History of Universal Studios

Universal Studios or Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios is one of the largest American film studios. It was established in 1906 when Carl Laemmle started his first theater in Chicago. He started by playing short silent movies. He later switched to production and distribution. To start the production of his own films, he opened the Independent Moving Picture Company in New York in 1909. His first work, Hiawatha, was released in the same year. 

Laemmle's dream was to make his presence felt all over America. His next target was the west where he bought the Nestor Studio in Hollywood. He formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company on June 8, 1912. This company which was New York based, incorporated the already existing Independent Moving Picture Company and five other companies into it. By that time he had already conquered the east and the west coast of

America and now he decided to centralize his production companies. He asked Isadore Bernstein to buy plots in Los Angeles. The two hundred and thirty acre land bought became the Universal City, the entertainment center of the world. Although film production here began in 1914 and in 1915 it was officially inaugurated on March 15, 1915. The first production of this studio was Damon and Pythias. Many films were released after the studio opened including comedies, drama, action, and adventure. 

Some of the popular movies that were produced in this studio are "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Dracula", "Bride of Frankenstein"," The Phantom of the Opera", "The Mummy", and "All Quiet on the Western Front". Laemmle developed a habit of inviting guests to watch the movie making procedure and to give suggestions to improve them. It then became a tradition at Universal studios, and later temporarily visitors were banned because of the disturbances on the sets.  

Carl retired in 1936 and sold the company to Standard Capital Company. In
1946, Universal merged with International and it was named as Universal-International. In 1947, the company produced "Hamlet" which won the Best Picture Academy Award. In 1952, Universal-International was sold to Decca Records. Decca Universal gave many hits in Milt Rackmil.  Music Corporation of America, Inc. bought the Universal City studio and shifted its studio there and both the companies merged officially in 1962. Jules Stein was the founder of MCA, Inc., who was later joined by Lew Wasseman in 1936. At first this company prepared bands to perform in clubs and parties. Later it became the leading talent agency and conquered the entertainment world. They made motion pictures and also serials for television. Later they also ventured into the world of musical entertainment around 1960s to 1980s. The tradition of tours was started once again. 

The company was taken over by Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company Ltd. in 1991. The Seagram Company Ltd. Bought large number of shares in 1995 and MCA Inc. was finally named as Universal Studios on December 10, 1996. The Universal International television operations merged with USA Networks in 1998. At the end of the year the company took over PolyGram and Universal Music Group became the largest music company in the world.  The Seagram collaborated with Vivendi and Canal in June 2000 and today Universal Studios is a part of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

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History of Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation owned by media conglomerate Viacom was founded in the year 1912. The founder Adolph Zukor of Famous Players Film Company decided to make feature films that would fulfill the demands of immigrants. By the mid of next year he made five successful films. In the same year Jesse L. Lasky founded Lasky Feature Play Company and hired Cecil B. DeMille for his first movie "The Squaw Man". Both these production companies sought help of Paramount Pictures to release their movies. Paramount Pictures was a new company at that time and was a merger of many small firms by W. W. Hokinson. The idea was appreciated and the new company, Famous Players-Lasky, got a good start.

Lasky and his brother-in-law, Goldfish became in charge of the production, along with DeMille. Hiram Abrams was responsible for the distribution where as Zukor made plans for the development of the company. The company soon touched great heights. In 1916, Zukor decided to talk about the merging of the three companies with Lasky and Hodkinson. Public can take guided tour into the Paramount Studios situated in Hollywood, California.

Zukor made the first slogan of the company "Famous Players in Famous Plays". He was the man behind successful actors like Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson. Paramount Pictures were the first to introduce the concept of block booking; this meant that if a particular firm wanted to buy the rights of a particular actor, they were also required to buy the other productions of Paramount Productions for that year. This concept proved to be a huge success and boosted the company's sale.

Under the leadership of Zukor, Paramount had huge success. He was responsible for building number of theaters which had nearly two thousand screens altogether. He also had big investments in radio and in 1926 he gained control over the Balaban & Katz chain. Barney Balaban became the president and Sam Katz handled the Paramount Publix theater chain. The company's name, Famous Players-Lasky was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation, in 1927.  Due to the success of Publix theater chain the name was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation in 1930. 

By 1932 Zukon left all his old partners behind as the company was facing bankruptcy due to the enormous expansion projects. A bank reorganization team, consisting of Otto Kahn and John Hertz took over the company but kept Zukon in the company. After dealing with bankruptcy, the company was named Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Barney Balaban became the chairman. Many actors and singers were roped in and on a yearly basis; the company was producing nearly seventy movies a year. They also tried their hand at cartoon and the two characters, Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop became an instant hit. 

The government was having problems with the block booking, so the company decided to end it in 1940, after which the company's production went down to twenty movies a year. While the company was making an effort to attract audience during the World War II, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department reopened the case, U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures and the Supreme Court ordered the split of the company into two. Due to the loss of theater chains, the position of Paramount Pictures was very unstable and the company was sold to Gulf and Western Industries.

Paramount collaborated with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation in 1970. They began producing for television. After the realease of movies "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever", the interest in movies were back again. Paramount Pictures began making albums when they purchased rights for Paramount Records. Cinema International Corporation became United International Pictures, in 1981, which was renamed as Paramount Communications in 1989. Paramount became a prominent name in Hollywood once again and gave tough competition to its rivals. Some survived by moving to another place like Warner Bros. and some closed down like for instance RKO.

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Be Part of the Action at Universal Studios Tours

Have you ever dreamed of being on a reality show? 
Here is your chance! Universal Studios Tours now 
has Fear Factor Live, which is a stunt show that 
uses audience volunteers. With three to five shows 
each day, the chances of getting on the show are
 pretty good!

Are you ready to face your fears? There are some
 important things to know about Fear Factor Live at 
Universal Studios Tours before you sign up. First,
 this is for real. This is not a cheesy attempt to 
replicate Fear Factor and please a studio audience. 
The stunts are very real, and they are performed by 
audience members just like you. There is no 
coddling here!

If you still want to participate, simply visit the casting 
office, which is located near the Terminator ride in 
the theme park. You must meet certain physical 
requirements to ensure that you can handle what 
is about to be asked of you. You must also 
complete and sign a liability form, holding Universal 
Studios and Fear Factor harmless of any injuries or 
damages you may incur. 

Before the show begins, some audience members 
who were not selected to participate are called on 
stage to face smaller challenges, such as eating 
various bugs. The winner of the pre-show contest 
wins great prizes, such as an annual pass to the 
theme park. This is followed by an audience warm 
up with the hosts of the show. 

The show consists of six contestants that were 
chosen from the casting office – if your lucky, you 
might be one of these! They are dressed just as the 
contestants on the original Fear Factor dress – in 
tight uniforms. A series of challenges, much like the 
challenges on Fear Factor are presented to the 
contestants. Falls from high places, skill tests, and 
of course, the famous gross-out challenge. During 
the show, a random audience member is picked 
for yet another challenge – such as sticking their 
head in a tank full of scorpions.

If you’ve ever watched Fear Factor, and told all of 
your friends that you could handle everything that 
was thrown at those contestants, be careful. Here is 
your big chance to prove yourself – or your friends’ 
chance to prove you wrong! Win or lose, Fear 
Factor Live at Universal Studios Tours could be the 
highlight of your visit! If you want to be on the show, 
visit the casting office as soon as you get to the 
park to make sure that you meet the physical 
requirements – and if you don’t meet the 
requirements, ask about being in the audience.

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