Schaefer joined
Paramount Pictures in 1920 and became general manager in 1933. He became vice president and chief executive officer at
United Artists and was then hired as president of
RKO Pictures in 1938. In 1941
Orson Welles made his classic film
Citizen Kane at RKO. He was fired from RKO in 1942 because of the controversy surrounding Welles' second film
The Magnificent Ambersons and due to RKO's lackluster box office receipts. Other films made by RKO during Schaefer's time at the studio include;
Gunga Din (1939),
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939),
Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), and
The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) Schaefer was the first person to receive the
Motion Picture Association's award for civic and patriotic service. ==In popular culture==