RKO is often viewed as the forgotten child of Hollywood, despite being the studio behind some of this industry’s most celebrated films like “Citizen Kane,” “King Kong” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” while employing Golden Era luminaries Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Its status in the dustbin of Hollywood history is largely due to the fact that it hasn’t been a functioning studio — save for a few, mostly unsuccessful, attempts at a revival — since Howard Hughes sold it to the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955. (Ask anyone old enough to remember Hughes’ ownership of RKO and you’ll likely get more than a few four-letter words.)
So it comes as a bit of a sad state of affairs that amid yesterday’s big music merger between BMG and Concord, the studio’s involvement in the deal didn’t get so much as a footnote. In fact, Page Six Hollywood had to reach out to a BMG spokesperson to confirm that RKO was even included in this deal.
If you recall, Concord surprisingly bought RKO last summer from Ted Hartley, who had owned the studio since 1991 with his wife, actress and Post cereal heiress Dina Merrill (she died in 2017). During Hartley’s 34 years of ownership, RKO was mostly known for producing a remake of “Mighty Joe Young” in 1998 starring Charlize Theron. Its last film was the 2015, direct-to-video comedy “Barely Lethal” featuring Hailee Steinfeld, Sophie Turner and Jessica Alba.
With BMG’s acquisition of Concord, it means that, yet again, RKO has a new corporate owner. (Along with Hughes and General Tire, past RKO ownership groups have included Six Flags, financier Floyd Odlum’s Atlas Corporation, RCA and Kennedy family patriarch Joseph Kennedy.) When the deal closes in the second half of this year, the combined company will be owned approximately 67% by Bertelsmann and approximately 33% by affiliates of Great Mountain Partners.
Under Concord, mostly known for its extensive music catalog, RKO was put under the company’s Originals division, and is led by co-presidents Sophia Dilley and Mary Beth O’Connor. A source says that the plan for RKO under BMG remains the same, with seven different projects in active development, the first being a new version of RKO’s stage musical “Top Hat.”
Other RKO classics include “Notorious,” “Bringing Up Baby” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Robert Mitchum once said of being under contract at the studio: “RKO made the same film with me for ten years. They were so alike I wore the same suit in six of them and the same Burberry trench coat.”
