Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film and television production and distribution company and the namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global. It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States, and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles.
Adolph Zukor was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures. He produced one of America's first feature-length films, The Prisoner of Zenda, in 1913.
Sir Thomas Henry Hall Caine, usually known as Hall Caine, was a British novelist, dramatist, short story writer, poet and critic of the late 19th and early 20th century. Caine's popularity during his lifetime was unprecedented. He wrote 15 novels on subjects of adultery, divorce, domestic violence, illegitimacy, infanticide, religious bigotry and women's rights, became an international literary celebrity, and sold a total of ten million books. Caine was the most highly paid novelist of his day. The Eternal City is the first novel to have sold over a million copies worldwide. In addition to his books, Caine is the author of more than a dozen plays and was one of the most commercially successful dramatists of his time; many were West End and Broadway productions. Caine adapted seven of his novels for the stage. He collaborated with leading actors and managers, including Wilson Barrett, Viola Allen, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Louis Napoleon Parker, Mrs Patrick Campbell, George Alexander, and Arthur Collins. Most of Caine's novels were adapted into silent black and white films. A. E. Coleby's 1923 18,454 feet, nineteen-reel film The Prodigal Son became the longest commercially made British film. Alfred Hitchcock's 1929 film The Manxman, is Hitchcock's last silent film.
Edwin Stanton Porter was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over 250 films created by Porter, his most important include What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City (1901), Jack and the Beanstalk (1902), Life of an American Fireman (1903), The Great Train Robbery (1903), The European Rest Cure (1904), The Kleptomaniac (1905), Life of a Cowboy (1906), Rescued from an Eagle's Nest (1908), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1913).
William Wadsworth Hodkinson, known more commonly as W. W. Hodkinson, was born in Independence, Kansas. Known as The Man Who Invented Hollywood, he opened one of the first movie theaters in Ogden, Utah in 1907 and within just a few years changed the way movies were produced, distributed, and exhibited. He became a leading West Coast film distributor in the early days of motion pictures and in 1914 he founded and became president of the first nationwide film distributor, Paramount Pictures Corporation. Hodkinson was also responsible for doodling the mountain that became the Paramount logo also in 1914. After being driven out of Paramount, he established his own independent distribution company, the W. W. Hodkinson Corporation, in 1917, before selling it off in 1924. He left the motion picture business in 1929 to form Hodkinson Aviation Corporation, and later formed the Central American Aviation Corporation and Companía Nacional de Aviación in Guatemala.
The Famous Players Film Company was a film company founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, powerful New York City theatre owners and producers.
The Famous Players–Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company formed on June 28, 1916, from the merger of Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company – originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays – and the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company.
The Eternal City is a 1923 American silent drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice, from a script by Ouida Bergère based on the 1901 Hall Caine novel of the same name, and starring Barbara La Marr, Lionel Barrymore, and Bert Lytell.
Tess of the Storm Country is a 1914 silent drama directed by Edwin S. Porter. It is based on the 1909 novel of the same name by Grace Miller White. It stars Mary Pickford, in a role she would reprise eight years later for the 1922 adaptation by John S. Robertson.
In the Bishop's Carriage is a 1913 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players Film Company film company and starring Mary Pickford. It is based on the novel of the same name by Miriam Michelson. This film is lost.
The Dictator is a 1915 American silent comedy film directed by Oscar Eagle and reputedly Edwin S. Porter. It was based on a play The Dictator by Richard Harding Davis and produced by Adolph Zukor and the Charles Frohman Company. John Barrymore stars in a role played on the stage by William Collier, Sr. whose company Barrymore had performed in this play. The film was rereleased on April 13, 1919 as part of the Paramount "Success Series" of their early screen successes. The story was refilmed in 1922 as The Dictator starring Wallace Reid. Today both films are lost.
Sold is a 1915 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Based on George Erastov's play of the same name, the film starred stage actress Pauline Frederick and was directed by Hugh Ford and Edwin S. Porter. The film was re-released in 1919 by Paramount. It is now considered lost.
Bella Donna is a 1915 American silent drama film produced by Famous Players–Lasky and the Charles Frohman Company, starring Pauline Frederick, and based on the 1912 play Bella Donna by James Bernard Fagan adapted from the 1909 novel of the same name by Robert Smythe Hichens.
Zaza is a 1915 American silent romantic drama film produced by Famous Players Film Company in association with the Charles Frohman Company, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by Edwin S. Porter and Hugh Ford and stars Pauline Frederick in the title role. The film is based on the 1899 French stage play of the same name that starred Mrs. Leslie Carter, and the American adaptation by David Belasco.
The Dancing Girl is a lost 1915 silent film drama produced by the Famous Players Film Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is based on the 1891 Broadway play of the same name by Henry Arthur Jones. The film was directed by Allan Dwan and starred stage actress Florence Reed in her film debut. Reed's husband, Malcolm Williams, also appears in the film.
Jim the Penman is a 1915 silent film crime drama produced by the Famous Players Film Company and released through Paramount Pictures. It was the first movie based on a well-known stage play, Jim the Penman by Charles Lawrence Young, about a forger in Victorian Britain. The film was directed by Edwin S. Porter and starred stage actor John B. Mason in his debut film, in line with Adolph Zukor's efforts to recruit famous stage actors for films. Mason had played the part on the stage in the 1910 season on Broadway. Co-starring with Mason was the young up-and-coming favorite Harold Lockwood.
The World's Great Snare is a 1916 American silent drama film produced by Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company and distributed through Paramount Pictures. The film is based on a 1900 novel of the same name by E. Phillips Oppenheim and was directed by Joseph Kaufman. The film stars Pauline Frederick, a noted stage actress, and Irving Cummings, later a director, is the male lead. The film is now considered lost.
Rags is a 1915 silent film produced by Famous Players Film Company and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Kirkwood and starring Mary Pickford. It survives in various prints between the Library of Congress, the George Eastman House and Cinematheque Francaise. It's available to watch on YouTube from 2022
Lydia Gilmore is a 1915 American drama silent film directed by Hugh Ford and Edwin S. Porter and written by Hugh Ford and Henry Arthur Jones. The film stars Pauline Frederick, Vincent Serrano, Thomas Holding, Robert Cain, Helen Lutrell and Jack Curtis. The film was released on December 26, 1915, by Paramount Pictures.
Resurrection is a lost 1912 silent drama short film based on the 1899 novel Resurrection (Voskraeseniye) by Count Leo Tolstoy. It was directed by Joseph A. Golden, produced by Adolph Zukor and released by Famous Players Film Company, It is the first original film Zukor ever produced in contrast to the famous Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth starring Sarah Bernhardt which was made in France and which he bought the U.S. distribution rights.
