boyraisin2

Thanks for welcoming me. I don't know, I just read that Turner bought the RKO films in 1987, which is a year after he bought the MGM library. Here's what one site said; I found this at: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=969564 In 1955, RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., one of the major studios, signed the Agreement and thereby became a first party. RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. later became RKO General, Inc. ("RKO"). In 1984, RKO assigned all rights in its Covered Films to its wholly-owned subsidiary, RKO Pictures, Inc. ("Pictures"), which assumed all of RKO's liabilities relating to the Covered Films. Pictures did not, however, actually sign the Agreement. In late 1984, shortly after assigning the rights in its Covered Films to Pictures, RKO transferred all the shares of Pictures to RKO Enterprises, Inc. ("Enterprises"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of GenCorp, Inc. ("GenCorp"). Neither Enterprises nor GenCorp signed the Agreement. After the transfer of Pictures' stock to Enterprises, all payments to the Trust relating to RKO's Covered Films came to an abrupt halt. In 1987, Entertainment Acquisition Co. ("EAC") sought to acquire Pictures from Enterprises. At the same time, EAC was negotiating to license all of Pictures' film rights to Turner Entertainment Co. ("Turner"). EAC eventually agreed to license the RKO film library to Turner if EAC were to succeed in acquiring Pictures. In September 1987, it did succeed, and Enterprises sold all shares of Pictures to EAC. Pursuant to its agreement with Turner, EAC then caused Pictures to license the RKO films to Turner. Although Turner agreed to assume certain of Pictures' liabilities relating to the Covered Films, Turner did not sign the Agreement. Turner has never made a payment to the Trust under the Agreement. I'm still trying to interpret that, but I guess Turner bought the pictures from RKO or this EAC in 1987? Confusing.

Does anyone know how or when Turner/MGM get the RKO library? The pre-1948 WB library (and some 200 Popeye cartoons) were sold to AAP in the '50s, AAP was bought by United Artists in '57 or '59, UA was bought by MGM in 1982, and of course Turner grabbed hold of the MGM library in 1986. But how did Turner get the RKO films? Did they come with the MGM library or were they bought sometime afterward? If they came with MGM, when did MGM get hold of the RKO films? If Turner got RKO after the MGM deal, how did that come about? Thank you.