WikiMini

Famous Players Film Company

The Famous Players Film Company
IndustryMotion pictures
FoundedMay 8, 1912; 113 years ago (1912-05-08)
FounderAdolph Zukor
Defunct1916; 109 years ago (1916)
FateCorporate merger
SuccessorsFamous Players–Lasky
Paramount Pictures
Headquarters
Hollywood, California
,

United States
PLAY: Andy's Dog Day (1921) by Wallace A. Carlson for Celebrated Players Film Corporation. An animated film with balloon texts, this short features the character Andy Gump, who is repeatedly harassed by dogs (duration 05:54).

The Famous Players Film Company was a film company founded in New York City in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, powerful theatre owners and producers there.

History

[edit]
The evolution of Paramount Skydance
1886Westinghouse Electric Corporation is founded as Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company
1912Famous Players Film Company is founded
1913Lasky Feature Play Company is founded
1914Paramount Pictures is founded
1916Famous Players and Lasky merge as Famous Players–Lasky and acquire Paramount
1927Famous Players–Lasky is renamed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation; CBS is founded with investment from Columbia Records
1929Paramount acquires 49% of CBS
1930Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation is renamed to Paramount Publix Corporation
1932Paramount sells back its shares of CBS
1934Gulf+Western is founded as the Michigan Bumper Corporation
1935Paramount Publix Corporation is renamed to Paramount Pictures
1936National Amusements is founded as Northeast Theater Corporation
1938CBS acquires Columbia Records
1950Desilu is founded and CBS distributes its television programs
1952CBS creates the CBS Television Film Sales division
1958CBS Television Film Sales is renamed to CBS Films
1966Gulf+Western acquires Paramount
1967Gulf+Western acquires Desilu and renames it Paramount Television (now CBS Studios)
1968CBS Films is renamed to CBS Enterprises
1970CBS Enterprises is renamed to Viacom
1971Viacom is spun off from CBS
1987National Amusements acquires Viacom
1988CBS sells Columbia Records to Sony
1989Gulf+Western is renamed to Paramount Communications
1994Viacom acquires Paramount Communications
1995Paramount Television and United Television launch UPN; Westinghouse acquires CBS
1997Westinghouse is renamed to CBS Corporation
2000Viacom acquires UPN and CBS Corporation
2005Viacom splits into the second CBS Corporation and Viacom
2006Skydance Media is founded as Skydance Productions; CBS Corporation shuts down UPN and replaces it with The CW
2009Paramount and Skydance enter an agreement to co-produce and co-finance films
2017CBS Corporation sells CBS Radio to Entercom (now Audacy)
2019CBS Corporation and Viacom re-merge as ViacomCBS
2022ViacomCBS is renamed to Paramount Global
2025Skydance acquires National Amusements and merges with Paramount Global as Paramount Skydance

Discussions to form the company were held at The Lambs, a famous theater club where Charles and Daniel Frohman were members.[citation needed] The company advertised "Famous Players in Famous Plays" and its first release was the French film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912) starring Sarah Bernhardt and Lou Tellegen. Its first actual production was The Count of Monte Cristo (1912, released 1913), directed by Joseph A. Golden and Edwin S. Porter and starring James O'Neill, the father of dramatist Eugene O'Neill.

In 1914, the company purchased the former headquarters of New York City's Ninth Mounted Cavalry unit at 221 West 26th Street in Manhattan.[1] The cavernous brick building made excellent filming space for Zukor, and the modernized site is still used today as Chelsea Television Studios.[1]

Hiring its performers straight from the Broadway stage, Famous Players had an early roster of some of the theater world's biggest names including Marguerite Clark, William Farnum, Gaby Deslys, Hazel Dawn, and H. B. Warner.[1] The company also featured cinema's biggest star of the era, Mary Pickford, and presented theater idol John Barrymore in his first two feature films.[1] The company produced both short and feature-length productions.

In 1916, the company merged with the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company to form Famous Players–Lasky Corporation, which later became Paramount Pictures.[2]

Famous Players Fiction Studios

[edit]

In 1915, the company established Famous Players Fiction Studios at 5300 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. The new studio's first film starred Mary Pickford.[3] The studio later became Clune Studio, then California Studio, then Gross-Krasne,[4] followed by Producers Studios Inc., and is now known as Raleigh Studios.[5] Raleigh Studios is known for being the site of Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and Let's Make a Deal. It is one of the oldest studios in Hollywood.[citation needed]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d Alleman, Richard (February 1, 2005). New York: The Movie Lover's Guide. New York City: Broadway Books. p. 231. ISBN 978-0-7679-1634-9.
  2. ^ "$12,500,000 MERGER OF FILM COMPANIES; Famous Players and Jesse L. Lasky Feature Unite in a New Corporation. ADOLPH ZUKOR, PRESIDENT Consolidate to Meet Present Conditions ;- 84 Pictures a Year to be Distributed by Paramount". The New York Times. June 29, 1916. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-26.
  3. ^ "Raleigh Studios". Archived May 26, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ "Gross-Krasne Buys California Studios" (PDF). The Billboard. November 29, 1952. p. 11.
  5. ^ Wayne, Gary. "Raleigh Studios". Seeing Stars.com. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
[edit]
Stub icon

This article about an American film distributor or production company is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.