Editing Adolph Zukor (section)

==Paramount Pictures==
The [[Paramount Pictures Corporation]] was formed to distribute films made by Famous Players–Lasky and a dozen smaller companies which were pulled into Zukor's corporate giant. The consolidations led to the formation of a nationwide film distribution system.

In 1917, Zukor acquired 50% of [[Lewis J. Selznick]]'s Select Pictures which led Selznick's publicity to wane. Later, however, Selznick bought out Zukor's share of Select Pictures.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety109-1933-01#page/n283/mode/1up|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=Lewis J. Selznick|date=January 31, 1933|page=2}}</ref>

Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldwyn were out by 1917.

In 1919, the company bought 135 theaters in the Southern states, making the producing concern the first that guaranteed exhibition of its own product in its own theaters.<ref name="nytimes-103" /><ref name="nytimes-onthisday" /> He revolutionized the film industry by organizing production, distribution, and exhibition within a single company.

Zukor believed in employing stars. He signed many of the early ones, including [[Mary Pickford]], [[Roscoe Arbuckle|Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle]], [[Marguerite Clark]], [[Pauline Frederick]], [[Douglas Fairbanks]], [[Gloria Swanson]], [[Rudolph Valentino]], and [[Wallace Reid]]. With so many important players, Zukor also pioneered "[[Block booking|Block Booking]]" for Paramount Pictures, which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. That system gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than 20 years.

Zukor was the driving force behind Paramount's success. Through the teens and twenties, he also built the Publix Theatres Corporation, a chain of nearly 2000 screens. He also ran two production studios, one in Astoria, New York (now the [[Kaufman Astoria Studios]]) and the other in Hollywood, California.

In 1926, Zukor hired independent producer [[B. P. Schulberg]], who had an unerring eye for new talent, to run the new West Coast operations. Lasky and Zukor purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street,<ref>{{cite web |title=Exterior view of the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation Studios at 5451 Marathon Street in Hollywood |url=https://calisphere.org/item/7538314fdf7e40723c11ef2713e9a765/ |website=[[calisphere]] |access-date=2 April 2022 |date=1930}}</ref> for US$1 million.<ref name="nytimes-103" /><ref name="nytimes-onthisday" /> In 1927, Famous Players–Lasky took the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation. In 1930, because of the importance of the Publix Theatres, it became the Paramount Publix Corporation.

By then, Zukor was turning out 60 features a year. He made deals to show them all in theaters controlled by [[Loew's|Loew's Incorporated]], and also continued to add more theaters to his own chain. By 1920, he was in a position to charge what he wished for film rentals. Thus he pioneered the concept, now the accepted practice in the film industry, by which the distributor charges the exhibitor a percentage of box-office receipts.[[File:Adolph Zukor anniversary 1936.JPG|thumb|left|Zukor is honored with a dinner marking his 25 years in the film industry in 1936.  From left: [[Frank Lloyd]], [[Joseph M. Schenck]], [[George Jessel (actor)|George Jessel]], Zukor, [[Darryl F. Zanuck]], [[Louis B. Mayer]], and [[Jesse L. Lasky]].]]Zukor, ever the impresario,  bought a huge plot of ground at Broadway and 43d Street, over objections of his board of directors, to build the Paramount Theater and office building, a 39-story building that had its grand opening in 1926. He managed to keep stars such as [[Pola Negri]], Gloria Swanson, and most important of all, Mary Pickford, under contract and happy to stay at Paramount. At one point, Pickford told Zukor: "You know, for years I've dreamed of making $20,000 a year before I was 20, and I'll be 20 very soon."

"I could take a hint," Zukor recalled wryly. "She got the $20,000, and before long I was paying her $100,000 a year. Mary was a terrific businessman."<ref name="nytimes-103"/><ref name="nytimes-onthisday"/>

Zukor was, primarily, also a businessman. "He did not take the same personal, down-to-the-last-detail interest in the making of his movies that producer-executives such as Samuel Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer did," wrote ''The New York Times'' in Zukor's obituary at the age of 103. He became an early investor in radio, taking a 50 percent interest in the new [[CBS|Columbia Broadcasting System]] in 1928, but selling it within a few years.

Partner Lasky hung on until 1932, when Paramount nearly collapsed in the Great Depression years. Lasky was blamed for that and tossed out. In the following year, Paramount went into receivership. Ultimately at fault were Zukor's over-expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases that made the company file for bankruptcy. A bank-mandated reorganization team kept the company intact, and, miraculously, Zukor was able to return as production chief. On June 4, 1935, [[John E. Otterson]] became president.<ref>{{cite news |title=PARAMOUNT BOARD ELECTS OTTERSON; Head of the Electric Research Products Made President of New Company. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1935/06/05/archives/paramount-board-elects-otterson-head-of-the-electric-research.html |access-date=9 January 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=5 June 1935 |location=New York City |page=29 |language=en-US}}</ref> When [[Barney Balaban]] was appointed president on July 2, 1936, Zukor was relegated to chairman of the board.<ref>{{cite news |title=FINANCIAL .,, , . e 'rm nrk illr . = . . FINANCIAL BALABAN, ZUKOR HEAD PARAMOUNT; Former Elected President of Pictures Corporation; Latter Retained as Chairman. KENNEDY FINISHES STUDY Report Said to Show Theatres' Profit Offset by Results of Film Production Division. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1936/07/03/archives/financial-e-rm-nrk-illr-financial-balaban-zukor-head-paramount.html |access-date=9 January 2022 |work=The New York Times |date=3 July 1936 |location=New York City |page=25 |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Regev |first1=Ronny |title=Working in Hollywood: How the Studio System Turned Creativity into Labor |date=2018 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina |page=38 |isbn=9781469637068 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80ZwDwAAQBAJ&dq=Barney+Balaban+July+1936&pg=PA38 |access-date=9 January 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref>

He eventually spent most of his time in New York City, but passed the winter months in Hollywood to check on his studio. He retired from Paramount Pictures in 1959 and in 1964, stepped down as chairman and assumed Chairman Emeritus status,<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875915,00.html |title=Personalities: Jun. 12, 1964 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=June 12, 1964|access-date=September 14, 2019}}</ref> a position he held up until his death at the age of 103 in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]].

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