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RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) Pictures is an American film company

The company was formed in 1929 from the merger of the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater company, Joesph Kennedy’s Film Booking Office (FBO), Pathé, and General Electric's Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Kennedy had bought the basis of FBO in 1925, RCA took a share in FBO in 1927 and Kennedy had acquired a share of KAO in the same year. Kennedy then forced the chairman of KAO out and took over before selling out the two companies to RCA, creating RKO.

In the 1930s RKO churned out movies at the rate of forty per year as RKO Radio Pictures. The studio produced films with Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Orson Welles, Johnny Weissmuller, Robert Mitchum, Bette Davis,John Ford, George Cukor and Alfred Hitchcock. Titles produced include King Kong, Citizen Kane, It's a Wonderful Life, Suspicion, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Belles of St. Mary, The Best Years of Our Lives, The Magnificent Ambersons and a slew of Fred Astaire - Ginger Rogers musicals. However, the studio was not very profitable and in the 1940s it became more of a distribution company, it had signed a distribution deal with Disney in 1930.

In 1948 RKO was bought by Howard Hughes. He sold the production lot to Desilu Productions in 1953 and ceased film production. The company became RKO Radio, RKO Theaters and a much smaller RKO Pictures. General Tire and Rubber bought RKO Pictures in 1955 and merged it with their other media interests as RKO General.

RKO General dragged on in various guises until 1990 when, re-renamed RKO Pictures, it was acquired by Dina Merrill and Ted Hartley to make movies.

Globe and Radio Tower logo.

Stub article

External links:

• http://www.rko.com/