Adolph Zukor was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.
21 Facts About Adolph Zukor
2.
Adolph Zukor produced one of America's first feature-length films, The Prisoner of Zenda, in 1913.
3.
Adolph Zukor's father, Jacob, who operated a general store, died when he was a year old, while his mother, Hannah Liebermann, died when he was 7.
4.
Liebermann, a rabbi, expected his nephews to become rabbis, but instead Adolph Zukor served a three-year apprenticeship in the dry goods store of family friends.
5.
Adolph Zukor was young and adventuresome, and the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago drew him to the Midwest.
6.
Adolph Zukor gave Goldstein the loan and formed a partnership with Mark and Morris Kohn, a friend of Adolph Zukor's who invested in the theaters.
7.
Adolph Zukor purchased an armory on 26th Street in Manhattan and converted it into Chelsea Studios, a movie studio that is still used today.
8.
Adolph Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldwyn were out by 1917.
9.
Adolph Zukor revolutionized the film industry by organizing production, distribution, and exhibition within a single company.
10.
Adolph Zukor signed many of the early ones, including Mary Pickford, Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle, Marguerite Clark, Pauline Frederick, Douglas Fairbanks, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, and Wallace Reid.
11.
Adolph Zukor ran two production studios, one in Astoria, New York and the other in Hollywood, California.
12.
Lasky and Adolph Zukor purchased the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility at 5451 Marathon Street, for US$1 million.
13.
Adolph Zukor made deals to show them all in theaters controlled by Loew's Incorporated, and continued to add more theaters to his own chain.
14.
Adolph Zukor managed to keep stars such as Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, and most important of all, Mary Pickford, under contract and happy to stay at Paramount.
15.
Adolph Zukor became an early investor in radio, taking a 50 percent interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, but selling it within a few years.
16.
When Barney Balaban was appointed president on July 2,1936 Adolph Zukor was relegated to chairman of the board.
17.
Adolph Zukor eventually spent most of his time in New York City, but passed the winter months in Hollywood to check on his studio.
18.
Adolph Zukor retired from Paramount Pictures in 1959 and in 1964, stepped down as chairman and assumed Chairman Emeritus status, a position he held up until his death at the age of 103 in Los Angeles.
19.
Adolph Zukor was a Freemason at Centennial Lodge No 673, New York.
20.
Adolph Zukor died from natural causes at his Los Angeles residence at age 103 in June 1976.
21.
Adolph Zukor is buried at the Temple Israel Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.