Film Booking Offices of America

Financier Joseph P. Kennedy led the merger that dismantled the Film Booking Offices of America (FBO), a midsize studio that produced and distributed hundreds of low-budget features before its dissolution. The firm began its U.S. operations in 1918 as Robertson-Cole, an Anglo-American import-export company that initially traded in automobiles and film equipment before pivoting to movie distribution, operating from 723 Seventh Avenue in New York, NY.

By 1922, a corporate reorganization led the company to adopt the name FBO, which was first applied to its distribution operations and ultimately to its own productions. While the studio focused on small-town American markets, it built a significant roster of talent, including Western stars like Fred Thomson and Tom Tyler—who played the lead in twenty-nine cowboy pictures for the studio—as well as performers such as Pauline Frederick, Sessue Hayakawa, Evelyn Brent, Richard Talmadge, and Alberta Vaughn, who headlined five short series. The studio eventually established a 13.5-acre production facility in the Colegrove district of Los Angeles at 780 Gower Street, a site later known as the home of RKO, Desilu, and now CBS Paramount Television.

From Robertson-Cole to FBO

The company’s early history was marked by a reliance on independent productions and the distribution of serials and comedic shorts. Following the 1918 launch of its U.S. film operations, the firm secured a contract as the exclusive supplier for Exhibitors Mutual Distributing. By 1920, the studio began its own production efforts, debuting the feature “The Wonder Man” in May of that year. Throughout the early 1920s, the company remained under majority British ownership, though American operations were run by Britishmen through 1922, and it entered a working relationship with Joseph P. Kennedy as early as 1921. Its early top-of-the-line product included movies from Sessue Hayakawa’s company, Haworth Pictures Corporation, alongside films made expressly for R-C distribution by B.B.

The Kennedy Era and Dissolution

In 1926, an investment group led by Kennedy acquired the company, moving its New York address to 1560 Broadway, and he began managing the studio’s operations hands-on while traveling frequently to California.

The studio’s final phase was defined by the rapid adoption of new technology and corporate restructuring:

• In August 1928, the studio became the second in Hollywood to release a feature-length “talkie” using RCA Photophone technology.
• Two months later, Kennedy and RCA executive David Sarnoff finalized a merger between FBO and the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater circuit.
• This merger resulted in the creation of RKO, and the FBO entity was formally dissolved in early 1929, with its assets transferred to Radio-Keith-Orpheum Corp.

Final FBO Releases

Meanwhile, the very last official FBO production to arrive in U.S. theaters was Pals of the Prairie, directed by Louis King and starring Buzz Barton and Frank Rice, which was released on July 7, 1929.