Have been re-reading Richard Jewel's excellent history of RKO - such a fantastic book. It details RKO's history from 1942 - the Orson Welles era - to its collapse in 1957. That time span includes its Golden Period, the Charles Koerner reign of 1942-46 - then Koerner died and the studio never recovered.
They tried Dore Schary, who Jewel argues was not a success; then it was bought by Howard Hughes, who ran the place into the ground; then it was owned by some gangsters before Hughes took it back; then it came under tire manufacturers who sold it off to Lucille Ball.
In hindsight the key problems can seem to be:
1) Koerner's death in 1946 - an excellent executive, remembered today mostly for sacking Orson Welles but also a promoter of artistic films (eg Val Lewton) and someone capable of giving stability to RKO management.
2) Howard Hughes' ownership - the man who really killed RKO with his erratic leadership.
3) O'Neil's stewardship - things were still capable of being turned around in 1956 but he made poor decisions including rushing films into production and selling movies to TV outright instead of leasing them.
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