Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1952)

RALPH STOIM-Y fi a Big Job CxcluMHe $L BULLETIN feature by LEONARD COULTER At the age of 34, wisdom and experience seem unimportant to a man. The things that impress him are vigor, personal aggressiveness, the spirit of adventure and conquest, and supreme self-confidence. Ralph Edward Stolkin has that youthful philosophy. What is more, the new boss of RKO Pictures can indulge his ideas to the full, being a multimillionaire with a personal fortune estimated at between $30,000,000 and $40,000,000. What Stolkin will do with the company whose control has just passed into his hands from the other self-opinionated millionaire, Howard Hughes, has the motion picture industry agog with speculation. Stolkin knows it, and revels in it. He is thoroughly enjoyng the uneasiness which his coup has caused. I asked him the other day whether he ealized that RKO's change of ownership, nd the possibility of the company moving nto the television field, had caused some onsternation. He laughed. "Sure, I know k" he said. "And it's about time someody shook the picture industry up. God mows, it needs a jolt." Physically, Stolkin is a big man — 6 ft. 3 ■., 225 lbs. dack hair uede >hoes, and an extremely rich fathern-law. It was the father-in-law, Abraham Leonard Koolish — now also a director of IKO — who set this thrustful young man off Ml his meteoric career with a $15,000 loan, t happened in Chicago, where Stolkin was iorn. In 1938, after leaving Illinois Univerity, he got a job with Strauss Securities, a ^ocal brokerage house. He was runner, ;alesman and customers' man. And then he net and fell in love with Ruth Koolish, who las since borne him three children. f/i's First Million j With his father-in-law's blessing and backing, young Stolkin, at the age of 27, launched • merchandising operation called the Monarch 'ales Corporation, distributors of the Reynolds ball point pen and a line of table adios. Within two years Monarch was dong a million dollar business. At its peak, I vhen it was selling 20,000 radios a week, lalph Stolkin decided to take a capital prott. He sold his business to the Jewel Radio nd Television Corporation, New York, and ntered the ranks of America's new millionires. is He has a full head and thick a fondness for striped suits and He was now able to plunge for himself. Witli Mr. Koolish, he organized a mail order house, Empire Industries of Chicago. He teamed up with Ray Ryan, Edward G. Burke, Jr., and Robert S. Hays to buy some oil properties in Scurry County, Texas. They struck it rich. He and Hays then bought a beef cattle ranch covering some 20,000 acres. JHe put money into the National Vide/') C orporation, which makes television tubes, into an adhesive label manufacturing business (Kleen-Stik), into the U-Arc Corporation, makers of arc lamps and into the Postal Finance Corporation. With Ted R. Gamble, Ed Burke and Sherrill Corwin, he bought from the Marshall Field interests Radio Stations KOIX and KOIN-FM in Portland, Oregon and KJR, Seattle. The price was $1,500,000. He purchased a share of Hal Wallis' "At War With the Army," the first Martin and Lewis starrer, on the recommendation of Sherrill Corwin, who was also a subscriber to the National Exhibitors Finance Company. And he had investments in a television film producing company called Screen Associates, of Beverly Hills, of which he is president. Supreme Opportunist One thing is obvious from this record: Ralph Stolkin is an opportunist. It is that fact which makes other film industry leaders wonder whether he will cut the ground from under their feet in the television field. Stolkin himself added to the feverish discussions by the wording of his statement, issued after the official announcement of his election as President of RKO Pictures. In that statement he said significantly: "Problems that have plagued the industry as a whole for a long time, such as the use of television as a film outlet, will be approached, analyzed, and determined with unprejudiced minds which will seek solutions looking to the future unbound by any dedication to the past, and such solutions which seem the best answer for the benefit of the corporation will be adopted". This was quickly taken to mean that Stolkin and his associates would sell RKO's picture backlog to television — or even its current production — if they believed it to be a sound business proposition. Some such deal might save RKO, which showed a net loss of $3,712,834 for the first six months of 1952. But it is not necessarily the answer to the company's problems — or the onlyanswer. If Ralph Stolkin and his friends were to throw the RKO backlog to the wolves, they would start a colossal devalu OLD PRESIDENT & NEW Depinet and Stolkin ation of motion pictures. In self-defense, some of the other majors would have to follow suit and the pickings would be lean indeed. That kind of mess doesn't seem to be the sort of thing Stolkin would get mixed up in. TV "Front"? "There are rumors," I said, "that you and your group are 'fronting' for one of the big television networks." Stolkin boomed with laughter again. "I can answer that one without any hesitation," he said. "It isn't true. We're not fronting for anyone, least of all one of the networks. We own a couple of radio stations of our own, and we're not too fond of the networks. 'W hat we aim to do is to make pictures — for ourselves. We're not interested in merely providing facilities for independent producers. Of course, if independents come along with a worthwhile proposition, we'll think about it, but our primary intention is to make big, expensive, top-grade 'A' pictures of our own. We're looking for the best men we can get into the studio for that purpose." Arnold M. Grant, the company's new chairman, and general counsel, added that the company had a backlog of pictures sufficient (Continued on Page 20) FILM BULLETIN October 20, 1952 Page 5.