C & C

-1952: Western Television Corporation founded by Matty Fox

-1954ish: Bank of America repossessed unsuccessful films it'd financed, hoping to see some sort of return on their investment. Such RKO releases as Miracle of the Bells and Magic Town were among them. General Tire bought the 18 month lease of the thirty-film package for $1.25K million to show as a summer replacement for their sponsored program of televised plays, as the "Million Dollar Movie," beginning on WOR in 1955. The titles were from 1945 - 1948 and were played twice each weekday and thrice each weekend day.

The films had better ratings than the plays, so General Tire became more anxious than ever to get major films.

-April 1955: C & C buys Western Television

-19 July 1955: General Tire bought RKO for $25 million and merged with it, forming RKO General. 

Production on the RKO lot had been shut down for over a year. The first title to start shooting was THE FIRST TRAVELING SALESLADY. Most other new productions were medium budget remakes of earlier RKO films such as TOM, DICK AND HARRY,  FIVE CAME BACK, and BACHELOR MOTHER or cinematic versions of tv plays such as THE YOUNG STRANGER and THE UNHOLY WIFE. Production ended when RKO General didn't get anticipated returns and THE GIRL MOST LIKELY was shooting on the lot and ESCAPADE IN JAPAN was shooting in Japan.

-22 December 1955: Matty Fox and Contrell & Cochrane's C & C Super Corporation unit C & C Television offered RKO General millions for television use of 742 feature motion picture films from RKO-Radio Pictures to television stations, subject to certain reservations for $15,200,000, 12 up front. C&C negotiated a loan with First National Bank of Boston, guaranteed by the International Latex Corporation. 

-05 March 1956: King Kong bows on WOR's Million Dollar Movie, shown 16 times in one week. SO popular it was rereleased theatrically before returning years later to the package

-01 August 1956: Amendment to the deal reduced the minimum number sixty-second long Playtex bra ads to six instead of ten, every day, for 36 months in a row. Six minutes per day per station. A television station did not have to take all the pictures in a group, but it had to provide the minimum number of spots fixed as compensation for a package, whether it took one or all of the pictures. RKO General excluded it's owned tv stations (WOR New York, KHJ Los Angeles, WNAC Boston, CKLW Windsor, WHCT Hartford and WHBQ Memphis) and they kept 150 of the best titles for their own use for two years. Remake and theatrical rights were held separately. Initial stations used 35mm prints from theatrical exchanges until 16mm dupes could be made. The rights for the rest of the world went to a company located in Paris known as Atlantic Arts. What these companies actually owned was the right to show the existing film in their particular territory. 

-01 March 1956: C&C sold to enough stations to reach 75% of the potential viewing audience.

-01 July 1956: 58 stations start to air the C&C package. These prints could not show the RKO logo.

Individual stations could buy an entire package of 16mm prints. If they bought the whole 740 title library, they had license to play them for the life of the the print. "MovieTime USA". 

-July 1957: distributor RKO Japan Ltd sold to Disney & British Commonwealth Film Corp.

-Some titles were kept out of the C&C package because full rights were not owned, such as WITHOUT RESERVATIONS.  After the rights issues were cleared up, these (plus the 1956-1957 releases) were put together into the Gold Key package and offered to stations.

-1958: C & C Films becomes Television Industries, Inc.

-1966: Television Industries, Inc becomes Trans-Beacon

-1969: the negatives (but not the fine grain masters) given to the Library of Congress. Monochrome negatives and a fine grain master of each title were stored in Bonded Warehouse in New Jersey so that Guffanti Labs in New York City could make new prints as needed. Color film negatives were in Los Angeles, near Technicolor. RKO, UA and Atlantic Arts frequently had disagreements about who should be paying for the storage. 

-1971: assets of bankrupt Trans-Beacon bought for $119,600 by Marian B, Inc.

-1983: Marian B and RKO split rights to pre-1956 RKO/C&C library

-1986: RKO pays $8 million for the MBI share

-September 1987: Wesray Capital buys rights to RKO film catalog, 740 films from 1929- 1959

-10 December 1987: Turner formally buys rights to RKO Pictures from Wesray Capital (to allow airing in the 5 cities GTR had established permanent rights). 800 features, 50 shorts, 150 Abbot & COstello cartoons and 80 tv productions.