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231-674: RKO Radio Pictures Inc. , commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO , was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood 's Golden Age . The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America studio were brought together under the control of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in October 1928. RCA executive David Sarnoff engineered

462-436: A "major studio" until 1984, when it joined 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. to comprise the "Big Seven." The decay of MGM in 1986 lead the studio to become a mini-major upon its sale in 1986, reducing the majors to the "Big Six". In 1989, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which became Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991. In 2019, Disney acquired Fox , reducing

693-504: A "security office" to oversee an ideological vetting system. "We are going to screen everyone in a creative or executive capacity", he declared. "The work of Communist sympathizers will not be used." As more credits were expunged, some in the industry began to question whether Hughes's hunt for subversives served primarily as a convenient rationale for further curtailing production and trimming expenses. In September, Hughes and his corporate president, Ned Depinet, sold their RKO studio stock to

924-538: A $ 3 billion deal and also bought a $ 1.6 billion portfolio of retail credit cards from Citigroup Inc. On October 14, 2010, GE announced the acquisition of data migration & SCADA simulation specialists Opal Software. In December 2010, for the second time that year (after the Dresser acquisition), GE bought the oil sector company Wellstream , an oil pipe maker, for 800 million pounds ($ 1.3 billion). In March 2011, GE announced that it had completed

1155-470: A 1935 merger), Warner Bros., and RKO. The remaining majors were sometimes referred to as the "Little Three" or "major minor" studios. Two—Universal and Columbia (founded in 1924)—were organized similarly to the Big Five, except for the fact that they never owned more than small theater circuits (a consistently reliable source of profits). The third of the lesser majors, United Artists (founded in 1919), owned

1386-519: A 1967 merger with the Seven Arts company preceded a 1969 purchase by Kinney National , under Stephen J. Ross . MGM, in the process of a slow decline, changed ownership twice in the same span as well, winding up in the hands of financier Kirk Kerkorian also in 1969. The majors almost entirely abandoned low-budget production during this era, bringing the annual average of features released down to 160. The decade also saw Disney/Buena Vista commanding

1617-471: A Chicago-based syndicate with no experience in the movie business; the syndicate's chaotic reign lasted until February 1953, when the stock and control were reacquired by Hughes. The studio's net loss in 1952 was over $ 10 million, and shooting had taken place for just a single in-house production over the last five months of the year. During the turmoil, Samuel Goldwyn ended his eleven-year-long distribution deal with RKO. Wald and Krasna escaped their contracts and

1848-506: A Reasonable Doubt , a remake of a 1956 RKO film directed by Fritz Lang, fared even worse critically, receiving a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes . A stage version of Top Hat toured Great Britain in the second half of 2011. The most recent RKO film coproductions are the well-received A Late Quartet (2012) and the 2015 flop Barely Lethal . Two months after Dina Merrill's May 2017 death, independent producer Keith Patterson sued RKO, Hartley, and his second-in-command, Mary Beth O'Connor, over

2079-495: A business division—retained the broadcast rights for the cities where it owned TV stations. By 1956, RKO's classic movies were playing widely on television, often in the Million Dollar Movie format, allowing many to see such films as Citizen Kane and King Kong for the first time. The $ 15.2 million RKO made on the deal convinced the other major studios that their libraries held profit potential—a turning point in

2310-602: A consequence, they were fired by RKO per the terms of the Waldorf Statement , the major studios' pledge to "eliminate any subversives". Scott, Dmytryk, and eight others who also defied HUAC—dubbed the Hollywood Ten —were blacklisted across the industry. Ironically, the studio's major success of the year was Crossfire , a Scott–Dmytryk film. Odlum concluded it was time to exit the film business, and he put Atlas's remaining RKO shares—approximately 25 percent of

2541-538: A controlling interest in the company, while GE would retain a 49% stake and would buy out shares owned by Vivendi. Vivendi would sell its 20% stake in NBCUniversal to GE for US$ 5.8 billion. Vivendi would sell 7.66% of NBCUniversal to GE for US$ 2 billion if the GE/Comcast deal was not completed by September 2010 and then sell the remaining 12.34% stake of NBCUniversal to GE for US$ 3.8 billion when

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2772-399: A coproduction between RKO and Lupino's company, The Filmakers. Of more historic note, Lupino was Hollywood's only female director during the period; of the five pictures The Filmakers made with RKO, Lupino directed three, including her now celebrated The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Exposing many moviegoers to Asian cinema for the first time, RKO distributed Akira Kurosawa 's epochal Rashomon in

3003-564: A customer for Photophone, then general manager of RCA David Sarnoff approached financier Joseph P. Kennedy in late 1927 about using the system for his Film Booking Offices of America (FBO). A Kennedy-led investment group had acquired the modest-sized, low-budget-focused studio the previous year, and he had turned it into a steady profit maker. Negotiations resulted in RCA acquiring a substantial interest in FBO; Sarnoff had apparently already conceived of

3234-437: A designer's studio. It never had a stable of important actors, writers, or directors, but   ... it was rich in artists and special-effects technicians. As a result, its most distinctive pictures contained a strong element of fantasy—not so much the fantasy of horror, which during the thirties was the province of Universal , but the fantasy of the marvelous and adventurous." As a group, the studio's craft divisions were among

3465-459: A distribution company for several independent producers, later began producing its own films, and was eventually acquired by MGM in 1981. Columbia Pictures eventually merged in 1987 with Tri-Star Pictures to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment, now known as Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. During the Golden Age, Walt Disney Productions was an independent production company and not considered

3696-590: A division of GE called GE Information Systems (GEIS). The new company, named GXS , is based in Gaithersburg, Maryland . GXS is a provider of business-to-business e-commerce solutions. GE maintains a minority stake in GXS. Also in 2002, GE Wind Energy was formed when GE bought the wind turbine manufacturing assets of Enron Wind after the Enron scandals . In 2004, GE bought 80% of Vivendi Universal Entertainment,

3927-476: A dozen movies for the studio over two decades. From soon after its debut in early 1935 until July 1942, Louis de Rochemont 's innovative documentary series The March of Time was distributed by RKO; at its peak in the late 1930s and early 1940s, over twenty million filmgoers saw its two-reelers each month in eleven thousand US and foreign theaters. Lacking the financial resources of industry leaders MGM , Paramount , and Fox , RKO turned out many pictures during

4158-425: A few months later, was similarly profitable. Much more than the other Big Five studios, RKO relied on B pictures to fill up its schedule. Of the thirty-one features released by RKO in 1944, for instance, ten were budgeted below $ 200,000, twelve were in the $ 200,000 to $ 500,000 range, and only nine cost more. In contrast, a clear majority of the features put out by the other top four studios were budgeted at over half

4389-426: A few theaters and had access to production facilities owned by its principals, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. During the 1930s, the eight majors averaged a total of 358 feature film releases a year; in the 1940s, the four largest companies shifted more of their resources toward high-budget productions and away from B movies , bringing

4620-578: A few years later with Thomson-Houston Electric Company , led by Charles Coffin . In 1887, Hart left to become superintendent of the Edison Electric Company. General Electric was formed through the 1892 merger of Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company with the support of Drexel, Morgan & Co. The original plants of both companies continue to operate under the GE banner to this day. The General Electric business

4851-536: A hit, and The Set-Up (1949), directed by Robert Wise and starring Robert Ryan , which won the Critic's Prize at the Cannes Film Festival . The Thing from Another World (1951), a science-fiction drama coproduced with Howard Hawks's Winchester Pictures, is seen as a classic of the genre. In 1952, RKO put out two films directed by Fritz Lang , Rancho Notorious and Clash by Night . The latter

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5082-515: A joint venture in steam turbines, plus a €3.1 billion cash investment. In June 2014, a formal offer from GE worth $ 17 billion was agreed by the Alstom board. Part of the transaction involved the French government taking a 20% stake in Alstom to help secure France's energy and transport interests and French jobs. A rival offer from Siemens Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was rejected. The acquisition

5313-553: A lamp manufacturer in East Newark, New Jersey ; Edison Machine Works , a manufacturer of dynamos and large electric motors in Schenectady, New York ; Bergmann & Company, a manufacturer of electric lighting fixtures , sockets , and other electric lighting devices; and Edison Electric Light Company, the patent -holding company and financial arm for Edison's lighting experiments, backed by J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) and

5544-534: A large enough market share to arguably qualify it as a seventh major. In 2006, DreamWorks was acquired by Viacom , Paramount's then-corporate parent (Viacom, after other mergers and acquisitions and rebrandings, included its movie studio's well-known name when the parent company rebranded as Paramount Global in 2022). In late 2008, DreamWorks once again became an independent production company; its films were distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures until 2016, at which point distribution switched to Universal. Today,

5775-622: A large payout in April and later in the year signed a three-picture deal with MGM. Sarnoff and Kennedy began talks about setting up a holding company funded by RCA cash and KAO securities, but plans stalled as Sarnoff grew frustrated with Kennedy's reluctance to pay for the Photophone work proceeding, if slowly, at FBO and Pathé. An attempt by Kennedy to reorganize yet another studio that had turned to him for help, now ERPI-aligned First National, further strained his relationship with Sarnoff and raised

6006-444: A leading position thereafter. The two emerging contenders were both newly formed companies. In 1978, Krim, Benjamin, and three other studio executives departed UA to found Orion Pictures as a joint venture with Warner Bros. It was announced optimistically as the "first major new film company in 50 years". Tri-Star Pictures was created in 1982 as a joint venture of future corporate sibling Columbia Pictures (at that time acquired by

6237-439: A legal battle with Wall Street Financial Associates (WSFA). Hartley and Merrill claimed that the owners of WSFA fraudulently induced them into signing an acquisition agreement by concealing their "cynical and rapacious" plans to purchase RKO, with the intention only of dismantling it. WSFA sought a preliminary injunction prohibiting RKO's majority owners from selling their interests in the company to any third parties. The WSFA motion

6468-416: A less tense merger, engineered by Murdock, was finalized, establishing the Keith-Albee-Orpheum (KAO) theater chain. With Pathé's finances in a ditch, Murdock, at Walker's prodding, turned to Kennedy for help in reorganizing the studio and consolidating it with PDC. The two men found that they had mutual interests, in particular, removing Edward Albee , the "Czar of Vaudeville" and Murdock's nominal boss, from

6699-517: A massive reorganization following an attempted hostile takeover. With RKO General dismantling its broadcast business, RKO Pictures Inc., along with the original RKO studio's trademarks , remake rights, and other remaining assets, was put up for sale. After a bid by RKO Pictures' own management team failed, the managers made a deal with Wesray Capital Corporation —under the control of former US treasury secretary William E. Simon and investor Ray Chambers —to buy RKO through Entertainment Acquisition Co.,

6930-523: A memo, Selznick wrote, "I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is   ... tremendous". Selznick's tenure was widely considered masterful: In 1931, before he arrived, the studio had produced forty-two features for $ 16 million in total budgets. In 1932, under Selznick, forty-one features were made for $ 10.2 million, with clear improvement in quality and popularity. He backed several major successes, including A Bill of Divorcement (1932), with Cukor directing Hepburn's debut, and

7161-572: A million dollars. A focus on B pictures limited the studio's financial risk; while it also limited the potential for reward (Dmytryk's extraordinary coups aside), RKO had a history of making better profits with its run-of-the-mill and low-cost product than with its A movies. The studio's low-budget films offered training opportunities for new directors, as well, among them Mark Robson , Robert Wise , and Anthony Mann . Film editors Robson and Wise received their first directing assignments with producer Val Lewton , whose specialized B horror unit also included

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7392-407: A newly created purchasing entity. The sale was completed in late 1987, and Wesray linked RKO with its Six Flags amusement parks to form RKO/Six Flags Entertainment Inc. In 1989, RKO Pictures, which had produced no films while under Wesray control, was sold off yet again. Actress and Post Cereals heiress Dina Merrill and her husband, producer Ted Hartley , acquired a majority interest and merged

7623-545: A nominal profit of a bit more than $ 500,000 in 1941. Many of RKO's other artistically ambitious pictures were also dying at the box office and it was losing its last exclusive deal with a major star as well. Rogers, after winning an Oscar in 1941 for her performance in the previous year's Kitty Foyle , held out for a freelance contract like Lombard's or Grant's. No star appeared in more RKO films than Rogers: thirty between 1931 and 1943, then one-offs in 1946 and 1956. On June 17, 1942, Schaefer tendered his resignation. He departed

7854-413: A now fabled performance as Quasimodo in the latter, returned periodically to the studio, headlining six more RKO features. For Maureen O'Hara , who made her American screen debut in the film, it was the first of ten pictures she made for RKO through 1952. Carole Lombard signed freelance deals for headlining roles in four films between 1939 and 1941—the last of her pictures to come out before her death in

8085-432: A number of unpleasant harbingers for all of Hollywood. The British government imposed a 75 percent tax on films produced abroad; along with similarly confiscatory taxes and quota laws enacted by other countries, this led to a sharp decline in foreign revenues. The postwar attendance boom peaked sooner than expected and television emerged as a competitor for audience interest. Across the board, profits fell—a 27 percent drop for

8316-469: A number of well-received films he made for RKO. RKO, and the movie industry as a whole, had its most profitable year ever in 1946. A Goldwyn production released by RKO, The Best Years of Our Lives , was the most successful Hollywood film of the decade and won the Academy Award for Best Picture. But the legal status of the industry's reigning business model was increasingly being called into doubt:

8547-412: A painter. Major film studios Since the dawn of filmmaking , the major U.S. film studios have dominated both American cinema and the global film industry . U.S. studios have benefited from a strong first-mover advantage in that they were the first to industrialize filmmaking and master the art of mass-producing and distributing high-quality films with broad cross-cultural appeal. Today,

8778-536: A pair of four-film series, the comedic Great Gildersleeve (1943–44) and noirish Dick Tracy (1945–47). Film noir , to which lower budgets lent themselves, became something of a house style at the studio; indeed, the RKO B Stranger on the Third Floor (1940) is widely seen as initiating noir's classic period. Its cinematographer , Nicholas Musuraca , who began at FBO in the 1920s and stayed with RKO through 1954,

9009-422: A plan for the studio to attain a central position in the film industry, maximizing Photophone revenue. Next was securing a string of exhibition venues like those the leading Hollywood production companies owned. Kennedy began investigating the possibility of such a purchase. At that same time, the allied Keith-Albee and Orpheum theater circuits, built around the then fading medium of live vaudeville , were pursuing

9240-620: A plane crash. After costarring with Ginger Rogers for the eighth time in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939), Fred Astaire departed the studio. The studio's B Western star of the period was George O'Brien , who made eighteen RKO pictures, sixteen between 1938 and 1940. The Saint in New York (1938) successfully launched a B detective series featuring the character Simon Templar that ran through 1943. The Wheeler and Woolsey comedy series ended in 1937 when Woolsey became ill (he died

9471-461: A prominent position in the market. Buoyed by the success of Mary Poppins , Disney achieved a 9% market share in 1964, more than Warner and its eventual subsidiary Fox. Though over the next two decades Disney/Buena Vista's share of the box-office would continue to reach this level, the studio was still not considered a major as it did not release many films, and those it did release were exclusively G-rated. The early 1970s were difficult years for all

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9702-483: A remake of a 1949 RKO movie that was itself a King Kong knockoff; the Disney coproduction was distributed by Buena Vista. In the early 2000s, the company was involved as a coproducer of TV movies and modestly budgeted features, about one a year. In 2003, it coproduced a Broadway stage version of the 1936 Astaire–Rogers vehicle Swing Time , under the title Never Gonna Dance . That same year, RKO Pictures entered into

9933-523: A second powerful Hollywood studio was established when Adolph Zukor merged his Famous Players Film Company movie production house with the Jesse L. Lasky Company to form Famous Players–Lasky . The combined studio acquired Paramount Pictures as a distribution arm and eventually adopted its name. That same year, William Fox relocated his Fox Film Corporation from Fort Lee, New Jersey to Hollywood and began expanding. In 1923, Walt Disney had founded

10164-425: A seven-year contract and cast her in the big-budget musical Flying Down to Rio (1933). Rogers was paired with Fred Astaire , making his second film. Billed fourth and fifth respectively, the picture turned them into stars. Hermes Pan , assistant to the film's dance director, became one of Hollywood's leading choreographers through his subsequent work with Astaire. Along with Columbia Pictures , RKO became one of

10395-408: A small scale in 1981, it was eventually spun off and now operates as a minor independent company.) In contrast, there was United Artists, which had long operated under the financing-distribution model the other majors were now progressively shifting toward. Under Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin , who began managing the company in 1951, UA became consistently profitable. By 1956—when it released one of

10626-470: A special Academy Award for Technical Achievement . Fox, in the forefront of sound film technology along with Warner Bros., was also acquiring a sizable circuit of movie theaters to exhibit its product. The development of sound films like The Jazz Singer near the end of the Roaring Twenties resulted in a massive rush of Americans to movie theaters to watch the astonishing new "talkies". At

10857-677: A spending spree, buying up theater after theater to add to its exhibition chain. In October 1930, the company purchased a 50 percent stake in the New York Van Beuren studio, which specialized in cartoons and live shorts. Looking to get out of the film business, Kennedy arranged for RKO to purchase Pathé, in a deal that protected his associates' bond investments while it crushed many small stockholders who had bought in at artificially high prices. (Indeed, Kennedy, who had previously sold all of his Pathé holdings, started buying back bonds, which he turned around for substantial gains.) The deal

11088-706: A subsidiary created three years earlier, RKO Pictures Inc. In collaboration with Universal Studios, RKO put out five films over the next three years. Although the studio frequently worked with major names—including Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas , Jack Nicholson in The Border , and Nastassja Kinski in Cat People (all 1982)—it met with little success. Corporate restructuring brought RKO General under

11319-508: A transition into the movie business. In 1926 the exhibitors had acquired a 50 percent stake in the holding company of Producers Distributing Corporation (PDC), a smaller studio than FBO but more prestigious. Famed director Cecil B. De Mille —PDC studio chief and owner of its Culver City production facility—had been draining the company's resources for his well-appointed productions, and it had been finding little success in getting its films into first-run theaters , which were largely tied up by

11550-461: A weakened and troubled studio, but RKO was about to turn the corner. Propelled by the box-office boom of World War II and guided by new management, RKO made a strong comeback over the next half-decade. By the end of June 1942, Floyd Odlum had taken over a controlling interest in the company via his Atlas Corporation , edging aside the Rockefellers and Sarnoff. Charles Koerner , former head of

11781-505: A young actress who would quickly become one of the studio's big stars, Katharine Hepburn . John Barrymore was also enlisted for a few memorable performances. In November 1931, just as Selznick was assuming his new post, the separate Pathé distribution network was folded into RKO's. After less than a year of largely independent operation out of Culver City, the Pathé feature film division soon followed (due to exhibition contracts, features from

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12012-832: Is "nearly impossible" for a film to reach a broad international theatrical audience without being first picked up by one of the majors for distribution. Today, all the Big Five major studios are also members of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Summary of the 2023 North American market share of each studio. The current "Big Five" majors (Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony) all originate from film studios that were active during Hollywood's "Golden Age." Four of these were among that original era's " Eight Majors ," being that era's original "Big Five" plus its "Little Three," collectively

12243-625: Is a central figure in creating the look of classic noir. Design chief Albert D'Agostino —another long-termer, who succeeded Van Nest Polglase in 1941—and art director Walter Keller, along with others in the department, such as art directors Carroll Clark and Jack Okey and set decorator Darrell Silvera , are similarly credited. The studio's 1940s list of contract players was filled with noir regulars: Robert Mitchum (who graduated to major star status) and Robert Ryan each made no fewer than ten film noirs for RKO. Gloria Grahame , Jane Greer , and Lawrence Tierney were also notable studio players in

12474-469: Is one of GE's four multifunctional shared services centers worldwide in Pudong , China; Budapest , Hungary; and Monterrey , Mexico. In April 2015, GE announced its intention to sell off its property portfolio, worth $ 26.5 billion, to Wells Fargo and The Blackstone Group . It was announced in April 2015 that GE would sell most of its finance unit and return around $ 90 billion to shareholders as

12705-534: The Academy Award for Best Picture ; it cost a profligate $ 1.4 million, however, and lost nearly half that on its first release. Cimmaron' s female principal, Irene Dunne , was the studio's one major homegrown star of this early pre-Code era; having made her screen debut as the lead in the 1930 musical Leathernecking , she would headline at the studio for the entire decade, under contracts that gave her an unusual amount of power. Other significant actors of

12936-693: The Bamberger Broadcasting Service , owner of the WOR radio and television stations in New York City. The latter acquisition gave General Tire majority control of the Mutual Broadcasting System , one of America's leading radio networks. General Tire then merged its broadcasting interests into a new subsidiary, General Teleradio. Thomas F. O'Neil , son of General Tire's founder William O'Neil and chairman of

13167-526: The Coca-Cola Company ), HBO (then owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's predecessor Time Inc. ), and CBS . In 1985, Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation acquired 20th Century-Fox (thus dropping that name's hyphen), the last of both the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation and five relatively healthy Golden Age majors to remain independent throughout that era and after until its eventual sale to Disney in 2019 brought back

13398-569: The DATANET-30 and Datanet 355 message switching computers (DATANET-30 and 355 were also used as front end processors for GE mainframe computers). A Datanet 500 computer was designed but never sold. In 1956 Homer Oldfield had been promoted to General Manager of GE's Computer Department. He facilitated the invention and construction of the Bank of America ERMA system, the first computerized system designed to read magnetized numbers on checks. But he

13629-505: The Multics operating system on the GE 645 mainframe computer. The project took longer than expected and was not a major commercial success, but it demonstrated concepts such as single-level storage , dynamic linking , hierarchical file system , and ring-oriented security . Active development of Multics continued until 1985. GE got into computer manufacturing because, in the 1950s, they were

13860-577: The NBC television network for $ 6.28 billion; this merger surpassed the Capital Cities/ABC merger from earlier that year as the largest non-oil company merger in world business history. The remainder of RCA's divisions and assets were sold to various companies, including Bertelsmann Music Group which acquired RCA Records . Thomson SA , which licensed the manufacture of RCA and GE branded electronics, traced its roots to Thomson-Houston, one of

14091-561: The National Broadcasting Company (NBC), which built two radio broadcasting networks. In 1930, General Electric was charged with antitrust violations and was ordered to divest itself of RCA. In 1927, Ernst Alexanderson of GE made the first demonstration of television broadcast reception at his General Electric Realty Plot home at 1132 Adams Road in Schenectady, New York. On January 13, 1928, he made what

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14322-649: The San Fernando Valley as a movie ranch for exteriors and large-scale standing sets. With RKO Productions' films handled by sibling subsidiary RKO Distributing Corp., the studio released a limited slate of twelve features in its first year; in 1930, the figure more than doubled to twenty-nine. That July, RKO Productions Inc. was renamed RKO Radio Pictures Inc. RKO Pictures Ltd. was set up to handle British distribution. Encouraged by Rio Rita ' s success, RKO produced several costly musicals incorporating Technicolor sequences, among them Dixiana and Hit

14553-601: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bigelow v. RKO that the company was liable for damages under antitrust statutes for having denied an independent movie house access to first-run films —a common practice among all of the Big Five. With profits at a high point, Floyd Odlum cashed in by selling off about 40 percent of his shares in the company to a group of investment firms. After Koerner's death, Radio-Keith-Orpheum president N. Peter Rathvon and RKO Radio Pictures president Ned E. Depinet had exchanged positions, with Depinet moving to

14784-568: The Vanderbilt family . Henry Villard, a long-time Edison supporter and investor, proposed to consolidate all of business interests. The proposal was supported by Samuel Insull - who served as his secretary and, later, financier - as well other investors. In 1889, Drexel, Morgan & Co. —a company founded by J.P. Morgan and Anthony J. Drexel —financed Edison's research and helped merge several of Edison's separate companies under one corporation, forming Edison General Electric Company, which

15015-705: The first Warner Bros. Studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. On April 4, 1923, the Warner Bros. incorporated their fledgling movie company as " Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. ". Though their first film was My Four Years in Germany , Warner Bros. released their full-fledged movie The Jazz Singer in 1927. Warner Bros. were the pioneers of the sound film era as they established Vitaphone . Because of The Jazz Singer' s success (along with Lights of New York , The Singing Fool and The Terror ), Warner Bros.

15246-553: The optical printer and lifelike matte work, an art that reached its apex with 1941's Citizen Kane . Pan Berman had received his first screen credit in 1925 as a nineteen-year-old assistant director on FBO's Midnight Molly . He departed RKO in December 1939 after policy clashes with studio president George J. Schaefer , handpicked the previous year by the Rockefellers and backed by Sarnoff. With Berman gone, Schaefer became in effect production chief, though other men—including

15477-464: The runaway production phenomenon means that most films are now mostly or completely shot on location at places outside Los Angeles. The Big Five major studios are also members of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Secondary studio New Line Cinema June 18, 1967 20th Century Studios May 31, 1935 TriStar Pictures March 2, 1982 Other major film studios of

15708-647: The transmission of electrical power . In 1896, General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow Jones Industrial Average , where it remained a part of the index for 122 years, though not continuously. In 1911, General Electric absorbed the National Electric Lamp Association (NELA) into its lighting business. GE established its lighting division headquarters at Nela Park in East Cleveland, Ohio . The lighting division has since remained in

15939-429: The 20th century included: "Instant major" is a 1960s coined term for a film company that seemingly overnight had approached the status of major." In 1967, three "instant major" studios popped up, two of which were partnered with a television network theatrical film unit, with the most lasting until 1973: Mini-major studios (or "mini-majors") are the larger, independent film production companies that are smaller than

16170-462: The 9HA. After the break, GE developed new protective coatings and heat treatment methods. Gas turbines represent a significant portion of GE Power's revenue, and also represent a significant portion of the power generation fleet of several utility companies in the United States. Chubu Electric of Japan and Électricité de France also had units that were impacted. Initially, GE did not realize

16401-456: The Beach (1947). RKO and Orson Welles had an arm's-length reunion via The Stranger (1946), an independent production he starred in as well as directed. Welles later called it his worst film, but it was the only one he ever made that turned a profit in its first run. In December 1946, the studio released Frank Capra 's It's a Wonderful Life ; while it would eventually be recognized as one of

16632-441: The Big Five for the first time since then. By 1986, the combined share of the six classic majors — Paramount, MGM/UA, Fox, Warner Bros., Columbia and Universal — fell to 64%, the lowest since the beginning of the Golden Age. Fox's future parent company Disney was in third place, behind only Paramount and Warner. Even including Disney/Buena Vista as a seventh major and adding its 10% share (only for them to acquire Fox 33 years later),

16863-432: The Big Five major studios are primarily financial backers and distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies – either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film. For example, Disney and Sony Pictures distribute their films through affiliated divisions ( Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing , respectively), while

17094-454: The Big Five majors – Universal Pictures , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , Walt Disney Studios , and Sony Pictures – routinely distribute hundreds of films every year into all significant international markets (that is, where discretionary income is high enough for consumers to afford to watch films). The majors enjoy "significant internal economies of scale " from their "extensive and efficient [distribution] infrastructure," while it

17325-516: The Big Five saw their profits dwindle in 1948—from Fox, down 11 percent, to Loew's/MGM, down 62 percent—but at RKO they virtually vanished: from $ 5.1 million in 1947 to $ 0.5 million, a drop of 90 percent. The production-distribution end of the RKO business, now deep in the red, would never make a profit again. Offscreen, Robert Mitchum's arrest and conviction for marijuana possession—he served two months in jail—was widely assumed to mean career death for RKO's most promising young star, but Hughes surprised

17556-681: The Big Five still based in Hollywood and located entirely within the official city limits of the City of Los Angeles. Warner Bros. and Disney are both located in Burbank , while Universal is in the nearby unincorporated area of Universal City , and Sony is in Culver City . Disney is the only studio that has been owned by the same conglomerate since its founding. The offices of that parent entity are still located on Disney's studio lot and in

17787-486: The Big Five, there are several smaller U.S. production and distribution companies, known as independents or "indies." The leading independent producers and distributors such as Lionsgate Studios , the aforementioned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (now owned by Amazon ), A24 , and STX Entertainment , are sometimes referred to as "mini-majors." From 1998 through 2005, during a portion of the Big Six period, DreamWorks SKG commanded

18018-563: The Deck , both scripted and directed, like Rio Rita , by Luther Reed . Following the example of the other major studios, RKO had planned to create its own musical revue , Radio Revels . Promoted as the studio's most extravagant production to date, it was to be photographed entirely in Technicolor. The project was abandoned, as the public's taste for musicals temporarily subsided. From more than sixty Hollywood musicals in 1929 and over eighty

18249-656: The Denver television station until in 1986, when General Electric bought out RCA and made it into an owned-and-operated station by NBC . It even stayed on until 1995 when it was transferred to a joint venture between CBS and Group W in a swap deal, alongside KUTV in Salt Lake City for longtime CBS O&O in Philadelphia, WCAU-TV . Stations are arranged in alphabetical order by state and city of license . Led by Sanford Alexander Moss , GE moved into

18480-710: The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and The Disney Brothers Features Company with his brother Roy and animator Ub Iwerks . Renamed as Walt Disney Productions , Disney became a powerful independent over the next three decades focusing on animation with its shorts and films being distributed over the years by various majors; primarily Leslie B. Mace, Winkler Pictures, Universal Pictures, Celebrity Productions, Cinephone, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, United Artists Pictures and finally RKO. In its first year in 1928, Celebrity Productions and Cinephone had released its first blockbuster Steamboat Willie . In

18711-573: The Disney association was beneficial, RKO's own product was widely seen as declining in quality and Briskin was gone by the end of the year. Pandro Berman—who had filled in on three previous occasions—accepted the position of production chief on a noninterim basis. He left the job before the decade's turn, but his brief tenure resulted in some of the most notable films in studio history, including Gunga Din , with Grant and McLaglen; Love Affair , starring Dunne and Charles Boyer ; and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (all 1939). Charles Laughton , who gave

18942-475: The Fight and Flying Padre . In early 1952, Hughes fought off a lawsuit by screenwriter Paul Jarrico , who had been caught up in the latest round of HUAC hearings; Hughes had fired him and removed his name from the credits of a recent release, The Las Vegas Story , a money-losing melodrama starring Jane Russell. The studio owner subsequently ordered 100 RKO employees on "leave of absence" while he established

19173-802: The Fortune 20 as the 14th most profitable company, but later very severely underperformed the market (by about 75%) as its profitability collapsed. Two employees of GE— Irving Langmuir (1932) and Ivar Giaever (1973)—have been awarded the Nobel Prize . Following the Great Recession of the late 2000s decade, General Electric began selling off various divisions and assets, including its appliances and financial capital divisions, under Jeff Immelt 's leadership as CEO. John Flannery, Immelt's replacement in 2017, further divested General Electric's assets in locomotives and lighting in order to focus

19404-531: The Hollywood studios except for RKO seemingly bowed to the theater owners and prohibited radio appearances by their contract actors. The ban soon crumbled. Selznick spent a mere fifteen months as RKO production chief, resigning over a dispute with new corporate president Merlin Aylesworth concerning creative control. One of his last acts at RKO was to approve a screen test for a thirty-three-year-old, balding Broadway song-and-dance man named Fred Astaire . In

19635-510: The Hollywood studios from 1946 to 1947. In July, RKO Pathé's signature newsreel was sold to Warner Bros. for a reported $ 4 million. The phenomenon later called McCarthyism was building strength, and in October, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) began hearings into Communism in the motion picture industry. Two of RKO's top talents, Dmytryk and producer Adrian Scott , refused to cooperate. As

19866-705: The New York–based Trust was arguably the first major North American movie conglomerate. The independents' fight against the Trust was led by Carl Laemmle , whose Chicago-based Laemmle Film Service, serving the Midwest and Canada, was the largest distribution exchange in North America. Laemmle's efforts were rewarded in 1912 when the U.S. government ruled that the Trust was a "corrupt and unlawful association" and must be dissolved. On June 8, 1912, Laemmle organized

20097-570: The RKO Pathé line of newsreels and shorts, was likewise changed from "Radio Pictures" to "RKO Radio Pictures". In February 1937, Selznick, now a leading independent producer, took over RKO's Culver City studio and Forty Acres , as the backlot was known, under a long-term lease. Gone with the Wind , his coproduction with MGM , was largely shot there. In addition to its central Hollywood studio, RKO production now revolved around its Encino ranch . While

20328-586: The RKO theater chain and allied with Odlum, had assumed the title of production chief some time prior to Schaefer's departure. With Schaefer gone, Koerner could actually do the job. Announcing a new corporate motto, "Showmanship in Place of Genius: A New Deal at RKO", a snipe at Schaefer's artistic ambitions in general and his sponsorship of Welles in particular, Koerner brought the studio much-needed stability until his death in February 1946. The change in RKO's fortunes

20559-632: The Saint and the Falcon were so similar that Saint creator Leslie Charteris sued RKO. The Falcon was first played by George Sanders , who had appeared five times as the Saint. He bowed out after four Falcon films and was replaced by his brother, Tom Conway . Conway had a nine-film run in the part before the series ended in 1946. Johnny Weissmuller starred in six RKO Tarzan pictures for producer Sol Lesser between 1943 and 1948 before being replaced by Lex Barker for five more. Producer Herman Schlom oversaw

20790-500: The Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the highest-grossing movie in the period between The Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939). The theater operation excepted, on December 31, 1936, most of the domestic RKO subsidiaries, including RKO Distributing Corp. and its exchanges, were folded into RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Following the shift in print advertising a few years earlier, the screen brand on RKO's output, aside from

21021-529: The U.S. Army Air Corps to select GE to develop the nation's first jet engine during the war. This experience, in turn, made GE a natural selection to develop the Whittle W.1 jet engine that was demonstrated in the United States in 1941. GE was ranked ninth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. However, their early work with Whittle's designs was later handed to Allison Engine Company . GE Aviation then emerged as one of

21252-520: The U.S. and Canada. The exact terms of the sale were not disclosed, but the final price would be based on the value of the assets at closing, plus a premium according to the parties. In October 2015, activist investor Nelson Peltz 's fund Trian bought a $ 2.5 billion stake in the company. In January 2016, Haier acquired GE's appliance division for $ 5.4 billion. In October 2016, GE Renewable Energy agreed to pay €1.5 billion to Doughty Hanson & Co for LM Wind Power during 2017. At

21483-491: The United States, sixteen months after its original 1950 Japanese release. The only smash hits released by RKO in the 1950s came out during this period, but neither was an in-house production: Goldwyn's Hans Christian Andersen (1952) was followed by Disney's Peter Pan (1953). The first two shorts directed by a twenty-two-year-old photographer from the Bronx were both released in 1951 by RKO Pathé— Stanley Kubrick 's Day of

21714-443: The acquisition of Hydril Pressure & Control in 2008 for $ 1.1 billion. GE Plastics was sold in 2008 to SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation). In May 2008, GE announced it was exploring options for divesting the bulk of its consumer and industrial business. On December 3, 2009, it was announced that NBCUniversal would become a joint venture between GE and cable television operator Comcast . Comcast would hold

21945-459: The acquisition of privately held Lineage Power Holdings from The Gores Group . In April 2011, GE announced it had completed its purchase of John Wood plc's Well Support Division for $ 2.8 billion. In 2011, GE Capital sold its $ 2 billion Mexican assets to Santander for $ 162 million and exited the business in Mexico. Santander additionally assumed the portfolio debts of GE Capital in

22176-541: The aegis of the new holding company GenCorp , and starting with the Meryl Streep vehicle Plenty (1985), RKO Pictures took on more projects as sole studio backer. In January 1986, Paramount signed a two-year distribution agreement with the company. Films such as the erotic thriller Half Moon Street (1986) and the Vietnam War drama Hamburger Hill (1987) followed, but production ended as GenCorp underwent

22407-559: The aforementioned Universal under Lew Wasserman in 1962, the later half of the 1960s were marked by four others — Paramount, United Artists, Warner Bros., and MGM — involved in a spate of corporate takeovers that left Columbia, Fox, and its eventual parent company Disney under original ownership. Gulf+Western took over Paramount in 1966; and the Transamerica Corporation purchased United Artists in 1967. Warner Bros. underwent large-scale reorganization twice in two years:

22638-577: The anticipated boom in sound movies had a major hurdle: Warner Bros. and Fox , Hollywood's other vanguard sound studio, were already financially and technologically aligned with ERPI, a subsidiary of AT&T 's Western Electric division. The industry's two largest companies, Paramount and Loew's / MGM , along with First National Pictures —third of the silent era "Big Three" major studios , but by then in marked decline—and Universal Pictures , were poised to contract with ERPI and its Vitaphone and Movietone systems for sound conversion as well. Seeking

22869-459: The biggest blockbusters of the decade, Around the World in 80 Days —it commanded a 10% market share. By the middle of the next decade, it had reached 16% and was the second-most profitable studio in Hollywood. Despite RKO's collapse, the remaining seven majors still averaged a total yearly release slate of 253 feature films during the decade. Following MCA Inc. 's acquisition of Decca Records and

23100-409: The broadcasting group, saw that the company's new television stations, indeed all TV outlets, were in need of programming. In September 1954, WOR-TV had launched the Million Dollar Movie program, running a single film for a week, twice every night plus Saturday and Sunday matinees; the format proved hugely successful and non- network -affiliated stations around the country were eager to emulate it. With

23331-477: The business and renamed it List Industries. Hughes soon found himself the target of no fewer than five separate lawsuits filed by minority shareholders in RKO, accusing him of malfeasance in his dealings with the Chicago group and a wide array of acts of mismanagement. "RKO's contract list is down to three actors and 127 lawyers", quipped Dick Powell . Leery of the studio's mounting problems and sparring with it over

23562-401: The classic majors. Movie attendance, which had been declining steadily since the end of the Golden Age, hit an all-time low by 1971. In 1973, MGM president James T. Aubrey drastically downsized the studio, slashing its production schedule and eliminating its distribution arm (UA would distribute the studio's films for the remainder of the decade). From fifteen releases in 1973, the next year MGM

23793-557: The club of major studios and two significant contenders emerged. With the combined output of Walt Disney Pictures , the establishment of the Touchstone Pictures brand in 1984, and increasing attention to the adult live-action market during the early 1980s, Disney/Buena Vista secured acknowledgment as a full-fledged major. Film historian Joel Finler identifies 1986 as the breakthrough year, when Disney rose to third place in market share and remained consistently competitive for

24024-422: The collapse of plans to create multiple TV series based on RKO properties, starting with Citizen Kane . According to Patterson's suit, O'Connor controls access to Hartley and holds both his healthcare proxy and an option to acquire RKO and its intellectual property at a deep markdown after his death. As of November 2022, Hartley, then 98 years old, was still making public appearances connected with his avocation as

24255-469: The companies outside of the then-seven majors and Disney had combined for a grand total of 1%. In the first edition of Finler's The Hollywood Story (1988), he wrote, "It will be interesting to see whether the old-established studios will be able to bounce back in the future, as they have done so many times before, or whether the newest developments really do reflect a fundamental change in the US movie industry for

24486-800: The company expanded into cable with the launch of a franchise, which was awarded to a non-exclusive franchise in Schenectady through subsidiary General Electric Cablevision Corporation. On February 15, 1965, General Electric expanded its holdings in order to acquire more television stations to meet the maximum limit of the FCC, and more cable holdings through subsidiaries General Electric Broadcasting Company and General Electric Cablevision Corporation. The company also owned television stations such as KOA-TV (now KCNC-TV ) in Denver and WSIX-TV (later WNGE-TV, now WKRN ) in Nashville, but like WRGB, General Electric sold off most of its broadcasting holdings, but held on to

24717-572: The company more on aviation. After restrictions on air travel during the COVID-19 pandemic caused General Electric's revenue to fall significantly in 2020, GE's final CEO Larry Culp announced in November 2021 that General Electric was to be broken up into three separate, public companies— GE Aerospace , GE HealthCare , and GE Vernova —by 2024. The new companies are respectively focused on aerospace, healthcare, and energy. GE HealthCare's spin-off

24948-404: The company was renamed back to Baker Hughes. In May 2017, GE had signed $ 15 billion of business deals with Saudi Arabia . Saudi Arabia is one of GE's largest customers. In September 2017, GE announced the sale of its Industrial Solutions Business to ABB . The deal closed on June 30, 2018. On August 15, 2019, Harry Markopolos , a financial fraud investigator known for his discovery of

25179-470: The company with their Pavilion Communications. After a brief period as RKO/Pavilion, the business was reorganized as RKO Pictures LLC. With the inaugural RKO production under Hartley and Merrill's ownership, False Identity (1990), the company also stepped into the distribution business. In 1992, it handled the well-regarded independent production Laws of Gravity , directed by Nick Gomez . RKO's next significant film came in 1998 with Mighty Joe Young ,

25410-630: The company's longtime stake in television and film media. In April 2013, GE acquired oilfield pump maker Lufkin Industries for $ 2.98 billion. In April 2014, it was announced that GE was in talks to acquire the global power division of French engineering group Alstom for a figure of around $ 13 billion. A rival joint bid was submitted in June 2014 by Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) with Siemens seeking to acquire Alstom's gas turbine business for €3.9 billion, and MHI proposing

25641-653: The company's losses against his earnings elsewhere. Hughes had reneged on his promise to give Odlum first option on buying the RKO theater chain when he divested it, and was now paying the price. With negotiations between the two at a stalemate, in July 1955, Hughes turned around and sold RKO Radio Pictures Inc. to the General Tire and Rubber Company for $ 25 million, leaving himself and Odlum the shell of RKO Pictures Corp. and what were now, according to Fortune , its "sole assets   ... $ 18 million in cash." For Hughes, this

25872-399: The corporate offices in New York and Rathvon relocating to Hollywood and doubling as production chief while a permanent replacement was sought for Koerner. On the first day of 1947, producer and Oscar-winning screenwriter Dore Schary , who had been working at the studio on loan from Selznick, took over the role. RKO appeared in good shape to build on its recent successes, but the year brought

26103-531: The country. Following this, GE Capital focused on its core business and shed its non-core assets. In June 2012, CEO and President of GE Jeff Immelt said that the company would invest ₹ 3 billion to accelerate its businesses in Karnataka . In October 2012, GE acquired $ 7 billion worth of bank deposits from MetLife Inc . On March 19, 2013, Comcast bought GE's shares in NBCU for $ 16.7 billion, ending

26334-544: The courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This led to the creation of the Motion Picture Patents Company , widely known as the Trust. Comprising the eight largest U.S. film companies, it was "designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country's 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors." Though its many members did not consolidate their filmmaking operations,

26565-520: The deal was completed or to the public via an IPO if the deal was not completed. On March 1, 2010, GE announced plans to sell its 20.85% stake in Turkey-based Garanti Bank. In August 2010, GE Healthcare signed a strategic partnership to bring cardiovascular Computed Tomography (CT) technology from start-up Arineta Ltd. of Israel to the hospital market. In October 2010, GE acquired gas engines manufacturer Dresser Industries in

26796-468: The decade. Cooper sought to more tightly align costs and prospective grosses, impacting the budgets for " programmers " such as the Wheeler and Woolsey comedies: under Selznick, Hold 'Em Jail and Girl Crazy (both 1932) had cost an average of $ 470,000; under Cooper, Diplomaniacs (1933) was shot for just $ 242,000. Ginger Rogers had already made several minor films for RKO when Cooper signed her to

27027-571: The decades that followed, Disney and its associated distributors were able to achieve occasional successes, but its relatively small output and exclusive focus on G-rated films meant that it was not generally considered to be one of the majors. The Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America and the Independent Producers' Association declared war in 1925 on what they termed a common enemy — the "film trust" of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount, and First National , which they claimed dominated

27258-484: The directors under long-term contract to RKO in the 1940s, the best known was Edward Dmytryk , who first came to notice with the remarkably profitable Hitler's Children (1943). Shot on a $ 205,000 budget, placing it in the bottom quartile of Big Five studio productions, it was one of the ten biggest Hollywood hits of the year. Another low-cost war-themed film directed by Dmytryk, Behind the Rising Sun , released

27489-488: The division continued to come out under the combined brand until the following November). RKO Pathé was now effectively the studio's newsreel-and-shorts subsidiary. In January 1932, Variety named Constance Bennett as one of the industry's top six female "money stars". From September, the start of the industry's exhibition season, print advertising for the company's features displayed the revised name "RKO Radio Pictures". The New York City–based corporate headquarters moved into

27720-427: The early 1930s, as his capricious management style took a heavy toll. Production chief Schary quit almost immediately due to his new boss's interference and Rathvon soon followed. Within weeks of taking over, Hughes had dismissed three-fourths of the work force; production was virtually shut down for six months as the conservative Hughes shelved or canceled several of the " message pictures " that Schary had backed. All of

27951-500: The eight film studios that controlled as much as 96% of the market during the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to being members of today's "Big Five," Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. were also part of the original "Big Five," along with RKO Pictures , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , and 20th Century Fox . Universal Pictures was, during that early era, considered one of the "Little Three," along with United Artists and Columbia Pictures . RKO went defunct in 1959. United Artists began as

28182-619: The eight majors' box-office domination, it somewhat leveled the playing field between the Big Five and the Little Three. In November 1951, Decca Records purchased 28% of Universal; early the following year, the studio became the first of the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation, as Decca acquired majority ownership. In 1953, Disney established its own distribution division, Buena Vista Film Distribution , to handle its own product which had been largely distributed by RKO. The 1950s also saw two substantial shifts in

28413-472: The end of 1949, when Paramount divested its theater chain—roughly the period considered Hollywood's Golden Age—there were eight Hollywood studios commonly regarded as the "majors". Of these eight, the so-called Big Five were integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel: Loews/MGM, Paramount, Fox (which became 20th Century-Fox after

28644-426: The end of October 2016, it was announced that GE was under negotiations for a deal valued at about $ 30 billion to combine GE Oil & Gas with Baker Hughes . The transaction would create a publicly traded entity controlled by GE. It was announced that GE Oil & Gas would sell off its water treatment business, GE Water & Process Technologies, as part of its divestment agreement with Baker Hughes. The deal

28875-482: The end of the month, he closed the deal, arranging to sell off his FBO and KAO shares, options, and convertibles at enormous profit. On October 23, 1928, RCA announced the creation of the Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. holding company, with Sarnoff as board chairman. The new administration made clear that Kennedy's services were no longer needed and he stepped down from his board and executive positions in

29106-443: The era that belied their economies with high style in an Art Deco mode, exemplified by such Astaire–Rogers musicals as The Gay Divorcee (1934), their first pairing as leads, and Top Hat (1935). One of the figures most responsible for that style was another Selznick recruit: Van Nest Polglase , supervisor of RKO's highly regarded design department for almost a decade. Film historian James Naremore has described RKO as "chiefly

29337-545: The exhibition circuit from Glen Alden in 1971. Now little more than a name and beneficiary of General Tire's doubtful largesse, RKO announced in early 1958 that it would continue as a financial backer, coproducing independently made pictures. Fewer than half a dozen resulted. The final RKO film, Verboten! , a coproduction with director Samuel Fuller 's Globe Enterprises, was released, fitfully, beginning in March 1959, first by Rank and then Columbia . That same year, "Pictures"

29568-551: The fact, by film critics and historians. The studio produced two of the most famous films in motion picture history: King Kong and producer/director/star Orson Welles 's Citizen Kane . RKO was also responsible for notable coproductions such as It's a Wonderful Life and Notorious , and it distributed many celebrated films by animation pioneer Walt Disney and leading independent producer Samuel Goldwyn . Though it often could not compete financially for top star and director contracts, RKO's below-the-line personnel were among

29799-515: The field. Freelancer George Raft starred in two noir hits: Johnny Angel (1945) and Nocturne (1946). Tourneur, Musuraca, Mitchum, and Greer, along with D'Agostino's design group, joined to make the A-budgeted Out of the Past (1947), now considered one of the greatest of all film noirs. Nicholas Ray began his directing career with the noir They Live by Night (1948), the first of

30030-434: The final release of Carole Lombard's lifetime, was a modest success and Suspicion a substantial one, with an Oscar-winning turn by Joan Fontaine . That May, having granted twenty-five-year-old star and director Orson Welles virtually complete creative control over the film, RKO released Citizen Kane . While it opened to strong reviews and went on to be hailed as one of the greatest movies ever made, it lost money at

30261-475: The finest, including composer Max Steiner , cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca , and designer Van Nest Polglase . Maverick industrialist Howard Hughes took over RKO in 1948. After years of disarray and decline under his control, the studio was acquired by the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. It soon broke new business ground as the first major studio to sell the bulk of its film library's TV rights. The original RKO Pictures ceased production in 1957 and

30492-637: The firm looked to trim down on its holdings and rid itself of its image of a "hybrid" company, working in both banking and manufacturing. In August 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell its Healthcare Financial Services business to Capital One for US$ 9 billion. The transaction involved US$ 8.5 billion of loans made to a wide array of sectors, including senior housing, hospitals, medical offices, outpatient services, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. Also in August 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell GE Capital Bank's on-line deposit platform to Goldman Sachs . Terms of

30723-530: The first times since the 20s." With the exception of MGM/UA—whose position was effectively supplanted by Disney—the old-established studios did bounce back. The aforementioned purchase of 20th Century Fox by Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation left its future parent company Disney under original ownership and presaged a new round of corporate acquisitions not long afterward. As part of that series, Columbia, Paramount and Warner Bros. received new owners once and for all while Universal changed corporate hands until

30954-783: The following year). RKO filled the void by releasing independently produced features such as the Dr. Christian series and the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Flying Deuces (1939). The studio soon had its own new B comedy stars in Lupe Vélez and Leon Errol : The Girl from Mexico (1939) was followed by seven frantic installments of the Mexican Spitfire series between 1940 and 1943. The studio's technical departments maintained their reputation as industry leaders; Vernon Walker's special effects unit became famous for its sophisticated use of

31185-503: The following year, the number dropped to eleven in 1931. Rio Rita star Bebe Daniels , who had joined the new studio as its top female name after the final months of her contract at Paramount were bought out, fell victim to the shifting market. Her big musical follow-up, Dixiana , had been a big money loser, and in January 1931 her contract was sold to Warner Bros. RKO, meanwhile, was in a contractual bind that it could not get out of: it

31416-582: The former RKO Hollywood studio, FBO's old home, is now part of the Paramount lot. The renovated Culver City studio, where DeMille once reigned, is now owned and operated as an independent production facility. Forty Acres, the Culver City backlot, was razed in the mid-1970s. List Industries, the former RKO Theatres Corp., was bought by Glen Alden Corp. in 1959. Glen Alden acquired another chain in 1967, creating RKO–Stanley Warner Theatres. Cinerama purchased

31647-457: The former head of the industry censorship board , Joseph I. Breen—nominally filled the role. Schaefer, announcing his philosophy with a new studio slogan, "Quality Pictures at a Premium Price", was keen on signing up independent producers whose films RKO would distribute. In 1941, the studio landed one of the most prestigious independents in Hollywood when it arranged to handle Samuel Goldwyn 's productions. The first two Goldwyn pictures released by

31878-552: The former merged with Sony and Columbia, the latter bankrupt and sold to MGM. The most important contenders to emerge during the 1990s with Viacom's purchase of Paramount Communications in 1994 — New Line Cinema , Miramax , and DreamWorks SKG — were likewise sooner or later brought into the majors' fold. Shortly after, Matsushita sold MCA (and Universal) to Seagram in 1996, then Vivendi in 2000, and later NBC's parent company General Electric in 2004 to become NBCUniversal. General Electric General Electric Company ( GE )

32109-432: The greatest films of Hollywood's Golden Age, at the time it lost more than half a million dollars for RKO. John Ford's The Fugitive (1947) and Fort Apache (1948), which appeared right before studio ownership changed hands again, were followed by She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) and Wagon Master (1950); all four were coproductions between RKO and Argosy, the company run by Ford and RKO alumnus Merian C. Cooper. Of

32340-430: The hierarchy of the majors: RKO, perennially the weakest of the Big Five, declined rapidly under the mismanagement of Howard Hughes , who had purchased a controlling interest in the studio in 1948. By the time Hughes sold it to the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955, the studio was a major by outdated reputation alone. In 1957, virtually all RKO movie operations ceased and the studio was dissolved in 1959. (Revived on

32571-468: The industry by announcing that his contract was not endangered. Of much broader significance, Hughes decided to get the jump on his Big Five competitors by being the first to settle the federal government's antitrust suit against the major studios, which had won a crucial Supreme Court ruling in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. Under the consent decree he signed, Hughes agreed to dissolve

32802-400: The industry by not only producing and distributing motion pictures, but by entering into exhibition as well. On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer , starring Al Jolson , and a whole new era began, with "pictures that talked", bringing the studio to the forefront of the film industry. The Jazz Singer played to standing-room-only crowds throughout the country and earned

33033-456: The industry's leading artists and craftsmen whose work was never seen. From the studio's earliest days through late 1935, Max Steiner , regarded by many historians as the most influential composer of the early years of sound cinema, made music for over 100 RKO films. His score for The Informer brought Steiner his third Oscar nomination and first win. Murray Spivack , head of the studio's audio special effects department, made important advances in

33264-502: The largest user of computers outside the United States federal government , aside from being the first business in the world to own a computer. Its major appliance manufacturing plant " Appliance Park " was the first non-governmental site to host one. However, in 1970, GE sold its computer division to Honeywell , exiting the computer manufacturing industry, though it retained its timesharing operations for some years afterward. GE

33495-404: The latter would emerge in mid-1935; RKO would not until 1940. Cooper took over as production head after Selznick's departure and oversaw two hits starring Hepburn: Morning Glory (1933), for which she won her first Oscar , and Little Women (1933), director Cukor's second collaboration with the actress. Among the studio's in-house productions, the latter was the biggest box-office success of

33726-479: The lavish Rio Rita , including a number of Technicolor sequences. Opening in September to rave reviews, it was named one of the ten best pictures of the year by Film Daily . Cinema historian Richard Barrios credits it with initiating the "first age of the filmed Broadway musical". By the end of the year, RKO was making use of an additional production facility—five hundred acres had been acquired near Encino in

33957-429: The major studios and attempt to compete directly with them. Secondary studio Orion Pictures January 1978 Summit Entertainment July 26, 1991 Past mini-majors include: Semi-major studios (or "semi-majors") are significant studios that are sisters to or had a stake held by a major film studio. Secondary studio DreamWorks Pictures October 12, 1994 In 1909, Thomas Edison , who had been fighting in

34188-405: The majors to a new "Big Five" for the first time since Hollywood's Golden Age. Thus, Paramount and Warner are the only Golden Age Big Five members to remain as majors today with the same names, while 20th Century Studios continues to be a major under the ownership of Disney. While the Big Five's main studio lots are located within 15 miles (24 km) of each other, Paramount is the only member of

34419-522: The majors' control of the North American market was at a historic ebb. Orion (now completely independent of Warner) and Tri-Star were well positioned as mini-majors, each with North American market shares of around 6% and regarded by industry observers as "fully competitive with the majors", much like MGM and Lionsgate by the turn of the century. Smaller independents garnered 13%—more than any studio aside from Paramount. In 1964, by comparison, all of

34650-403: The majors. In early 1927, despite months of DeMille's strenuous objections, an agreement was reached to merge PDC into Pathé , a lower-level studio known for its newsreel and churn out of cheap shorts . Investment banker Elisha Walker , whose Blair & Co. firm owned the controlling interest in Pathé, brought on Keith-Albee general manager John J. Murdock as studio president. In January 1928,

34881-471: The market. Ten years later, the picture was largely the same: the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); the Little Three had shares ranging from 8% (Columbia) to 4% (United Artists). In sum, the eight majors controlled 96% of the market. The end of the Golden Age had been signaled by the majors' loss of a federal antitrust case that led to the divestiture of the Big Five's theater chains. Though this had virtually no immediate effect on

35112-469: The merged businesses, leaving him with co-ownership and management of Pathé and the PDC assets that it had absorbed. RCA owned the governing stock interest in RKO, 22 percent (in the early 1930s, its stake rose as high as 60 percent). On January 25, 1929, the new company's production arm, presided over by former FBO vice-president Joseph I. Schnitzer, was unveiled as RKO Productions Inc. A week later, it filed for

35343-692: The merger of his production division, IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company), with several other filmmaking companies, creating the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in New York City . By the end of the year, Universal was making movies at two Los Angeles facilities: the former Nestor Film studio in Hollywood, and another studio in Edendale . The first Hollywood major studio was in business. In 1918, four brothers— Harry , Albert , Sam , and Jack Warner —founded

35574-498: The merger to create a market for the company's sound-on-film technology, RCA Photophone , and in early 1929 production began under the RKO name (an initialism of Radio-Keith-Orpheum ). Two years later, another Kennedy concern, the Pathé studio, was folded into the operation. By the mid-1940s, RKO was controlled by investor Floyd Odlum . RKO has long been renowned for its cycle of musicals starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in

35805-421: The mid- to late 1930s. Actors Katharine Hepburn and, later, Robert Mitchum had their first major successes at the studio. Cary Grant was a mainstay for years, with credits including touchstones of the screwball comedy genre with which RKO was identified. The work of producer Val Lewton 's low-budget horror unit and RKO's many ventures into the field now known as film noir have been acclaimed, largely after

36036-399: The mid-1970s, the industry had rebounded and a significant philosophical shift was in progress. As the majors focused increasingly on the development of the next hoped-for blockbuster and began routinely opening each new movie in many hundreds of theaters (an approach called "saturation booking"), their collective yearly release average fell to 81 films during 1975–84. The classic set of majors

36267-464: The mid-2000s. Paramount's parent company Gulf+Western was renamed Paramount Communications and Coca-Cola sold Columbia to Japanese electronics firm Sony in 1989, creating Sony Pictures . The following year, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to birth Time Warner and Universal's parent company MCA was purchased by fellow Japanese electronics conglomerate Matsushita . At this time, both Tri-Star and Orion were essentially out of business:

36498-489: The monumental King Kong (1933)—largely Merian Cooper's brainchild, brought to life by the astonishing special effects work of Willis O'Brien . Still, the shaky finances and excesses that marked the company's pre-Selznick days had not left RKO in shape to withstand the Depression . Most of the other major studios were in similar straits. In January 1933, both RKO and Paramount were forced into receivership , from which

36729-472: The more experienced director Jacques Tourneur . The Lewton unit's moody, atmospheric work—represented by films such as Cat People (1942), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), and The Body Snatcher (1945)—is now highly regarded. Richard Dix concluded his lengthy RKO career with the 1943 Lewton production The Ghost Ship . Tim Holt , who succeeded George O'Brien as RKO's cowboy star, appeared in forty-six B Westerns and more than fifty movies altogether for

36960-448: The new RKO Building , an Art Deco skyscraper that was one of the first Rockefeller Center structures to open. Hollywood on the Air , an RKO-produced program for NBC radio that promoted films from multiple studios, sparked independent exhibitors' ire at the free access to cinema stars it gave listeners—especially in the middle of prime moviegoing Friday night. Toward the end of 1932, all of

37191-452: The new field of aircraft turbo superchargers . This technology also led to the development of industrial gas turbine engines used for power production. GE introduced the first set of superchargers during World War I and continued to develop them during the interwar period . Superchargers became indispensable in the years immediately before World War II. GE supplied 300,000 turbo superchargers for use in fighter and bomber engines. This work led

37422-442: The old parent company, Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp., and split RKO's production-distribution business and its exhibition chain into two entirely separate corporations—RKO Pictures Corp. and RKO Theatres Corp.—with the obligation to promptly sell off one or the other. While Hughes delayed the divorcement procedure until December 1950 and did not actually sell his stock in the theater company for another three years, his decision to acquiesce

37653-550: The original components of GE. Also in 1986, Kidder, Peabody & Co. , a U.S.-based securities firm, was sold to GE and following heavy losses was sold to PaineWebber in 1994. In 1997, Genpact was founded as a unit of General Electric in Gurgaon . The company was founded as GE Capital International Services (GECIS).  In the beginning, GECIS created processes for outsourcing back-office activities for GE Capital such as processing car loans and credit card transactions. It

37884-409: The other studios to loan out their biggest names or signed one of the growing number of freelance performers to short-term, " pay or play " deals. Thus RKO pictures of the mid- and late forties offered Bing Crosby , Henry Fonda , and others who were out of the studio's price range for extended contracts. John Wayne appeared in 1943's A Lady Takes a Chance while on loan from Republic Pictures ; he

38115-507: The others function as both production and distribution companies. The specialty divisions (such as Disney's Searchlight Pictures and Universal's Focus Features ) often acquire distribution rights to films in which the studio has had no prior involvement. While the majors still do a modicum of true production, their activities are focused more in the areas of development, financing, marketing, and merchandising. Those business functions are still usually performed in or near Los Angeles, even though

38346-653: The outstanding stock—on the market. For her performance in The Farmer's Daughter (1947), a coproduction with Selznick's Vanguard Films, Loretta Young won the Best Actress Oscar the following March. It was the last major Academy Award for an RKO picture. In May 1948, eccentric aviation tycoon and occasional movie producer Howard Hughes spent $ 8.8 million to gain control of the company, beating out British film magnate J. Arthur Rank for Odlum's stake. During Hughes's tenure, RKO suffered its worst years since

38577-557: The parent of Universal Pictures from Vivendi . Vivendi bought 20% of NBC, forming the company NBCUniversal . GE then owned 80% of NBCUniversal and Vivendi owned 20%. In 2004, GE completed the spin-off of most of its mortgage and life insurance assets into an independent company, Genworth Financial , based in Richmond, Virginia . In May 2007, GE acquired Smiths Aerospace for $ 4.8 billion. Also in 2007, GE Oil & Gas acquired Vetco Gray for $ 1.9 billion, followed by

38808-463: The peak of the fad, every person in the United States over the age of six was watching a motion picture in a theater at least once a week. The box office revenue from the first sound films is what enabled the Hollywood majors to achieve their lasting domination of the global film industry. Between late 1928, when RCA 's David Sarnoff engineered the creation of the RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) studio, and

39039-472: The period included Joel McCrea , Ricardo Cortez , Dolores del Río , and Mary Astor . Richard Dix , Oscar-nominated for his performance in Cimarron , would serve as RKO's standby B-movie leading man until the early 1940s, while Tom Keene was top-billed in twelve low-budget Westerns between 1931 and 1933. The comedy team of Bert Wheeler and Robert Woolsey , often wrangling over ingenue Dorothy Lee ,

39270-598: The picture. Sarnoff's vision of a new big-league studio was coming into focus—and both Kennedy and Walker had similar notions. Assisted by Murdock and with Blair & Co.'s backing, Kennedy quickly maneuvered to interlock KAO and FBO, selling the exhibitor a substantial stake in his studio while buying up copious amounts of KAO stock. Within months, he had installed himself as chairman of the theater chain's new board of directors. When Albee, still KAO president, visited his office, Kennedy reportedly asked, "Didn't you know, Ed? You're washed up. You're through." DeMille departed with

39501-607: The prevailing central producer system. "Under the factory system of production you rob the director of his individualism", said Selznick, "and this being a creative industry that is harmful to the quality of the product made." Instituting unit production, he predicted, would also result in cost savings of 30–40 percent. To make films under the new system, Selznick recruited prize behind-the-camera personnel, such as director George Cukor and producer/director Merian C. Cooper , and gave producer Pandro S. Berman , aged twenty-six, increasingly important projects. Selznick discovered and signed

39732-552: The previous October to take the place of The March of Time after Time Inc. switched its distribution to Twentieth Century-Fox. In June 1944, a subsidiary, RKO Television Corporation, was established to produce content for the fledgling medium. Talk Fast, Mister , an hour-long drama shot at the RKO Pathé studio in Manhattan and broadcast by the DuMont Laboratories –owned New York station WABD on December 18, 1944,

39963-476: The primary homes of the screwball comedy . As film historian James Harvey describes, compared to their richer competition, the two studios were "more receptive to experiment, more tolerant of chaos on the set. It was at these two lesser 'majors'   ... that nearly all the preeminent screwball directors did their important films— [Howard] Hawks and [Gregory] La Cava and [Leo] McCarey and [George] Stevens ." The relatively unheralded William A. Seiter directed

40194-479: The purchase of RKO, the studio's library was under O'Neil's control and he quickly put the rights to the 742 films to which RKO retained clear title up for sale. C&C Television Corp., a subsidiary of beverage maker Cantrell & Cochrane , won the bidding in December 1955 and was soon offering the films to independent stations in a package called "MovieTime USA". RKO Teleradio Pictures—the newly renamed General Teleradio, under which RKO Radio Pictures now operated as

40425-410: The release of the forthcoming nature documentary The Living Desert , the Disney company exited its long-standing arrangement with RKO and set up its own distribution firm, Buena Vista . Contractual obligations meant that one last Disney feature would be released by RKO in 1954, and it continued to handle Disney shorts into 1956. Looking to forestall the impending legal imbroglio, by early 1954 Hughes

40656-516: The remedies proposed by GE were insufficient to resolve the competition concerns resulting from the proposed acquisition of Honeywell". On June 27, 2014, GE partnered with collaborative design company Quirky to announce its connected LED bulb called Link. The Link bulb is designed to communicate with smartphones and tablets using a mobile app called Wink . In December 1985, GE reacquired the RCA Corporation , primarily to gain ownership of

40887-461: The rights. In March 1956 came the news that RKO Pathé was being dissolved. On January 22, 1957, after a year and a half without a notable success, RKO announced that it was closing its domestic distribution offices— Universal would take over most future releases—and that a reduced production wing would move to the Culver City lot. In fact, General Tire shut down RKO production for good. Overseas distribution exchanges were dispensed with: RKO Japan Ltd.

41118-756: The same building . Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is owned by Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation and is the only US film studio owned by a foreign conglomerate, while Universal is owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast (via NBCUniversal ), and the other two report to corporations headquartered in New York City — Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery . Most of today's Big Five also control subsidiaries with their own distribution networks that concentrate on arthouse pictures (e.g., Universal's Focus Features ) or genre films (e.g., Sony's Screen Gems ); several other specialty units were shut down or sold off between 2008 and 2010. Outside of

41349-645: The same location. Owen D. Young, who was then GE's general counsel and vice president, through GE, founded the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919. This came after Young, while working with senior naval officers, purchased the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America , which was a subsidiary of the British company Marconi Wireless and Signal Company. He aimed to expand international radio communications. GE used RCA as its retail arm for radio sales. In 1926, RCA co-founded

41580-532: The small independent company RKO Pictures LLC . The original studio's film library is now largely controlled by Warner Bros. Discovery . In October 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer , the first feature-length talking picture. Its success prompted Hollywood to convert from silent to sound film production en masse. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) controlled an advanced optical sound-on-film system, Photophone , recently developed by General Electric , RCA's parent company. Its path to joining

41811-474: The strongest in the industry. Costumer Walter Plunkett , who worked with the company from the close of the FBO era through the end of 1939, was known as the top period wardrobist in the business. Sidney Saunders, innovative head of the studio's paint department, was responsible for significant progress in rear projection quality. On June 13, 1935, RKO premiered the first feature film shot entirely in advanced three-strip Technicolor , Becky Sharp . The movie

42042-422: The studio as well. The deal that brought the team to RKO had called for them to produce sixty features over five years; in just shy of half that time, they succeeded in making four. The Encino ranch shut down permanently in 1953 and the property was sold off. In November, Hughes finally fulfilled his obligations under the 1948 consent decree, divesting RKO Theatres; Albert A. List purchased the controlling interest in

42273-609: The studio did excellent box office: The Little Foxes , directed by William Wyler and starring Bette Davis, and the Howard Hawks–directed Ball of Fire also garnered four Oscar nominations apiece; the latter was Barbara Stanwyck's biggest hit under the RKO banner. However, Schaefer agreed to terms so favorable to Goldwyn that it was next to impossible for the studio to make money with his films. David O. Selznick loaned out his leading contracted director for two RKO pictures in 1941: Alfred Hitchcock's Mr. and Mrs. Smith ,

42504-579: The studio's first significant contribution to the genre, The Richest Girl in the World (1934). The drama Of Human Bondage (1934), directed by John Cromwell , was Bette Davis 's first great success. Stevens's Alice Adams and director John Ford 's The Informer were each nominated for the 1935 Best Picture Oscar—the Best Director statuette won by Ford was the only one ever given for an RKO production. The Informer' s star, Victor McLaglen , also took home an Academy Award; he would appear in

42735-519: The studio, beginning in 1940. That same year, Chester Lauck and Norris Goff brought their famous comic characters Lum and Abner from radio to the screen for the first of six independently produced RKO releases. Between 1943 and 1946, the studio teamed contract actors Wally Brown and Alan Carney for comedies that openly mimicked the work of the wildly popular Abbott and Costello ; Brown and Carney 's eight pairings did not approach their prototypes' success. The Falcon detective series began in 1941;

42966-561: The studio. Ann Sothern played the lead in seven RKO films between 1935 and 1937, paired five times with Gene Raymond . Stars Barbara Stanwyck and Cary Grant each signed on for several pictures. Both were sound-era trendsetters, working as freelancers under nonexclusive studio deals. Stanwyck had appeared in major studio films since 1929 without a binding long-term contract, as subsequently would several other top-billed women, including Dunne, Bennett, and Harding. When Grant went freelance after wrapping up his Paramount contract in late 1936, it

43197-544: The threat that Photophone would be locked out of the industry entirely. Though Kennedy's deal with First National collapsed within weeks, the RCA executive saw that it was time to make his move. In September, while Kennedy was traveling in Europe, Sarnoff began negotiations with Walker, whose firm was now heavily invested in KAO, to merge the exhibition circuit with Film Booking Offices under RCA control. Soon after Kennedy's return at

43428-507: The time and brought down the wrath of the Hearst newspaper chain on RKO. The next year saw the commercial failure of Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons —like Kane , critically lauded and overbudget—and the expensive embarrassment of his aborted documentary It's All True . The three Welles productions combined to drain $ 2 million from the RKO coffers, major money for a corporation that had reported an overall deficit of $ 1 million in 1940 and

43659-464: The time, and GE increased engineering and supplies for the Wind Division and doubled the annual sales to $ 1.2 billion in 2003. It acquired ScanWind in 2009. In 2018, GE Power garnered press attention when a model 7HA gas turbine in Texas was shut down for two months due to the break of a turbine blade . This model uses similar blade technology to GE's newest and most efficient model,

43890-545: The trademark "Radio Pictures". While the main FBO studio in Hollywood was refitted for sound, production of shorts began in New York at the RKO Gramercy studio Sarnoff had just opened. RCA's radio network, NBC , began broadcasting a weekly variety show , The RKO Hour , that became a prime promotional vehicle for the studio's films. The first two features released by the new company were musicals: The melodramatic Syncopation , which actually completed shooting before FBO

44121-596: The transaction were not disclosed, but the sale included US$ 8 billion of on-line deposits and another US$ 8 billion of brokered certificates of deposit. The sale was part of GE's strategic plan to exit the U.S. banking sector and to free itself from tightening banking regulations. GE also aimed to shed its status as a "systematically important financial institution". In September 2015, GE Capital agreed to sell its transportation finance unit to Canada's Bank of Montreal . The unit sold had US$ 8.7 billion (CA$ 11.5 billion) of assets, 600 employees, and 15 offices in

44352-504: The turbine blade issue of the 9FB unit would impact the new HA units. GE was one of the eight major computer companies of the 1960s along with IBM , Burroughs , NCR , Control Data Corporation , Honeywell , RCA , and UNIVAC . GE had a line of general purpose and special purpose computers, including the GE 200 , GE 400 , and GE 600 series general-purpose computers, the GE/PAC 4000 series real-time process control computers, and

44583-530: The use of rerecording technology first heard in King Kong . In October 1935 the ownership team expanded, with financier Floyd Odlum leading a syndicate that bought 50 percent of RCA's stake in the company; the Rockefeller brothers , also major stockholders, increasingly became involved in the business. While RKO kept missing the mark in building Hepburn's career, other actors became regular headliners for

44814-583: The way Hollywood did business. The new owners of RKO made an initial effort to revive the studio, hiring veteran producer William Dozier to head production. In the first half of 1956, the production facilities were as busy as they had been in a half-decade, with a planned slate of seventeen features. RKO released Fritz Lang's final two American films, While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (both 1956), but years of mismanagement had driven away many directors, producers, and stars. The studio

45045-461: The world's largest engine manufacturers, bypassing the British company Rolls-Royce plc . Some consumers boycotted GE light bulbs, refrigerators, and other products during the 1980s and 1990s. The purpose of the boycott was to protest against GE's role in nuclear weapons production. In 2002, GE acquired the wind power assets of Enron during its bankruptcy proceedings. Enron Wind was the only surviving U.S. manufacturer of large wind turbines at

45276-577: The year, it turned a $ 3.7 million profit for RKO, the most in the company's history. Bergman returned in the coproductions Notorious (1946) and Stromboli (1950), and in the independently produced Joan of Arc (1948). Freelancing Randolph Scott appeared in one major RKO release annually from 1943 through 1948. In similar fashion, many leading directors made one or more films for RKO during this era, including Alfred Hitchcock once more, with Notorious , and Jean Renoir , with This Land Is Mine (1943), reuniting Laughton and O'Hara, and The Woman on

45507-418: The yearly average down to 288 for the decade. Among the significant characteristics of the Golden Age was the stability of the Hollywood majors, their hierarchy, and their near-complete domination of the box office. At the midpoint of the Golden Age, 1939, the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); each of the Little Three had around a 7% share. In sum, the eight majors controlled 95% of

45738-459: Was a bankable constant for almost a decade. Exceptions like Cimarron and Rio Rita aside, RKO's product was largely regarded as mediocre, so in October 1931 Sarnoff hired twenty-nine-year-old David O. Selznick to replace LeBaron as production chief. In addition to implementing rigorous cost-control measures, Selznick championed the unit production system, which gave the producers of individual movies much greater independence than they had under

45969-606: Was a major provider of computer time-sharing services through General Electric Information Services (GEIS, now GXS), offering online computing services that included GEnie . In 2000, when United Technologies Corp. planned to buy Honeywell, GE made a counter-offer that was approved by Honeywell. On July 3, 2001, the European Union issued a statement that "prohibit the proposed acquisition by General Electric Co. of Honeywell Inc.". The reasons given were it "would create or strengthen dominant positions on several markets and that

46200-402: Was a project of the renowned Jerry Wald – Norman Krasna production team, lured by Hughes from Warner Bros. with great fanfare in August 1950. The company also began a close working relationship with Ida Lupino . She starred in two suspense films with Robert Ryan—Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground (1952, though shooting had been completed two years earlier) and Beware, My Lovely (1952),

46431-442: Was able to acquire a much larger studio in Burbank, which it began to use starting in 1928 (and which is famous for its signature water tower ). Warner Bros. eventually expanded its studio operations to Leavesden in London. Warner Bros. Studio Leavesden is the main studio in production of hit movies like the Harry Potter film series , The Dark Knight and the recent ones like The Batman and Ready Player One . In 1916,

46662-519: Was also saddled with the last of the inflated B movies such as Pearl of the South Pacific (1955) and The Conqueror (1956) that enchanted Hughes. While the latter, starring John Wayne, was the biggest hit produced at the studio during the decade, that bar was low—it placed only eleventh among the year's top earners. A major money loser in standard terms, its $ 4.5 million in North American rentals not coming close to covering its $ 6 million production cost, Hughes had paid RKO Teleradio millions to buy back

46893-547: Was an experimental concept at the time and the beginning of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry. GE sold 60% stake in Genpact to General Atlantic and Oak Hill Capital Partners in 2005 and hived off Genpact into an independent business. GE is still a major client to Genpact today for services in customer service, finance, information technology, and analytics. In 2001, GE acquired Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo and incorporated it into NBC. In 2002, Francisco Partners and Norwest Venture Partners acquired

47124-441: Was an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the state of New York and headquartered in Boston . The company had several divisions, including aerospace , energy , healthcare , and finance . In 2020, GE ranked among the Fortune 500 as the 33rd largest firm in the United States by gross revenue . In 2023, the company was ranked 64th in the Forbes Global 2000 . In 2011, GE ranked among

47355-420: Was an undeniable plus side to the merger: when Pathé's Constance Bennett , Ann Harding , and Helen Twelvetrees joined the Radio family in early 1931, they were bigger box office draws than anyone on the RKO roster. The studio's production schedule surpassed forty features a year, released under the names "Radio Pictures" and, until late 1932, "RKO Pathé". Cimarron (1931) became the only RKO production to win

47586-432: Was cleared by the EU in May 2017, and by the United States Department of Justice in June 2017. The merger agreement was approved by shareholders at the end of June 2017. On July 3, 2017, the transaction was completed, and Baker Hughes became a GE company and was renamed Baker Hughes, a GE Company (BHGE). In November 2018, GE reduced its stake in Baker Hughes to 50.4%. On October 18, 2019, GE reduced its stake to 36.8% and

47817-421: Was committed to producing two more features with Technicolor's system, even as audiences had come to associate color with the momentarily out-of-favor musical genre. Fulfilling its obligations, RKO produced two all-Technicolor pictures, The Runaround and Fanny Foley Herself (both 1931), containing no musical sequences. Neither was a success. Despite these issues—and the foundering US economy—RKO had gone on

48048-463: Was coproduced with Pioneer Pictures, founded by Cooper—who departed RKO after two years helming production—and John Hay "Jock" Whitney , who brought in his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney ; Cooper had successfully encouraged the Whitneys to purchase a major share of the Technicolor business as well. Although judged by critics a failure as drama, Becky Sharp was widely lauded for its visual brilliance and technical expertise. RKO also employed some of

48279-425: Was denied in July 2003, freeing RKO to deal with another potential purchaser, InternetStudios.com. In 2004, that planned sale fell through when InternetStudios.com apparently folded. The company's minimal involvement in new film production continued to focus on its remake rights: Are We Done Yet? , based on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), was released in April 2007 to dismal reviews. In 2009, Beyond

48510-438: Was down to five; its average for the rest of the 1970s would be even lower. Like RKO in its last days under Hughes, MGM remained a major in terms of brand reputation, but little more. Disney by contrast began to ascend towards major status through a resurgence in its animated movies, beginning with The Rescuers (1977), and the studio began to enter the adult market with The Black Hole (1979), its first non-G rated film. By

48741-407: Was effectively dissolved two years later. In 1978, broadcaster RKO General , the corporate heir, launched a production subsidiary, RKO Pictures Inc. , which revived the theatrical brand with its first releases three years later. In 1989, this business, with its remaining assets, including the studio trademarks and the remake rights to many classic RKO films, was sold to new owners, who established

48972-505: Was expected to be completed in 2015. In October 2014, GE announced it was considering the sale of its Polish banking business Bank BPH . Later in 2014, General Electric announced plans to open its global operations center in Cincinnati , Ohio. The Global Operations Center opened in October 2016 as home to GE's multifunctional shared services organization. It supports the company's finance/accounting, human resources, information technology, supply chain, legal and commercial operations, and

49203-435: Was finalized on January 4, 2023. This was followed by the spin-off of GE's portfolio of energy businesses on April 2, 2024, into GE Vernova. Following these transactions, General Electric Company changed its trading name to GE Aerospace, pivoted to aviation, and ceased to exist as a conglomerate. During 1889, Thomas Edison (1847–1931) had business interests in many electricity-related companies, including Edison Lamp Company,

49434-557: Was fired from GE in 1958 by Ralph J. Cordiner for overstepping his bounds and successfully gaining the ERMA contract. Cordiner was strongly against GE entering the computer business because he did not see the potential in it. In 1962, GE started developing its GECOS (later renamed GCOS) operating system , originally for batch processing , but later extended to time-sharing and transaction processing . Versions of GCOS are still in use today. From 1964 to 1969, GE and Bell Laboratories (which soon dropped out) joined with MIT to develop

49665-448: Was incorporated in New York on April 24, 1889. The new company acquired Sprague Electric Railway & Motor Company in the same year. The consolidation did not involve all of the companies established by Edison; notably, the Edison Illuminating Company , which would later become Consolidated Edison , was not part of the merger. In 1880, Gerald Waldo Hart formed the American Electric Company of New Britain, Connecticut , which merged

49896-403: Was incorporated in New York, with the Schenectady plant used as headquarters for many years thereafter. Around the same time, General Electric's Canadian counterpart, Canadian General Electric , was formed. In 1893, General Electric bought the business of Rudolf Eickemeyer in Yonkers, New York , along with all of its patents and designs. Eickemeyer's firm had developed transformers for use in

50127-411: Was marked by both diminished production and a slew of expensive flops, the studio continued to turn out some well-received films under production chiefs Sid Rogell and Sam Bischoff , though both became fed up with Hughes's interloping and each in turn quit after less than two years. Bischoff was the last man to hold the job under Hughes. There were B noirs such as The Window (1949), which turned into

50358-400: Was offering to buy out all of RKO's other stockholders. Before the end of the year, at a cost of $ 23.5 million, Hughes had gained near-total control of RKO Pictures Corp., becoming the first virtual sole owner of a studio since Hollywood's pioneer days—virtual, but not quite actual. Floyd Odlum reemerged to block Hughes's acquisition of the 95 percent ownership of RKO stock he needed to write off

50589-528: Was one of the crucial steps in the collapse of classical Hollywood's studio system . Shooting at RKO picked up again in early 1949, but from an average of around thirty films annually before Hughes's takeover, production fell to just twelve that year. Sporting the new title of managing director of production, Hughes quickly became notorious for meddling in minute filmmaking matters and promoting actresses he favored—including two under personal contract to him, Jane Russell and Faith Domergue . While his time at RKO

50820-423: Was reincorporated as RKO, premiered on March 29, 1929. The comedic Street Girl debuted July 30. This was billed as RKO's first "official" production and its first to be shot in Hollywood. As with many early RKO films, the producer was studio chief William LeBaron , who had held the same position at FBO. A few nonsinging pictures followed, but RKO's first major hit was again a musical. The studio spent heavily on

51051-433: Was said to be the first broadcast to the public in the United States on GE's W2XAD : the pictures were picked up on 1.5 square inches (9.7 square centimeters) screens in the homes of four GE executives. The sound was broadcast on GE's WGY (AM) . Experimental television station W2XAD evolved into the station WRGB , which, along with WGY and WGFM (now WRVE ), was owned and operated by General Electric until 1983. In 1965,

51282-504: Was secured on January 29, 1931, and the studio, with its contract players, well-regarded newsreel operation, and DeMille's old Culver City studio and backlot , became the semiautonomous RKO Pathé Pictures Inc. The acquisition, though a defensible investment in the long term for Pathé's physical facilities, was yet another major expense borne by the fledgling RKO, particularly as the reliably avaricious Kennedy had masked Pathé's considerable financial woes, just as he had with FBO and KAO. There

51513-400: Was shaken further in late 1980, when the disastrously expensive flop of Heaven's Gate effectively ruined United Artists. The studio was sold the following year to Kerkorian, who merged it with MGM. After a brief resurgence, the combined studio continued to decline. From 1986, MGM/UA has been at best a "mini-major", to use the present-day term. Meanwhile, a new member was finally admitted to

51744-491: Was sold to Disney and the British Commonwealth Film Corporation in July 1957, and RKO Radio Pictures Ltd. in the UK was dissolved a year later. The Hollywood and Culver City facilities were sold in late 1957 for $ 6.15 million to Desilu Productions , owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball , who had been an RKO contract player from 1935 to 1942. Desilu was acquired by Gulf and Western Industries in 1967 and merged into G+W's other production company, neighboring Paramount Pictures ;

51975-435: Was soon working regularly with RKO, making nine more movies for the studio. Gary Cooper appeared in RKO releases produced by Goldwyn and, later, the startup International Pictures, and Claudette Colbert starred in a number of RKO coproductions. Ingrid Bergman , on loan out from Selznick, starred opposite Bing Crosby in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), a coproduction with director Leo McCarey . The top box-office film of

52206-461: Was still rare for a leading man to do so while his star was on the rise. He ultimately appeared in fourteen RKO releases between 1937 and 1948. Soon after the appointment of a new production chief, Samuel Briskin, in late 1936, RKO entered into an important distribution deal with animator Walt Disney (Van Beuren consequently folded its cartoon operations). For nearly two decades, the studio released his company's features and shorts; Snow White and

52437-402: Was stripped from the corporate identity; the holding company for General Tire's broadcasting operation and the few remaining motion picture assets was renamed RKO General . In the words of scholar Richard B. Jewell, "The supreme irony of RKO's existence is that the studio earned a position of lasting importance in cinema history largely because of its extraordinarily unstable history. Since it

52668-459: Was the effective end of a quarter-century's involvement in the movie business. Historian Betty Lasky describes Hughes's relationship with RKO as a "systematic seven-year rape." In taking control of the studio, General Tire restored RKO's close ties to broadcasting. General Tire had bought the Yankee Network , a New England regional radio network, in 1943. In 1950, it purchased the West Coast regional Don Lee Broadcasting System , and two years later,

52899-549: Was the first made-for-TV movie . In collaboration with Mexican businessman Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta , RKO established Estudios Churubusco in Mexico City in 1945. With RKO on increasingly secure ground, Koerner sought to increase its output of handsomely budgeted, star-driven features. However, the studio's only remaining major stars with anything like extended deals were Grant, whose services were shared with Columbia Pictures, and O'Hara, shared with Fox. Lacking in-house stars, Koerner and his successors under Odlum arranged with

53130-416: Was the weakling of Hollywood's 'majors,' RKO welcomed a diverse group of individualistic creators and provided them   ... with an extraordinary degree of freedom to express their artistic idiosyncrasies.... [I]t never became predictable and it never became a factory." Beginning with 1981's Carbon Copy , RKO General became involved in the coproduction of a number of feature films and TV projects through

53361-463: Was virtually immediate: corporate profits rose from $ 736,241 in 1942 (the theatrical division compensating for the studio's $ 2.34 million deficit) to $ 6.96 million the following year. The Rockefellers sold off their stock and, early in 1943, RCA dispensed with the last of its holdings in the company as well, cutting David Sarnoff's ties to the studio that was largely his conception. A new RKO Pathé "news magazine" series, This Is America , had been launched

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