9. B. B. Kahane, memorandum to Pandro Berman, 25 September 1934.
10. Ned Depinet to J. R. McDonough, 22 October 1934.
11. Arlene Croce, The Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers Book (New York: Galahad Books, 1972), p. 39.
12. J. R. McDonough to M. H. Aylesworth, 21 January 1935.
13. Ibid.
14. Perry Lieber, “History of RKO Radio Pictures,” 27 May 1946, p. 6.
15. J. R. McDonough to M. H. Aylesworth, 18 January 1935.
16. Fred Astaire to Merian Cooper, 26 January 1934.
17. Ned Depinet to Jules Levy, 4 February 1935.
18. Jerome Kern to Pandro Berman, 8 February 1935.
19. “Improved Receipts and Product Lead the Parade in Review of 1935,” Motion Picture Herald, 4 January 1936, p. 65.
20. “RKO Loss Cut to $310,575 in 1934,” Motion Picture Herald, 15 June p. 63.
21. “RKO Admissions Up $46,065 Weekly,” Motion Picture Herald, 20 July 1935, p. 54.
22. “RKO Loss Cut to $310,575 in 1934.”
23. “RKO Admissions up $46,065 Weekly,” p. 56.
24. “50 Color Attempts in 50 Years,” Motion Picture Herald, 1 June 1935, p. 45.
25. Kenneth Macgowan to John Hay Whitney, 21 June 1934, The Kenneth Macgowan Collection, UCLA Theater Arts Library, box 9, file 14 (hereinafter referred to as Kenneth Macgowan Collection).
26. Ibid.
27. “Lowell Sherman, Actor, Director, Dies in Hollywood,” Motion Picture Herald, 5 January 1935, p. 44.
28. “ ‘Becky Sharp’ in Color May Open Movies' Third Era,” Newsweek, 22 June 1935, p. 22.
29. Kenneth Macgowan to John Hay Whitney, 16 May 1935, Kenneth Macgowan Collection, box 29, file 15.
30. John Speaks to Kenneth Macgowan, 29 June 1936, Kenneth Macgowan Collection, box 31, file 3.
31. A portion of the Orson Welles picture It's All True was shot in three-strip Technicolor in 1942, but that film would never be released.
32. Leland Hayward to B. B. Kahane, 16 October 1935.
33. Pandro Berman to B. B. Kahane, 14 March 1935.
34. Years later, Ford would recall the circumstances that surrounded the film's production in an entertaining but thoroughly fanciful manner. Among other things, he claimed Joseph Kennedy was running RKO at the time. See Peter Bogdanovich, John Ford (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978), pp. 59-64.
35. Fred Astaire to Pandro Berman, n.d.
36. “Exhibitors Lose ‘Top Hat’ Fight,” Motion Picture Herald, 9 November 1935, p. 24.
37. “Improved Receipts and Product Lead the Parade in Review of 1935,” p. 67.
38. W. G. Van Schmus to Pandro Berman, 18 September 1935.
39. “The Biggest Money Making Stars of 1934-35,” Motion Picture Herald, 28 December 1935, p. 13.
40. Twitchell, “Story Report on She.”
41. Cooper was correct; the story has been filmed several times since he produced it.
42. Gahagan is remembered more for her career in politics than for her show business efforts. Under her married name, Helen Gahagan Douglas, she served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives before losing to Richard Nixon in a bitterly fought campaign for a Senate seat in 1950.
43. J. R. McDonough, memorandum to Merian Cooper, 8 February 1935. Years later Cooper claimed that he had been promised a budget of $1 million for each picture, but RKO cut the budgets in half when She was deep in preproduction. This appears not to have been the case, and Cooper ended up spending more than $500,000 on each film anyway. See Mark Cotta Vaz, Living Dangerously: The Adventures of Merian C. Cooper (New York: Villard, 2005),p. 259.
44. Their effects work on Son of Kong was also substandard, though they had a reasonable excuse. The quickie sequel, released near the end of 1933, had a final budget of only $269,000.
45. RKO rereleased She and The Last Days of Pompeii on a double bill in 1949. They did well, recouping their original losses.
46. “Odlum and Lehmans Buy Large Part of RCA's Control of RKO,” Motion Picture Herald, 19 October 1935, p. 54.
47. Kenneth L. Fisher, 100 Minds That Made the Market (Woodside, CA: Business Classics, 1993), p. 153.
48. Ibid.
49. “Rathvon Named by Odlum to Handle RKO Revamping,” Motion Picture Herald, 26 October 1935, p. 46.
50. “Rockefeller Claim Stirs RKO Action,” Motion Picture Herald, 2 November 1935, p. 34.
51. “Vaudeville Sinks to Lowest Ebb as ‘Back to Film’ Movement Grows,” Motion Picture Herald, 31 August 1935, p. 17.
52. “The Men Who Revived Paramount Go to Work on RKO,” Newsweek, 16 November 1935, p. 30.
53. Ibid.
54. L. P Yandell, memorandum to David Sarnoff, 4 October 1938, folder 675, box 90, Business Interests series, Record Group 2 OMR, Rockefeller Family Archives, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York (hereinafter cited as RAC).
55. “Spitz Starts Duties with RKO; Says Depinet Will Retain Post,” Motion Picture Herald, 16 November 1935, p. 24.
56. “Briskin at Radio,” Motion Picture Herald, 28 December 1935, p. 9.
57. Samuel Briskin to Leo Spitz, 23 December 1935.
58. Samuel Briskin to Leo Spitz, 29 January 1936.
59. “ ‘Free Delivery’ of Screen Talent Hailed at NBC Coast Opening,” Motion Picture Herald, 14 December 1935, p. 15.
60. “Hollywood Back on the Air to Exploit Pictures and Players,” Motion Picture Herald, 7 September 1935, p. 15.
61. “ ‘Free Delivery’ of Screen Talent Hailed at NBC Coast Opening.”
62. Martin Quigley, “Radio Competition,” Motion Picture Herald, 14 December 1935, p. 29.
63. “Hollywood Back on the Air to Exploit Pictures and Players.”
64. “Attendance, Revenues, Profits Continue Rising Survey Shows,” Motion Picture Herald, 2 May 1936, p. 61.
CHAPTER 6
1. B. B. Kahane to Sam Briskin, 8 January 1936.
2. Frank Capra, The Name above the Title (New York: Macmillan, 1971), p. 90.
3. Samuel Briskin to Jules Levy, 6 April 1936.
4. Pandro Berman, letter to Leo Spitz, 9 April 1936.
5. Leo Spitz to Pandro Berman, 13 April 1936.
6. Samuel Briskin to Leo Spitz, 29 January 1936.
7. Samuel Briskin to Leo Spitz, 31 January 1936.
8. Ibid.
9. Alfred Wright to RKO Studios, Inc., 26 February 1936.
10. B. B. Kahane, telegram to Leo Spitz, 25 March 1936.
11. Emanuel Levy, George Cukor, Master of Elegance (New York: William Morrow, 1994), p. 88.
12. Lambert, On Cukor, pp. 96-97; Charles Higham, Kate (New York: W. W. Norton, 1975), pp. 77-78.
13. Ned Depinet to B. B. Kahane, 4 February 1936.
14. B. B. Kahane to Ned Depinet, 6 February 1936.
15. B. B. Kahane to Ned Depinet, 12 February 1936.
16. Quotations in this and the following paragraph are drawn from Sam Briskin, telegram to Leo Spitz, 28 May 1936.
17. Pandro Berman to Katharine Hepburn, 3 June 1936.
18. Frank O'Heron, memorandum to B. B. Kahane, 2 July 1934.
19. Max Steiner, memorandum to B. B. Kahane, 4 October 1934.
20. “B. B. Kahane at Columbia Pictures as Vice-President,” Motion Picture Herald, 15 August 1936, p. 38.
21. Sam Briskin to Leo Spitz, 11 April 1936.
22. Pandro Berman to Leo Spitz, 25 May 1936.
23. Sadly, the Gershwin brothers would write only two scores for RKO films. After completing the music for Shall We Dance and A Damsel in Distress, both released in 1937, George Gershwin died of a malignant brain tumor at age thirty-eight.
24. “Jesse Lasky Joins Radio to Work as Unit Producer,” Motion Picture Herald, 24 October 1936, p. 22.
25. Tino Balio, United Artists: The Company Built by the Stars (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1976), p. 137.
26. “Agreement Between Walt Disney Productions, Ltd., and RKO Radio Pictures, Inc.,” 2 March 1936.
27. Al Finestone, “Aylesworth Doubts Obstacle of Television to Box Office,” Motion Picture Herald, 14 March 1936, p. 65.
28. Ibid.
29. “Aylesworth on the Disney Deal,” Motion Picture Herald, 14 March 1936, p. 22.
30. “Rockefeller-RKO Claim Settlement Hits a Stalemate,” Motion Picture Herald, 16 May 1936, p. 60.
31. “RKO Reorganized by January—Spitz,” Motion Picture Herald, 27 June 1936, p. 40.
32. “ ‘Street’ and Broadway both Await RKO Plan,” Motion Picture Herald, 24 October 1936, p. 48.
33. Astaire, Steps in Time, pp. 223-227.
34. Pandro Berman to Leo Spitz, 8 June 1936.
35. Maxwell Anderson to Harold Freeman, 28 April 1936.
36. Samuel Briskin to Leo Spitz, 16 September 1936.
37. Leo Spitz to Samuel Briskin, 22 September 1936.
38. “RKO Reorganization Plan Sets Capitalization of $33,000,000,” Motion Picture Herald, 28 November 1936, p. 55.
39. Ibid.
40. Ibid., p. 56.
41. “Kennedy to Study RCA Structure; Lohr Succeeds Aylesworth in NBC,” Motion Picture Herald, 4 January 1936, p. 31; “M. H. Aylesworth Quits at N.B.C., To Stay at RKO,” Motion Picture Herald, 3 October 1936, p. 71.
42. J ames P. Cunningham, “Aylesworth ‘On the Air’ for Radio-Screen Understanding,” Motion Picture Herald, 18 July 1936, p. 45.
43. “51 Million for Talent Is Radio Reply to Theatre,” Motion Picture Herald, 5 September 1936, p. 13.
44. Pandro Berman to Fred Astaire, 18 May 1936.
45. Cunningham, “Aylesworth ‘On the Air’ for Radio-Screen Understanding,” p. 46.
46. “Jack Cohn Answers Aylesworth; Urges War on Radio Appearances,” Motion Picture Herald, 8 August 1936, p. 61.
47. “RCA Annual Report for 1936,” pp. 10-11.
48. “Higher Grosses, Earnings Presage Great Year Ahead,” Motion Picture Herald, 2 January 1937, p. 15.
49. Ibid.
50. “RKO Reports Net of $2,514,734 for 12 Months,” Motion Picture Herald, 6 March 1937, p. 72.
51. “Aylesworth Joins Scripps-Howard,” New York Times, 2 February 1937 p. 19.
52. Minutes of “A Special Meeting of the Board of Directors of RKO RADIO PICTURES,” 19 March 1937, p. 16. The minutes also reveal that Aylesworth derived no compensation, beyond his NBC salary, for serving as corporate president of RKO from 1932 to 1935.
53. “Film Companies Blanket Radio with Exhibitor Aids,” Motion Picture Herald, 30 January 1937, pp. 13-14.
54. “ ‘B’ Films Become Issue of Studio and Theatre,” Motion Picture Herald, 13 February 1937, p. 13.
55. Lou Lusty, memorandum to Sam Briskin, 28 January 1937.
56. Samuel Briskin, memorandum to Leo Spitz, 21 January 1937.
57. Samuel Briskin, memorandum to Lee Marcus, 12 May 1937.
58. Lee Marcus, memorandum to Sam Briskin, 14 May 1937.
59. Leo Spitz to Sam Briskin, 17 September 1937.
60. Ned Depinet to Leo Spitz, 29 November 1937.
61. Samuel Briskin, memorandum to Lou Lusty, 2 October 1937.
62. G. B. Howe, memorandum to Ross Hastings, 25 September 1937.
63. Lou Lusty, memorandum to Sam Briskin, 10 August 1937. See also my article, “How Howard Hawks Brought Baby Up: An Apologia for the Studio System,” in Leo Braudy and Marshall Cohen, eds., Film Theory and Criticism, 7th edition, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 515-522.
64. Leo Spitz to Sam Briskin, 25 August 1937.
65. Ibid.
66. Lou Lusty, memorandum to Sam Briskin, 2 October 1937.
67. “RKO Radio Lists 56 features and 198 Short Subjects for 1937-38,” Motion Picture Herald, 19 June 1937, p. 45.
68. Ibid., p. 46.
69. Lou Lusty, memorandum to Sam Briskin, 25 August 1937.
70. Ned Depinet to Sam Briskin, 19 August 1937.
71. Leo Spitz to Sam Briskin, 6 August 1937.
72. Ibid.
73. Sam Briskin to Leo Spitz, 26 August 1937.
74. Sam Briskin to Leo Spitz, 14 September 1937.
75. Leo Spitz to Sam Briskin, 16 September 1937.
76. “Special Master Named for RKO Report Hearing,” Motion Picture Herald, 26 June 1937, p. 14.
77. “Only $21,176,694 of Claims against RKO Allowable,” Motion Picture Herald, 26 June 1937, p. 14.
78. “Opposition to Plan for RKO Draws Attack,” Motion Picture Herald, 3 July 1937 p. 38.
79. “Briefs Filed in Plan for RKO,” Motion Picture Herald, 31 July 1937, p. 49.
80. N. Peter Rathvon to Sam Briskin, 4 August 1937.
81. Samuel Briskin, letter to N. Peter Rathvon, 9 August 1937.
82. Samuel Briskin to N. Peter Rathvon, 21 August 1937.
83. Harold Bruckner to Nelson Rockefeller, 16 July 1937, folder 675, box 90, Business Interests series, RG 2, OMR, Rockefeller Family Archives, RAC.
84. Harold Bruckner to Nelson Rockefeller, 24 July 1937, folder 675, box 90, Business Interests series, RG 2, OMR, Rockefeller Family Archives, RAC.
85. “Briskin Says He Will Quit RKO,” Motion Picture Herald, 30 October 1937, p. 18.
86. G. B. Howe, memorandum to Leo Spitz, 17 January 1938. Briskin would soon return to his old home, Columbia Pictures, where he worked with B. B. Kahane as a studio executive under Harry Cohn. In 1942 he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps and remained in the military until 1945. Shortly after his discharge, he formed Liberty Films, an independent company, with George Stevens, William Wyler, and Frank Capra.
87. “Briskin Says He Will Quit RKO.”
88. Lillie Messinger to Pandro Berman, 15 November 1937.
89. “Cut in Claim of Rockefeller Center on RKO Proposed,” Motion Picture Herald, 13 November 1937, p. 22.
90. “New Moves Point to RKO's Reorganization,” Motion Picture Herald, 11 December 1937, p. 22.
91. “Withdraw Charge in RKO Hearing,” Motion Picture Herald, 25 December 1937, p. 22.
92. Ibid.
93. “The Biggest Money Making Stars of 1937,” Motion Picture Herald, 18 December 1937, pp. 13-15.
94. Fred Astaire to Pandro Berman, 25 November 1937.
95. Harry Brandt to Sam Briskin, 8 January 1937.
96. Pandro Berman, telegram to Ned Depinet and Barrett McCormick, 6 August 1937.
97. Pandro Berman to Katharine Hepburn, 14 August 1937.
98. Ned Depinet to Leo Spitz, 10 November 1937.
99. A. H. McCausland to Leo Spitz, 11 December 1937.
100. A. H. McCausland to Leo Spitz, 22 December 1937.
101. William R. Weaver, “Build-Up for ‘Snow White’ Opening Dwarfs Hollywood Predecessors,” Motion Picture Herald, 25 December 1937, p. 21.
102. Ibid.
103. “ ‘Snow White’ Grosses Half of Production Cost at Music Hall,” Motion Picture Herald, 12 February 1938, p. 16.
104. Ibid., p. 13.
105. “ ‘Snow White’ on Way to All-Time Domestic Gross,” Motion Picture Herald, 28 September 1940, p. 85.
106. Sam Shain, “Grosses, Then and Now,” Motion Picture Herald, 28 September 1940, p. 85.
107. Ibid.
108. George E. Morris, memorandum to Gunther R. Lessing, 30 April 1938.
109. “RKO Net Profit at $1,821,165,” Motion Picture Herald, 23 April 1938, p. 51.
110. Roy Chartier, “The Year in Pictures,” Variety, 5 January 1938, p. 11.
111. “Paramount Net $6,145,103 for ‘37,” Motion Picture Herald, 30 April 1938, p. 41.
CHAPTER 7
1. “Slow Progress on RKO's 77B Reorg Brings Inside Stuff into the Open,” Variety, 12 January 1938, p. 2.
2. Ibid.
3. Pandro Berman to Leo Spitz, 28 January 1938.
4. “RKO Management to Stay, Headed by Spitz,” Motion Picture Herald, 26 February 1938, p. 18.
5. “Lengthy Delay in RKO Reorganization,” Motion Picture Herald, 29 January 1938, p. 46.
6. “ RKO's Creditors Stud
y Amendments on Reorganization,” Motion Picture Herald, 5 March 1938, p. 28.
7. O. C. Doering to J. R. McDonough, 12 April 1938.
8. J. R. McDonough to A. H. McCausland, 26 April 1938.
9. J. R. McDonough to A. H. McCausland, 24 May 1938.
10. “Revised RKO Plan Submitted, Court Orders Hearing,” Motion Picture Herald, 21 May 1938, p. 24.
11. “RKO Plan Ready for Court on August 1st,” Motion Picture Herald, 23 July 1938, p. 57.
12. “Atlas Option on RKO Stock Will Not Be Exercised,” Motion Picture Herald, 30 July 1938, p. 33.
13. J. J. Nolan, memorandum to Ross Hastings, 8 January 1938.
14. Various sources have reported that Hepburn paid $220,000 to buy out her RKO contract, but I have found no evidence of this. See Todd McCarthy, Howard Hawks (New York: Grove Press, 1997), p. 258.
15. Pandro Berman to Katharine Hepburn, 3 May 1938. Berman and Hepburn would work together again at MGM in the 1940s.
16. “WAKE UP! Hollywood Producers,” Hollywood Reporter, 3 May 1938, p. 3.
17. Leo Spitz to Pandro Berman, 28 April 1938.
18. Leo Spitz to Ginger Rogers, 4 April 1938.
19. J. R. McDonough, telegram to Leo Spitz, 16 April 1938.
20. Pandro Berman to Mark Sandrich, 21 April 1938.
21. J. R. McDonough, memorandum to file, 21 April 1938.
22. Pandro Berman to Mark Sandrich. Rogers's version of her difficulties with Sandrich can be found in Ginger Rogers, Ginger: My Story (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 195-197.
23. Ross R. Hastings, notes of meeting in J. J. Nolan's office, 17 March 1938.
24. J. R. McDonough to A. H. McCausland, 25 March 1938.
25. G. B. Howe, memorandum to Ross Hastings, 24 May 1938.
26. Leo Spitz to Pandro Berman, 17 May 1938.
27. “Dead Cats,” Time, 16 May 1938, p. 57; “Hollywood in a Dither: Stars Scent a Pay-Cut Drive in Exhibitors' Attack,” Newsweek, 16 May 1938, p. 24.
28. “The Biggest Money Making Stars of 1938,” Motion Picture Herald, 24 December 1938, p. 13.
29. Jules Levy, memorandum to Leo Spitz, 16 May 1938.
30. Leo Spitz to Pandro Berman, 17 May 1938.
31. Leo Spitz to Pandro Berman, 25 May 1938.
32. Leo Spitz to J. R. McDonough, 17 May 1938.
33. Leo Spitz to Lee Marcus, 16 June 1938.
34. J. R. McDonough to Ned E. Depinet, 21 June 1938.
35. Ibid.
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