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Paramount's lineage dates back to 1912, when Adolph Zukor, the owner of a New York nickelodeon, secured American distribution rights to Sarah Bernhart's four-reel film, Queen Elizabeth. The film's triumphant opening on July 12, 1912, as the first full-length drama shown in the United States prompted Zukor to found the Famous Players Film Company. Famous Players began to produce movies in New York, beginning with The Prisoner of Zenda and The Count of Monte Cristo. A year later, Zukor invested in a film distribution company named Paramount Pictures. June 28, 1916 marked a turning point in Paramount's history. The Jesse L. Lasky Company, which was producing films in Hollywood, merged with Famous Players to form the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. The corporation consolidated its production and distribution divisions, and audiences began seeing "Paramount Pictures." Zukor and Lasky then constructed a vast new studio on Marathon Street in Hollywood, which the company has occupied since 1926. Paramount's early artists included directors Cecil B. DeMille and William S. Hart, and stars Mary Pickford, Rudolf Valentino and Clara Bow. Wings, the studio's 1928 release, received the very first Academy Award® for Best Picture from the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. A few of Paramount's memorable post-World War II films include: The Ten Commandments, White Christmas, Shane, Romeo and Juliet, True Grit, The Godfather films, Ordinary People, Reds, Terms of Endearment, Saturday Night Fever, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, Ghost, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, the Star Trek movies, Indecent Proposal, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Mission: Impossible, and Titanic. Many of these titles are available from Paramount Home Entertainment. Please check our online catalog. Gulf+Western Industries, Inc. acquired control of Paramount on March 24, 1966. The corporation turned its interest toward the new entertainment division, and on June 5, 1989, G+W was renamed Paramount Communications, Inc. On March 11, 1994, Paramount merged with Viacom Inc., under the leadership of Sumner Redstone, Executive Chairman of the Board and Founder. In January 2006, Viacom split into two separate publicly-traded companies: CBS Corporation and Viacom. The Paramount Motion Picture Group is part of Viacom which also includes MTV Networks, BET Networks and Famous Music. Today, Paramount Pictures is the only major motion picture studio located in Hollywood. It is an expansive, self-contained, state-of-the-art production center and business community. Its library consists of more than 1,000 motion picture titles, approximately 18,000 hours of television programming, and varying rights for approximately 2,500 additional motion picture titles. The library boasts Oscar winners Braveheart and Forrest Gump, and Titanic(the highest-grossing motion picture of all time) -- as well as such classics as The Ten Commandments, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Sunset Boulevard. In addition, several of the most successful franchises in film history, including Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, The Godfather and Indiana Jones, are part of the Paramount Pictures library.
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