RKO Hill Street

Time to learn a bit about RKO pictures. The LA Times ad I found to support the Paramount article also led to more Warner investigation and introduced the two RKO theaters in the LA proper area. In 1948 those were the RKO Hillstreet and the Pantages. That date is important, because the Pantages opened as a Fox theater, but we'll get there in a moment.

The following RKO ad advertises Wise Girl, a 1937 RKO production and Penitentiary a 1938 Columbia Pictures production. The Pantages wasn't brought under RKO control until 1948, and it says smash hit pictures, so it's likely this is bit of a retread. At any rate, it introduces us to RKO pictures, and the two LA proper theaters. 

Keith-Albee-Orpheum were the controlling partners of a chain of Vaudeville and motion picture theaters known as Orpheum. Orphem and Pantages were competitors in the Vaudeville racket. Joseph P Kennedy, the father of John F. Kennedy, owned FBO studios, a small group producing Westerns. Humorously, FBO had their studio in Hollywood across the street from Fox, on Western ave. In May 1928, Joe Kennedy bought a controlling portion of Orpheum, and then sold the lot to the Radio Corporation of America. RCA called the resulting company Radio Keith Orpheum. After the merger, they were strictly a motion picture company. They became one of the Big Five, with vertical integration, by purchasing the Hillstreet theater and reopening it September 11, 1929 as the RKO Hillstreet.

It seems I underestimated the Downtown theater district. With the Warner on 6th, the Paramount on 7th and now the RKO on 8th and Hill, it certainly was the place to be. The movie on the marquee, China Corsair, came out in 1951. It was produced by Columbia, but Columbia blah blah distribution blah blah Little Three. Of course, by '51 were right up against the end of the studio system. In fact we're just one year away from the first 3D film.

It Came From Outer Space was a Universal 3D picture, and look it's also in Wide Vision. Plus Nat "King" Cole! How could you turn down that night. 

I mentioned the Pantages. Originally part of the Pantages family of Vaudeville theaters, it was bought by Fox in 1932, but then it was brought under RKO control in 1948, which is also the year RKO was purchased by Howard Hughes. That seems like it might be important for LA history. Hrm. 

Anyhow, RKO was considered the smallest of the Big Five. It was kept afloat by Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals, as well as King Kong and Citizen Kane. It never became the factory the other four became. It shut down for good in 1957. 

RKO had three facilities in the LA area. The old FBO Studio in Hollywood, the Forty Acres lot in Culver City, and a backlot in Encino. King Kong was shot at Forty Acres. David O Selznik ran RKO for a time, then as an independent producer leased the Culver City lot in 1937. He then leased it for pictures such as Gone With the Wind. 

The Encino lot became the main production facility. The Culver City and Hollywood studios were bought by Desilu, Lucille Ball's production company, and then they were bought by Gulf + Western which controlled Paramount. The Hollywood studio became Paramount's TV wing. 

The RKO Downtown was closed in 1963 and was demolished in 1965. Pacific Theaters, a Drive-In chain, purchased the Pantages in 1967.

Another neat note about RKO. They were the original distributor of Walt Disney's short and feature length animated films. Which meant they were the distributors of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. This deal lasted from 1936 to 1954. Disney opened Walt Disney Studios in Burbank in 1940 with the revenue from Snow White. Fifteen years later, he was building a theme park.

There's a side view of the RKO Hillstreet. That style of parking lot should be familiar to LA locals, and you have to love the giant bill painted on the brick. But who's that on the small billboard underneath? Why that's Mickey!