The Famous Players motion picture studio: Jesse L. Lasky, together with Cecil B. DeMille, Samuel Goldfish (later changed to Goldwyn), and Arthur Friend, founded the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company at New York City in 1913 to produce motion pictures. They moved to Hollywood late in 1913 and set up at what is sometimes called the "DeMille and Lasky Barn" at the corner of Selma and Vine. The venture was a success, and in 1914 Lasky's Feature Play Company allied with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company to have their movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, a new company led by theater owner William W. Hodkinson. Two years later, in 1916, Lasky's Feature Play Company and Zukor's Famous Players Film Company merged to form the Famous Players- Lasky Corp. DeMille left the company to form his own Cecil B. DeMille Productions in 1922. The company’s acreage grew rapidly from its first rental space in a barn up to two city blocks, and in 1926 it relocated from its old site at Selma and Vine to new quarters at Marathon and Van Ness. The original barn was moved to the new site, and it was kept by the company until 1982, when it was given to a preservationist society, Hollywood Heritage. Today, the barn is The Hollywood Studio Museum, 2100 N. Highland, Hollywood, phone (323) 874-BARN. (For the barn’s whereabouts, see "The Los Angeles Times" newspaper, March 29, 1993, p. B-3, with a mediocre photo, as discovered by SOCAL-L listmember Karla Everett; and "Los Angeles County Historical Directory," Janet I. Atkinson, McFarland & Co., publishers, Jefferson, NC, and London, 1988, p. 64.) The Famous Players-Lasky Corp. eventually absorbed its ally Paramount Pictures as well as Artcraft Pictures, and in 1927 the Famous Players-Lasky Corp. was renamed as Paramount-Famous-Lasky Corp.; in 1930[?] its name was changed again to Paramount Publix; and in 1935[?] its name was changed a third time to Paramount Pictures, Inc. (today Paramount Pictures Corp.). As described in the literature (with Cecil B. DeMille keeping his feet dry in a trash can): "Cecil B. DeMille, Jesse Lasky, Samuel Goldfish, and Arthur Friend formed the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company in New York in 1913, and persuaded Dustin Farnum, one of the biggest stars of the day, to appear in their first film, 'The Squaw Man.' DeMille, Farnum, and a small troup headed West in December to begin filming. They planned to make the film in Flagstaff, Arizona, but when they arrived, they found the scenery unsuitable for their needs, so they reboarded the train and continued on to Hollywood, where DeMille rented a portion of a small barn at the southeast corner of Vine and Selma.... "DeMille moved into one side of the barn, while the owner, Jacob Stern, kept his horses in the other half. Whenever the horses were watered, the water ran into DeMille's office and he was forced to wear galoshes or put his feet in the wastebasket.... Within eighteen months, the Lasky studio occupied the entire block and by the end of the decade it occupied two full blocks. "The Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company in 1916 to form the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation. Zukor had assembled many fine actors, including a young Canadian girl named Gladys Smith, who took the screen name Mary Pickford and became 'America's Sweetheart.' ...." Source: "Hollywood: The First Hundred Years," Bruce T. Torrence, New York Zoetrope, New York, publishers, 1982, pp. 71-72 (also pp. 99 and 102). Lester Powers lesterps@juno.com ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.