RKO Radio Pictures (the RKO standing for Radio-Keith-Orpheum) was created after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P. Kennedy’s Film Booking Offices of America were merged under Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1928. RCA chief David Sarnoff engineered the merger to create a market for RCA Photophone, the company’s sound-on-film technology. When Kennedy sought to leave the film business the following year, he sold Pathe to RKO resulting in “The Mansion” at Culver Studios and its backlot a short distance from MGM to be taken over by the new studio. Formed for the purpose of specializing in all-talking productions, its first major hit was the partial Technicolor musical “Rio Rita” (1929) starring Bebe Daniels and John Boles. Having over-spent on theaters and suffered losses from multiple releases, RKO faced major challenges by 1931, prompting David O. Selznick to convince Sarnoff to appoint him new production chief. Under Selznick’s rigorous cost-control program, greater independence was restored to the film producers which infused increased creativity into important projects. At the same time a solid roster of stars was cultivated including Irene Dunne, Joel McCrea, Ricardo Cortez, Dolores del Rio and Mary Astor which helped carry the fledgling studio through the Depression Era. Selznick would move on to MGM after a dispute with new corporate president Merlin Aylesworth, but “King Kong” mastermind Merian Cooper would take his place launching the careers of Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. “Flying Down to Rio” (1933) paired Astaire with Rogers which proved a magical combination. RKO also specialized in the screwball comedy which featured such directors as Howard Hawks and Leo McCarey. In 1935 financier Floyd Odium bought 50 percent of RCA’s stake in the company leading to a series of turnovers for production chief throughout the late 1930s and 1940s. A distribution deal with animator Walt Disney would serve the studio well from 1935 to 1954, and along the way further successes were achieved with the comedy features of Laurel & Hardy and Lupe Velez, as well as the release of the smash hit “Citizen Kane” (1941). Propelled by the box office boom of World War II, RKO made a major comeback over the next decade, bolstered by its focus on B pictures and film noir. Howard Hughes’ takeover of the studio in 1948 sadly reversed this process through personnel cuts and other organizational upheaval. His recent claim to fame in the industry had been the design of a special bra for his contract star Jane Russell that she never actually wore on the set of “The Outlaw” (1943). The first the major studio heads to settle the federal government’s antitrust suit against the industry in 1950, Hughes ultimately sold RKO to General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955 for $25 million ending his involvement in the business. Failing to pull the studio out of its slump, General Tire closed down production in 1957, selling off its Culver City and Hollywood facilities to Desilu Productions for their many television projects. Since then RKO Pictures has resurfaced in various forms over the years, most recently as an LLC that retains the copyright to all of its library of intellectual property despite Turner Broadcasting’s purchase of its films in 1986. Today, RKO is best remembered for its opening logo animation of a radio tower emanating signals atop a spinning globe.
Posted on: Wed, 14 May 2014 04:22:10 +0000
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