Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO)
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The "mansion" that sits on the corner of Washington Blvd. and Ince Avenue was originally built by Thomas Harper Ince, a visionary figure in Culver City's film industry. It was considered "Ince's Second Studio," which he built after a business relationship with D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennet soured. The studio was originally named the Thomas H. Ince Studio, but after his mysterious death, the studio was renamed Demille Studios. Cecil B. Demille had created a complex deal between his own production company, Producers Distributing Group, and Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO), and Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which eventually resulted in the merger that produced Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO) in 1928.
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9336 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA. |
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A central figure in the merger had been Joseph P. Kennedy, father of the future President of the United States John F. Kennedy, who had sold his interest in the merger to RCA, and later sold his Pathe Exchange Inc. to RKO as well. In 1930, the company became RKO-Pathe. The Pathe production division was eventually dissolved a year later, but the name was reserved for non-fiction productions. Between 1931 and 1932, RKO saw a great deal of success under David O. Selznick, son-in-law to Louis B. Mayer, and the company continued to grow in both film production and distribution. Selznick left to work for his father-in-law, but eventually became an independent producer and leased the studio from RKO, renaming it once again to the Selznick Studios.
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Floyd Odlum
During the Great Depression, RKO fell into financial troubles that it would not emerge from until the 1940's. In 1935, RKO company ownership expanded to include Floyd Odlum, who eventually gained controlling interest in 1942 through the Atlas Corporation. The Atlas Corporation was originally an investment and utilities company, but would later go on to be a major contributor to the Cold War through the development of the U.S.'s first Intercontinental Ballistics Missile (ICBM), Developed in the 1950's under its contracting company Consolidated Vultee Aircraft, which was later renamed Convair, the missiles were given the name "Atlas" missiles, after the parent company. Atlas missiles were an important part of both Cold War defense programs and the expansion of the space program under President Kennedy. However, after the end of WWII, as anti-communist sentiments led to trails from The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Odlum was forced to fire two of RKO's top talents, director Edward Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott (two of the Hollywood 10). With the Waldorf Statement effectively linking the entire film industry to what would become the Blacklist, Odlum found it the right time to leave the industry.
Howard Hughes
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Putting his shares up for sale, he found a buyer in a fellow aviation tycoon, Howard Hughes. Hughes already had some experience in film-making as a self-financed director of several films, but by purchasing Atlas' interest in 1948, he controlled RKO theaters, its now numerous studios, and film production. He originally bought the company stock as part of the Hughes Tooling Company, and over the next few years, he continued to buy out other investors before gaining near complete control. Hughes was already an established figure in the growing aeronautics industry, building a major plant and airport in Culver City. But his role in Hughes Aircraft and RKO allowed him to communicate his own anti-communist views to the world, which coincided with the HUAC attempts to rid the industry of "subversives."
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Hughes became known for his extreme actions against those he suspected of being communists. Upon taking control of RKO, Howard Hughes had fired most of the staff, shut down the studios, and had the political associations of remaining employees investigated. When Paul Jericho, a screen writer working on the film The Las Vegas Story (1951), was subpoenaed by HUAC, Hughes immediately fired him upon hearing about it, claiming he had violated the "morality clause" of his contract. Hughes went on to bar Jericho from the studio, and ordered that all of his work be destroyed. Hughes removed any credits on The Las Vegas Story, which led to a court battle that ended in favor of RKO, becoming the first court case decision supporting the termination of studio employee for not answering HUAC questions.
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Howard Hughes presents The Las Vegas Story. An RKO production.
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Howard Hughes also participated in the creation of “Red Scare” films: It is rumored that Hughes offered a film originally titled I Married A Communist as a test of its directors' patriotism. The film was later renamed The Woman on Pier 13 (1949). The plot of the film follows a shipping executive who is targeted by a communist cell to sabotage the entire shipping industry of the San Francisco Bay. A web of communist attempts to control the main character forces his actions, and he struggles to regain his freedom.
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Overseeing all aspects of film production, Hughes often made changes to fit his desire for his heavy-handed anti-communist agenda. Shortly after Hughes took over, RKO purchased the script for The Man He Found, which was later renamed The Whip Hand (1951). The story was originally about a group of ex-Nazi infiltrators who enter the U.S. in order to hide the still-alive Adolf Hitler. Upon reviewing the film, Hughes insisted that communists play the villains, and replace the Nazi-Hitler plot of the story with a Kremlin plot to contaminate the U.S. water supply using germ warfare.
Overall, Howard Hughes' control over RKO is generally seen as a difficult period for the company. More concerned with his aircraft company, particularly after the onset of the Korean War, Hughes turned his attention in other directions, causing RKO to once again suffer financially. In 1955, Hughes sold his vast stake in RKO to the General Tire and Rubber Co., including the studio and "40 Acre" back lot in Culver City. In 1957, General Tire eventually sold the studio to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's Desilu Productions.
Overall, Howard Hughes' control over RKO is generally seen as a difficult period for the company. More concerned with his aircraft company, particularly after the onset of the Korean War, Hughes turned his attention in other directions, causing RKO to once again suffer financially. In 1955, Hughes sold his vast stake in RKO to the General Tire and Rubber Co., including the studio and "40 Acre" back lot in Culver City. In 1957, General Tire eventually sold the studio to Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz's Desilu Productions.
"(1951)". Catalogue of Feature Films. American Film Institute.
"." Narrated by Karina Longworth. You Must Remember This. Panopoly. April 25, 2016.
Lugo Cerra, Julie. "The Movie Studios". Images of America: Culver City. San Francisco: Arcadia Publishing. 2004.
"". The Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. Cobblestone Entertainment.