jvs@ihu1e.UUCP (John V. Smith) (05/21/84)
<no-blank> RKO was in the movie bussiness (production and distribution) for approximately 40 years. Altough they were not considered to be in the "B" movie bussiness (like Republic), they were never considered to be in the same leage as the big studios (Paramount, MGM, 20th-Century-Fox, etc.) either. Around 1958 or 1959 they decided to get out of the movie production business (I'm not sure if they are still in the distribution business or not, but when was the last time you saw an RKO theater). They sold off their entire film cataloge, consisting of over 700 films, at this time. I don't know who bought the films but I believe they had something to do with TV distribution. This could explain why there is a logo other than RKO's at the start of their films now. This is similar to the situation where United Artist owned a lot of old Warner Brothers films for several years (Warners recently bought them all back when the Video Tape market started looking good). You still can occasionaly see the old Transamerica/UA logo flash at the begining of a film, quickly followed by the traditional Warner Brothers sheild (at least UA left this on). As to why many old RKO color prints are seen in black and white, I don't know. I also don't know for sure why RKO got out of the movie business, but I've heard the late 50's were hard times for movie studios. RKO still gets involved with the movie business occasionaly. I don't know any details on this, but I have seen their name in opening credits of a few films (Carbin Copy comes to mind). I don't recall to what capacity they are involved (they are not the film maker). I'm usually so surprised to see RKO's name that I miss this. -- Is I is, or is I aint, John V. Smith
dak@ihuxn.UUCP (Dave Krunnfusz) (05/22/84)
<> Funny RKO should come up. On channel 60 today in Naperville, *The First Traveling Sales Lady* was being shown. It starred Ginger Rogers and Carol Channing. This was the last movie done by RKO. The little writeup in the TV Guide stated that this movie was so bad that it caused RKO to close its doors. Dave K. ..!ihuxn!dak