Dot Records was an American record label founded by Randy Wood and Gene Nobles that was active between 1950 and 1978. The original headquarters of Dot Records were in Gallatin, Tennessee . In its early years, Dot specialized in artists from Tennessee. Then it branched out to include musicians from across the U.S. It recorded country music , rhythm and blues , polkas , waltzes , gospel , rockabilly , pop , and early rock and roll .
142-531: After moving to Hollywood in 1956, Dot Records bought many recordings by small local independent labels and issued them nationally. In 1957, Wood sold the label to Paramount Pictures , but remained in charge until 1967, when he departed to join Lawrence Welk in the formation of Ranwood Records . In 1968, the label was acquired as part of the acquisition of Paramount by Gulf+Western , which transitioned it to recording exclusively country music and placed it under
284-489: A fourth commercial network . Paramount Pictures purchased the Hughes Television Network (HTN) including its satellite time in planning for PTVS in 1976. Paramount sold HTN to Madison Square Garden Corporation in 1979. But Diller believed strongly in the concept, and so took his fourth-network idea with him when he moved to 20th Century Fox in 1984, where Fox's then freshly installed proprietor, Rupert Murdoch
426-414: A tenor voice. He was also popular for his wide vocal range. Pat Boone is one of the most prolific artists of all time with nearly 2,600 recorded songs. It is estimated that over the course of his career, he recorded more than 2,600 official tracks, making him one of the most prolific artists in music history. Throughout his incredibly long career, he reached the U.S. Top 40 charts 38 times, securing
568-504: A #6 hit with " Speedy Gonzales ". He was one of the Big Three Dot album sellers of the 1960s, along with Billy Vaughn and Lawrence Welk , whose orchestra members, such as Myron Floren , Jo Ann Castle , Joe Feeney and Bob Ralston , released records alongside him in the 1960s. Welk and Vaughn in particular regularly appeared in the album top-twenty. Johnny Maddox , banjo player Eddie Peabody , Steve Allen , Louis Prima , Keely Smith ,
710-574: A 1956 remake of his 1923 film The Ten Commandments . DeMille died in 1959. Like some other studios, Paramount saw little value in its film library and sold 764 of its pre-1950 films to MCA Inc. / EMKA, Ltd. (known today as Universal Television ) in February 1958. By the early 1960s, Paramount's future was doubtful. The high-risk movie business was wobbly; the theater chain was long gone; investments in DuMont and in early pay-television came to nothing; and
852-416: A Lesser God and The Accused . During this period, responsibility for running the studio passed from Eisner and Katzenberg to Frank Mancuso, Sr. (1984) and Ned Tanen (1984) to Stanley R. Jaffe (1991) and Sherry Lansing (1992). More so than most, Paramount's slate of films included many remakes and television spin-offs ; while sometimes commercially successful, there have been few compelling films of
994-464: A Paramount network from 25 years earlier. In 1999, Viacom bought out United Television's interests, and handed responsibility for the start-up network to the newly acquired CBS unit, which Viacom bought in 2000 – an ironic confluence of events as Paramount had once invested in CBS, and Viacom had once been the syndication arm of CBS, as well. During this period the studio acquired some 30 TV stations to support
1136-514: A bid for a merger with Paramount Communications; this quickly escalated into a bidding war with Barry Diller 's QVC . But Viacom prevailed, ultimately paying $ 10 billion for the Paramount holdings. Viacom and Paramount had planned to merge as early as 1989. Paramount is the last major film studio located in Hollywood proper. When Paramount moved to its present home in 1927, it was in the heart of
1278-465: A close friend to many U.S. presidents ( Ronald Reagan , Jimmy Carter and many others). At a 1961 gathering at Pepperdine College , Pat Boone said, " I would rather see my four girls shot and die as little girls who have faith in God than leave them to die some years later as godless, faithless, soulless communists ." Boone supported Barry Goldwater in the 1964 United States presidential election . In
1420-406: A commercial to claim that all four of his daughters had found a preparation named Acne-Statin a "real help" in keeping their skin clear. The FTC filed a complaint against the manufacturer, contending that the product did not really keep skin free of blemishes. Boone eventually signed a consent order in which he promised not only to stop appearing in the ads, but also to pay about 2.5% of any money that
1562-677: A five-month battle with QVC , and completed the merger in July. At the time, Paramount's holdings included Paramount Pictures, Madison Square Garden , the New York Rangers , the New York Knicks , and the Simon & Schuster publishing house. The deal had been planned as early as 1989, when the company was still known as Gulf and Western. Though Davis was named a member of the board of National Amusements , which controlled Viacom, he ceased to manage
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#17328515980221704-661: A foot in the door at the networks, the newly reincorporated Paramount Television eventually became known as a specialist in half-hour situation comedies. In 1968, Paramount formed Films Distributing Corp to distribute sensitive film product, including Sin With a Stranger , which was one of the first films to receive an X rating in the United States when the MPAA introduced their new rating system . In 1970, Paramount teamed with Universal Pictures to form Cinema International Corporation ,
1846-404: A label named Randy's, which released "Gene Nobles' Boogie" by Richard Armstrong, and Record Shop Special, which had Gant on its roster. After Wood purchased local radio station WHIN , he and Nobles formed Dot, a more widely distributed label, whose first headquarters were in that station's building. Since WHIN broadcast only in the daytime, recording sessions were at night when the station was off
1988-432: A lively history, has been turned into a post-production and music-scoring facility for Warners, known simply as "The Lot". For a time the semi-industrial neighborhood around Paramount was in decline, but has now come back. The recently refurbished studio has come to symbolize Hollywood for many visitors, and its studio tour is a popular attraction. In 1983, Gulf and Western began a restructuring process that would transform
2130-738: A member of the Gospel Music Hall of Fame . He continues to perform and speak as a motivational speaker, a television personality, and a conservative political commentator. Boone was born on June 1, 1934, in Jacksonville, Florida , to Margaret Virginia (née Pritchard) and Archie Altman Boone. He grew up in Nashville , where his family moved when he was two years old. He graduated in 1952 from David Lipscomb High School in Nashville. His younger brother Cecil (1935–2023), professionally known as Nick Todd ,
2272-412: A movie factory, turning out sixty to seventy pictures a year. Such were the benefits of having a huge theater chain to fill, and of block booking to persuade other chains to go along. In 1933, Mae West would also add greatly to Paramount's success with her suggestive movies She Done Him Wrong and I'm No Angel . However, the sex appeal West gave in these movies would also lead to the enforcement of
2414-480: A new company that would distribute films by the two studios outside the United States. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer would become a partner in the mid-1970s. Both Paramount and CIC entered the video market with Paramount Home Video (now Paramount Home Entertainment ) and CIC Video , respectively. Robert Evans abandoned his position as head of production in 1974; his successor, Richard Sylbert , proved to be too literary and too tasteful for Gulf and Western's Bluhdorn. By 1976,
2556-512: A new, television-trained team was in place headed by Barry Diller and his "Killer-Dillers", as they were called by admirers or "Dillettes" as they were called by detractors. These associates, made up of Michael Eisner , Jeffrey Katzenberg , Dawn Steel and Don Simpson would each go on and head up major movie studios of their own later in their careers. The Paramount specialty was now simpler. " High concept " pictures such as Saturday Night Fever and Grease hit big, hard, and fast all over
2698-401: A revival of Wayne King 's " Melody of Love ", he left the group to become the label's main musical director. Wood, seeing the demand for rhythm and blues recordings among white audiences, in 1955, hired a number of vocalists to do pop-oriented covers of tunes popular in the genre. The most notable artist who performed that function for Dot was Pat Boone , who outsold the original recordings of
2840-697: A second channel, the Sci-Fi Channel (now known as Syfy ), in 1992. As its name implied, it focused on films and television series within the science fiction genre. Much of the initial programming was owned either by Paramount or Universal. Paramount bought one more television station in 1993: Cox Enterprises ' WKBD-TV in Detroit, Michigan, at the time an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Company . In February 1994, Viacom acquired 50.1% of Paramount Communications Inc. shares for $ 9.75 billion, following
2982-511: A series of Jack London movies. Paramount was the first successful nationwide distributor; until this time, films were sold on a statewide or regional basis, which had proved costly to film producers. Also, Famous Players and Lasky were privately owned while Paramount was a corporation. In 1916, Zukor engineered a three-way merger of his Famous Players, the Lasky Company, and Paramount. Zukor and Lasky bought Hodkinson out of Paramount, and merged
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#17328515980223124-729: A spokesperson for Swiss America Trading Corporation, a broker of gold and silver coins that warns of "America's Economic Collapse". In 2023 Boone, at 89, is one of the guest vocalists on Born to Be Wild , an album by Ann-Margret . Together they perform the song " Teach Me Tonight " on the album. In 2024, at age 90, he released a single, "Where Did America Go?" In November 1953, 19-year-old Boone married Chicago-born Tennesseean Shirley Lee Foley (April 24, 1934 – January 11, 2019 ), also 19 years old, daughter of country-music great Red Foley and his wife, singer Judy Martin . They had four daughters: Cheryl "Cherry" Lynn , Linda "Lindy" Lee, Deborah "Debby" Ann , and Laura "Laury" Gene. Starting in
3266-424: A stable of exclusively-contracted film personnel (outside of Eddie Murphy ); this effort proved unsuccessful and studio president Dawn Steel decided to shut down the department on July 30, 1986. In 1987, Paramount Pictures, MGM/UA Communications Co. and Universal Pictures teamed up in order to market feature film and television product to China, a response to the 25-billion admission tickets that were clocked in
3408-467: A stage director with virtually no film experience, Cecil B. DeMille , who would find a suitable site in Hollywood. This place was a rented old horse barn converted into a production facility with an enlarged open-air stage located between Vine Street , Selma Avenue, Argyle Avenue and Sunset Boulevard . It was later known as the Lasky-DeMille Barn . In 1914, their first feature film, The Squaw Man
3550-548: A stock-swap merger deal between Time and Warner Communications. This caused Time to raise its bid for Warner to $ 14.9 billion in cash and stock. Gulf and Western responded by filing a lawsuit in a Delaware court to block the Time-Warner merger. The court ruled twice in favor of Time, forcing Gulf and Western to drop both the Time acquisition and the lawsuit, and allowing the formation of Time Warner . Paramount used cash acquired from
3692-700: A subsidiary, was founded in 1958 for rockabilly and rhythm & blues. It also functioned as a venue for albums by their regular roster of artists that could be retailed for $ 1.98, since all or most of the material featured on them was in the public domain, thereby obviating the need to pay song royalties. It distributed Steed Records and the only two records from Carnival , owned by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss . Two other subsidiary labels were created: Crystalette Records and Acta Records. In 1967, Dot picked up distribution of DynoVoice , owned by Bob Crewe , from Bell Records . Later in 1967, Randy Wood left Dot to found Ranwood Records with Welk. Two years after Paramount
3834-517: A various-artists album devoted to remakes of these artists' million-sellers. During the late 1950s and 1960s, Wood would re-enter the rock and roll market by licensing material from independent producers. Most of his acquisitions charted and became major hits, including leases of Sanford Clark's "The Fool" from producer Lee Hazlewood , Bonnie Guitar's "Dark Moon" from Fabor Records, the Del-Vikings' " Come Go with Me " from Fee-Bee Records, Jimmie Dee and
3976-507: A veteran of the Army during World War II , settled in Gallatin, Tennessee . There he started an appliance store named Randy's, and began carrying records as an afterthought in 1947. Wood initially carried records in the classical and popular genres, but found his customers were asking for records of such rhythm and blues artists as Joe Liggins , Roosevelt Sykes , and Cecil Gant . They were staples of
4118-565: A white American market. Randy Wood, the owner of Dot, had issued an R&B single by the Griffin Brothers in 1951 called "Tra La La-a"—a different song from the later LaVern Baker one—and he was keen to put out another version after the original had failed. This became the B-side of the first Boone single "Two Hearts Two Kisses", originally by the Charms – whose "Hearts Of Stone" had been covered by
4260-656: Is a basketball fan and had ownership interests in two teams. He owned a team in the Hollywood Studio League called the Cooga Moogas. The Cooga Moogas included Bill Cosby , Rafer Johnson , Gardner McKay , Don Murray , and Denny "Tarzan" Miller . When the American Basketball Association began, Boone became the majority owner of the league's team in Oakland, California , on February 2, 1967. The team
4402-591: Is the last major film studio still headquartered in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles . Paramount Pictures dates its existence from the 1912 founding date of the Famous Players Film Company . Hungarian-born founder Adolph Zukor , who had been an early investor in nickelodeons , saw that movies appealed mainly to working-class immigrants. With partners Daniel Frohman and Charles Frohman he planned to offer feature-length films that would appeal to
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4544-688: Is the ultimate for me, that Pat Boone would sing any of my songs In the early 1970s, Boone founded the record label Lamb & Lion Records . It featured artists such as Pat, the Pat Boone Family, Debby Boone , Dan Peek , DeGarmo and Key , and Dogwood. In 1974, Boone was signed to the Motown country subsidiary Melodyland. In 1978, Boone became the first target in the Federal Trade Commission 's crackdown on false-claim product endorsements by celebrities. He had appeared with his daughter Debby in
4686-455: The Bankruptcy Act . On June 4, 1935, John E. Otterson became president of the re-emerged and newly renamed Paramount Pictures Inc. Zukor returned to the company and was named production chief but after Barney Balaban was appointed president on July 2, 1936, he was soon replaced by Y. Frank Freeman and symbolically named chairman of the board. On August 28, 1935, Paramount Pictures
4828-1049: The Bing Crosby / Frank Sinatra tradition. Other notable artists who did R&B covers for Dot included the Fontane Sisters (who covered the Jewels ' " Hearts of Stone ", the Teen Queens ' " Eddie My Love ", the Drifters ' "Adorable", the Marigolds' "Rollin' Stone", and Fats Domino's "Please Don't Leave Me"), Snooky Lanson (with covers of the Jacks' "Why Don't You Write Me" and the Dream Weavers' "It's Almost Tomorrow"), and actress Gale Storm (with covers of Frankie Lymon 's " Why Do Fools Fall in Love " and Smiley Lewis ' " I Hear You Knocking ". (This last
4970-692: The Kaufman Astoria Studios , and Hollywood, California ), and became an early investor in radio, acquiring for the corporation a 50% interest in the new Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928 (selling it within a few years; this would not be the last time Paramount and CBS crossed paths). By acquiring the successful Balaban & Katz chain in 1926, Zukor gained the services of Barney Balaban (who would eventually become Paramount's president in 1936), his brother A. J. Balaban (who would eventually supervise all stage production nationwide and produce talkie shorts), and their partner Sam Katz (who would run
5112-589: The Paramount Publix Corporation . Eventually, Zukor shed most of his early partners; the Frohman brothers, Hodkinson and Goldwyn were out by 1917 while Lasky hung on until 1932, when, blamed for the near-collapse of Paramount in the Great Depression years, he was also tossed out. In 1931, to solve the financial problems of the company Zukor hired taxi/rental car magnate John D. Hertz as chairman of
5254-585: The Paramount Stations Group , while KECO was renamed to Paramount Parks . Paramount Television launched Wilshire Court Productions in conjunction with USA Networks, before the latter was renamed NBCUniversal Cable , in 1989. Wilshire Court Productions (named for a side street in Los Angeles) produced television films that aired on the USA Networks, and later for other networks. USA Networks launched
5396-692: The Production Code , as the newly formed organization the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened a boycott if it was not enforced. Paramount cartoons produced by Fleischer Studios continued to be successful, with characters such as Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor becoming widely successful. One Fleischer series, Screen Songs , featured live-action music stars under contract to Paramount hosting sing-alongs of popular songs. The animation studio would rebound with Popeye , and in 1935, polls showed that Popeye
5538-730: The Sir Douglas Quintet ), Joe Barry , and Freddy Weller (formerly of Paul Revere & the Raiders ). During the transition, Dot's pop back catalog was deleted and was transferred to the newly founded Paramount label. In 1971, Gulf and Western placed Dot under the umbrella of the Famous Music Group, which included Paramount Records , Stax (until 1970), and Blue Thumb , with distribution of Sire (now owned by Warner Music Group ) and Neighborhood , originally owned by Melanie Safka . By 1968, Lawrence Welk had acquired his portion of
5680-563: The United States , becoming a teen idol as a valid alternative to the hedonism of rock and roll, due to his activities as singer, writer, actor and religious motivational speaker. In 1957, at the age of 23, Boone began hosting a half-hour ABC variety television series, The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom , which aired for 115 episodes (1957–1960). Many musical performers including Cliff Richard , Nat King Cole , Edie Adams , Andy Williams , Pearl Bailey , and Johnny Mathis made appearances on
5822-737: The United States Supreme Court that struck down mandatory prayer as conflicting with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution . Joining Boone and Eisley at the Project Prayer rally were Walter Brennan , Lloyd Nolan , Rhonda Fleming , Gloria Swanson , and Dale Evans . Boone declared, "what the communists want is to subvert and undermine our young people... I believe in
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5964-611: The University of North Texas , in Denton, Texas . Boone began his career by performing in Nashville's Centennial Park . He began recording in April 1953 for Republic Records (not to be confused with the current label with that name ), and by 1955, for Dot Records . His 1955 version of Fats Domino 's " Ain't That a Shame " was a hit. This set the stage for the early part of Boone's career, which focused on covering R&B songs by Black artists for
6106-635: The Washington Caps . Boone later played for the Virginia Creepers, an 80–84 age group Senior Olympics team that narrowly lost to the gold medal-winning team; Boone aged out (by turning 85) on June 1, 2019. Pat Boone and his wife Shirley have been very active in charitable endeavors. Together, they supported the founding of Mercy Corps in 1981, a global humanitarian organization focused on crisis response and development in over 40 countries. This initiative stemmed from an earlier project called Save
6248-665: The 13th slasher series, as well as joining forces with Lucasfilm and Steven Spielberg to create the Indiana Jones franchise. Other examples are the Star Trek film series and a string of films starring comedian Eddie Murphy like Trading Places , Coming to America and Beverly Hills Cop and its sequels . While the emphasis was decidedly on the commercial, there were occasional less commercial but more artistic and intellectual efforts like I'm Dancing as Fast as I Can , Atlantic City , Reds , Witness , Children of
6390-792: The 2007 Kentucky gubernatorial election, Boone campaigned unsuccessfully for incumbent Republican Ernie Fletcher with a recorded automated telephone message stating that the Democratic Party candidate Steve Beshear would support "every homosexual cause." As part of the campaign, Boone asked, "Now do you want a governor who'd like Kentucky to be another San Francisco?" On August 29, 2009, Boone wrote an article comparing American political liberalism to cancer, likening it to "black filthy cells". In December 2009, Boone endorsed conservative Republican John Wayne Tucker's campaign in Missouri's 3rd congressional district against incumbent Russ Carnahan (D) in
6532-591: The 2010 midterm elections. In 2010, Boone endorsed Republican Clayton Trotter in the race for Texas's 20th congressional district with an ad campaign referencing his song " Speedy Gonzales ", about the Looney Tunes character , which critics have characterized as offensive stereotypes. Boone received a lifetime achievement award at the 38th annual Conservative Political Action Conference held in February 2011. In June 2016, Boone, along with Mike Huckabee and executive producer Troy Duhon, all of whom were involved in
6674-517: The Charms ' " Two Hearts ", Fats Domino 's "Ain't It a Shame" (which was changed to the slightly more grammatically correct " Ain't That a Shame "), the Five Keys ' " Gee Whittakers! ", Little Richard 's " Tutti Frutti " and " Long Tall Sally ", the El Dorados ' " At My Front Door ", and Ivory Joe Hunter's " I Almost Lost My Mind ". Boone in the late spring of 1956 opted to switch to original material in
6816-549: The Dot Records name for a new label in March 2014. The label's first signees included Maddie and Tae , Drake White , and Steven Tyler . Big Machine discontinued the label in 2017. (**indicates a master purchase/lease from another record company) Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation , commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount , is an American film production and distribution company and
6958-516: The Dot back catalog and subsequently reissued the material on his own Ranwood label. With the rest of the Famous Music Group, in 1974, Dot was bought by ABC , which had tried to purchase the label years before, and renamed it to ABC/Dot Records, a name it retained before the label was discontinued at the start of 1978. The ABC/Dot headquarters became the Nashville office of ABC Records. ABC Records
7100-419: The Dot pop music catalog is managed by Universal Music's Geffen Records . The country back catalog is managed by the former Decca and Coral unit, which was rebranded as MCA Nashville , except for those by Roy Clark and Hank Thompson (owned by their respective estates). Randy Wood died at age 94 in his La Jolla, California, home on April 9, 2011, from complications after a fall. Big Machine Records revived
7242-540: The FCC that Paramount controlled DuMont. Both DuMont and Paramount Television Network suffered as a result, with neither company able to acquire five O&Os. Meanwhile, CBS, ABC, and NBC had each acquired the maximum of five stations by the mid-1950s. When ABC accepted a merger offer from UPT in 1953, DuMont quickly realized that ABC now had more resources than it could possibly hope to match. It quickly reached an agreement in principle to merge with ABC. However, Paramount vetoed
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#17328515980227384-508: The FTC or the courts might eventually order the manufacturer to refund to consumers. Boone said, through a lawyer, that his daughters actually did use Acne-Statin, and that he was "dismayed to learn that the product's efficacy had not been scientifically established as he believed." Boone hosts a weekly radio show, the Pat Boone hour , on the 50s Gold channel on SiriusXM . In 1994, Pat Boone played
7526-458: The Family at Pepperdine University , which educates students on building moral and healthy relationships. During his career, he performed many musical genres such as pop , country music , rock and roll , R&B , gospel and soul . His vocal style was similar to many crooners of his time like Frank Sinatra and Perry Como , despite that, he wasn't a baritone like them, instead he had
7668-471: The Flamingos and " Don't Forbid Me " by Charles Singleton . Boone has been highlighted as an example of whitewashing by taking songs by black artists and sanitizing them to make them more palatable for a white audience, denying exposure to these black artists. Boone also wrote the lyrics for the instrumental theme song for the movie Exodus , which he titled "This Land Is Mine". ( Ernest Gold had composed
7810-539: The Golden Age of Hollywood had just ended, even the flagship Paramount Building in Times Square was sold to raise cash, as was KTLA (sold to Gene Autry in 1964 for a then-phenomenal $ 12.5 million). Their only remaining successful property at that point was Dot Records , which Paramount had acquired in 1957, and even its profits started declining by the middle of the 1960s. Founding father Adolph Zukor (born in 1873)
7952-502: The Hedgehog film series. On August 25, 1983, Paramount Studios caught fire. Two or three sound stages and four outdoor sets were destroyed. When Charles Bluhdorn died unexpectedly, his successor Martin Davis dumped all of Gulf and Western's industrial, mining, and sugar-growing subsidiaries and refocused the company, renaming it Paramount Communications in 1989. With the influx of cash from
8094-652: The Madison Square Garden properties (which also included MSG Network ), a 50% stake in USA Networks (the other 50% was owned by MCA / Universal Pictures ) and Simon & Schuster, Prentice Hall , Pocket Books , Allyn & Bacon , Cineamerica (a joint venture with Warner Communications ), and Canadian cinema chain Famous Players Theatres . That same year, the company launched a $ 12.2 billion hostile bid to acquire Time Inc. in an attempt to end
8236-479: The Mills Brothers and organists Eddie Baxter and George Wright made many albums for Dot as well. Known for artist loyalty, many of these artists stayed with Dot for over a decade, partly because Wood had a reputation for fairmindedness. His label was not impacted by any of the record industry scandals of the 1950s and Wood told a 1959 congressional hearing on payola that his books were open. Hamilton Records ,
8378-491: The Newsboy", and, more famously, Jimmy "C." Newman , who scored many hits on the label (the biggest being " Cry, Cry, Darling ") before leaving for MGM Records in 1958. Wood also recorded such gospel artists as the Fairfield 4, the Gateway Quartet, the Golden Voice Trio, Rosa Shaw, Joe Warren, the Singing Stars, and the Brewsteraires. Dot's first major pop act was The Hilltoppers , whose hits included " P.S. I Love You " and " Trying "; when lead singer Billy Vaughn hit #2 with
8520-427: The Offbeats' "Henrietta" from Bob Tanner's TNT Records, Robin Luke's " Susie Darlin' " from Bertram International Records, Lonnie Donegan 's " Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?) " from Pye Records , the Chantays' " Pipeline " from Downey Records, the Surfaris ' " Wipe Out " from the Princess label, and the Fireballs ' " Sugar Shack " from producer Norman Petty . The label's success on
8662-517: The Paramount-Publix theatre chain in New York City from the thirty-five-story Paramount Theatre Building on Times Square ). Balaban and Katz had developed the Wonder Theater concept, first publicized around 1918 in Chicago. The Chicago Theater was created as a very ornate theater and advertised as a "wonder theater". When Publix acquired Balaban, they embarked on a project to expand the wonder theaters, and starting building in New York City in 1927. While Balaban and Public were dominant in Chicago, Loew's
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#17328515980228804-429: The Refugees , which Shirley launched during the Cambodian crisis in 1979. Among their many efforts, Pat and Shirley also contributed to the creation of the Shirley and Pat Boone Life Center in Tanzania. This center provides clean drinking water, medical care, and education to local communities. The couple also supported, through a multi-million dollar donation, the establishment of the Shirley and Pat Boone Center for
8946-433: The Sunset and Vine lot to the new building. At present, those facilities are still part of the Paramount Pictures headquarters. Zukor hired independent producer B. P. Schulberg , an unerring eye for new talent, to run the new West Coast operations. On April 1, 1927, the company name was changed to Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation . In September 1927, the Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation studio in Astoria (New York City)
9088-421: The UPN network, also acquiring and merging in the assets of Republic Pictures, Spelling Television and Viacom Productions, almost doubling the size of the studio's television library. The television division produced the dominant prime time show for the decade in Frasier , as well as such long running hits as NCIS and Becker and the dominant prime time magazine show Entertainment Tonight. Paramount also gained
9230-452: The USA, America's the greatest land of all!" GM had also sponsored The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom . Many of Boone's hit singles were covers of hits from Black Rock and Roll artists. These included: "Ain't That a Shame" by Fats Domino; " Tutti Frutti " and " Long Tall Sally " by Little Richard ; " At My Front Door (Crazy Little Mama) " by The El Dorados ; and the blues ballads " I Almost Lost My Mind " by Ivory Joe Hunter , "I'll be Home" by
9372-428: The United Kingdom ( UK Singles Chart ): Boone grew up in the Church of Christ . In the 1960s, Boone's marriage to Shirley Foley nearly came to an end because of his use of alcohol and his preference for attending parties. However, after coming into contact with the Charismatic Movement , Shirley began to focus more on her religion and eventually influenced Pat and their daughters to have a similar religious focus. At
9514-408: The Way in Van Nuys , a Foursquare Gospel megachurch pastored by Jack Hayford . On an April 22, 2016, broadcast of Fox News Radio 's The Alan Colmes Show , Boone discussed an episode of Saturday Night Live that included a sketch entitled God Is a Boob Man ; the sketch parodied the film God's Not Dead 2 , in which Boone had a role. He described the sketch as " blasphemy ", stating that
9656-589: The West Coast. The Chicago station got a commercial license as WBKB in 1943, but was sold to UPT along with Balaban & Katz in 1948 and was eventually resold to CBS as WBBM-TV . In 1938, Paramount bought a stake in television manufacturer DuMont Laboratories . Through this stake, it became a minority owner of the DuMont Television Network . Paramount also launched its own network, Paramount Television Network , in 1948 through its television unit, Television Productions, Inc. Paramount management planned to acquire additional owned-and-operated stations ("O&Os");
9798-596: The air. One of the first artists he recorded was the young Johnny Maddox , who packed records for him at his store, and whose honky tonk piano style graced Dot Records for almost twenty years. Wood's roster of R&B artists included Ivory Joe Hunter , Joe Liggins , the Four Dots , the Big Three Trio, Brownie McGhee , Shorty Long , the Counts , and the Griffin Brothers , who had a number one R&B hit with "Weepin' & Cryin'" (with vocal by Tommy Brown) in 1951. His country artists included Mac Wiseman , who had hits with " The Ballad of Davy Crockett " and "Jimmy Brown
9940-558: The artistic acclaim the Fleischer brothers achieved under their management. In 1940, Paramount agreed to a government-instituted consent decree: block booking and "pre-selling" (the practice of collecting up-front money for films not yet in production) would end. Immediately, Paramount cut back on production, from 71 films to a more modest 19 annually in the war years. Still, with more new stars like Bob Hope , Alan Ladd , Veronica Lake , Paulette Goddard , and Betty Hutton , and with war-time attendance at astronomical numbers, Paramount and
10082-509: The comedic duo Smothers Brothers . In the 1970s, he switched to gospel and country , and continued performing in other media as well. In the 1960s and 1970s the Boone family toured as gospel singers and made gospel albums, such as The Pat Boone Family and The Family Who Prays . In 1973 he released S-A-V-E-D, a gospel-studio album. Two songs of the album were written by his friend Johnny Cash , who said about it: I'm deeply honored that you would record two of my songs in this album. This
10224-517: The companies were separate, the FCC ruled that Paramount's partial ownership of DuMont meant that DuMont and Paramount were in theory branches of the same company. Since DuMont owned three television stations and Paramount owned two, the federal agency ruled neither network could acquire additional television stations. The FCC requested that Paramount relinquish its stake in DuMont, but Paramount refused. According to television historian William Boddy, "Paramount's checkered antitrust history" helped convince
10366-579: The company applied to the FCC for additional stations in San Francisco, Detroit, and Boston. The FCC, however, denied Paramount's applications. A few years earlier, the federal regulator had placed a five-station cap on all television networks: no network was allowed to own more than five VHF television stations. Paramount was hampered by its minority stake in the DuMont Television Network. Although both DuMont and Paramount executives stated that
10508-530: The company's subsidiaries. Its sugar plantations in Florida and the Dominican Republic were sold in 1985; the consumer and industrial products branch was sold off that same year. In 1989, Davis renamed the company Paramount Communications Incorporated after its primary asset, Paramount Pictures. In addition to the Paramount film, television, home video, and music publishing divisions, the company continued to own
10650-456: The company. During this time period, Paramount Pictures went under the guidance of Jonathan Dolgen, chairman and Sherry Lansing , president. During their administration over Paramount, the studio had an extremely successful period of films with two of Paramount's ten highest-grossing films being produced during this period. The most successful of these films, Titanic , co-produced with 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment , became
10792-506: The company. The company remained under the control of trustees for more than a year in order to restructure the debt and pursue a reorganization plan. On December 3, 1934, the reorganization plan was formally proposed. After prolonged hearings in court, final confirmation was obtained on April 25, 1935, when Federal Judge Alfred C. Coxe Jr. approved the reorganization of the Paramount-Publix Corporation under Section 77-B of
10934-477: The corporation from a bloated conglomerate consisting of subsidiaries from unrelated industries to a more focused entertainment and publishing company. The idea was to aid financial markets in measuring the company's success, which, in turn, would help place better value on its shares. Though its Paramount division did very well in recent years, Gulf and Western's success as a whole was translating poorly with investors. This process eventually led Davis to divest many of
11076-637: The country (as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: The Next Generation were). Paramount Pictures was not connected to either Paramount Records (1910s–1935) or ABC-Paramount Records (1955–66) until it purchased the rights to use the name (but not the latter's catalog) in the late 1960s. The Paramount name was used for soundtrack albums and some pop re-issues from the Dot Records catalog which Paramount had acquired in 1957. By 1970, Dot had become an all-country label and in 1974, Paramount sold all of its record holdings to ABC Records , which in turn
11218-506: The country in 1986. Worldwide Media Sales, a division of the New York-based Worldwide Media Group had been placed in charge of the undertaking. That year, Paramount Pictures decided to consolidate its distribution operations, closing a number of branch offices that were designed for the studio and relocating staff and major activities in an effort to cut costs and provide for a more efficient centralization; this decision
11360-498: The film God's Not Dead 2 , sent a letter to California Governor Jerry Brown in opposition to Senate Bill 1146, which "prohibits a person from being subjected to discrimination" at California colleges. Other than schools that train pastors and theology teachers, schools "might no longer be allowed to hire Christian-only staff, teach religious ideas in regular classes, require attendance at chapel services, or keep bathrooms and dormitories restricted to either males or females." Boone
11502-549: The film community. Since then, former next-door neighbor RKO closed up shop in 1957 (Paramount ultimately absorbed their former lot); Warner Bros. (whose old Sunset Boulevard studio was sold to Paramount in 1949 as a home for KTLA ) moved to Burbank in 1930; Columbia joined Warners in Burbank in 1973 then moved again to Culver City in 1989; and the Pickford-Fairbanks-Goldwyn-United Artists lot, after
11644-511: The finance committee in order to assist vice-president and treasurer Ralph A. Kohn. However, on January 6, 1933, Hertz resigned from his position when it become evident that his measures to lift the company had failed. The over-expansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock for purchases created a $ 21 million debt which led the company into receivership on January 26, 1933, and later filing bankruptcy on March 14, 1933. On April 17, 1933, bankruptcy trustees were appointed and Zukor lost control of
11786-408: The flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount Global . It is the sixth-oldest film studio in the world, the second-oldest film studio in the United States (behind Universal Pictures ), and the sole member of the "Big Five" film studios located within the city limits of Los Angeles . In 1916, film producer Adolph Zukor put 24 actors and actresses under contract and honored each with a star on
11928-462: The headquarters of Ferrari in Maranello , near Modena , with the intention of buying a Superamerica Sports Car , but Enzo Ferrari dissuaded him from purchasing that model by saying that there would not have been enough room for Boone's four daughters, and sold him a four-door Ferrari 2+2 instead. In a 2021 interview, Boone admitted having later sold the "Ferrari he didn't like" to Tom Smothers of
12070-619: The highest-grossing film up to that time, grossing over $ 1.8 billion worldwide. Also during this time, three Paramount Pictures films won the Academy Award for Best Picture; Titanic , Braveheart , and Forrest Gump . Paramount's most important property, however, was Star Trek . Studio executives had begun to call it "the franchise" in the 1980s due to its reliable revenue, and other studios envied its "untouchable and unduplicatable" success. By 1998, Star Trek television shows, movies, books, videotapes, and licensing provided so much of
12212-511: The job for eight years, restoring Paramount's reputation for commercial success with The Odd Couple , Rosemary's Baby , Love Story , The Godfather , Chinatown , and 3 Days of the Condor . Gulf and Western also bought the neighboring Desilu Productions television studio (once the lot of RKO Pictures ) from Lucille Ball in 1967. Using some of Desilu's established shows such as Star Trek , Mission: Impossible , and Mannix as
12354-457: The kind that once made Paramount the industry leader. Around the end of 1981, Paramount Pictures took over fellow Gulf and Western subsidiary Sega from the company's manufacturing division in an effort to get into the video game business. Paramount would go on to sell Sega following the Video Game Crash of 1983 , and the two companies would later work together on the live action/CGI Sonic
12496-526: The label began to release soundtrack albums , including Elmer Bernstein 's score for The Ten Commandments (1956), a 2-LP set that played longer than the usual record album. Remakes were commonplace at Dot in the 1960s, with the label having artists such as Tony Martin , Jo Stafford , Vaughn Monroe , Gene Austin , Jimmie Rodgers , the Andrews Sisters , Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher re-record their old hits at various times; in 1968, Dot issued
12638-451: The label's Fontane Sisters . A number-one single in 1956 by Boone was a second cover and a revival of a then seven-year-old song " I Almost Lost My Mind ", by Ivory Joe Hunter , which was originally covered by another Black star, Nat King Cole . According to an opinion poll of high-school students in 1957, the singer was nearly the "two-to-one favorite over Elvis Presley among boys and preferred almost three-to-one by girls ..." During
12780-661: The late 1920s and the early 1930s, talkies brought in a range of powerful draws: Richard Arlen , Nancy Carroll , Maurice Chevalier , Gary Cooper , Marlene Dietrich , Charles Ruggles , Ruth Chatterton , William Powell , Mae West , Sylvia Sidney , Bing Crosby , Claudette Colbert , the Marx Brothers , W.C. Fields , Fredric March , Jack Oakie , Jeanette MacDonald (whose first two films were shot at Paramount's Astoria, New York , studio), Carole Lombard , George Raft , Miriam Hopkins , Cary Grant and Stuart Erwin , among them. In this period Paramount can truly be described as
12922-428: The late 1950s, Boone and his family were residents of Teaneck, New Jersey . Shirley Boone was a lesser-known recording artist and television personality than her husband. She also founded a hunger-relief Christian ministry that evolved into Mercy Corps . She died at age 84 in 2019, at the couple's Beverly Hills home, of complications from vasculitis , which she had contracted less than a year earlier. Boone has been
13064-514: The late 1950s, he made regular appearances on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee , hosted by his father-in-law. He cultivated a safe, wholesome, advertiser-friendly image that won him a long-term product endorsement contract from General Motors during the late 1950s, lasting through the 1960s. He succeeded Dinah Shore singing the praises of the GM product: "See the USA in your Chevrolet ... drive your Chevrolet through
13206-482: The logo. In 1967, the number of stars was reduced to 22 and their hidden meaning was dropped. In 2014, Paramount Pictures became the first major Hollywood studio to distribute all of its films in digital form only. The company's headquarters and studios are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, California. The most commerciay successful film franchises from Paramount Pictures include Transformers , Mission: Impossible and Star Trek . Additionally,
13348-470: The loss of the theater chain, Paramount Pictures went into a decline, cutting studio-backed production, releasing its contract players, and making production deals with independents. By the mid-1950s, all the great names were gone; only Cecil B. DeMille , associated with Paramount since 1913, kept making pictures in the grand old style. Despite Paramount's losses, DeMille would, however, give the studio some relief and create his most successful film at Paramount,
13490-498: The management of Famous Music in 1971. Gulf+Western sold its labels to ABC in 1974. Dot was renamed to ABC-Dot Records before closing in 1978. The label was reactivated in 2014 through a joint venture between Big Machine Label Group and the Republic Records unit of Universal Music Group (which owns the original Dot Records catalog). Based in Nashville, Tennessee , the label was retired in 2017. Dot's founder, Randy Wood,
13632-610: The middle class by featuring the leading theatrical players of the time (leading to the slogan "Famous Players in Famous Plays"). By mid-1913, Famous Players had completed five films, and Zukor was on his way to success. Its first film was Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth , which starred Sarah Bernhardt . That same year, another aspiring producer, Jesse L. Lasky , opened his Lasky Feature Play Company with money borrowed from his brother-in-law, Samuel Goldfish, later known as Samuel Goldwyn . The Lasky company hired as their first employee
13774-444: The music.) As a conservative Christian, Boone declined certain songs and movie roles that he felt might compromise his beliefs—including a role with sex symbol Marilyn Monroe . In one of his first films, April Love , the director, Henry Levin , wanted him to give co-star Shirley Jones a kiss, which was not in the script. Since this would be his first onscreen kiss, Boone said that he wanted to talk to his wife first, to make sure it
13916-648: The new United Paramount Theaters on December 31, 1949. Leonard Goldenson , who had headed the chain since 1938, remained as the new company's president. The Balaban and Katz theatre division was spun off with UPT; its trademark eventually became the property of the Balaban and Katz Historical Foundation. The foundation later acquired ownership of the Famous Players trademark. Cash-rich and controlling prime downtown real estate, Goldenson began looking for investments. Barred from film-making by prior antitrust rulings, he acquired
14058-461: The number one spot six times. Until the 2010s, he held the record for the most consecutive weeks in the U.S. charts with at least one single in the Top 100 , totaling 220 weeks. According to the renowned magazine Billboard , Boone was the only artist who could rival Elvis Presley on the national charts in the late 1950s. No. 1 singles in the United States ( Billboard Hot 100 ): No. 1 singles in
14200-549: The offer due to antitrust concerns. For all intents and purposes, this was the end of DuMont, though it lingered on until 1956. In 1951, Paramount bought a stake in International Telemeter , an experimental pay TV service which operated with a coin inserted into a box. The service began operating in Palm Springs, California on November 27, 1953, but due to pressure from the FCC, the service ended on May 15, 1954. With
14342-649: The other integrated studio-theatre combines made more money than ever. At this, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department decided to reopen their case against the five integrated studios. Paramount also had a monopoly over Detroit movie theaters through subsidiary company United Detroit Theaters. This led to the Supreme Court decision United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. (1948) holding that movie studios could not also own movie theater chains. This decision broke up Adolph Zukor's creation, with
14484-492: The ownership rights to the Rysher library, after Viacom acquired the rights from Cox Enterprises . Pat Boone Patrick Charles Eugene Boone (born June 1, 1934) is an American singer, actor, author, television personality, philanthropist, and composer. During his recording career , he sold nearly 50 million records and had 38 Top 40 hits; he also appeared in various Hollywood films. According to Billboard , Boone
14626-494: The playlist of Nashville 's CBS Radio affiliate, WLAC . After discovering that their records were only available in limited quantities—and not in Gallatin—Wood formed a mail-order operation by placing a short advertisement with WLAC personalities "Hoss" Allen and Gene Nobles . By 1950, his record sales had far surpassed that of the appliances he carried and he renamed his store Randy's Record Shop. As an extension, he formed
14768-430: The point where he could. The record topped the charts in 1957; Dot's release of a follow-up record from Hunter ("Ninety-Nine Ways") frustrated Warner Bros. chief Jack L. Warner , who retaliated by forming Warner Bros. Records and placing Hunter on the label as its first artist. In 1957, Wood sold the label to Paramount Pictures , but he remained president for another decade. Dot (and Wood) then moved to Hollywood, where
14910-526: The pop charts would be negatively impacted by the success of The Beatles and the subsequent British Invasion , and there were times, between 1964 and 1967, when it could not place a song on the Billboard Hot 100 or the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart or both of the two charts. Pat Boone had further success in the 1960s, registering a #1 hit in 1961 with " Moody River ", then coming back in 1962 with
15052-613: The power of aroused Americans, I believe in the wisdom of our Constitution.... the power of God." It was noted that Roy Rogers , John Wayne , Ronald Reagan , Mary Pickford , Jane Russell , Ginger Rogers , and Pat Buttram had endorsed the goals of the rally and would also have attended had their schedules not been in conflict. In the early 1970s, the Boones hosted Bible studies for celebrities such as Doris Day , Glenn Ford , Zsa Zsa Gabor , and Priscilla Presley at their Beverly Hills home. The family then began attending The Church on
15194-587: The president of the network, Paul Crouch , and his pastor, Jack Hayford, many fans accepted his explanation of the leather outfit being a "parody of himself". Trinity Broadcasting then reinstated him, and Gospel America was brought back. In 2003, the Nashville Gospel Music Association recognized his gospel recording work by inducting him into its Gospel Music Hall of Fame . In September 2006, Boone released We Are Family: R&B Classics , featuring cover versions of 11 R&B hits, including
15336-558: The production side, Hiram Abrams in charge of distribution, and Zukor making great plans. With only the exhibitor-owned First National as a rival, Famous Players–Lasky and its "Paramount Pictures" soon dominated the business. The fusion was finalized on November 7, 1916. Because Zukor believed in stars, he signed and developed many of the leading early stars, including Mary Pickford , Marguerite Clark , Pauline Frederick , Douglas Fairbanks , Gloria Swanson , Rudolph Valentino , and Wallace Reid . With so many important players, Paramount
15478-650: The publisher, which lasted for five issues from September 1959 to May 1960. In the early 1960s, he began writing a series of self-help books for adolescents, including 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty . The British Invasion ended Boone's career as a hitmaker, though he continued recording throughout the 1960s. In 1966, he participated in the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy, performing the songs Mai mai mai Valentina alongside Giorgio Gaber and Se tu non-fossi qui with Peppino Gagliardi . During his trip to Italy, he visited
15620-461: The sale of Gulf and Western's industrial properties in the mid-1980s, Paramount bought a string of television stations and KECO Entertainment 's theme park operations, renaming them Paramount Parks . These parks included Paramount's Great America , Paramount Canada's Wonderland , Paramount's Carowinds , Paramount's Kings Dominion , and Paramount's Kings Island . In May 1985, Paramount decided to start its own talent department, an attempt to form
15762-672: The sale of Gulf and Western's non-entertainment properties to take over the TVX Broadcast Group chain of television stations (which at that point consisted mainly of large-market stations which TVX had bought from Taft Broadcasting , plus two mid-market stations which TVX owned prior to the Taft purchase), and the KECO Entertainment chain of theme parks from Taft successor Great American Broadcasting. Both of these companies had their names changed to reflect new ownership: TVX became known as
15904-484: The show. His cover versions of rhythm and blues hits had a noticeable effect on the development of the broad popularity of rock and roll . Elvis Presley was the opening act for a 1955 Pat Boone show in Brooklyn, Ohio . The two later became close friends. As an author, Boone had a number-one bestseller in the 1950s ( 'Twixt Twelve and Twenty , Prentice-Hall). In the 1960s he focused on gospel music . Later he became
16046-447: The struggling ABC television network in February 1953, leading it first to financial health, and eventually, in the mid-1970s, to first place in the national Nielsen ratings, before selling out to Capital Cities in 1985 (Capital Cities would eventually sell out, in turn, to The Walt Disney Company in 1996). United Paramount Theaters was renamed ABC Theaters in 1965 and was sold to businessman Henry Plitt in 1977. The movie theater chain
16188-480: The studio's library includes many individual films such as The Godfather and Titanic , both of which became the highest-grossing films of all time during their initial releases. Paramount Pictures is a member of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). Paramount is the sixth oldest surviving film studio in the world; after Gaumont Film Company (1895), Pathé (1896), Titanus (1904), Nordisk Film (1906), and Universal Pictures (1912). It
16330-467: The studio's profit that "it is not possible to spend any reasonable amount of time at Paramount and not be aware of [its] presence"; filming for Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine required up to nine of the largest of the studio's 36 sound stages . In 1995, Viacom and Chris-Craft Industries ' United Television launched United Paramount Network (UPN) with Star Trek: Voyager as its flagship series, fulfilling Barry Diller's plan for
16472-502: The studios' West Coast productions. On January 5, 1926, Lasky reached an agreement to buy the Robert Brunton Studios, a 26-acre facility owned by United Pictures and located at 5451 Marathon Street, for $ 1.0 million (equivalent to $ 13.8 million in 2023). On March 29, the company began an eight-month building program to renovate the existing facilities and erect new ones. On May 8, Lasky finally moved operations from
16614-410: The theater chain being split into a new company, United Paramount Theaters , and effectively brought an end to the classic Hollywood studio system . With the separation of production and exhibition forced by the U.S. Supreme Court, Paramount Pictures Inc. was split in two. Paramount Pictures Corporation was formed to be the production distribution company, with the 1,500-screen theater chain handed to
16756-428: The three companies into one. The new company Lasky and Zukor founded on June 28, Famous Players–Lasky Corporation , although it continued to use the name "Paramount," as well. As a result, it became the largest film company at the time with a value of US$ 12.5 million (equivalent to $ 241.8 million in 2023). The corporation was able to grow quickly, with Lasky and his partners Goldwyn and DeMille running
16898-731: The time they attended the Inglewood Church of Christ in Inglewood, California . In the spring of 1964, Boone spoke at a "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley , a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of mandatory school prayer , following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of
17040-648: The title role in The Will Rogers Follies in Branson , Missouri. In 1997, Boone released In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy , a collection of heavy metal covers . To promote the album, he appeared at the American Music Awards in black leather. He was then dismissed from Gospel America , a TV show on the Trinity Broadcasting Network . After making a special appearance on TBN with
17182-596: The title track, plus "Papa's Got A Brand New Bag", "Soul Man", "Get Down Tonight", "A Woman Needs Love", and six other classics. In 2010, plans were announced for the Pat Boone Family Theater at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina . The attraction was never built. In 2011, Boone acted as a spokesperson for Security One Lending, a reverse mortgage company. Since at least 2007 Boone has acted as
17324-406: The world, while its fortuitous earlier acquisition of the Star Trek property, which had grown into a cult favorite , enabled Paramount to have a long running science fiction film and television franchise to compete with the outstanding popular success of Star Wars . Diller's television background led him to propose one of his longest-standing ideas to the board: Paramount Television Service ,
17466-598: Was a more interested listener. However, the television division would be playing catch-up for over a decade after Diller's departure in 1984 before launching its own television network – UPN – in 1995. Lasting eleven years before being merged with The WB network to become The CW in 2006, UPN would feature many of the shows it originally produced for other networks, and would take numerous gambles on series such as Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise that would have otherwise either gone direct-to-cable or become first-run syndication to independent stations across
17608-433: Was able to introduce " block booking ", which meant that an exhibitor who wanted a particular star's films had to buy a year's worth of other Paramount productions. It was this system that gave Paramount a leading position in the 1920s and 1930s, but which led the government to pursue it on antitrust grounds for more than twenty years. By the mid-1920s, the old Lasky-DeMille barn property was not big enough to handle all of
17750-483: Was all right with her. He had his own film production company, Cooga Mooga Productions. He appeared as a regular performer on Arthur Godfrey and His Friends from 1955 through 1957, and later hosted his own The Pat Boone Chevy Showroom , on Thursday evenings. In 1959, Boone's likeness was licensed to DC Comics , first appearing in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane No. 9 (May 1959) before starring in his own series from
17892-521: Was also one of the first Hollywood studios to release what were known at that time as "talkies", and in 1929, released their first musical, Innocents of Paris . Richard A. Whiting and Leo Robin composed the score for the film; Maurice Chevalier starred and sang the most famous song from the film, " Louise ". The driving force behind Paramount's rise was Zukor. He built a chain of nearly 2,000 screens, ran two production studios (in Astoria, New York , now
18034-559: Was born a year later to the day, and was also a pop singer in the 1950s and later a church music leader. In a 2007 interview on The 700 Club , Boone claimed to be the great-great-great-great-grandson of the American pioneer Daniel Boone . Pat primarily attended David Lipscomb College, and later Lipscomb University in Nashville. He graduated in 1958 from Columbia University School of General Studies magna cum laude having previously attended North Texas State University, now known as
18176-521: Was enormously popular and had just packed a stage show in Chicago with screaming girls. Wood asked if Hunter could sing, but Miller replied, "I don't know, it doesn't matter, I guess." Tab Hunter was the first to tell Wood that he could not sing a note. However, after giving Hunter the Ric Cartey tune " Young Love ", Wood told producer Milt Rogers to repeatedly teach Hunter how to sing it until he finally reached
18318-429: Was even more popular than Mickey Mouse . After an unsuccessful expansion into feature films, as well as the fact that Max and Dave Fleischer were no longer speaking to one another, Fleischer Studios was acquired by Paramount, which renamed the operation Famous Studios . That incarnation of the animation studio continued cartoon production until 1967, but has been historically dismissed as having largely failed to maintain
18460-699: Was first named the Oakland Americans, but was renamed the Oakland Oaks , the name under which it played from 1967 to 1969. The Oaks won the 1969 ABA championship . Despite the Oaks' success on the court, the team had severe financial problems. By August 1969, the Bank of America was threatening to foreclose on a $ 1.2 million loan to the Oaks, and the team was sold to a group of businessmen in Washington, D.C., and became
18602-574: Was made in response to a change in distribution practices that had occurred among the various major studios. In August 1987, Paramount Overseas Productions declared that the subsidiary would be in service not just for the upcoming film Experts , which was shot on a budget of $ 12 million in Canada , but also for other films filmed there worldwide, including the United Kingdom and Canada . In 1993, Sumner Redstone 's entertainment conglomerate Viacom made
18744-763: Was purchased by Gulf and Western in 1968, Dot was rebranded as a country music label, a move which revitalized the label's chart presence, albeit on the Hot Country Songs chart instead of the Hot 100 . Country artists on the label included Freddy Fender , Roy Clark , Barbara Mandrell , Billy "Crash" Craddock , Narvel Felts , the Oak Ridge Boys , Don Williams , Tommy Overstreet , John Wesley Ryles , Johnny Carver , Donna Fargo , Red Steagall , Ray Price , Joe Stampley , Buck Trent , Sue Richards, Eddy Raven , Diana Trask , Ray Griff , Ray Pillow , Doug Sahm (formerly of
18886-575: Was re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange and when the company was under Balaban's leadership, the studio was successfully relaunched. As always, Paramount films continued to emphasize stars; in the 1920s there were Gloria Swanson , Wallace Reid , Rudolph Valentino , Florence Vidor , Thomas Meighan , Pola Negri , Bebe Daniels , Antonio Moreno , Richard Dix , Esther Ralston , Emil Jannings , George Bancroft , Betty Compson , Clara Bow , Adolphe Menjou , and Charles Buddy Rogers . By
19028-509: Was released. On May 8, 1914, Paramount Pictures Corporation (previously known as Progressive Pictures) was founded by a Utah theatre owner, W. W. Hodkinson , who had bought and merged five smaller firms. On May 15, 1914, Hodkinson signed a five-year contract with the Famous Players Film Company, the Lasky Company and Bosworth, Inc. to distribute their films. Actor, director and producer Hobart Bosworth had started production of
19170-423: Was renamed Plitt Theaters. In 1985, Cineplex Odeon Corporation merged with Plitt. In later years, Paramount's TV division would develop a strong relationship with ABC, providing many hit series to the network. Paramount Pictures had been an early backer of television, launching experimental stations in 1939 in Los Angeles and Chicago. The Los Angeles station eventually became KTLA , the first commercial station on
19312-458: Was revived by Dave Edmunds in 1970). In 1956, Dot also made a noteworthy contribution to the Easy Listening genre by releasing a recording of popular music arranged by John Serry ( Squeeze Play , DLP-3024, 1956). In late 1956, Wood signed Warner Bros. star Tab Hunter to a record contract after Chicago disc jockey Howard Miller suggested to Wood that he might want to sign Hunter, who
19454-495: Was sold to MCA (now Universal Music Group ) in 1979. Paramount's successful run of pictures extended into the 1980s and 1990s, generating hits like Airplane! , American Gigolo , Ordinary People , An Officer and a Gentleman , Flashdance , Terms of Endearment , Footloose , Pretty in Pink , Top Gun , Crocodile Dundee , Fatal Attraction , Ghost , the Friday
19596-460: Was still chairman emeritus; he referred to chairman Barney Balaban (born 1888) as "the boy". Such aged leadership was incapable of keeping up with the changing times, and in 1966, a sinking Paramount was sold to Charles Bluhdorn 's industrial conglomerate, Gulf and Western Industries . Bluhdorn immediately put his stamp on the studio, installing a virtually unknown producer named Robert Evans as head of production. Despite some rough times, Evans held
19738-558: Was temporarily closed with the objective of equipping it with the technology for the production of sound films . In the same year, Paramount began releasing Inkwell Imps , animated cartoons produced by Max and Dave Fleischer 's Fleischer Studios in New York City. The Fleischers, veterans in the animation industry, were among the few animation producers capable of challenging the prominence of Walt Disney . The Paramount newsreel series Paramount News ran from 1927 to 1957. Paramount
19880-450: Was the big player in New York City, and did not want the Publix theaters to overshadow theirs. The two companies brokered a non-competition deal for New York City and Chicago, and Loew's took over the New York City area projects, developing five wonder theaters . Publix continued Balaban's wonder theater development in its home area. On April 24, 1930, Paramount-Famous Lasky Corporation became
20022-453: Was the only singer that could compete in popularity with Elvis Presley during the 1950s. Billboard has ranked Pat as one of the biggest charting artists in the period 1955–1995. Until the 2010s, Boone held the record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the Billboard charts with one or more songs each week. During the 1950s and the 1960s Boone was one of the most popular entertainers in
20164-544: Was then sold to MCA Records in 1979. MCA's Nashville division briefly revived the Dot label in 1985–86 for a series of one-off albums by country music artists such as Jan Howard , Jeanne Pruett , Jim Ed Brown and the Browns , Carl Perkins , Billie Jo Spears , Porter Wagoner , and Tompall Glaser . The merger of the MCA Records and PolyGram Records families became the foundation for Universal Music Group in 1999. Currently,
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