RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born

RKO Radio Pictures #1

by Richard B. Jewell

One of the “Big Five” studios of Hollywood’s golden age, RKO is remembered today primarily for the famous films it produced, from King Kong and Citizen Kane to the Astaire-Rogers musicals. But its own story also provides a fascinating case study of film industry management during one of the most vexing periods in American social history. RKO Radio Pictures: A Titan is Born offers a vivid history of a thirty-year roller coaster of unstable finances, management battles, and artistic gambles. Richard Jewell has used unparalleled access to studio documents generally unavailable to scholars to produce the first business history of RKO, exploring its decision-making processes and illuminating the complex interplay between art and commerce during the heyday of the studio system. Behind the blockbuster films and the glamorous stars, the story of RKO often contained more drama than any of the movies it ever produced.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History, Media Tie In

340 pages, Paperback

First published March 2, 2012

Reviews

[Kit Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely fascinating year-by-year, month-by-month glimpse into the inner workings of a big time Hollywood film factory. If you plan on traveling back in time and starting up your own Hollywood studio, here's your blueprint; especially for what not to do at certain times. Jewell breaks everything at RKO down to the cellular level and really creates a feel for the different personalities involved in making RKO's pictures memorable, especially the unique role that the disparate likes, dislikes, and competing agendas of production heads and corporate overseers played in the overall product. My favorite "story that didn't get the green-light but almost did" was a picture they wanted to make in 1938 aptly titled "Clip Joint"—dealing with "the workings and ramifications and flim-flamming that takes place in a typical clip joint...such as rolling drunks, slipping knockout drops to customers, and then throwing them out when they squawk." I would've watched the hell out of that one. Anyways, Jewell's second part followup to this initial volume can't come soon enough.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

First volume of Richard Jewell's detailed history of RKO, one of the major studios of Classical Hollywood. RKO struggled constantly against impending bankruptcy, due to poor management and the lack of continuity within its ever-changing executive management structure. Still, we have to thank the studio for many classics, such as King Kong, Citizen Kane and the Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire musicals.

[Jason Pettus · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's no way to call A Titan is Born and Slow Fade to Black, the two-book series by USC professor Richard B. Jewell chronicling the rise and fall of the old RKO Radio Pictures movie studio, as somehow riveting or fascinating; even Jewell himself admits that these are corporate histories instead of creative histories, the main point being to show that the ever-changing line-up of C-level executives at RKO is what doomed it to go out of business a mere thirty years after it started with great fanfare. (Bought at its infancy by RCA as a way of showing off its new sound-film capabilities, it was the movie sibling of broadcaster NBC, two companies that have lasted way longer than this studio that once rivaled Paramount and MGM.) Certainly, though, if you have the patience for its dry, academic tone, these books are interesting for film buffs if nothing else, showing with surprise that although the studio was home of what we today consider such important classics as King Kong, Bringing Up Baby and Citizen Kane, in reality none of these movies actually made much money for the studio, with their executives making the mistake of sinking too much money into them, and not enough into the B-pics that were usually a studio's bread and butter in those days. It's details like these that make this series worth reading for those looking for an atomized month-by-month history of movie studios in their so-called golden age, but casual film fans won't miss a thing by skipping this two-volume history altogether.

[Michael Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of Jewell's 2-part history of RKO Radio Pictures. Both are more concerned with the business side of the studio but both have nice tidbits about the movies and the stars who worked for the company. This one is slightly more interesting than the second as it covers the years that included Citizen Kane, Katherine Hepburn and her films, and the Astaire-Rogers team. Oddly, King Kong barely gets mentioned.

[Joe Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have a strong interest in the Hollywood studio system then this is a fine book to read. It tracks the troubled history of the business and producing side of RKO for several decades. The research is impressive. It is however a dry read and not for folks more interested in the pictures and stars.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a movie buff, so this was right up my alley. Part I of the rise-and-fall of one of the minor "major studios" of the 30s-50s, it was the home of the Astaire-Rogers musicals, as well as classics such as King Kong and Citizen Kane, prior to Howard Hughes buying it and driving it into the ground.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting year by year account of the front office machinations of RKO Radio Pictures from its founding to the start of WWII.

[Andy · Rating 4 out of 5]

My review: bit.ly/2Xt2ahi

[Aaron Hollander · Rating 3 out of 5]

For film enthusiasts, Hollywood history lovers, and the arm chair cineastes, this volume of RKO's history is detailed and impeccably researched. Richard Jewell's herculean task of collecting and collating reams of letters, notes, telegrams, periodicals, cross-referencing with dozens of other biographical publications has resulted in a complete biography of Hollywood history and lore. RKO behind-the-scenes is a tale of brinkmanship teetering to disastrous collapse, largely due to upper management interference or mis-management, or unadulterated ineptitude yet despite these handicaps, RKO managed to release some of the most amazing films to have ever graced the silver screen (ie: King Kong, Top Hat, Notorious, Bringing Up Baby, and Citizen Kane). Particular curiosity was coverage of the RKO radio tower insignia. As author Jewell states in his introduction, his aim was to highlight the business history of the studio (after all, movie studios are corporations that produce entertainment product, but only occasionally art). The first quarter of the text drags a bit with the recitation of stocks, shareholders and profits. The coverage of the artists, technicians, actors, writers and directors who made RKO what history lovers know and love is sadly spare, although a number of riveting and surprising anecdotes pepper the text. I'm in awe and greatly respect the hard-knuckled research here and delighted to have read it, but would have preferred more evenhanded coverage of key films, and the creative personalities that peopled RKO's lot. An engaging read but incredibly niche.

[Paulsoucek · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone who studied motion pictures and considers themselves to be something of a film geek, TITAN reminded me of how little I know.

Stylistically somewhat staid, but the skinny about a short-lived entity that had such far, wide and longlasting resonance in film history make TITAN, for me, a page-turner.