Adolph Zukor’s father died when he was a baby, and his mother died when he was seven, his uncle, Kalman Liebermann, a rabbi looked after Adolph and hoped he too would become a rabbi. Zukor, however, said of this, ”I had the devil of a time persuading my uncle that I wasn't cut out for the theological calling."[1] Young little Adolph immigrated to the States with 40 $ sewed into his pocket. He arrived in N.Y and stayed with family working in an upholstery shop. Later he apprenticed at a furrier for two years earning 8 $ a month and going to school at night learning English and business.[2] In a short time, Adolph produced his designs and at age nineteen after four years of working he, and Morris Kohn decided to open a fur shop of their own in Chicago.[3]
It is often thought that poor people started the film business since people like Zukor began with a paltry salary. In reality, Zukor was a wealthy man before he entered the film industry. Their fur business gave him enough money to buy a penny arcade that showed short movies. He also had enough money to give his cousin Max Goldstein a loan to buy a Nickelodeon theatre.[4] His fascination with motion pictures started in 1901 when he stood on tiptoes (he was a short man (5 ft 5/ 1.65m) to watch a short film. The film was only two minutes long, but this was enough to inspire Zukor to build his empire. Perhaps his ‘Napoleon complex’ also known as’ short man syndrome’ was a part of his desire to overcompensate as a poor short orphan foreigner to become an exceptional man.[5] To add to this, the Newspapers referred to Zukor as the ”Napoleon of Motion Pictures”.[6]
Zukor was excited to give Goldstein the loan since the theatre was to feature the work of Thomas Edison. Zukor made an investment in forming a partnership with Goldstein, and they eventually opened many more theatres. A second partner was Marcus Loew, and together they were responsible for all the Nickelodeon machines showing short video clips on the East coast.[7] Zukor made his success through his daring business plans. He gambled on the idea that audiences would pay to watch vague images, at first they did but the novelty wore off and he had to pick up his game.
The pictures they managed to get their hands on were very low quality, Zukor, realised “if you want something done,” - produce it yourself. No one was going to pay to watch blurry images (he is probably turning in his grave as people are happy to stream blurry videos rather than pay for a high-quality DVD). In Zukor's Autobiography " The Public Is Never Wrong," he said that he enjoyed studying audiences, which became part of his ability to read people and sell his ideas to anyone listening to him. Since he did not have large theatres to show the movies he was buying, he had to convert shops and any space he could find. Another huge obstacle was that he had to pay royalties for showing these films that lead him to the realisation that he needed to produce his own films and thus not have to pay for royalties. He pitched his idea of producing their pictures to Daniel Frohman and, in 1912, the Famous Players was formed.[8]
The film historian Benjamin Hampton wrote, “Nothing like Zukor had yet appeared in America." Adolph Zukor himself explained that part of the reason for his success was that, at the beginning of the 19th century more than ten million immigrants came to America. He said, “Because Nickelodeon movies were new, cheap, silent and set up no language difficulties, they became a popular pastime."[9] Perhaps another reason was to do with the above mentioned Napoleon syndrome. The director Cecil B. DeMille said of Zukor that he very well remembers his ”first contact with the steel and iron, the indomitable bravery and driving determination, in that little man."[10]
Adolf Hitler was Austrian yet most people believe he was a German. Adolph Ochs was not the founder of N.Y times but people often falsely claim he was. Zukor was no different he was not the founder of Paramount Pictures, but he certainly is responsible for the great success of the company.
The founder of Paramount Pictures was William W. Hodkinson he was of the opinion that every part of the film industry should be separated. That meant that producers should focus on making great films; exhibitors, on running large theatres to show those films, and distributors should organising that grand theatres present great films. Hodkinson believed that separating gave more time and dedication to the job at hand. Adolph Zukor, on the other hand, wanted to control everything, he certainly is not the only 'Adolph' who wanted to have complete power. Nonetheless having control over each part of the business meant that he could guarantee to have paying audiences, and due to the new technologies films steadily became more impressive with their special effects. And more important he could make money from reselling a film rather than having to have theatre actors continuously perform their act to earn their money.[11]
Zukor formed Famous Players with the slogan “Famous Players in Famous Plays”. The first short clips were a few minutes long, but Zukor dreamed big, and all the other companies had to keep up with his pace. Eventually, those other companies like Lasky and Bosworth were bought out by Zukor’s Famous Players in 1916 and from this success they also bought Morosco. It only took one more year for the Famous players to buy out Paramount Pictures. Although Hodkinson should have seen it coming, he was still surprised when he was bought out by Adolph Zukor. On July 13, 1916, Hodkinson was voted out of the company he started, much like was the case with Steve Jobs. Hodkinson never returned to the film business but instead tried to make an airline company that also disintegrated.[12]
The Famous Players achieved what they wished by bringing to the big screen the greatest stars.[13] The moment Famous Players was established they became the distributor of the French film “Queen Elisabeth” with Sarah Bernhardt in 1912. The fame of Sarah Bernhardt associated with Famous Players made them an elite company with high rollers. In 1913, Famous Players produced the first American-made feature film, The Prisoner of Zenda (1913), with James K. Hackett, and other films with famous artists as Mrs. Fiske and Ethel Barrymore (the grandmother to Drew Barrymore).[14] After the success of the prisoner of Zenda his next best hit was “The Count of Monte Cristo (1913), followed by “Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1913). After buying out all the other companies, Famous Players-Lasky took on the name Paramount Pictures. Under their new name, they produced great pictures such as “The Sheik (1922) and “The Covered Wagon” (1923).[15]
With all these great pictures to his name, by the 1920’s he had that power he had dreamed for. His fame did not stop him from finding more ways to make money for the company. He developed the idea to charge theatres a percentage of box office receipts which is still the practise 100 years later. Since theatres had to pay the distributors to show their films it became difficult for most of the kino-theatres to pay these, of course the movie houses that Zukor owned showed the films that his company produced.[16]
Although Zukor had great ways of making money, he also knew how to pay his actors very well. One of Zukor’s many brave and gambling decisions was to draw up a contract with the famous actress, Mary Pickford. It was not just Mary Pickford that was famous but also her mother; Adolph was constantly re-negotiating their salaries. In true Hollywood style, Pickford would say to Zukor, "You know, for years I've dreamed of making $20,000 a year before I was 20, and I'll be 20 very soon." Zukor succumbed and paid the $20,000, and of course by the time she was thirty she had the same argument. Pickford did not need to go get much older before she was earning $100,000 a year.[17]
Of course, he had the money to give, just like he had the money to build his empire. In 1926, he opened the Paramount Pictures central office that is a thirty-nine story building housing movie sets and offices. On the Paramount Pictures premises sometimes, Mr. Zukor was referred to as Mr Sugar a direct translation of his surname from Hungarian. He was also known as "Uncle Adolph"[18] In Zukor's empire, he had the chance to be a director of some of his ideas. In 1935, he became the chairman of Paramount, 24 years later he retired but continued to work as the Chairman Emeritus until he died in his sleep on the 10th of June 1986 at age 103.[19]
Zukor lived to see Paramount Pictures winning the first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1927. His company later went on to produce countless iconic films, including the highest selling blockbuster of all time, “Titanic” (1997)[20] Of course movies were the beginning of their success but in the 1960s they took on television. Throughout Zukor's life, he learned to "look ahead a little and gamble a lot”.[21] On this basis he began his business and when television arrived he applied the same adage.While most at Paramount were scared of television 80-year-old, Zukor said, "Rather than lose the public because television is here, ... it would be smart to adopt television as our instrument?"[22] Doing exactly that Paramount produced iconic TV series such as the original “Star Trek,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Cheers,” and “Frasier.”[23]
Zukor was one of the many Adolphs who changed the world for the better His life work plays a role in most peoples everyday lives but we do not know the name behind the success that is Paramount Pictures.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0107.html accessed 26 April 2015
[2] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html accessed 26 April 2015
[3] http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.obits/102823/mb.ashx accessed 26 April 2015
[4] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html accessed 26 April 2015
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0107.html accessed 26 April 2015
[6] Tim wu, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” First vintage books 2010, pg. 61-95
[7] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html accessed 26 April 2015
[8] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html accessed 26 April 2015
[9] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html accessed 26 April 2015
[10] Tim wu, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” First vintage books 2010, pg. 61-95
[11] Tim wu, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” First vintage books 2010, pg. 61-95
[12] Tim wu, “The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires” First vintage books 2010, pg. 61-95
[13] http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0958532/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm accessed 23 April 2015
[14] http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.obits/102823/mb.ashx From Blue Book of the Screen (1923) accessed 26 April 2015
[15] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html1 accessed 26 April 2015
[16] http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/658331/Adolph-Zukor accessed 26 April 2015
[17] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pickford/peopleevents/p_zukor.html accessed 26 April 2015
[18] http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0107.html accessed 23 april 2015
[19] http://boards.ancestry.com/topics.obits/102823/mb.ashx From Blue Book of the Screen (1923) accessed 26 April 2015
[20] http://www.paramountstudios.com/working-on-the-lot/general-info/history.html accessed 26 April 2015
[21] http://www.paramountstudios.com/working-on-the-lot/general-info/history.html accessed 26 April 2015
[22] http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0107.html accessed 26 april 2015
[23] http://www.paramountstudios.com/working-on-the-lot/general-info/history.html accessed 26 April 2015