This Day in Ann Dvorak History: Loaned Out to RKO

Year of Ann Dvorak: Day 212

On July 31, 1936, RKO closed a deal to borrow Ann Dvorak from Warner Bros. for the feature We Who Are About to Die, co-starring Preston Foster and John Beal. This was significant for Ann because she had not made a movie in over a year, having spent most of 1936 entangled in a legal battle over her contract with Warner Bros. Even though the courts had washed their hands of the matter weeks before, the two were still at an impasse, so the loan-out seems to have been a compromise each could live with.

For Ann’s services, RKO had to shell out $3,000 a week, half of which paid Ann’s contracted weekly salary. RKO would end up borrowing her again for Racing Lady, and even though she would end up making two more films for her home studio before the year was over, her days at Warner Bros. were numbered.

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