Ardel Wray inspired by the life of the notorious English pirate Edward Teach and set to star Boris Karloff. Remarried and living in Hollywood, Wray left RKO shortly before she gave birth to her daughter in May 1945. Her last produced screenplay for Lewton, "Isle of the Dead", was released in September of that year, a few days after Japan surrendered, ending WWII. Lewton's films had played a major role in returning RKO to profitability during WWII but, when the war ended, audiences lost interest in horror movies. When Bedlam lost money, RKO did not renew Lewton's contract and his group disbanded.
Whaling in Japan there was halted in March 1945 when the islands were taken by US forces. By November 1945 the whaling stations received permission to reopen; however, most whaling ships had been commandeered by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and by the end of the war the factory ships and most of the whale catchers had been sunk. General Douglas MacArthur encouraged the surrendered Japan to continue whaling in order to provide a cheap source of meat to starving people (and millions of dollars in oil for the US and Europe). The Japanese whaling industry quickly recovered as MacArthur authorized two tankers to