In this eye-catching aerial photo, we’re looking down at the RKO movie studios in Hollywood. That road stretching from the upper left to the lower right is Gower St, and the wider road it deadends at the bottom is Melrose Ave. Where Gower meets Melrose is the famous corner where RKO had a huge cement globe with its iconic radio tower on top. But in this photo, it’s not there yet. Nor is the soundstage it sat on. Instead, that area is the studio parking lot. This photo came with no date, but I’ve seen a similar one, which was dated 1930, so I guess this was taken around that time, too. In the far upper right corner we can see the soundstages of neighboring Paramount, and in the far upper left, the open land of the Hollywood Cemetery which was founded in 1899, and both of which are still there. RKO on the other hand is long gone, and those studio facilities are now part of Paramount.
John J. says: “The photo is likely 1929-1930, judging by 5716 Camerford Ave., where they added a small house in place of their southwest corner garage in 1930.”
Aerophile says: “Had to be after October 23, 1928, that was RKO General’s founding date. RKO was gone by 1947. The final film with the logo was March 1959. The studio had been shut down since 1947.”
This is how that view looked in May 2022.
My Mom’s Uncle Virgil Hart worked on a few movies with RKO. One was 1951 Si-fi, The Thing from Another World, and the other was a war film called Stagedoor Canteen from 1943. that movie said the studio was RKO Pathe Studios. Was that the same or affiliated with RKO?
I believe RKO and Pathé merged sometime in the early 1930s and occupied the lot now known as the Culver Studios.
Thanks Martin, I had never heard of Pathe Studios before. I did some quick research and found that they started 1923 and merged in 1931 with RKO. They were located at 6823 Santa Monica Blvd.