Sale

The biggest cash deal in Hollywood history was closed last week exactly as prescribed by the script. Howard Hughes gave an $8,825,690 check to Atlas Corp.'s Floyd Odium for its 929,020 shares of stock (24%)--and control--of Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp. (TIME, May 10). (Atlas still kept an interest in RKO by its ownership of warrants to buy some 300,000 shares of stock.) Despite ample warnings of the change, RKO's staff got so jittery over their new boss that RKO President Nathaniel Peter Rathvon had to pour out soothing syrup: "Mr. Hughes has no hungry army of relatives looking for your jobs, nor substitutes waiting to step into RKO management."

The deal gave Hughes a $16,000,000 stake in Hollywood, biggest of any cinemogul. In addition to buying control of RKO, he has spent about $2,400,000 for his completed but unreleased picture, Mad Wednesday, another $3,000,000 for Vendetta, still unfinished. And he still has $1,750,000 tied up in The Outlaw. With RKO's chain of 124 houses, Hughes will now have an outlet for his movies, at least until the antitrust suit against moviemakers is settled.

Hughes's first step was to put a ban on hirings & firings for 60 days. That meant that Dore Schary, RKO's crack production chief, who had not met Hughes until last week, would remain in charge, at least for the present.

Beyond that, Hughes plans to sign up the best of Hollywood's independents to make pictures at RKO. Eventually he intends to take an active hand in running things, build up his studio's faded list of stars. As the discoverer of the late Jean Harlow and Jane Russell, Hughes thinks he has the experience for that job.

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