It was founded by the Kozinsky brothers, Morris (Maurice, Maury, Morrie; September 13, 1914 – September 2, 1977), Frank (April 1, 1913 – February 12, 1989), and Hyman (Herman, Hy, Hymie; July 4, 1916 – July 20, 1992), who later changed their professional surname to "King".
[2] They had notable collaborations with such filmmakers as Philip Yordan and William Castle and are particularly remembered today for employing a number of blacklisted writers during the Red Scare of the late 1940s and 1950s.
Joseph Kozinsky (born 1884 in Dnipro - died 1950)[3] was a New York fruit merchant who, with his wife Sarah (known affectionately as 'Mama King'), produced five children, brothers Morris, Frank, and Hyman, and sisters Rose and Nettie.
Morris and Frank did various odd jobs including selling newspapers and shining shoes before getting into slot machines.
In 1940, the brothers, along with their sister Nettie Segal, were charged with tax evasion, with the intention of exposing how kickbacks from pinball machine operators had been paid to Kent Kane Parrot and previous Los Angeles city officials.
They built a slot machine projector called the Hollywood TalkiTone and formed a partnership with film producer Cecil B.
[2]The Kozinskys decided to abandon slot machine projecting for actual film production.
[2]The brothers knew Hollywood personalities like Louis B. Mayer and Frank Capra from the racetrack and asked them for advice.
That's the way we do business and we're not going to stop until we get an Academy Award and land one of our pictures in the Radio City Music Hall.
When I first met them ... they weren't gangsters but they had [investments in] slot machines and they were probably running something [illegal] in town.
[10]The Kings had a production assistant, Arthur Gardner, who later recalled "Frank was the smartest brother and the leader.
Maurie watched the money and Hymie just kind of tagged along ... Frank had a good story mind and supervised everything ...
"[11] In 1945, they announced plans to make their most expensive film yet, the musical Golden Girl starring Belita.
[15] The King Brothers later sued RKO for mismanaging the distribution and sale of three of their films, The Brave One, Carnival Story and Drums in the Deep South, claiming $6,030,000 in damages.