thumb|PLAY: Andy's Dog Day (1921) by [[Wallace A. Carlson for Celebrated Players Film Corporation. An animated film with balloon texts, this short features the character Andy Gump, who is repeatedly harassed by dogs (duration 05:54).]]

The Famous Players Film Company was an American film company founded in New York City in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, powerful theatre owners and producers there.

History

Discussions to form the company were held at The Lambs, a famous theater club where Charles and Daniel Frohman were members. The company advertised "Famous Players in Famous Plays" and its first release was the French film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912) starring Sarah Bernhardt and Lou Tellegen. Its first actual production was The Count of Monte Cristo (1912, released 1913), directed by Joseph A. Golden and Edwin S. Porter and starring James O'Neill, the father of dramatist Eugene O'Neill.

In 1914, the company purchased the former headquarters of New York City's Ninth Mounted Cavalry unit at 221 West 26th Street in Manhattan. The cavernous brick building made excellent filming space for Zukor, and the modernized site is still used today as Chelsea Television Studios.

Famous Players Fiction Studios<!--'Famous Players Fiction Studios' redirects here-->

In 1915, the company established Famous Players Fiction Studios<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> at 5300 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. The new studio's first film starred Mary Pickford. The studio later became Clune Studio, then California Studio, then Gross-Krasne, followed by Producers Studios Inc., and is now known as Raleigh Studios. Raleigh Studios is known for being the site of Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and Let's Make a Deal. It is one of the oldest studios in Hollywood.

See also

  • Famous Players theatres
  • Lists of Paramount Pictures films

References

  • Army Pictorial Center, built in 1919 as Famous Players Studio, now part of Kaufman Astoria Studios