#pandro berman

From MGM comes THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (1945, Lewin), plus proof that your time in university literature courses doesn't have to go to waste! This Aesthetic, Gothic and classy horror stars Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury and Donna Reed.

We give an overview of Oscar Wilde, his 1890 novel, the Aestheticism literary movement, public versus private horror, and so! much! more!

“A Woman’s Lot”(S1;E3) ~ July 17, 1987

“Hollywood the Golden Years: The RKO Story” is a six-part series produced and aired on the BBC in 1987. Each episode is at least an hour long, and touches on a different aspect of the studio's history (1928 to 1957) mixing comments, clips, and interviews. Interviews with Lucille Ball are part of episodes 3 and 6.  

“Birth of a Titan” (S1;E1) – July 1, 1987

“Let's Face the Music and Dance” (S1;E2) – July 8, 1987

“A Woman's Lot” (S1;E3) – July 17, 1987

“It's All True” (S1;E4) – July 24, 1987

“Dark Victory” (S1;E5) – July 31, 1987

“Howard's Way” (S1;E6) – August 7, 1987

Edward Asner (Narrator) 

Featuring Interviews with

Lucille Ball 

Ginger Rogers

Katharine Hepburn 

Douglas Fairbanks Jr. 

Pandro S. Berman (Producer)

Garsin Kanin (Writer)

Fay Kanin (Writer)

Linwood Dunn (Optical Effects)

This episode begins with the last of the Astaire and Rogers films (detailed in the previous episode). Ginger Rogers wins her first Academy Award for Kitty Foyle (1940), a solo effort without Astaire.

Interviews with Pandro S. Berman and Katharine Hepburn's talk about her start at RKO and the film Morning Glory (1933), a film originally intended for another RKO star.  

Lucille Ball talks about Ginger Rogers' mother, Lela, who was an acting coach who provided workshops on the RKO lot. Lucy would later replicate this by creating the Desilu Playhouse. 

Lucy talks about life on the lot as an RKO contract player, getting a few lines, meeting people, and learning how to conduct herself on the set. 

A clip from her brief appearance in Roberta (1935) is shown. Lucy was under contract to RKO for seven years.

Lucy: “There were people who made demands. I was not one of them.”

Lucy: “One day I saw on a script 'Lucille Ball type.' That was one of the biggest thrills I could imagine. And I didn't get the part!”  

Lucy: “I liked it. I enjoyed it. I was learning. I was part of 'the biz' finally.”

Hepburn says that RKO was one big family and everyone knew everyone else. Rogers, conversely, says that there were hundreds of people and there were many people she never met working there at the very same time.

Ed Asner reads a fan letter to Ginger Rogers from a young English policeman pledging his devotion should she employee him as a butler or chauffeur. Rogers says she regrets she never got the letter, nor any of the other thousands the studio regularly received. This leads to a clip from Professional Sweetheart (1933).

The episode presents a clip of Sylvia Scarlett (1936) with Katharine Hepburn doing drag. Hepburn says she knew the film was going wrong while making it.  Asner says it was considered the worst 'A' picture ever released by RKO. Asner reads some of the original preview audience's comments from the film, all uniformly negative. The film's sexual ambiguity made it a cult movie with modern audiences, something Hepburn cannot fathom.

Hepburn (about Sylvia Scarlett): “It just didn't go anywhere. And it still doesn't go anywhere. It makes absolutely no sense.”

Writer Garsin Kanin tells the story of how Ginger Rogers was keen to play Queen Elizabeth in Mary of Scotland (1936) opposite Hepburn in the title role. RKO was worried that Rogers' casting would trivialize the serious film. Determined, Rogers made her own screen test, and left her name off the finished test. Producers eventually discovered it was Rogers and the role went to relative newcomer Florence Eldridge.

Hepburn: “I don't think I was very suited to Mary of Scotland. I would have liked to have played Elizabeth. I always thought Mary was an absolute jackass.”

Writer Fay Kanin says that this was the period of the 'strong woman' – both the actors and the characters. Kanin mentions the only female film director of the 1930s Dorothy Arzner, and her film Christopher Strong (1933) starring Hepburn.

RKO's Stage Door (1937) was the only time Hepburn and Rogers (along with Lucille Ball) appeared together.  

Lucy says she was terrified of Hepburn. Ball, not known for her celebrity impressions, imitates Hepburn's lockjaw voice while talking about her. 

Hepburn says they went into the shooting without a script (despite that the property had first been a stage play). Director Gregory La Cava tailored the dialogue to the actors.

Optical Effects expert Linwood Dunn talks about the special effects involved in having Hepburn and Cary Grant star opposite a live leopard in Bringing Up Baby (1938). The film is considered a classic screwball comedy today, but lost RKO $365,000. This ended Hepburn's tenure at RKO. She retreated to New York and didn't emerge for two years – and then only for MGM.  

Fay Kanin discusses 'meet cute' plot conventions in RKO films of the late 1930s.

Kanin and Berman discuss Bachelor Mother (1939), a film Rogers refused to do, until she was taken off payroll for three weeks and finally relented. Although audiences loved it, Rogers continued to loathe the film calling it “a dog.” Asner reads a variety of typed messages from Rogers to producers, rejecting their various script submissions.  

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) ends the decade on a triumphant note for RKO. The scene where Quasimodo rescues Esmerelda from the gallows is presented. “Sanctuary! Sanctuary!”

Berman resigned from RKO when new president George Schaeffer reorganized the studio.  

“Howard's Way” (S1;E6) ~ August 7, 1987

This episode (the final installment) concerns the Howard Hughes years at RKO (1948 to 1955).  It ends with the sale of the studio to Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball’s company Desilu, who needed more space. In 1956 they paid six million dollars. Lucy says it was like a ghost town when she toured the set before her purchase of it. 

Lucy: “It was depressing.”  

Lucille Ball concludes the six part series with the apocryphal story that as a young contract player she marched onto the RKO lot and said “Some day I’ll own all of this.”  

Lucy: “The last thing I ever thought of was owning the studio.”

After the divorce of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Desilu was dissolved and Ball sold the studios to Paramount.  

Ginger Rogers rehearsing with choreographer Hermes Pan for the film Swing Time (1936) directed by George Stevens.