Today’s silent movie birthday boy is Adolph Zukor. He was born on this date in 1873. He was Hungarian by birth (in fact, a lot of the early Hollywood movie folks were from Europe) and came to America when he was 16.
Not happy with the quality of movies being made, he formed his own movie company in 1912. Instead of the shorter two-reel movies others were making, Famous Players started making five-reelers which eventually became the industry standard.
As time went by Famous Players combined with other studios and eventually became Paramount Pictures.
Thanks for the history tidbit. This is fun. *g*
Comment by Brandy — January 7, 2008 @ 9:36 pm