RKO
Written and Compiled by Nicholas Aczel and Sean Beard

Note: RKO was originally founded by RCA to promote their RCA Photophone sound system.  The initials in the company name stand for Radio Keith Orpheum, reflecting the joint venture of RCA, the Keith Orpheum theater circuit, and Joseph P. Kennedy?s Film Booking Office.

RKO Radio Pictures

Opening Logo
(1929-1956)

Nickname: "The Transmitter"

Logo: On a cloudy background we see a radio tower situated on top of a rotating Earth globe. The radio tower is sending out signals illustrated by lightning bolts and sound waves coming from its transmitter. The text "A Radio Picture" (1929-1936) or "An RKO Radio Picture" (1936-1956) writes itself on the logo in a "thunderbolt" font.

Notes/Variants:

• For those who wanted to know, the morse code heard on the logo transmitted this message:
  VVVV AN RKO RADIO PICTURE VVVV
• RKO teamed with France-based production company Pathe in 1929 to produce theatrical newsreels under the name RKO-Pathe Newsreels, which lasted until 1950. These featured a logo variation in which the Pathe Rooster stood and crowed in place of the transmitter on the rotating globe.
• On early RKO color features and colorized films the logo was tinted blue; a true living color version of the logo was introduced around 1944.

SFX/Cheesy Factor: The rotating Earth globe, the lightning bolts, the sound waves; all primitive 1920s visual effects, but give them credit for trying.

Music: A series of "morse code" beeps.

Availability: Very common, still saved on every RKO release.

Scare Factor: Median, one of the best-known logos, but the creepy "morse code" transmission sound FX and scratchy film prints may cause some scares.

Closing Logo
(1929-1956)

Nickname: "The Thunderbolt"

Logo: In the end titles of a film we see an equilateral triangle pointing down with a "thunderbolt" drawn 3/4 through it. Above the logo is the text "Radio Pictures" (1929-1936) or "RKO Radio" with a line drawn over the triangle edge with the text "PICTURES" (1936-1956)

Notes:

• The "Radio Pictures" variant had a much scragglier thunderbolt design compared to the "RKO Radio" variant that followed.)
• A "Distributed by RKO Pictures" variant in color on a blue background appeared on some pre-1953 Walt Disney films which RKO distributed. Usually plastered with a Buena Vista Distribution Co. logo, but occasionally appears on a few cartoon shorts on the Disney Treasures DVD collection.

SFX: None, it's a still logo

Cheesy Factor: The drawing looked quite ugly.

Music: The closing score of a movie.

Availability: Common, still saved on every RKO release.

Scare Factor: Median, the scary thunderbolt drawing and scratchy film prints may turn off a few.

Alternative Logo
(1933)

Nickname: "The Horse"

Logo: On a gray background, we zoom up to a model of a knight riding a horse and holding a flag reading "RKO RADIO PICTURES present." The model has a shadow.

SFX: The zoom-in

Music: The opening music of "The Little King" cartoon.

Availability: Very rare, only known to have appeared on Oscar E. Soglow?s "The Little King" cartoons from 1933-34; one of them, "Christmas Night" (1933) recently showed up on the WinStar VHS/DVD compilation "Cartoon Crazy?s Christmas."

Scare Factor: Minimal to Median... depends on your opinion of scratchy prints and seeing a frozen model onscreen.

RKO Pictures

1st Logo
(1981-1987)

Nickname: "'80s Thunderbolt"

Logo: On a plain black BG, a segmented white-lined rectangle with a cut on the left side and the text "RKO PICTURES" below emerges from the top of the screen, and moves down and curves up as if a roller coaster, zooming up to the center of the screen. We also see a red variant of the thunderbolt logo flipping up and growing in size as it lands below the cut on the rectangle in between "RKO" and "PICTURES."

Variant: Variations on this logo were used for other RKO General properties throughout the 1980s, such as RKO Television-owned local stations and RKO Nederlander-the Broadway production subsidiary. The syndication variant also had a small text reading "DISTRIBUTED BY," which fades in above the rectangle to the left.

SFX: The logo zooming and flipping effects.

Cheesy Factor: It's all cheap chyron and 1980s-standard zooming and flipping animations.

Music: A synthesized tune with rising air and a "BOOM!" as the logo parts come together, followed by a gradual synthesized fade out.

Availability: Near Extinction, only used as a distribution logo, may appear on 80s prints of classic RKO films on AMC and TCM if very lucky.

Scare Factor: High, the very creepy synth music and the jarring animation effects make this a very scary logo.

2nd Logo
(1987-1989)

Nickname: "'80s Transmitter"

Logo: On a cloudy background we see the familiar radio tower situated on top of a rotating Earth globe. The radio tower is sending out signals illustrated by lightning bolts and sound waves coming from its transmitter. After a couple seconds, a segmented white-lined rectangle with a cut on the left side and the text "RKO PICTURES" appearing on opposite sides of the red thunderbolt triangle design emerges from the transmitter tip, and moves downward, zooming towards the lower third of the screen.

Notes/Variants:

• The end logo of these movies is a still picture of the opening logo, with "An RKO Picture" in a "thunderbolt" font.

SFX/Cheesy Factor: The rotating Earth globe, the lightning bolts, the sound waves; plus the zooming Thunderbolt Triangle.

Music: A series of "morse code" beeps.

Availability: Uncommon. Appeared on a few Paramount releases from that era, including "Gallipoli," "Campus Man," "Hamburger Hill" and "Hot Pursuit."

Scare Factor: Median. The creepy "morse code" transmission sound FX may cause some scares.

3rd Logo
(1997- )

Nickname: "'90s Transmitter"

Logo: In this version, the sky background and Earth globe look more realistic. A bright light is seen on the transmitter tip of the radio tower situated on top of the rotating globe as the picture zooms outward. The radio tower then sends out signals illustrated by sound waves coming from its transmitter. The text "RKO PICTURES" fades in on top of the transmitter. "RKO" appears in a red "thunderbolt" font while "PICTURES" sports a more '30s-ish typeface below that.

SFX/Cheesy Factor: The bright light, the sound waves; big improvement after their previous rendition.

Music: A series of "morse code" beeps.

Availability: Uncommon. Can be found on more recent RKO releases, including "Mighty Joe Young," "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Gin Game."

Scare Factor: Minimum. Although a well-liked logo, the creepy "morse code" transmission sound FX and still gets to some people.

RKO Television
(1981-1989)

Logo: On a plain black BG, we see the segmented white-lined rectangle slide in from the left of the screen. A bolt of lightning strikes the rectangle and reveals the red equilateral triangle pointing down with a "thunderbolt" drawn 3/4 through it. The words "RKO TELEVISION" are "lasered in" by red beams and appear opposite the triangle, which pulsates twice at the end.

Note: An occasional copyright notice for RKO General Inc. will appear at the bottom of the logo.  Former O&O WOR-TV would also include their station ident on some of their locally-produced shows.

SFX: The lightning bolt striking the rectangle; the formation of the triangle and words.

Cheesy Factor: Not much, just pure '80s graphics.

Music: A synthesized tune with rising air and a "BOOM!" as the logo parts come together, followed by a gradual synthesized fade out.

Availability: Extremely rare. This was seen mostly on programming supplied from the RKO General TV stations.

Scare Factor: Nightmare. The lightning combined with the creepy synth music could get to some.

RKO Home Video
(1981-1987)

Logo: Similar to the 1980s RKO Pictures logo above, but with several differences:
(1) The text "HOME VIDEO" replaces "PICTURES."
(2) No animation.
(3) No music.

SFX: None, it's a still logo

Cheesy Factor: Again, the cheap chyron used all over the logo.

Music: Silent

Availability: Videos have been long out of print, with most titles being re-released on Warner Home Video. Check your local used video stores.

Scare Factor: Low, no music and no animation makes this logo much less creepy than the RKO Pictures counterpart.