RKO Radio Pictures

RKO Radio Pictures was founded in 1928 as a merger of the motion picture interests of RCA Corporation and Joseph P. Kennedys Film Booking Office of America. RCA had previously purchased the Keith-Albee-Orpheum chain of vaudeville houses and cinemas. The studio was variously known as Radio Pictures and RKO Radio pictures. RKO was responsible for such notable films as Citizen Cain, King Kong and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers]] musicals. The studio underwent a number of changes of ownership, by the 1950s finding itself in the hands of Howard Hughes. Production ceased in 1953. Rights to the RKO name and catalog were purchased in 1990 to form the basis of a small, independent, production company.