Adolph Zukor
Cukor Adolf (Adolph Zukor) (
January 7,
1873–
June 10,
1976) was the founder of
Paramount Pictures Studios, and one of the greatest film
moguls of all time.
He was born to a family in
Risce,
Hungary, which was then a part of the
Austro-Hungarian empire, and immigrated to
America in 1889, at the age of 16. Like most of the immigrants, he began modestly. When he first landed in New York, he stayed with his family and worked in an upholstery shop. A friend got him a job as an apprentice at a furrier. Zukor stayed there for two years. When he left to become a "contract" worker, sewing fur pieces and selling them himself, he was nineteen years old and an accomplished desginer. But he was young and adventuresome, and the 1892 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, commemorating Columbus's discovery of America, drew him to the Midwest. Once there he started a fur business. The second season of operation, Zukor's Novelty Fur Company expanded to twenty-five men and opened a branch.
One of the stubborn fallacies of movie history is that the men who created the film industry were all impoverished young vulgarians. Zukor clearly didn't fit this profile. By 1903 he already looked and lived like a wealthy young burger, and he certainly earned the income of one. He had a commodious apartment at 111th Street and Seventh Avenue in New York's wealthy German-Jewish section.
He became involved in the
motion picture industry when in 1903 his cousin, Max Goldstein approached him for a loan for opening an arcade. The arcade salon was to feature Thomas Edison's marvels: phonographs, electric lights and moving pictures. Zukor not only gave Goldstein the money but insisted on forming a partnership to open another one. In 1912 Adolph Zukor established Famous Players as the American distribtion company for the
French film production
"Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth." The following year he obtained the financial backing of the
Frohman brothers, the powerful
New York City theatre impresarios. Their primary goal was to bring noted stage actors to the screen and they created the
Famous Players Film Company that produced
The Prisoner of Zenda in 1913. The studio evolved into Paramount Pictures, of which he served as president until 1936. He revolutionized the film industry by organizing production, distribution, and exhibition within a single company.
Zukor was also an accomplished director and producer. He retired from Paramount Studios in 1959 and thereafter assumed Chairman Emeritus status, a position he held up until his death at the age of 103 in
Los Angeles,
California,
USA.
