Paramount Pictures Biography

Paramount Pictures was founded by William Wadsworth Hodkinson in 1914 and was born in Independence, Kansas. He is known as The Man who invented Hollywood. Hodkinson opened his first film theater in Ogden, Utah in 1902 charging 5 cents a show. His studio is older then Universal Studios by 1 month.

W.W. Hodkinson (Founder of Paramount Pictures)

As a young man, Hodkinson was a messenger with the Western Union Telegraph Company, and he worked for other companies as a messenger, callboy, telegrapher, and signal operator. In 1902, he was a trick bicycle rider and later became a salesman with I.C.S

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures was actually a merger of a few other film production companies that Hodkinson brought together. Doing so made Paramount the largest film distribution and production company hands down.

The Paramount Logo was also designed by Hodkinson doodling a mountain and became the companies logo in 1914. Hodkinson left the film industry in 1926 and started the Hodkinson Avaition Corperation and later formed the Central American Aviation Corporation and Companía Nacional de Aviación in Guatemala.