RKO Pictures

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

RKO Pictures

Following the sale of GenCorp (formerly General Tire) to Germany's Continental Tire, RKO General was sold in 1987, and renamed RKO Pictures in 1989 when it was acquired by Post cereals heiress Dina Merrill and her husband, producer Ted Hartley. They announced that, after a thirty 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".

Related Topics:
1987 - RKO Pictures - 1989 - Dina Merrill - Ted Hartley - Shall We Dance

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The web-site and publicity for the new RKO implied that they were same company as the original RKO Radio Pictures, suggesting that they had been continuously involved in film production and distribution. In fact, US rights to the pre-1948 RKO film library had passed in the 1960s to United Artists; UA had been acquired in 1983 by MGM, and in 1985 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. 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. Younger viewers may assume the company of the 30's and 40's was called RKO Pictures (and, presumably, had a color logo while the films were in black and white).

Related Topics:
United Artists - MGM/UA - Turner Entertainment - Time-Warner - Public domain

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All RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. films produced between 1929 and 1957 are identified by the globe and radio-tower logo.

Related Topics:
1929 - 1957

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