, the original Frontier Airlines. The classic logo of RKO Radio Pictures. ... Image File history File linksMetadata MMMBardot. ... Image File history File linksMetadata MMMBardot. ... CKLW is a 50,000 watt AM radio station broadcasting at 800 kHz located in Windsor, Ontario. ... The Yankee Network was an American radio network. ... The General Tire and Rubber Company is an American manufacturer of tires for motor vehicles. ... GenCorp was the final corporate name of the former General Tire and Rubber Company, formerly a major U.S. maker of automobile tires. ... Frontier Airlines was formed by a merger of Arizona Airways, Challenger Airlines, and Monarch Airlines on June 1, 1950, with headquarters at Stapleton Field in Denver, Colorado. ...

The RKO General radio lineup included some of the highest rated, most influential popular music stations in North America. In May 1965, KHJ (AM) in Los Angeles introduced the Boss Radio variation of the top 40 format. The restrictive programming style was soon adopted by many of RKO's other stations and imitated by non-RKO broadcasters around the country. RKO's FM station in New York pioneered numerous formats under a variety of call letters, including WOR and WXLO ("99X"); in 1983, as WRKS ("98.7 Kiss FM"), it became one of the first major stations to regularly program rap music. KHJ Radio in Los Angeles, California broadcasting Spanish-language entertainment programming as La Ranchera. ... Boss Radio was the name chosen to promote two new radio programming formats which were both launched in May, 1965 on both KHJ-AM broadcasting from Los Angeles and on Swinging Radio England broadcasting from the motor vessel Laissez Faire anchored three and a half miles off the Frinton-on... Top 40 is a radio format based on frequent repetition of songs from a constantly-updated list of the forty best-selling singles. ... WRKS-FM (98. ... WRKS-FM (98. ... WRKS-FM (98. ... Hip hop music is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. ...

The company's television stations, for the most part non–network affiliated, were known for showing classic films (both RKO productions and many others) under the banner of Million Dollar Movie, launched by New York's WOR-TV in 1954.^[69] In summer 1962, RKO General and Zenith Electronics initiated what became the first extended venture into subscription television service: through early 1969, Hartford, Connecticut's WHCT-TV aired movies, sports, classical and pop music concerts, and other live performances without commercials, generating income from descrambler installation and weekly rental fees as well as individual program charges. However, RKO General's most notable legacy is what may be the longest licensing dispute in television history. It began in 1965, when General Tire was accused of obliging vendors to buy advertising with one of its stations if they wanted to keep their contracts. More than two decades' worth of legal actions ensued, eventually forcing GenCorp (the parent company since 1983 of both General Tire and RKO General) to sell off its broadcast holdings under FCC pressure. RKO General exited the media business permanently in 1991. WWOR-TV, channel 9, is a MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. ... Zenith Electronics Corporation is an American manufacturer of televisions headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois. ... WUVN is a television station licensed to New Haven, Connecticut. ... FCC redirects here. ...

The new RKO Pictures

Beginning with 1981's Carbon Copy, RKO General became involved in the coproduction of a number of feature films (and one TV movie) through a newly created subsidiary, RKO Pictures Inc. Collaborating on an average of about two pictures per year, RKO frequently worked with major names—including Jack Nicholson (The Border [1982]) and Meryl Streep (Plenty [1985])—but met with little success. In 1986, Half Moon Street became the first RKO solo production in almost three decades; more solo ventures, including the Vietnam War drama Hamburger Hill, appeared the next year, but production ended as GenCorp underwent a massive reorganization following an attempted hostile takeover. The company's flagship tire division was sold to Germany's Continental Tire. With RKO General dismantling its broadcast business, RKO Pictures Inc., along with the original RKO studio's trademark, remake rights, and other remaining assets, was spun off and put up for sale. After a bid by RKO Pictures' own managers failed, it was acquired in 1987 by Wesray Capital—under the control of former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon and Ray Chambers—and linked with their Six Flags amusement parks to form RKO/Six Flags Entertainment Inc.^[70] Image File history File links NewCatPoster1. ... Image File history File links NewCatPoster1. ... Nastassja Kinski (born Nastassja Nakszynski on January 24, 1959) is a German-born model and actress, and daughter of actor Klaus Kinski. ... Paul Joseph Schrader (born July 22, 1946 in Grand Rapids, Michigan) is an American screenwriter and film director. ... Cat People is a 1982 horror film directed by Paul Schrader and starring Nastassja Kinski, Malcolm McDowell, and John Heard. ... This article is about the 1942 film; Cat People is also the name of a 1982 film. ... Promotional poster for Carbon Copy Carbon Copy is a 1981 comedy film, directed by Michael Schultz. ... John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937), known as Jack Nicholson, is a three time Academy Award-winning American actor internationally renowned for his often dark-themed portrayals of neurotic characters. ... The Border is a 1982 film directed by Tony Richardson and starring Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel . ... Mary Louise Streep, mostly known as Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an Academy Award-winning American actress who has worked in theatre, television, and film. ... Plenty is a 1985 movie starring Meryl Streep, Charles Dance, Tracey Ullman, John Gielgud, Sting, Ian McKellen, Sam Neill and Burt Kwouk. ... For the hill situated in Duncans Dam, see Dam Hamburger Hill Hamburger Hill is a 1987 American movie about the actual assault of the U.S. Armys 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division Screaming Eagles, on a well-fortified position, including trenchworks and... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... â€œ(TM)â€ redirects here. ... In film, a remake is a newer version of a previously released film or a newer version of the source (play, novel, story, etc. ... William Edward Simon (November 27, 1927–June 3, 2000) became the 63rd Secretary of the Treasury on May 8, 1974, during the Nixon administration. ... For the national flags of Texas, see Six flags over Texas. ...

In 1989, RKO Pictures was spun off yet again and a majority interest in it was acquired by its present owners: actress and Post Cereals heiress Dina Merrill and her husband, producer Ted Hartley, who merged it with their Pavilion Communications to form the present RKO Pictures LLC.^[71] Hartley and Merrill announced that the new RKO Pictures, which had ceased producing films while under Wesray control, would return to moviemaking full-time. With the inaugural RKO production under their leadership, False Identity (1990), the company also stepped into the distribution business. In 1992, the new RKO made its first significant contribution to cinema, distributing the well-regarded independent production Laws of Gravity, directed by Nick Gomez. For the next five years, however, the company neither produced nor distributed a single film as Hartley and Merrill sorted out the ownership rights of RKO's vast library. RKO Pictures reemerged in 1998 with Mighty Joe Young, a remake of a 1949 RKO movie that was itself something of a King Kong redux. During the current decade, the company has been involved as a coproducer on TV movies and modestly budgeted features at the rate of about one annually. In 2002, RKO produced a stage version of the 1936 Astaire–Rogers vehicle Swing Time, under the title Never Gonna Dance. Post Cereals, formerly Postum Cereals was founded by C. W. Post. ... Dina Merrill on Life magazine January 11, 1960 Nedenia Marjorie Hutton (born December 9, 1925) is an American actress known as Dina Merrill. ... Please wikify (format) this article or section as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Nick Gomez (b. ... Mighty Joe Young is a 1998 family film, and loose remake starring Bill Paxton and Charlize Theron and directed by Ron Underwood. ... The original Mighty Joe Young movie poster. ... This article is about the film. ...

In 2003, RKO Pictures entered into a legal battle with Wall Street Financial Associates (WSFA) concerning a Short Form Acquisition Agreement dated that March 3. Hartley and Merrill, the majority interest holders in RKO, claimed that the owners of WSFA fraudulently induced them into signing an acquisition agreement by concealing their "cynical and rapacious" plans to acquire RKO Pictures 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.^[72] 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.^[73] At present, the company's minimal involvement in new film production continues to focus on its remake rights: Are We Done Yet?, based on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), was released in April 2007. Upcoming RKO activities include Roseblood Movie Company, which produces scary, youth driven, moderately budgeted genre fare of classic RKO films^[74]. Image File history File links NewRKOlogo1. ... Image File history File links NewRKOlogo1. ... A Limited liability company (denoted by L.L.C. or LLC) is a type of legal entity which has only relatively recently been made possible to establish in the United States and many other, mainly anglophone, countries. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Dina Merrill on Life magazine January 11, 1960 Nedenia Marjorie Hutton (born December 9, 1925) is an American actress known as Dina Merrill. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... A website (alternatively, Web site or web site) is a collection of Web pages, images, videos or other digital assets that is hosted on one or several Web server(s), usually accessible via the Internet, cell phone or a LAN. A Web page is a document, typically written in HTML... Are We Done Yet? is a 2007 comedy film starring Ice Cube. ... This article is about the 1948 film. ...

The RKO library

Today, RKO Pictures LLC is the owner of all the trademarks and logos connected with RKO Radio Pictures Inc., as well as the rights concerning stories, screenplays (including 800 to 900 unproduced scripts), remakes, sequels, and prequels connected with the RKO library.^[75] The television, video, and theatrical distribution rights, however, are in other hands: The U.S. and Canadian TV—and, consequently, video—rights to the bulk of the RKO film library were sold at auction in 1971 after the holders, TransBeacon (a corporate descendant of C&C Television), went bankrupt. The auctioned rights were split between United Artists 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.^[76] In the meantime, United Artists had been acquired by MGM. In 1986, MGM/UA's considerable library, including its RKO rights, was bought by Turner Broadcasting for its new Turner Entertainment division. 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. In 1995, Turner Broadcasting was merged into Time Warner, which controls and distributes the bulk of the RKO library today, though RKO Pictures retains the copyright.^[77] This article is about logos (logoi) in ancient Greek philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, Theophilosophy, and Christianity. ... A screenplay or script is a blueprint for producing a motion picture. ... A sequel is a work of fiction (e. ... A prequel is a work that portrays events which are set in the same universe as a previously completed narrative, but at an earlier time. ... This article is about the film studio. ... Leo the Lion in the MGM logo Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer or MGM, was, until 2005, a media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of cinema and television programs. ... Turner Broadcasting logo Turner Broadcasting System (often abbreviated to Turner), based in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, is the company managing the collection of cable networks and properties started by Robert Edward Ted Turner from the mid-1970s to the late-1990s. ... Turner Entertainment Company was established August 4, 1986 to oversee Turner Broadcastings film library after its acquisition of MGM/UA. In addition to the studio, Turner got its library, which included all of MGMs films, Warner Bros. ... Time Warner Inc. ...

Ownership of the major European TV and video distribution rights to RKO's library is divided on a virtual country-by-country basis: In the UK, many of the RKO rights are currently held by Universal Studios.^[78] The German rights were acquired in 1969 by KirchGruppe on behalf of its KirchMedia division. When KirchMedia went bankrupt in 2002, two proposed sales of its assets—first to publisher Heinrich Bauer Verlag, then to American media mogul Haim Saban—both fell through. Saban finally took control of Kirch's broadcast arm, ProSiebenSat.1, in August 2003, arranging a deal to buy majority ownership the following year. ProSiebenSat.1 presently leases the German broadcast rights to KirchMedia's former library holdings (including the RKO films) from two concerns: EOS Entertainment's Beta Film, which purchased many of the rights in 2004, and Kineos, a joint venture created in 2005 by Beta Film and KirchMedia, now run by its creditors.^[79] In 1981, RAI, the public broadcasting service, acquired the Italian rights to the RKO library, which it now shares with Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest.^[80] In France, the rights are held by Ariès.^[81] As for RKO's primary release deals, the Disney pictures originally distributed by the studio are controlled by the Walt Disney Company. Rights to the Goldwyn features released by RKO, which had been held by the Samuel Goldwyn Company, are now controlled by Sony Pictures, via MGM. This article is about the American media conglomerate. ... Haim Saban Haim Saban (born 15 October 1944 in Alexandria, Egypt) is a television and media proprietor. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... (born September 29, 1936) is an Italian politician, entrepreneur, and media proprietor. ... Fininvest is a financial holding company controlled by Silvio Berlusconis family. ... Disney redirects here. ... The Samuel Goldwyn Company was an independent film company founded by Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. ... Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. ...

All Radio Pictures Inc. and RKO Radio Pictures Inc. films produced between 1929 and 1957 have an opening logo displaying the studio's famous trademark, the spinning globe and radio tower, nicknamed "The Transmitter." Orson Welles called it, "My favorite among the old logos, not just because it was so often a reliable portent.... [I]t reminds us to listen."^[82] Instead of the Transmitter, many Disney films released by the studio originally appeared with colorful versions of the RKO closing logo as part of the main title sequence. For decades, re-releases of these films had Disney/Buena Vista logos plastered over the RKO insignia, but the originals have been restored in many recent DVD editions.^[83] The Hartley–Merrill RKO Pictures has created a new version of the Transmitter, which was first used theatrically for the 1998 Mighty Joe Young remake. The original closing logo, no longer employed for new films in any version, is also a well-known trademark, a triangle enclosing a thunderbolt. Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group, a fictitious business name of Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Inc. ...

Image File history File links RKOendlogo. ... Image File history File links RKOendlogo. ...

Notes

^ The current online edition of Encyclopædia Britannica erroneously claims 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. entry. Retrieved 11/24/06. Many other online sources make the same demonstrably false claim or similar ones (e.g., that the RCA Photophone business was made part of RKO).
Note also the following:
- Many 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 Orpheum Circuit Inc. Edward F. Albee was Benjamin F. Keith's right-hand man; he took over the company after its founder's death in 1914.
- Many sources incorrectly give FBO's full name as "Film Booking Office of America"; the proper name is Film Booking Offices of America, which may be confirmed by examining its official logo.
As an example of the many erroneous descriptions of RKO's early history that are routine even in reputable sources, take the summary history of the company's origins in Balio, Tino, Grand Design: Hollywood as a Modern Business Enterprise, 1930–1939 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1995 [1993]), p. 16. The following corrections must be made to a single paragraph:
- FBO's full name was not "Film Booking Office."
- RCA Photophone was not "amalgamated" with FBO and KAO under the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company (see, e.g., Lasky [1989], p. 120).
- The company did not "contain" anything close to "three hundred theaters" (see note 2, below).
- The company did not "contain...four studios" in either standard meaning of the term—production company or permanent production facility. After its purchase of Pathé (U.S.) in January 1931, RKO could be said to "contain" two studios in the former sense; as for the latter sense, after the purchase, RKO possessed the former FBO studio in Hollywood, a backlot it had established in Encino in 1929, and the Pathé studio/backlot in Culver City—three "studios" by even a generous count. And note that Balio does not mention the Pathé purchase.
^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 375–379; Jewell (1982), pp. 9–10; Lasky (1989), pp. 25–27; Gomery (1985), pp. 63–65; Crafton (1997), pp. 136–139, 193–194; "Cinemerger," Time, May 2, 1927 (available online). Note that Jewell's reference to "the 700 K-A-O Theatres in the US and Canada" (p. 10) is wildly inaccurate. The Time article indicates that as of May 1927, Keith-Albee (legally the B. F. Keith Corp.) had 50 theaters and Orpheum had 47. Crafton claims KAO had "200 theaters" at the time of RKO's founding (p. 141), though he references no contemporary source. He does cite Film Daily in a description of RKO as controlling 250 theaters in 1930, following a "buying binge" (p. 256). Schatz (1998) describes an "RKO chain of 161 theaters" around the time David O. Selznick became production chief in October 1931 (p. 128). 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 very 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).
^ Goodwin (1987), p. 376.
^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 375–379; Jewell (1982), p. 10; Lasky (1989), pp. 27–29, 33–34; Gomery (1985), pp. 63–65; Crafton (1997), pp. 136–139, 193–194.
^ Crafton (1997), p. 210.
^ "New Incorporations," New York Times, April 11, 1929.
^ Goodwin (1987), pp. 422–423; Jewell (1982), p. 32; Crafton (1997), pp. 208, 210.
^ 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.
^ Los Angeles Times, May 31, 1930, p. A9.
^ Bradley (1996), p. 279.
^ Jewell (1982), pp. 38, 41. For Technicolor contracts during this era, see "Technicolor Adventures in Cinemaland" address by company founder Herbert Kalmus, October 28, 1938; part of the Widescreen Museum website. Retrieved 3/24/07.
^ Crafton (1997), p. 552; Lasky (1989), p. 55. Only one previous sound film had cost more than $1 million, and just barely: Noah's Ark (1929), from Warner Bros. (Crafton [1997], p. 549).
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 58–59.
^ Bordwell et al. (1985), pp. 320–321.
^ For the switch to the RKO Radio Pictures brand at the beginning of the 1932–33 exhibition season for U.S. print advertising, see, e.g., this original poster for The Most Dangerous Game, which premiered September 9, 1932.
^ Online claims that the original U.S. posters had the older "Radio Pictures" logo are false. For conclusive evidence to the contrary see, e.g., King (2003), p. 15.
^ Schatz (1998), pp. 131–133.
^ Schatz (1998), p. 133.
^ Schatz (1998), pp. 131.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 81–82.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 98–99.
^ Harvey (1998), p. 290.
^ See, e.g., Di Battista (2001), p. 90.
^ 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. 111–112; Lasky (1989), p. 104.
^ Finler (1988), p. 184.
^ Brunelle (1996); Morton (2005), pp. 75–77, 108–109.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 118–119; Jewell (1982), p. 19.
^ For Grant's unusual contract situation, see McCann (1998), pp. 79–80, 144. Among still-ascendant male stars, Grant was preceded by the more established Fredric March as a freelancer. For other freelance Hollywood performers of the mid-1930s, see Balio (1995), p. 155.
^ It has not yet been possible to determine exactly when the studio business's name officially changed from Radio Pictures Inc. to RKO Radio Pictures Inc., in part due to the many references to RKO-Radio Pictures Inc. (i.e., Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. subsidiary Radio Pictures Inc.) Early on, before the official name change, the hyphen was sometimes informally dropped; later, after the official name change had definitely taken place, the hyphen was sometimes mistakenly used. The latest official document so far located that strongly suggests Radio Pictures was still the official name of the studio subsidiary is "Anti 'Block-booking' and 'Blind Selling' in the Leasing of Motion-picture Films: Hearings Before a Subcommittee" (U.S. Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, 1939), p. 460. The earliest official document so far located that unambiguously refers to RKO Radio Pictures Inc. as a subsidiary of Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. is "Propaganda in Motion Pictures: Hearings Before a Subcommittee...on S. Res. 152...Sept. 9 to 26, 1941" (U.S. Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce, 1941), p. 26.
^ "News of the Screen," New York Times, February 16, 1937; Schatz (1998), p. 181. 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.
^ Bordwell et al. (1985), p. 349. For Walker's earlier work on King Kong, see Morton (2005), pp. 30, 43, 52.
^ For Breen's position, see Jeff and Simmons (2001), pp. 119, 122–125.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 140.
^ Schatz (1999), p. 57; Jewell (1982), p. 142.
^ Schatz's (1999) brief description of Mr. and Mrs. Smith as a "critical and commercial failure" (p. 89) is evidently incorrect. According to historian Leonard Leff, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith had a happy ending: good reviews and modest box office success" (Leff [1999], p. 92). Ed Sikov agrees, calling it a "solid commercial hit" (Sikov [1996], p. 152). Donald Spoto's report on its release lends further support to this position (Spoto [1983], p. 250).
^ 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. See Brady (1990), pp. 288, 311 (Kane), 346 (It's All True); Jewell, 164 (Kane), 173 (Ambersons). Corporate deficit and profit: Jewell (1982), pp. 144, 156. Note that the studio operation itself was almost certainly a bigger money-loser than these figures suggest, with profits coming from the corporation's theatrical division. See Jewell (1982), p. 168.
^ 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), p. 156; Schatz (1999), p. 57.
^ "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.
^ Quoted in Server (2002), p. 78.
^ Jewell (1982), pp. 168, 178.
^ Lasky (1989), p. 187.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 181; Lasky (1989), pp. 184–185. The film cost $205,000 to make. See Schatz (1999), p. 173, table 6.3, for budgets of Big Five releases the following year. Jewell states that it "attracted $3,355,000 in film rentals"; Lasky refers to a Hollywood Reporter article on the film, published seven months after its premiere, predicting it "would do better than $3 million in the U.S. alone." It is not listed in Schatz's 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—$3 million alone would have tied it for eleventh place, a very impressive feat for a movie with a B budget and star (Tim Holt). 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.
^ Analysis based on Schatz (1999), p. 173, table 6.3.
^ Crafton (1997), p. 210.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 203–204.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 192–193, 195.
^ Schatz (1999), pp. 290–291.
^ See, e.g., Friedrich (1997), pp. 333–336.
^ Brown and Broeske (2004), p. 281.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 216.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 204–205.
^ Analysis based on Schatz (1999), p. 330, table 10.2. See Jewell (1982), pp. 216, 226, for confirmation of RKO figures.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 226.
^ Lasky (1989), pp. 218–220, 223, 227; The Independent Producers and the Paramount Case, 1938–1949: Part 6 "The Supreme Court Verdict That Brought an End to the Hollywood Studio System, 1948" (see "The First Studio Is Dissolved" and "The Mighty Paramount Is Broken"); part of the Society Of Independent Motion Picture Producers research archive. Retrieved 7/22/06.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 254.
^ "An Old Flame Returns," Time, February 23, 1953 (available online).
^ Jewell (1982), pp. 246, 262; Lasky (1989), pp. 221, 223, 225.
^ Timeline of Valley History The Valley Observed. Retrieved 9/24/07.
^ Quoted in Lasky (1989), p. 226.
^ Jewell (1982), pp. 244–245; Lasky (1989), pp. 218–219, 223, 227–228.
^ Lasky (1989), p. 229.
^ Segrave (1999), pp. 40–41; Hilmes (1990), pp. 160–161; Boddy (1990), p. 138.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 245; Lasky (1989), p. 3.
^ "Initial Plans for Movie Studio Backlot Approved," Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1975. For more on the lot, see 40 Acres part of RetroWeb.
^ O'Neill (1966), p. 180. Many online information sites give RKO General's year of inception as 1958, without sourcing; 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.
^ Jewell (1982), p. 15.
^ See Fein, Seth, "Transcultured Anticommunism: Cold War Hollywood in Postwar Mexico," in Visible Nations: Latin American Cinema and Video, ed. Chon A. Noriega (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 82–111.
^ For the early history of Million Dollar Movie and WOR's film programming, see Segrave (1999), pp. 40, 48; "News of TV and Radio; 'Studio One' Returns for the Winter Season," New York Times, September 19, 1954 (excerpted online); "WOR-TV Acquires 10 Selznick Films; It Pays Record $198,000 for 'Package'—Will Be Shown on 'Million Dollar Movie' Discord Theme of Show," New York Times, February 25, 1956; "2 Feature Films Bought By WOR-TV; Station Adds 'Champion' and 'Home of the Brave' to its 'Million Dollar Movie,'" New York Times, June 16, 1956.
^ "Wesray in Deal for RKO Studio," New York Times, September 18, 1987 (available online); EDGAR Online—Playboy Enterprises International Inc. Proxy Statement SEC form DEF 14A filing dated September 27, 1995. Retrieved 8/13/06.
^ "Pavilion Buys Stake in RKO," New York Times, September 1, 1989 (available online); "Ted Hartley...and the Rebirth of RKO Studios" detailed 1999 article by Joseph DiSante based on interview with Hartley. Retrieved 7/26/06. Note that while the article refers to Hartley–Merrill's "RKO Pictures Inc.," SEC filings establish that the company is, at least currently, structured as an LLC.
^ Entertainment Law Digest summary of "New Filing—RKO Acquisition": RKO Pictures v. Wall Street Financial Associates, LLC; L.A. Superior Court SC077345. Complete filing available at ELD, July 2003. Retrieved 8/8/06.
^ Internetstudios Com Inc 10QSB SEC small business quarterly report filing dated June 30, 2004. For more on InternetStudios.com see StockLemon Report on InternetStudios. Both retrieved 7/22/06.
^ RKO Pictures company profile, RKO today Rodeblood trademark registration 1 at www.uspto.gov Rodeblood trademark registration 2 at www.uspto.gov.
^ "Dina Merrill on Mrs. Johnson" 2002 A&E interview with Merrill. Retrieved 8/14/06; Ted Hartley ’46 U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association and Foundation biographical essay. Retrieved 8/17/06.
^ FindLaw—U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, Saltzman v CIR ruling in docket nos. 96-4195, 96-4203—argued October 3, 1997; decided December 11, 1997. Retrieved 8/10/06. Note that the association of the corporate name "Marian Pictures Incorporated" with the acronym "MBP" is per this legal document.
^ See Turner Broadcasting System Inc DEFM14A SEC merger/acquisition proxy solicitation filing dated September 17, 1996. Retrieved 8/17/06.
^ "The Val Lewton Horror Collection: Introduction" essay on new digital video release, December 12, 2005 (see "The DVDs"); part of the DVD Times website. Retrieved 8/17/06.
^ TaurusHolding GmbH & Co. KG—Company History detailed history of KirchGruppe under the name it adopted in 2002; part of the Funding Universe website; "German Film and TV Giant KirchMedia Collapses" interview with media journalist Julie Rigg, October 4, 2002; part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation—Radio National/Night Club website; "KirchMedia: Opportunity Lost" BusinessWeek Online, July 28, 2003; "Saban's Lands KirchMedia at Last" Advanced-Television.com, August 6, 2003; ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG Interim Report quarterly financial statement dated September 30, 2003 (see p. 6); "Saban Takes Majority Stake in Restructured ProSiebenSat.1" Advanced-Television.com, September 21, 2004; "DLA Piper Advises KirchMedia GmbH & Co. KGaA in the Sale of the National Film Library" DLA Piper press release dated May 13, 2005; Jan Mojto CV of EOS Entertainment chief dated May 21–24, 2005; part of the 18th medienforum.nrw website. All retrieved 8/18/06.
^ L'Universale—La Grande Enciclopedia Tematica, vol. 2 (Milan: [Garzanti] Libri S.p.A., 2003–4), p. 986; "Un satellite per la cultura" 2002 statement by Luigi Mattucci, president of RAISat; part of the Emilia-Romagna IBC website. Retrieved 8/18/06.
^ "Interview: Dans la tête des Editions Montparnasse" interview with Renaud Delourme, head of company handling French RKO DVD releases, November 22, 2000; part of the DVDFr website; "DVD RKO: Interview des Editions Montparnasse" 2001 interview with two EM professionals; part of the DVDrama website; "La gazette du doublage: Laurence Sabatier, Responsable technique des Editions Montparnasse" 2002 interview with EM professional; part of the Objectif Cinéma website. All retrieved 8/18/06.
^ Quoted in Thomson (1997), p. 170.
^ Culhane (1999), passim; The RKO Logo essay by Rick Mitchell; part of Hollywood: Lost and Found website. Retrieved 10/22/06.

Note: The standard history and reference guide to the studio's films, The RKO Story, by Richard B. Jewell, with Vernon Harbin (New York: Arlington House/Crown, 1982)—and not IMDb.com—is used as the final arbiter of whether specific films made between 1929 and 1957 were RKO solo productions, coproductions, or completely independent productions. Official year of release is also per The RKO Story, not IMDb. The EncyclopÃ¦dia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopaedia published by EncyclopÃ¦dia Britannica, Inc. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... ... A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio with permanent exterior sets for outdoor scenes in motion picture and/or television productions. ... â€œEncinoâ€ redirects here. ... Motto: The Heart of Screenland Location of Culver City in Los Angeles County, California Coordinates: , Country State County Los Angeles Incorporated (city) 1917-09-07 [2] Government - City Manager Jerry Fulwood [1] Area - City 5. ... The Most Dangerous Game is a 1932 film adaptation of the 1924 short story of the same name by Richard Connell. ... Fredric March (August 31, 1897 â€“ April 14, 1975) was a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor. ... The Hollywood Reporter is one of two major trade papers of the film industry in the United States, the other being Variety. ... Variety is a daily newspaper for the entertainment industry. ... A Limited liability company (denoted by L.L.C. or LLC) is a type of legal entity which has only relatively recently been made possible to establish in the United States and many other, mainly anglophone, countries. ...

Sources

Boddy, William (1990). Fifties Television: The Industry and Its Critics (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). ISBN 0-252-06299-X
Bordwell, David, Janet Staiger, and Kristin Thompson (1985). The Classical Hollywood Cinema: Film Style & Mode of Production to 1960 (New York: Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-06054-8
Bradley, Edwin M. (1996). The First Hollywood Musicals: A Critical Filmography of 171 Features, 1927 Through 1932 (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland). ISBN 0-7864-2029-4
Brady, Frank (1990 [1989]). Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles (New York et al.: Anchor). ISBN 0-385-26759-2
Brown, Peter Harry, and Pat H. Broeske (2004). Howard Hughes: The Untold Story (New York: Da Capo). ISBN 0-306-81392-0
Brunelle, Ray (1996). "The Art of Sound Effects," Experimental Musical Instruments, vol. 12, nos. 1 and 2 (September and December). ISSN 0883-0754
Cotta Vaz, Mark, and Craig Barron (2002). The Invisible Art: The Legends of Movie Matte Painting (San Francisco: Chronicle). ISBN 0-8118-3136-1
Crafton, Donald (1997). The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931 (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons). ISBN 0-684-19585-2
Culhane, John (1999). Walt Disney's Fantasia (New York: Harry N. Abrams). ISBN 0-8109-8078-9
Di Battista, Maria (2001). Fast-Talking Dames (New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press). ISBN 0-300-08815-9
Fein, Seth (2000). "Transcultured Anticommunism: Cold War Hollywood in Postwar Mexico," in Visible Nations: Latin American Cinema and Video, ed. Chon A. Noriega (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 82–111. ISBN 0-8166-3347-9
Finler, Joel W. (1988). The Hollywood Story (New York: Crown). ISBN 0-517-56576-5
Friedrich, Otto (1997 [1986]). City of Nets: A Portrait of Hollywood in the 1940s (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press). ISBN 0-520-20949-4
Gomery, Douglas (1985). "The Coming of Sound: Technological Change in the American Film Industry" in Technology and Culture—The Film Reader, ed. Andrew Utterson (Oxford and New York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2005), 53–67. ISBN 0-415-31984-6
Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1987). The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys (New York: Simon and Schuster). ISBN 0-312-06354-7

Harvey, James (1998). Romantic Comedy in Hollywood, from Lubitsch to Sturges (New York: Da Capo). ISBN 0-306-80832-3
Hilmes, Michelle (1990). Hollywood and Broadcasting: From Radio to Cable (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press). ISBN 0-252-01709-9
Jeff, Leonard J., and Jerold L. Simmons (2001). The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky). ISBN 0-8131-9011-8
Jewell, Richard B., with Vernon Harbin (1982). The RKO Story (New York: Arlington House/Crown). ISBN 0-517-54656-6
King, Emily (2003). Movie Poster (London: Octopus). ISBN 1-8400-0653-6
Lasky, Betty (1989). RKO: The Biggest Little Major of Them All (Santa Monica, Calif.: Roundtable). ISBN 0-915677-41-5
Leff, Leonard J. (1999 [1987]). Hitchcock and Selznick: The Rich and Strange Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and David O. Selznick in Hollywood (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press). ISBN 0-520-21781-0
McCann, Graham (1998). Cary Grant: A Class Apart (New York: Columbia University Press). ISBN 0-231-10885-0
Morton, Ray (2005). King Kong: The History of a Movie Icon from Fay Wray to Peter Jackson (New York: Applause). ISBN 1-55783-669-8
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Schatz, Thomas (1998 [1989]). The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era (London: Faber and Faber). ISBN 0-571-19596-2
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External links

RKO Radio Pictures history

RKO Pictures LLC

is the 189th day of the year (190th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also see: 2002 (number). ... is the 254th day of the year (255th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Contents

The birth of RKO

RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

The early years

Success under Selznick

Cooper at the helm

Briskin and Berman

Kane and Schaefer's troubles

Rebound under Koerner

Focus on B movies

HUAC and Howard Hughes

Hughes's mismanagement

General Tire and the end of RKO Pictures

The Astaire–Rogers RKO films

Hepburn and Grant at RKO

Robert Mitchum at RKO

RKO studios and buildings

RKO General

The new RKO Pictures

The RKO library

Notes

Sources

External links

RKO Radio Pictures history

RKO Pictures LLC

RKO library and logos

Contents

The birth of RKO GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

The early years

Success under Selznick

Cooper at the helm

Briskin and Berman

Kane and Schaefer's troubles

Rebound under Koerner

Focus on B movies

HUAC and Howard Hughes

Hughes's mismanagement

General Tire and the end of RKO Pictures

The Astaire–Rogers RKO films

Hepburn and Grant at RKO

Robert Mitchum at RKO

RKO studios and buildings

RKO General

The new RKO Pictures

The RKO library

Notes

Sources

External links

RKO Radio Pictures history

RKO Pictures LLC

RKO library and logos

The birth of RKO