RKO Pictures

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from RKO Studios)
This article is about the film production company. For the wrestler, see Randy Orton.

Image:Rko.JPG RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures is an American film production company.

RKO was formed in 1928 as a combination of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chains, Joe Kennedy's Film Booking Office of America (FBO) studio, the American Pathé film studio, and the Radio Corporation of America's Photophone division. Kennedy had bought FBO in 1925, and taken control of KAO and its subsidiary, American Pathe, in 1927. RCA, hoping to join in the sound-film boom, approached Kennedy about using Photophone for FBO pictures; from this came further talks, and the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum holding company, announced in October, 1928.

Kennedy's role in the new company was to drive up the share price; he and his associates did so successfully, pushing RKO's price higher even before film production had begun. Kennedy sold the last of his RKO stock in 1931, as the country and RKO tumbled into depression.

The prominence of the word "radio" in the corporate name "Radio-Keith-Orpheum" reflected RCA's 66% holding. It was claimed that the broadcasting-tower logo of the production arm, "Radio Pictures," was suggested by David Sarnoff himself.

Contents

[edit]

RKO Radio Pictures Inc.

Shut out of the sound-film conversion frenzy, RCA bought its way into the motion picture business to gain an outlet for its variable-area optical sound-on-film system, RCA Photophone. All of the major studios and their theater divisions had signed exclusive contracts to use AT&T Western Electric division's Westrex variable density optical sound-on-film system.

Promising to make only sound films, RKO began production at the former FBO studios in early 1929, with William LeBaron in charge of production. By the early 1930s, RKO was producing forty pictures a year, releasing them under the names "Radio Pictures" and "RKO Pathe." LeBaron was succeeded in 1931 by David O. Selznick, who signed and promoted several young actors who would carry RKO through the decade, among them Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea and Katharine Hepburn. RKO also distributed films for independent producers: from 1936, it released Walt Disney's features and shorts, and from 1941 also handled Samuel Goldwyn's productions. During this time the RKO Studio Club was founded by Errol Leslie "Sandy" Sanders. In addition to those signed by Selznick, RKO stars of the 1930s included Cary Grant, Irene Dunne, Constance Bennett and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.; among the studio's directors were John Ford, George Cukor, George Stevens and Leo McCarey. Lacking the resources of the other major studios, many RKO pictures of this period make up in style what they lacked in production values.

Early in the 1930s, the Justice Department forced a re-organization of RCA, and as a result RCA reduced its holdings in RKO. Control passed to the investor Floyd Odlum and the Rockefeller brothers. But the shaky finances and excesses of the Kennedy-Sarnoff years could not carry RKO through the depression, and in 1932 it sank into receivership. A corporate re-organization in the mid-1930's led to better times. From 1935 onward, the Pathe name was used only on newsreels and documentaries; all features went out under the revised name "RKO Radio Pictures."

Propelled by the box-office boom of World War II and more stable management under Charles Koerner and Dore Schary, RKO made a strong comeback in the 1940s. Koerner, former head of the RKO theater chain, favored star-driven pictures. But RKO no longer had major stars under contract, so he made deals with the biggest names whereby they would appear in one RKO picture each year. Thus RKO pictures of the mid- and late-forties offered Bing Crosby, James Stewart, Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Claudette Colbert and others who were usually priced above RKO's league. Film noir became something of a house style at RKO, and its 1940s list of contract-players reads like a who's-who of noir: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Robert Ryan, Lawrence Tierney, Jane Russell and George Raft among them.

More so than other major studios, RKO relied on B-pictures to fill up its schedule. These low-budget films served as training ground for new directors, among them Anthony Mann, Nicholas Ray and Robert Wise, and some RKO Bs, like Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie, Hitler's Children, The Narrow Margin and Isle of the Dead are remembered today.

After years of weathering financial ups-and-downs, Floyd Odlum decided to cash in his RKO holdings, and in 1947 put his shares on the market. It was widely assumed that J. Arthur Rank, then expanding his British and American holdings, would be the buyer. But to the surprise of many, in 1948 Howard Hughes gained control by acquiring 25% of the outstanding stock. During his tenure RKO again suffered, as Hughes' eccentric management style took a heavy toll. Within weeks of taking control, he dismissed two-thirds of the work force; production was shut down for six months in 1949 while Hughes undertook to investigate the politics of all remaining studio employees. Completed pictures would be sent back for re-shooting if Hughes felt his star (especially female) wasn't properly presented, or if a film's anti-communist politics weren't sufficiently clear.

Hughes let go of the RKO theaters in 1953 as settlement of the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case; with the sale of the profitable theaters, the shaky status of the film studio became apparent. Busy during the Korean War years with the demands of his aircraft-manufacturing and TWA holdings, Hughes found the steady stream of lawsuits from RKO's minority shareholders to be a nuisance. Anxious to be rid of their charges of malfeasance and mis-management, Hughes offered to buy out all other stockholders. By the end of 1954, at a cost of $24 million, he had gained total control of RKO, thus becoming the first sole-owner of a studio since Hollywood's pioneer days. Six months later, in July, 1955, Hughes abruptly sold RKO to 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 retained the contract of his discovery Jane Russell. For Howard Hughes, this was the end of his twenty-five year role in Hollywood.

In taking control of the studio, General Tire also restored RKO's links to broadcasting. General Tire had bought the Yankee Network, a New England regional radio network based on WNAC-AM in Boston, in 1943. In 1951, it bought General Teleradio, which was a year-old merger of the Bamberger Broadcasting Service (WOR-AM-FM-TV in New York) and the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System. The General Teleradio name was retained for General Tire's broadcasting interests until the RKO deal, when the broadcasting and film division was renamed RKO Teleradio. In 1957, the name became RKO General.

Thomas O'Neill, son of General Tire's founder William O'Neill, and chairman of the broadcasting group, saw that General Tire's new television stations, indeed all stations, would need programming. In 1953 O'Neill had approached Hughes about buying RKO's film library; with the 1955 purchase of the studio that library was his, and rights to 700 pre-1948 RKO films were quickly put up for sale. The asking price of $15.5 million convinced other timid studios that their libraries held profit potential. The C&C Television Corp. , a subsidiary of the beverage maker C&C Cantrell & Cochrane, bought RKO's library and offered it to independent stations with ads for C&C Cola already edited into the pictures. By 1956 all of RKO's classic pre-1948 films were playing widely on television, and for some half-forgotten films like Citizen Kane, it meant rediscovery by the public.

General Tire made a half-hearted effort to run the studio, hiring veteran producer William Dozier to head production. Most RKO pictures of this era are either remakes of earlier successes, or enlarged B-pictures. Years of mismanagement had driven away many directors, producers and stars; convinced that RKO was sinking, both Goldwyn and Disney left, Disney to set up its own distribution firm in 1954. After a year and a half of mixed success, General Tire shut down production at RKO for good at the end of January, 1957.

The studio lots in Hollywood and Culver City were sold to Desilu Productions later in 1957 for $6.5 million. Desilu would be acquired by Paramount Pictures in 1967, and the former RKO Hollywood lot became home to Paramount Television, which it remains to this day.

With the closing down of production, RKO also shut its distribution exchanges; from 1957 through late 1959, remaining pictures were released through others, including Warner Brothers, Universal and MGM. Many of the last RKO productions carry a copyright "RKO Teleradio Pictures Inc.", shortened later to just "RKO Teleradio Inc." By the end of 1959, all that remained of the ambitious studio was the parent company, RKO General. This was also the holding company for all General Tire's broadcasting and soft-drink bottling enterprises.

Years afterward Thomas O'Neill claimed that General Tire had broken-even on its investment in RKO, that the sale of the film library and studio lots, along with the profits from its own productions, had let them walk away cleanly.

[edit]

Notable RKO Pictures

[edit]

1930s

[edit]

1940s

[edit]

1950s

[edit]

RKO General

The classic RKO General station lineup consisted of WOR-AM-FM-TV in New York, KHJ-AM-FM-TV in Los Angeles, KFRC-AM-FM in San Francisco, WHBQ-AM-FM-TV in Memphis, CKLW-AM-FM-TV in Detroit/Windsor, and the Yankee Network and its flagships WNAC-AM-FM-TV in Boston. The radio stations became famous as some of the leading adult contemporary, rock and top 40 stations in the world. However, RKO General's real legacy may be the longest licensing dispute in television history.

RKO General's licensing saga began in 1965 when it applied for renewal of the license for KHJ-TV in Los Angeles. Fidelity Television, a local group, challenged the license. At first, it charged RKO General with second-rate programming. Later, and more seriously, Fidelity claimed RKO General engaged in reciprocal trade practices. It claimed that General Tire made its vendors purchase advertising time on RKO stations if they still wanted to sell General Tire's products. The RKO General and General Tire executives who testified before the Federal Communications Commission rejected the accusations. An administrative judge found in favor of Fidelity, but the FCC remanded the matter for further findings in 1972. While the KHJ hearings were underway, RKO faced a license challenge for WNAC-TV in Boston. The FCC conditioned renewal of RKO's license for KHJ-TV on the WNAC proceeding. When RKO applied for renewal of WOR-TV in New York, the FCC conditioned this renewal on the WNAC proceeding as well.

The Canadian government later tightened rules on foreign ownership of radio and television stations, forcing RKO to sell its Windsor cluster to Canadian interests in 1970.

On June 21, 1974; an administrative law judge renewed WNAC's license despite finding that General Tire had engaged in reciprocal trade practices. However, in 1975, one of the original competitors for WNAC-TV asked the FCC to take another look. It alleged that General Tire bribed foreign officials, maintained a slush fund for American campaign contributions and misappropriated foreign corporate funds. The proceedings dragged on for six years.

On June 6, 1980; the FCC stripped RKO of WNAC's license. Factors in the decision were the reciprocal trade practices of the 60s, false financial filings by General Tire, and gross misconduct by General Tire in non-broadcast fields. The ultimate basis for the revocation, however, was RKO's dishonesty before the FCC. RKO denied numerous allegations of corporate wrongdoing on General Tire's part during several proceedings from 1975 to 1977. However, in 1977, as part of a Securities and Exchange Commission settlement, General Tire admitted to an eye-popping litany of corporate misconduct. The FCC found that RKO had displayed a "lack of candor" regarding General Tire's misconduct and thus threatened "the integrity of the Commission's process." The FCC ruling also meant that RKO lost the KHJ and WOR licenses as well. RKO appealed the decision to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The court upheld the WNAC revocation solely on the grounds of RKO's dishonesty. It ordered a rehearing of the proceedings for KHJ and WOR. RKO General appealed to the courts, but to settle the case, it sold WNAC-TV's assets to New England Television, a merger of two of the original competitors for that station. As part of the settlement, the FCC granted a full license to New England Television, which renamed the station WNEV-TV. The station has since become WHDH-TV.

In 1983, General Tire persuaded Congress to pass a law that would require the FCC to automatically renew the license of any VHF television station that voluntarily relocated to a state without a VHF televison station. New Jersey was the only state that fit that description at the time. At that point, RKO General officially moved WOR-TV's city of license from New York to Secaucus, New Jersey; where it remains today. However, for all practical purposes, it remained a New York station. Ironically, WOR-AM was first licensed to nearby Newark and didn't move to New York until 1941. A year after the renewal of WOR-TV, General Tire reorganized its far-flung corporate interests into a holding company, GenCorp. General Tire and RKO General became the leading subsidiaries of the new company. WOR-TV's move did little to relieve the regulatory pressure on RKO General, and GenCorp put the station on the market in 1986. MCA won a bidding war with Group W for the station. The sale closed in April 1987, and the station was renamed WWOR-TV.

The WOR-TV sale came just in the nick of time for RKO. Later in 1987, FCC administrative law judge Edward Kuhlmann found RKO unfit to be a broadcast licensee and recommended that the FCC strip RKO of its licenses. Kuhlmann based his ruling on numerous instances of dishonesty by RKO. Among other things, RKO misled advertisers about its ratings, engaged in fraudulent billing, lied to the FCC about a destroyed audit report and filed false financial statements during the WNAC proceedings. kuhlmann described RKO's conduct as the worst case of dishonesty ever brought before the FCC.

The group by this time included WOR-AM and WRKS-FM (the former WOR-FM) in New York, KHJ-TV and KRTH-AM-FM (the former KHJ-AM-FM) in Los Angeles, WHBQ-AM-FM-TV in Memphis and six other radio stations. GenCorp and RKO planned to appeal, claiming that they had fired every party responsible for the misconduct. However, the FCC told RKO that it would almost certainly deny any appeals and strip the licenses, and urged RKO to sell the stations in order to avoid this indignity. The parent company, GenCorp, was then involved in a hostile takeover bid by an investor group, and was hungry for cash as a result of paying a premium on its own shares to stave off the takeover.

Over the next three years, RKO dismantled its broadcast operations. WOR-AM went to Buckley Broadcasting, WRKS to the Summit Communications Group and KRTH-AM-FM to Beasley. KHJ-TV went to Disney and became KCAL-TV. The group's last broadcast holding, the Memphis cluster, was sold in 1990. RKO was forced to sell the stations at considerably less than market value (the group was estimated to be worth at least $750 million).

[edit]

Television stations formerly owned by RKO

Current DMA# Market Station Years Owned Current Affiliation
1. New York City WOR-TV 9
(now WWOR-TV) 		1952-87 UPN affiliate owned by News Corporation
(to become My Network TV in Sept. 2006)
2. Los Angeles KHJ-TV 9
(now KCAL-TV) 		1951-88 independent owned by CBS Corporation
5. Boston WNAC-TV 7
(now WHDH-TV) 		1949-82 NBC affiliate owned by Sunbeam Television
11. Windsor, Ontario - Detroit CKLW-TV 9
(now CBET) 		1954-70 CBC owned-and-operated (O&O)
28. Hartford-New Haven WHCT-TV 18
(now WUVN) 		1959-72 Univision affiliate owned by Entravision
44. Memphis WHBQ-TV 13 1953-90 Fox owned-and-operated (O&O)
[edit]

Radio stations formerly owned by RKO

(a partial listing)

Current DMA# Market Station Current Format
1. New York City WOR-FM/WXLO/WRKS-98.7 owned by Emmis Communications
WOR-710 owned by Buckley Broadcasting
2. Los Angeles KHJ-FM/KRTH-FM-101.1 owned by CBS Radio
KHJ/KRTH-930
(now KHJ once again) 		owned by Lieberman Broadcasting
3. Chicago WFYR-103.5
(now WKSC) 		owned by Clear Channel Communications
4. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose KFRC-FM-106.1
(now KMEL) 		owned by Clear Channel Communications
KFRC-610
(now KEAR) 		owned by Family Radio
8. Washington, D.C. WGMS-FM-103.5
(now WTOP-FM) 		owned by Bonneville International
WGMS-570
{now WTEM) 		owned by Clear Channel Communications
9. Windsor, Ontario - Detroit CKLW-FM-93.9
(now CIDR-FM) 		owned by CHUM Limited
CKLW-800 owned by CHUM Limited
11. Boston WNAC-FM/WRKO-FM/WROR-98.5
(now WBMX) 		owned by CBS Radio
WNAC/WRKO-680 owned by Entercom
12. Miami-Fort Lauderdale WAXY-FM-105.9
(now WBGG-FM) 		owned by Clear Channel Communications
WAXY-790 owned by Jefferson-Pilot Communications
49. Memphis WHBQ-560 owned by Flinn Broadcasting
[edit]

RKO Pictures

As part of a reorganization of GenCorp (formerly General Tire)following a failed hostile takeover bid, the company's flagship tire division, General Tire, was sold to Germany's Continental Tire. What remained of RKO General was sold in 1989 when it was acquired by Post cereals heiress Dina Merrill and her husband, producer Ted Hartley and re-named RKO Pictures. They announced that, after a 32-year break, RKO would be back in the picture business; they did launch several projects either for television or, as a partner, feature films. RKO also produced a 2002 stage version of the 1937 Astaire-Rogers vehicle Shall We Dance, under the title "Never Gonna Dance".

The present company, RKO Pictures LLC, is the owner of all the trademarks and logos connected with RKO Radio Pictures, inc. and moreover the rights about stories, scripts, screenplays, remakes, sequels, and prequels, connected with the RKO library, belong to RKO Pictures LLC.

The theatrical, television and video distribution rights, however, are scattered around the world. For example, the US rights to the pre-1948 RKO film library passed to United Artists in the 1960s; UA had been acquired in 1981 by MGM, and in 1986 MGM/UA's considerable library had been bought by Turner Entertainment. Finally, Turner had sold out to Time Warner, which controls and distributes the bulk of the RKO library today, even though RKO continues to hold the copyright. The RKO-distributed Disney features are now controlled by Disney and Buena Vista. The Merrill-Hartley RKO Pictures has reprinted some RKO titles in the public domain, offering them to television with a modernized version of the old RKO logos.

All RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. films produced between 1929 and 1957 have the opening logo identified by a famous trademark, the globe and radio-tower. The closing logo is an equally famous trademark identified by a triangle pointing down with a thunderbolt.

[edit]

External links

fr:RKO Pictures hu:RKO Pictures it:RKO Pictures

Retrieved from "http://www.netipedia.com/index.php/RKO_Pictures"