See also: Paramount (homonymy)

Paramount Pictures is an American production company of cinema which was created in 1913. It belongs to the conglomerate Viacom.

History

It is in 1912 that Adolph Zukor (1873 - 1976), a former furrier of Hungarian origin, creates Famous Players Film Company. Adolph Zukor had started to be interested in the cinema as of 1903 by buying a Nickelodeon with Chicago. Two years later, it started to make deal with Marcus Loew of which it was not long in becoming the treasurer. Loew was then constituting a vast network of cinemas and it would be, a few years later, at the origin of the creation of the Subway-Goldwyn-Mayer.

After having signed a particularly lucrative contract of distribution, Zukor was gone to fly of its own wings and created from there Famous Players in 1912. Among the first artists signed by the firm, one can quote a young actress of the name of Mary Pickford which was going quickly to become very popular and to be called the small one been engaged of America . In 1913, to find outlets with the films which it produces, Zukor creates a company of Distribution: Paramount Pictures . In 1916, Famous Players amalgamated with the company of Jesse L. Lasky' S Feature Play Company to give rise to Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. Several name changes were followed from there ( Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation in 1927, Paramount Publix Corporation in 1930), several repurchases and even a bankruptcy before in 1935 the production companies and of distribution adopt the common noun of Paramount Pictures Inc. In the Thirties and Forties, Paramount counted among its stars Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, Marlène Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck, Paulette Goddard, Alan Ladd, Veronica Lake, Ray Milland, Maurice Chevalier and the Marx Brothers.

In 1954, Paramount launched its process of cinema to broad screen, VistaVision, in answer to the Cinémascope of the Twentieth Century Fox. Paramount was one of the studios to suffer less crisis which shook Hollywood in the Fifties. It counted then among its realizers Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, Cecil B. DeMille and Alfred Hitchcock.

Paramount contributed to Culture French while turning in its studios of Joinville two films of Marcel Pagnol, Marius and first version of Topaz (repudiated by the author which will create another version quickly of it), like more modestly, in Hollywood, an American adaptation of the family Duraton named True to life (1943).

Paramount was repurchased by the conglomerates GULF & Western in 1966 which rebapista the company Paramount Communications . In 1992, the company diversifies and buys six American amusement parks to the Kings Entertainment Company. It creates the company Paramount Parks. Viacom repurchases Paramount Communications in 1994, for 9,8 billion dollars.

Paramount Pictures repurchased, the December 11th 2005, DreamWorks SKG, the company created by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, for 1,6 billion dollar.

Anecdotes

• the logo of Paramount resembles much the Cervin, a mountain in Switzerland. Certain rumors claim that the director had gone to Switzerland and, impressed by this mountain, it decided to use it for his company.
• the original slogan of Paramount was: " Yew it' S.A. Paramount Picture, it' S the best show in town." (" If it is a Paramount film, it is the best in ville").

Catalog of films

List of films produced by Paramount Pictures

External bonds

• Official site
• Official site

Simple: Paramount Pictures

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