was an
American Film Studio of the
Silent Era , a producer and distributor of mostly low-budget films. The business began as Robertson-Cole (U.S.), the American division of a
British import–export company. Robertson-Cole initiated movie production in 1920; two years later, a corporate reorganization led to the company's new name. In 1923, the studio contracted with
Western actor
Fred Thomson , who would soon emerge as one of
Hollywood's most popular stars. Thomson was just one of numerous screen cowboys with whom FBO became identified.
The studio, whose core market was America's small towns, also put out many romantic melodramas, non-Western action pictures, and comedic
Shorts . In 1926, financier
Joseph P. Kennedy led a group that acquired the company. In June 1928, using
RCA Photophone technology, FBO became only the second Hollywood studio to release a
Feature -length "
Talkie ." A few months later, Kennedy and RCA chief
David Sarnoff arranged the merger that created
RKO , one of the
Major Studios of Hollywood's
Golden Age .
The company that would become FBO began as the U.S.-based movie subsidiary of the British importer, exporter, and film distributor Robertson-Cole. R-C Pictures, as it was sometimes known, had already entered the American film distribution market, forging an alliance in 1919 with Exhibitors Mutual Distributing, a corporate descendant of the .The studio's address was and remains 780 Gower Street. See Finler (1988), p. 12, for a map showing the FBO studio (later owned by RKO,
Desilu , and now
CBS Paramount Television ) in relation to the other main Hollywood production facilities. Finler misidentifies Melrose Ave., which runs east-west along the south of the studio, as "Beverly Boulevard." Gower St. runs north-south along the studio's western side. In January 1921, Robertson-Cole absorbed Hallmark Pictures, which had acquired the Exhibitors Mutual interests the previous year.Lyons (1974), p. 90 n. 123. The first official Robertson-Cole production shot at the new studio was a February 1921 release, ''The Mistress of Shenstone'', directed by
Henry King and starring
Pauline Frederick .For descriptions of the film, see the reviews in ''Moving Picture World'' (
March 5 ,
1921 ) and ''Variety'' (
March 18 ,
1921 ). That year, the British owners of the studio entered into a working relationship with
Joseph P. Kennedy , father of future U.S. president
John F. Kennedy . Joseph Kennedy was then a broker at the New York banking firm of Hayden, Stone, as well as the owner of Maine–New Hampshire Theatres, a small chain of movie houses.Goodwin (1987), p. 342. Though he failed to arrange the sale R-C's general partners were looking for, Kennedy's involvement with the studio was far from over.
In 1922, Robertson-Cole underwent a major reorganization as the company's founders departed, though the corporation remained under majority British ownership. The flagship U.S. distribution business changed its name to Film Booking Offices of America, a banner under which R-C had released more than a dozen independent productions. The West Coast studio apparently continued to make films under the Robertson-Cole name for some time, but FBO ultimately became the primary identity of the business for production as well as distribution.See, e.g., "F.B.O. Announces" (1925) for evidence that the studio was primarily identified as FBO by no later than summer 1925. Though Robertson-Cole apparently remained the primary production brand for a period after the 1922 reorganization, Lasky (1989, p. 13) and Jewell (1982, p. 8) both indicate that the entire film business was incorporated that year as Film Booking Offices of America Inc. Beauchamp (1998) refers to Kennedy's 1926 takeover of "R-C Pictures Corporation and Film Booking Office of America" (p. 180). These various references suggest that, from 1922 forward, R-C (or Robertson-Cole) Pictures Corp. was the legal name of FBO (or Film Booking Offices of America) Inc.'s studio subsidiary. Logos from 1927 and 1928 (the latter pictured in the article) reading "FBO Pictures Corp." suggest that the corporate name of the studio operation was changed after the Kennedy purchase. Between the 1922 reorganization and October 1923, one of the company's new American investors,
Pat Powers , was effectively in command. Powers had previously led his own filmmaking company, part of the multiple merger that created the large
Universal studio in 1912. Powers apparently changed the name of Robertson-Cole/FBO to the Powers Studio for a brief period, though there is no record of the company ever having produced or released a film under that banner.Lasky (1989), p. 13; Jewell (1982), p. 8. In 1923, the studio launched a series of boxing-themed
Shorts , "Fighting Blood," starring
George O'Hara . He would become an FBO mainstay, often paired with
Alberta Vaughn , in such comedy series as "The Pacemakers" (1925). Most of O'Hara's and Vaughn's films for the studio were two-reelers—a measure of film length indicating a running time of about twenty minutes.
starring
Alberta Vaughn . This was not a
Serial in the classic sense, as each "chapter" was a stand-alone tale.]]
Now a fully independent businessman, Joseph Kennedy joined the FBO board of directors in 1923, as well. By this time, the studio was owned by Graham's of London, a banking firm, and Powers was succeeded by H.C.S. Thomson, a Graham's operative.Lasky (1989), p. 13. Before leaving the board the following year, Kennedy put together a major distribution and production deal between FBO and leading ,
2007 . B. P. Fineman became the studio's production chief in 1924;
Evelyn Brent , his wife, moved over from
Fox to become FBO's top dramatic star.Jewell (1982), p. 8. In April 1925, FBO vice-president Joseph I. Schnitzer signed Thomson to a new contract paying him $10,000 a week. Thomson was now the highest paid of all cowboy actors, surpassing even the renowned
Tom Mix . The deal also gave Thomson his own independent production unit at the studio.Beauchamp (1998), p. 168.
As a distributor, FBO's roster of films was about half independent and foreign productions, half its own studio output. At the height of its activity (1923–28), it released an average of around 110 features and shorts a year, focusing on distribution to small-town exhibitors and independent theater chains (that is, those not owned by one of the
Major Hollywood Studios ).Beauchamp (1998), p. 157. As a production company, Film Booking Offices concentrated on low-budget movies, with an emphasis on Westerns, romantic melodramas, and comedy shorts. From its first productions in early 1920 through late 1928, when it was dissolved in a merger, the company produced approximately 400 films under the brand of either Robertson-Cole Pictures or FBO Pictures. Between 1924 and 1926, several higher-end productions were made under the rubric of Gothic Pictures. The studio's top-of-the-line movies, aimed at major exhibition venues beyond the reach of most FBO films, were sometimes marketed as FBO "Gold Bond" pictures."F.B.O. Announces" (1925). Without the backing of large corporate interests, nor the security of its own theater chain, the company faced cash-flow difficulties during its earlier years. Short-term loans at high interest rates posed a significant financial drain.Lasky (1989), pp. 12–13, 14–15; Beauchamp (1998), p. 180.
While still at Hayden, Stone, Kennedy had boasted to a colleague, "Look at that bunch of pants pressers in Hollywood making themselves millionaires. I could take the whole business away from them."Quoted in Lasky (1989), p. 12. In 1925, he set out to do so, forming his own group of investors led by wealthy Boston lawyer Guy Currier and including
Filene's department store owner Louis Kirstein and
Union Stockyards and
Armour And Company owner
Frederick H. Prince . In August 1925, Kennedy traveled to England with an offer to buy a controlling stake in Film Booking Offices for $1 million. The bid was initially rejected, but in February 1926, FBO's owners decided to take the money.Goodwin (1987), pp. 342, 343; Beauchamp (1998), p. 180; Lasky (1989), p. 13. Crafton (1997) writes that the business Joseph Kennedy purchased in February 1926 was "a small Hollywood studio, Robertson-Cole, and its New York distributor, Film Booking Office (FBO)" (p. 136). This is potentially misleading, even aside from the misspelling of FBO's name; the available evidence demonstrates that Film Booking Offices was already the studio operation's primary identity, even though it might still have been registered as R-C Pictures Corporation or some variation thereof. Crafton's nomenclature is belied by his own earlier listing of the significant U.S. film production companies of the mid-1920s, among which he names "Film Booking Office (FBO)," not Robertson–Cole (p. 68). In short order, Kennedy moved his family from Massachusetts to New York City to focus on running his new business. He swiftly addressed the company's perennial cash-flow problems, arranging lines of credit and issuing stock in a business division he established, the Cinema Credit Corporation.Lasky (1989), pp. 14–15; Goodwin (1987), p. 344. By March, he was traveling to Hollywood.Goodwin (1987), pp. 345, 346. The president of the
Motion Picture Producers And Distributors Association ,
Will Hays , was delighted by the new face on the scene—in Hays's eyes, Kennedy signified both a desirable image for the industry and
Wall Street's faith in its prospects. Hays heralded Kennedy as "exceedingly American" (historian Cari Beauchamp explains the connotation: "not Jewish," in contrast to most of the studio heads), while celebrating Kennedy's "background of lofty and conservative financial connections, an atmosphere of much home and family life and all those fireside virtues of which the public never hears in the current news from Hollywood."Quoted in Beauchamp (1998), p. 180. See also p. 197; Lasky (1989), p. 14. For Hays and Kennedy's earlier association, see Goodwin (1987), p. 341.
, FBO's biggest box-office draw during the mid-1920s.]]
Fineman and Brent both departed FBO around the time of the purchase. Kennedy appointed Edwin King as the studio's production chief, but the new owner took a personal hand in guiding the company creatively as well as financially.Lasky (1989), p. 15. Crafton (1997) misleadingly implies that Kennedy immediately installed William LeBaron as production chief after his takeover of FBO (p. 136). In fact, as Jewell (1982) describes, King was the first head of production named by Kennedy, with LeBaron assuming the job in 1927 (p. 9). Kennedy soon brought stability to FBO, making it one of the most reliably profitable outfits in the minor leagues of the Hollywood for the major studio to produce and distribute a series of four Thomson "super westerns." Kennedy participated in the films' financing (and profits) and the actor's company stayed on the FBO lot. Of the four Thomson features that reached theaters in 1927, three were FBO releases.Beauchamp (1998), pp. 211, 227.
The advent of " to appear from a studio other than
Warner Bros. since the epochal premiere of Warners' ''
The Jazz Singer '' eight months before. ''The Perfect Crime'', which went into general release on
August 4 , had been shot silently; using RCA's
Sound-on-film Photophone system, the dialogue was
Dubbed in afterward—a process then known as "synthetic sound."Crafton (1997), pp. 140, 304. On
August 22 , Kennedy signed a contract with RCA for live Photophone recording; more importantly, he also tendered the company an option to buy his governing share of FBO. Two months later, RCA had acquired controlling stock interests in both the studio and KAO.
On
October 23 ,
1928 , RCA announced it was merging Film Booking Offices and Keith-Albee-Orpheum to form the new motion picture business
Radio-Keith-Orpheum (RKO), with Sarnoff as chairman.While all other latter-day published sources give October as the date of the merger, Crafton (1997) states, "The new holding company, Radio-Keith-Orpheum, was formed on 21 November 1928" (p. 142). Kennedy, who retained Pathé, was paid $150,000 for arranging the merger on top of the millions of dollars in profit he made from selling off his stock.Lasky (1989), pp. 33–34. Joseph I. Schnitzer, ranking FBO vice-president, was elevated to president of the new company's production arm, replacing Kennedy.Jewell (1982), p. 10. William LeBaron, the last FBO production chief, retained his position after the merger, but the new studio, dedicated to full sound production, cut ties with most of FBO's roster of silent-screen performers. Movies that Film Booking Offices had either produced or arranged to distribute were released under the FBO banner through the end of 1929. The last official FBO production to reach American theaters was ''Pals of the Prairie'', directed by Louis King and starring Buzz Barton and Frank Rice, released
July 1 ,
1929 .
, star of 14 FBO films between 1924 and 1926.]]
The vast majority of FBO/Robertson-Cole pictures, produced during either the silent era or the transitional period of the conversion to sound cinema, are thought to have been lost, with no copies now known to exist. Partly in consequence, many of FBO's star actors are barely remembered today. Pauline Frederick was the major headliner of the early R-C days, and Evelyn Brent was FBO's most prized non-Western star.Jewell (1982), p. 8.
Warner Baxter ,
Joe E. Brown , and young
Frankie Darro were among the other prominent FBO players.
Anna Q. Nilsson starred in two of the studio's larger productions, as did
Olive Borden and
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. FBO's leading star of action and mystery pictures was
Richard Talmadge . He appeared in eighteen FBO releases, more than half of them produced by his own company. Maurice "Lefty" Flynn starred in over a dozen FBO action films, all directed by Harry Garson, who also ran his own production business.For more on Flynn, see Christgau (1999), pp. 55–59. From the studio's pre-Hollywood days in 1920 through 1928, Ralph Lewis starred in more than ten R-C and FBO pictures of various genres.
Central to the FBO identity were Westerns and the studio's major cowboy star, Fred Thomson. In both 1926 and 1927, he ranked number two in the ''Exhibitors' Herald'' survey of the "Top Stars of the Year," right behind Tom Mix.Beauchamp (1998), p. 224. When Thomson's personal contract with Kennedy expired in mid-1927, he left permanently for Paramount, almost literally next door.Lasky (1989), p. 17; Beauchamp (1998), p. 227. FBO's second-biggest long-running Western star was and starring
Stan Laurel , before his famous partnership with
Oliver Hardy . In 1926–27, the company distributed more than a dozen shorts by innovative comedian/animator
Charles Bowers .For more on Bowers' work with FBO, see Crafton (1993), p. 362 n. 39.
. The most prolific of FBO's many Western stars, Tyler appeared in 29 movies for the studio.]]
In its earlier years, the studio did not hesitate to take advantage of scandal sheet–worthy events. After the death of celebrated actor , marks the film debut of football great
"Red" Grange .Hall (1926). See also ''Heritage Vintage'' (2004b), p. 121.
would remain a Hollywood fixture for the next four decades.]]
Kennedy had no illusions about his studio's place in the realm of cinematic art. A journalist once complimented him on FBO's recent output: "You have had some good pictures this year." Kennedy jocularly inquired, "What the hell ''were'' they?"Quoted in Lasky (1989), p. 14. In her history of RKO, author Betty Lasky points to the pre-Kennedy ''Broken Laws'' (1924), directed by . ''Una Nueva y gloriosa nación'' (1928), the most successful film in the history of Argentine silent cinema, was shot in Hollywood and distributed in the United States by FBO as ''The Charge of the Gauchos''.Finkielman (2004), p. 84.
, who appeared in six FBO pictures between 1925 and 1927.]]
One of the two directed a half-dozen FBO releases, some produced directly for the studio, others independently. Between 1922 and 1926, Emory Johnson produced and directed at least eight films for FBO. Historian
William K. Everson has pointed to Seiter and Johnson as two of the overlooked directorial talents of the silent era.Everson (1998), p. 142.
Screenwriter Frances Marion , who would win two
Oscars in the 1930s, penned ten of the FBO pictures starring her husband, Fred Thomson.
Editor Pandro S. Berman , son of a major FBO stockholder, cut his first film for the studio at the age of twenty-two; he would go on to renown as an RKO producer and production chief. Famed RKO
Costume Designer Walter Plunkett was also an FBO graduate.
In addition to the work of Charles Bowers, FBO was a distributor of other significant animated films. Between 1924 and 1926, FBO released the work of ," of which FBO would put out over two dozen, were created by two young animators,
Ub Iwerks and
Walt Disney .Crafton (1993), p. 285; Langer (1995), p. 259 n. 39.
Note: Many sources (including Douglas Crafton and Cari Beauchamp, cited herein) give FBO's full name incorrectly as "Film Booking Office of America"; the proper name is Film Booking Offices of America, as can be verified by reference to multiple versions of the company's official logo. See, e.g., the
FBO page on the ''Learn About Movie Posters'' website. Remarkably, even this source misstates the name throughout the accompanying text. For the correct spelling, see also two books contemporary with the studio: Sherwood (1923), pp. 150, 156, 158, 159, etc.; Ellis and Thornborough (1923), p. 262.
- Beauchamp, Cari (1998). ''Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood'' (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press). ISBN 0-520-21492-7
- Buehrer, Beverley Bare (1993). ''Boris Karloff: A Bio-Bibliography'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press). ISBN 0-313-27715-X
- Christgau, John (1999). ''The Origins of the Jump Shot: Eight Men Who Shook the World of Basketball'' (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press). ISBN 0-8032-6394-5
- "Cinemerger" (1927). ''Time'', May 2 (available [http://www.time.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,751696,00.html online ).
- Crafton, Donald (1993). ''Before Mickey: The Animated Film, 1898–1928'' (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press). ISBN 0-226-11667-0
- Crafton, Donald (1997). ''The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931'' (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons). ISBN 0-684-19585-2
- Ellis, Don Carlos, and Laura Thornborough (1923). ''Motion Pictures in Education: A Practical Handbook for Users of Visual Aids'' (New York: Thomas V. Crowell).
- Everson, William K. (1998). ''American Silent Film'' (New York: Da Capo). ISBN 0-306-80876-5
- "F.B.O. Announces Tom Tyler as ‘Surprise' Western Star” {Link without Title} (1925). ''Moving Picture World'', August 8.
- Fenton, James W. (2002). ''Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan: A Biography of the Author and His Creation'' (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland). ISBN 0-7864-1393-X
- Finkielman, Jorge (2004). ''The Film Industry in Argentina: An Illustrated Cultural History'' (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland). ISBN 0-7864-1628-9
- Finler, Joel W. (1988). ''The Hollywood Story'' (New York: Crown). ISBN 0-517-56576-5
- Goodwin, Doris Kearns (1987). ''The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys: An American Saga'' (New York: Simon & Schuster). ISBN 0-671-23108-1
- Hall, Mordaunt (1926). "'Red' Grange's First Film," ''The New York Times'', September 6 (available online ).
- Hall, Mordaunt (1928). "An Irish Mother. Bootleggers and Night Clubs," ''The New York Times'', March 6 (available online ).
- ''Heritage Vintage Movie Poster Signature Auction #603'' (Dallas: Heritage Vintage Movie Posters, 2004a). ISBN 1932899154
- ''Heritage Vintage Movie Poster Signature Auction #607'' (Dallas: Heritage Vintage Movie Posters, 2004b). ISBN 1932899359
- ''Heritage Vintage Movie Poster Signature Auction #624'' (Dallas: Heritage Vintage Movie Posters, 2005). ISBN 1599670046
- Jewell, Richard B., with Vernon Harbin (1982). ''The RKO Story'' (New York: Arlington House/Crown). ISBN 0-517-54656-6
- Kemp, Philip (1987). "Curtiz, Michael," in ''World Film Directors, Volume 1: 1890–1945'', ed. John Wakeman (New York: H. W. Wilson), 172–181. ISBN 0-8242-0757-2
- Koszarski, Richard (1990). ''An Evening's Entertainment: The Age of the Silent Feature Picture, 1915–1928'' (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press). ISBN 0-520-08535-3
- Langer, Mark (1995). "John Randolph Bray: Animation Pioneer," in ''American Silent Film: Discovering Marginalized Voices'', ed. Gregg Bachman and Thomas J. Slater (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 2002), 94–114. ISBN 0-8093-2402-4
- Langman, Larry (1998). ''American Film Cycles: The Silent Era'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press). ISBN 0-313-30657-5
- Lasky, Betty (1989). ''RKO: The Biggest Little Major of Them All'' (Santa Monica, Calif.: Roundtable). ISBN 0-915677-41-5
- Louvish, Simon (2001). ''Stan and Ollie: The Roots of Comedy: The Double Life of Laurel and Hardy'' (New York: St. Martin's). ISBN 0-312-26651-0
- Lyons, Timothy James (1974 {Link without Title} ). ''The Silent Partner: The History of the American Film Manufacturing Company, 1910–1921'' (New York: Arno Press). ISBN 0-405-04872-6
- Sandburg, Carl (1925). "''White Fang''," in ''The Movies Are: Carl Sandburg's Film Reviews and Essays, 1920–1928'', ed. Arnie Bernstein (Chicago: Lake Claremont Press, 2000), 270–271. ISBN 1-893121-05-4
- Schaefer, Eric (1999). ''"Bold! Daring! Shocking! True!": A History of Exploitation Films, 1919–1959'' (Durham and London: Duke University Press). ISBN 0-8223-2374-5
- Sherwood, Robert Emmet (1923). ''The Best Moving Pictures of 1922–23'' (Boston: Small, Maynard).
- Sullivan, Jack, ed. (1986). ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and The Supernatural'' (New York: Viking). ISBN 0-670-80902-0
- The Silent Films of FBO Pictures comprehensive listing of silent features produced by FBO/Robertson–Cole and released between 1925 and 1929—see also The Early Sound Films of Radio Pictures for FBO sound productions released in 1928 (the list does not clearly indicate the several FBO sound productions released in 1929); both part of ''Vitaphone Video Early Talkies'' website
