Word: rko
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Dore Schary, RKO's earnest, gifted executive vice president in charge of production, was out (TIME, July 12). Like a thousand bumblebees in a clover field, the buzz of Hollywood speculation hung on the question of who would succeed Schary. Secretive Howard Hughes would not say. "It will be," he said, "someone you least suspect, a shocker...
Said Hughes: "My life is not exactly going to be dull for the next two years. I'm really cooking at RKO and things are going to pop. I'll make news for you. The only thing that could stop me would be my death-and even that would be a story...
What did Hughes, the lone wolf, want with RKO? He takes great pains to hide his motives; but no doubt one motive was his hankering for theater outlets controlled by himself. RKO owns 124 theaters. Hughes has had great trouble distributing The Outlaw-that long and vigorously publicized mixture of sex, slapstick and violence-mainly because of censorship, but partly because independent exhibitors were simply afraid of it. To date, it has played only about 40% of its original contracts. In the face of derisive snorts from highbrow critics, Hughes firmly believes that, if distribution obstacles can be overcome...
...world. The present Hughes enterprises include Hughes Aircraft at Culver City, Calif.; Hughes Productions (movies); a controlling interest in Transcontinental & Western Air, Inc., and a brewery, the largest in Texas. There is an exceedingly large but unknown amount of cash out of which Howard Hughes paid for his RKO stock. The net income of Hughes Tool, the parent company, is estimated at $8-10,000,000 a year, but since Howard Hughes owns 100% of Hughes Tool he does not have to publish balance sheets...
...RKO last week, only three pictures were in production. Several others scheduled by Dore Schary had been canceled by the new boss, Howard Hughes. Pink slips were going out to over half of the employees. Just starting this week, however, was a picture that would be right down Hughes's alley-a virile saga of professional football (the Los Angeles Rams) called Interference, starring Victor Mature and Lucille Ball. "Just wait," someone said, "until Junior gets his teeth into that...