Famous Players-Lasky
Encyclopedia
Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor , born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:...
's Famous Players Film Company -- originally formed by Zukor as Famous Players in Famous Plays -- and Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse Louis Lasky, Sr. was a pioneer Hollywood film producer. He was a key founder of Paramount Pictures with Adolph Zukor, and father of screenwriter Jesse L...
's Feature Play Company.
The deal, guided by president Zukor, eventually resulted in the incorporation of eight film production companies, making the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation one of the biggest players of the silent film era. Famous Players-Lasky, under the direction of Zukor, is perhaps best known for its vertical integration
Vertical integration
In microeconomics and management, the term vertical integration describes a style of management control. Vertically integrated companies in a supply chain are united through a common owner. Usually each member of the supply chain produces a different product or service, and the products combine to...
of the film industry and illegal block booking
Block booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
practices.
In September 1927, Famous Players-Lasky was reorganized under the name Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation, later becoming the Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
Corporation (now a division of Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
). The Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation now owns the Famous Players trademark.
The former Famous Players-Lasky Movie Ranch at Lasky Mesa in the Simi Hills
Simi Hills
The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
is now within the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
The Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve is a large open space nature preserve owned and operated by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy spanning nearly in the Simi Hills of western Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County....
. The Astoria studio
Kaufman Astoria Studios
The Kaufman Astoria Studios is an historic movie studio located in the Astoria section of the New York City borough of Queens.-History:It was originally built by Famous Players-Lasky in 1920 to provide the company with a facility close to the Broadway theater district. Many features and short...
was designated a national historic district
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
and added to the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 1978. The district encompasses six contributing buildings.
Formation
In 1914, film production companies Famous Players FilmsFamous Players Film Company
The Famous Players Film Company was founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, the powerful New York City theatre impresarios. The company advertised "Famous Players in Famous Plays" and its first release was the French film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth starring...
and Jesse L. Lasky Feature Plays signed a distribution deal with William Wadsworth Hodkinson's Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
Corporation. Under the agreement Hodkinson would distribute the two companies' films through a 65/35 arrangement in which the producer agreed to take only 65% of film profits with 35% of the gross revenue going to Hodkinson's Paramount. While initially the agreement seemed like a good deal, it wasn't long before Zukor and Lasky realized that they could make much higher revenues if they could integrate the production and distribution of their films. Accordingly, less than a year into their distribution contracts the two men began looking for a way to buy Hodkinson out of Paramount, and incorporate the three companies.
In late 1915, Zukor began buying up as much Paramount stock as possible, including stocks belonging to Hiram Abrams, a member of the Paramount board of directors. On July 13, 1916 at Paramount Corporation's annual board meeting, Hodkinson found himself ousted from the presidency and replaced by Abrams, who won the seat by a single vote. After accepting the presidency, Abrams announced to the board, "On behalf of Adolph Zukor, who has purchased my shares in Paramount, I call this meeting to order."
Within a week of removing Hodkinson, on July 19, 1916, Famous Players and the Lasky Feature Play Company merged to form Famous Players-Lasky with Zukor as President and Jesse L. Lasky as Vice President. For a brief period Famous Players-Lasky acted as a holding company for its subsidiaries- Famous Players, Feature Play, Oliver Morosco Photoplay, Bosworth
Hobart Bosworth
Hobart Bosworth was an American film actor, director, writer, and producer.-Early life:Born Hobart Van Zandt Bosworth, he was a direct descendant of Miles Standish and John and Priscilla Alden on his father's side and of New York's Van Zandt family, the first Dutch settlers to land in the New...
, Cardinal, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Artcraft, and The George M. Cohan
George M. Cohan
George Michael Cohan , known professionally as George M. Cohan, was a major American entertainer, playwright, composer, lyricist, actor, singer, dancer, and producer....
Film Corporation. However, on December 29, 1917, all of the subsidiaries were incorporated into one entity called the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.
The push for vertical integration
However, Zukor was not satisfied simply with consolidation. The cost of producing films was rising – screenplays cost more to purchase and the rise of the star system meant that celebrities were demanding higher salaries. Zukor needed to increase revenue, and he would do so over the next ten years by integrating film production, distribution and exhibition into one corporation.In 1919, Famous Players-Lasky faced a boycott from the First National
First National
First National was an association of independent theater owners in the United States that expanded from exhibiting movies to distributing them, and eventually to producing them as a movie studio, called First National Pictures, Inc. It later merged with Warner Bros.-Early history:The First National...
Exhibitions Circuit, a group that controlled nearly 600 theaters nationwide. The Circuit disagreed with the Corporation's distribution practices, which required theaters to purchase large blocks of feature films, often sight-unseen. In addition to selling strategic blocks of features, theater owners were offered options such as "program distribution", in which the exhibitor booked a single evening's worth of entertainment, and "star series" in which the exhibitor signed up for a given number of pictures per year featuring a particular star. "Selective Bookings" in which exhibitors were allowed to purchase a single film, made up only a small percentage of the Corporation's offerings.
The Circuit's protest of these practices and boycott of Famous Players-Lasky films put the Corporation in desperate need of its own theaters. In 1919 Zukor began directing the purchase of theater chains across the nation. In the Northeast, Zukor acquired Alfred Black's Black's New England Theaters, Inc. and in the South, Zukor acquired S.A. Lynch's Southern Enterprises, which owned approximately 200 theaters and was at the time the exclusive Paramount distributor in 11 Southern states. In order to weaken First National, Zukor also sent Lynch and Black to acquire theaters held by First National members, often employing heavy handed tactics. By the mid 1920s the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was one of the largest theater owning concerns in the world, with a controlling interest in the Rialto, Rivoli and Criterion theater chains. However, in 1921 the corporation hit a brief stumbling block when Zukor's practice of block booking
Block booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
films and buying up theatres lead to an FTC antitrust suit.
The finish
Financial problems within the movie industry as a result of the Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
pushed Famous Players-Lasky Company, with $2,020,024 in debts but only 134,718 in assets, into receivership 3 August 1933.
Charges
On August 30, 1921 the Federal Trade CommissionFederal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...
formally charged Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, Realart Pictures Corporation, The Stanley Company of America, Stanley Booking Corporation, Black New England Theaters, Inc., Southern Enterprises, Inc., Saenger Amusement Company, Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor , born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:...
, Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse L. Lasky
Jesse Louis Lasky, Sr. was a pioneer Hollywood film producer. He was a key founder of Paramount Pictures with Adolph Zukor, and father of screenwriter Jesse L...
, Jules Mastbaum, Alfred S. Black, S.A. Lynch, Ernest V. Richards, Jr. , with restraint of trade as part of an ongoing investigation into the industry practice of block booking
Block booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
. Describing the Corporation as the "largest concern in the motion picture industry and the biggest theater owner in the world," the Federal Trade Commission accused Famous Players-Lasky and eleven other correspondents with "conspiracy and restraint of trade" in violation of the anti-trust laws.
In addition to block-booking charges, the case also accused Famous Players-Lasky of using theater acquisition to intimidate film exhibitors into agreeing to unwanted block booking
Block booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
deals.
Several grievances were brought to court, including one from an independent theater owner in Middleton, New York, who claimed when his movie house rejected a five-year block booking deal with Famous Players-Lasky, the distributor used predatory tactics to run him out of business. The theater owner reportedly withstood threats and goon-squad intimidation that recalled the tactics of the former Edison Trust. When those tactics failed, the theater owner claimed Famous Players-Lasky built a movie house across the street from his theater in Middleton, and resorted to temporary price cutting and overbuying in order to destroy his business.
Case results
After reviewing a massive 17,000 pages of testimony and 15,000 pages of exhibits the FTC concluded in early 1927 that block bookingBlock booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
was an unfair trade practice. On July 9, 1927, the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was ordered to cease and desist block booking
Block booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
practices and reform their theater purchasing policies. The three respondents- Adolph Zukor, Jesse Lasky and the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation- were given 60 days to comply with the ruling.
The Corporation largely ignored the cease and desist order and stalled reforms. When the 60 day deadline came due they were granted two extensions to the original limit. On April 15, 1928 the Corporation, now the Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corporation, finally submitted a report of compliance to the FTC. The report disputed the charges, and denied that block booking
Block booking
Block booking is a system of selling multiple films to a theater as a unit. Block booking was the prevailing practice among Hollywood's major studios from the turn of the 1930s until it was outlawed by the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc....
had been practiced. The defiance attracted negative press attention and the report was rejected by the FTC. The Corporation’s non-compliance eventually led to the FTC taking anti-trust action against the Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corporation.
Star power
In part, the success of the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation can be attributed to Adolph ZukorAdolph Zukor
Adolph Zukor , born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:...
's adept handling of the star system. Celebrities such as Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino
Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...
, Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
, Clara Bow
Clara Bow
Clara Gordon Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film It that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex...
, Nancy Carroll
Nancy Carroll
Nancy Carroll was an American actress.-Career:She was christened Ann Veronica Lahiff in New York City. Of Irish parentage, she and her sister once performed a dancing act in a local contest of amateur talent. This led her to a stage career and then to the screen. She began her acting career in...
, Met opera diva Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar
Geraldine Farrar was an American soprano opera singer and film actress, noted for her beauty, acting ability, and "the intimate timbre of her voice." She had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed "Gerry-flappers".- Early life and opera career :Farrar was born in Melrose,...
and Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton
Ruth Chatterton was an American actress, novelist, and early aviatrix.- Early life :Chatterton was born in New York City, on Christmas Eve 1892, to Walter Smith and Lillian Reed Chatterton...
helped to define the Famous Player-Lasky brand.
Major films
- The SheikThe Sheik (film)The Sheik is a 1921 silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, and Adolphe Menjou...
(1921) - Blood and Sand (1922)
- The Ten CommandmentsThe Ten Commandments (1923 film)The Ten Commandments is a 1923 American epic silent film directed by Cecil B. DeMille, starring Theodore Roberts as Moses, Charles de Rochefort as Pharaoh Ramesses, Estelle Taylor as Miriam the sister of Moses, and James Neill as Aaron, the brother of Moses...
(1923) - The Covered WagonThe Covered WagonThe Covered Wagon is an American silent Western film released by Paramount Pictures. The film was directed by James Cruze based on a novel by Emerson Hough about a group of pioneers traveling through the old West from Kansas to Oregon. J...
(1923) - Beau GesteBeau Geste (1926 film)Beau Geste is a 1926 silent film, based on the novel by P. C. Wren. This version starred Ronald Colman as the title character. -Plot:The plot concerns a valuable gem, which one of the Geste brothers, Beau, is thought to have stolen from his adoptive family.-Cast:*Ronald Colman as Michael 'Beau'...
(1926) - WingsWings (film)Wings is a silent film about World War I fighter pilots, produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman and released by Paramount Pictures. Wings was the first film, and the only silent film, to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Wings stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and...
(1927)
A complete filmography can be found at The Internet Movie Database.
See also
- Paramount PicturesParamount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
- Adolph ZukorAdolph ZukorAdolph Zukor , born Adolph Cukor, was a film mogul and founder of Paramount Pictures.-Early life:...
- Jesse Louis Lasky
- William Wadsworth Hodkinson
- S.A. Lynch
- Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space PreserveUpper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space PreserveThe Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve is a large open space nature preserve owned and operated by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy spanning nearly in the Simi Hills of western Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County....
: (former Famous Players-Lasky Movie RanchMovie ranchA movie ranch is a ranch that is at least partially dedicated to being used as a site for the creation and production of motion pictures, and television productions...
at Lasky Mesa in the Simi HillsSimi HillsThe Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.-Geography:...
)