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RKO Signal

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Mostly on TCM old movies , I see an opening by "RKO" & there is a sound signal being transmitted.

rko.png


…any idea what it means if anything at all...[huh]
 

Captain Lex

One of the Regulars
Messages
149
Location
St Paul, MN, USA
Presumably the sound is supposed to represent the origin of the company as a part of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). The R in RKO also stands for Radio - Radio, Keith, Orpheum. It also helped frame the studio as associated with talking pictures, which the company was created to produce.
 

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,825
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Or, after about 1938, vvv AN RKO RADIO PICTURE vvv

At least early on in its history, RKO's "Radio" element was also meant to indicate a close association with NBC, whose radio stars would be featured in RKO films. Rudy Vallee, Fred Waring, and Amos 'n' Andy were among the early radio personalities so featured, and a few years later Joe Penner became a successful movie star under the RKO banner.
 
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Undertow

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,126
Location
Des Moines, IA, US
Huh, I guess that would explain why the Orpheum theater in downtown Des Moines, which had primarily seen Vaudeville acts, was later renamed RKO theater sometime in the 1930s or 1940s (the date escapes me at the moment).

(Naturally, that building was demolished decades ago.)
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
Throughout the history of advertising buzzwords have been attached to all sorts of products that had nothing to do with. In the late 19th century the word "sanitary" was atatched to all sorts of products, just as "organic" is attached to things now.
I recently found an ad for sale on Ebay for a product sold by my great great grandfather's company in Pittsburgh. It was about 1895, and the product was a gas light chimney, designed for large buildings. The glass had little check marks all over it to disperse the light. They marketed it as an "X-RAY" lamp chimney. Yeah, right.
 

vitanola

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Gopher Prairie, MI
Throughout the history of advertising buzzwords have been attached to all sorts of products that had nothing to do with. In the late 19th century the word "sanitary" was atatched to all sorts of products, just as "organic" is attached to things now.
I recently found an ad for sale on Ebay for a product sold by my great great grandfather's company in Pittsburgh. It was about 1895, and the product was a gas light chimney, designed for large buildings. The glass had little check marks all over it to disperse the light. They marketed it as an "X-RAY" lamp chimney. Yeah, right.

Oh!
Fort Pitt glass?

I've always collected the later x-ray medical lighgting. i'm looking for a couple of the pointed globes used in grups of four on some 1916 vintage dental and operating room lamps..
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Throughout the history of advertising buzzwords have been attached to all sorts of products that had nothing to do with. In the late 19th century the word "sanitary" was atatched to all sorts of products, just as "organic" is attached to things now.
I recently found an ad for sale on Ebay for a product sold by my great great grandfather's company in Pittsburgh. It was about 1895, and the product was a gas light chimney, designed for large buildings. The glass had little check marks all over it to disperse the light. They marketed it as an "X-RAY" lamp chimney. Yeah, right.

With regards to advertising words...
In 1925 a Spanish gentleman named Francisco Garcia arrived in San Antonio to
establish the Sanitary Tortilla Manufacturing Company. Back then the founder took a very controversial step away from producing the "hand-made" tortilla of the time offered locally by the "chile queens" of San Antonio); Mr. Garcia had the first
tortilla-making machines for the entire region installed in the factory. At first , some were reluctant
to accept this, but in the end the Sanitary Tortilla's consistency, flavor & excellent quality proved to
be "a winner", that I still enjoy very much.

"Air Conditioned" theater is another one…but I believe I'm straying away….:p
 

Undertow

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,126
Location
Des Moines, IA, US
Here's a photo of our Orpheum theater at 8th and Mulberry, 1919
OrpheumTheater8thandMulberrylookingnorth1919.jpg

Later renamed the RKO Theater - I still can't track down the date of the rename. The building was demolished in 1977.
 

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