The Fedora Chronicles - The Golden Age of Hollywood: RKO Studio

R-K-O

RKO or Radio Keith Orpheum was created by a series of mergers in 1928 between a small movie production and distribution company and the Radio Corporation of America. The studio made the epic western Cimarron (1931) which won the Best Picture Oscar, introduced Katharine Hepburn to the movies and made the grand-daddy of all monster movies King Kong (1933) but it was the series of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers which did most to help RKO survive the Depression.

Charles Laughton played Quasimodo opposite Maureen O' Brien's Esmerelda in the best film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). Orson Welles made two great films for RKO : Citizen Kane (1941) and The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). During and after the war RKO were among the pioneers of film noir. Edward Dmytryk directed many of these films including Farewell My Lovely (1944) with Dick Powell and Crossfire (1947).

1946 was a great year for RKO. The Bell's of St. Mary's (1945) made most money while William Wyler's The Best Years of our Lives (1946), Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946) and Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life (1946) won critical plaudits and lasting classic status.

In 1948 Howard Hughes bought the studio and it immediately went downmarket. There were few real classics in the last decade of RKO's history. In 1958 the studio was sold to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Ironically Ball had begun her career as a bit player at RKO in the Thirties.