Radio: Movies to TV

Hollywood’s sellout to TV last week moved into the multimillion-dollar bracket. Thomas F. O’Neil, president of General Teleradio and new board chairman of RKO Radio Pictures, announced a $15 million deal with C & C Super Corp., which has taken a perpetual lease on 740 RKO features and 1,000 shorts. The features include such old favorites as Gunga Din, Citizen Kane, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Kitty Foyle, Stage Door, Having Wonderful Time, Once Upon a Honeymoon and eight Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals. All the films in the package may now be rented to TV stations for immediate screening across the nation, with General Teleradio getting exclusive rights to the movies in the six communities where it runs TV stations.

CBS got deeper into the animation field (it already has a TV contract with UFA, makers of the Mr. Magoo shorts) by the rumored $5,000,000 purchase of all the assets of Paul Terry’s Terrytoons, Inc. Paramount Pictures also edged into TV with an offering of 1,600 short subjects (asking price: $3,500,000), and Producer David O. Selznick sold eleven of his feature-length films (including The Paradine Case, Notorious, The Farmer’s Daughter) to National Telefilm Associates for $1,000,000. At week’s end Columbia Pictures jumped on the TV bandwagon by leasing 104 of its old films to Screen Gems, its own TV subsidiary.