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Signaling from the sky now is the historic film studio, RKO Pictures! Name History: Radio Pictures (1929-1933; on-screen name from 1933-1936) RKO Radio Pictures (1933-1966) RKO Pictures Corporation (1966-1975) RKO Pictures (1975-present) Short History: RKO Pictures was founded in 1929 as Radio Pictures, as a joint-venture between the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chain and FBO Pictures Corporation. In 1933, Radio Pictures changed its legal name to RKO Radio Pictures. Although Radio Pictures was retained as its on-screen name until 1936. The studio was initially founded to exclusively produce "talkies", movies with audio, a burgeoning industry at the time. This strategy proved successful, which fueled RKO to produce more experimental films compared to major film studios. Two of these films, King Kong and Citizen Kane, received critical acclaim and cemented RKO as a major player in the film industry. Additionally, RKO was the distributor of cartoons from Van Beuren Studios from 1928 until RKO bought the studio in 1936. Around the same time as its acquisition of Van Beuren Studios, it began distributing most films and shorts from Walt Disney's Buena Vista Cartoons studio, establishing a long-term relationship between the two. In 1943, Floyd Odlum, who held a majority interest in RKO Radio Pictures, acquired the company outright. Odlum's leadership led to RKO reaching its peak in terms of probability. Business magnate Howard Hughes would later acquired RKO Radio Pictures from Odlum in 1948. In contrast to its tenure at Odlum, the Hughes tenure of RKO was marred with financial disasters. In an attempt to produce more successful films, it launched Walt Disney Pictures in 1953 as a joint-venture with Buena Vista Cartoons. Both studios were later sold to General Tire in 1955. General Tire would later form RKO General in 1959 to handle its media assets. The company would rebound during the 1960s, once again becoming a major force in the film industry. RKO Radio Pictures renamed itself to RKO Pictures Corporation in 1966 to emphasis the fact it produced feature films. 1972 saw major changes to RKO Pictures. Following RKO General's acquisition of Buena Vista Cartoons, Walt Disney Pictures became an independent studio under RKO General, while Van Beuren Studios (then renamed RKO Cartoon Studios) was absorbed into BVC. RKO Pictures Corporation would drop the Corporation from its name in 1975, becoming simply RKO Pictures. In 1984, RKO General would spin-off its film assets including RKO Pictures into a new holding company known as Buena Vista. Starting that year, RKO Pictures was firmly set as a mainstream Hollywood film studio, in contrast to the more family-friendly Walt Disney Pictures. Buena Vista Cartoons was also cut in half, with the mature side becoming RKO Feature Animation (later RKO Animation). Buena Vista would merge with Capital Cities-ABC to form Capital Cities-ABC in 1994, before reverting back to Buena Vista in 1996. Comcast acquired majority ownership of Buena Vista in 2004, renaming them to The Walt Disney Company after the company's flagship asset, the Disney brand. BlackRock would acquire 75% majority ownership in The Walt Disney Company in 2015, changing its name to BlackRock Media. BlackRock would sell its stake in BlackRock Media back to Comcast in 2020 amid several controversies, resulting its name changing again to Disney Holdings. The company's mascot since 1936 is Felix The Cat. Felix The Cat was initially created in 1919 under Paramount Pictures. Ownership of the character switched hands multiple times before ending up at RKO Pictures through Van Beuren Studios.
