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The Paramount Movie Empire

© Jenny Lynn Higgins

In the late 1800's, a lone sixteen-year-old Hungarian boy stood on the steps of the immigration center in New York City. These were the steps he needed to climb in order for his new life to begin. The determined young man was prepared - with forty American dollars stitched to the lining of his coat - to face whatever the future might hold.

Adolph Zukor, at sixteen, did not resemble a future movie tycoon. An introverted young man, he preferred to work behind the scenes. His first job in the Land of Promise was sweeping the floor of a fur store for $2 a week. But young Adolph had a sharp mind and learned quickly. He soon became a fur cutter, doubling his wage to $4 a week.

In 1892, Adolph and an acquantaince named Morris Kohn decided to venture into the fur business by themselves and relocated to Chicago. Adolph left Morris in charge of the sales department, preferring to stay in the back room and cut fur. Despite Zukor's shyness, the business flourished.

His professional life wasn't the only thing that was blooming. Adolph Zukor soon fell in love with a young woman named Lottie Kaufman and they were married in in 1897. They soon had two children, Eugene and Mildred. Adolph and Morris's fur business was so profitable they decided to move their business and families to New York in 1900.

In 1901, Adolph Zukor had his first encounter with motion pictures at a penny arcade. Two years later, he, Morris Kohn, and a mutual acquaintance named Mitchell Mark invested in a penny arcade. The arcade was set up in a former butcher shop on 14th Street at Union Square. The three entrepreneurs named their new venture The Automatic Vaudeville Company and became so successful that branches were established in Boston, Newark, and Philadelphia. The funding for the new branches came from Marcus Loew, a fellow "fur man". Loew later became president of Loew's, Inc. which in turn became the parent company of MGM Pictures.

By this time, Mr. Zukor had become obsessed with the motion picture industry. He began investing in yet another venture in 1906, called Hales' Tours. Small theatres were built to resemble railroad cars, and "the illusion was created among the spectators that they were traveling through the country they viewed on the screen." Zukor later recalled. In the sink or swim entertainment industry, the Tours soon drowned. "It was a good business for a time," he remembered, "but the novelty soon wore off, and we lost a lot of money - myself and some friends in the fur trade. I eventually reimbursed all of them."

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