Famous Players Film Company

The Famous Players Film Company or Celebrated Players was a film company founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor in partnership with the Frohman brothers, the powerful Los Angeles theatre impresarios. Discussions to form the company were held at The Lambs, the famous theater club where Charles and Daniel Frohman were members. The company advertised "Famous Players in Famous Plays" and its first release was the French film Les Amours de la reine Élisabeth (1912) starring Sarah Bernhardt and Lou Tellegen. Its first actual production was The Count of Monte Cristo (1912, released 1913), directed by Edwin S. Porter and starring James O'Neill, the father of dramatist Eugene O'Neill. The company established a studio at 221 West 26th Street in Manhattan that today is Chelsea Studios.

The company produced both short and feature-length productions. In 1916 the company established Famous Players Fiction Studios at 5300 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, one of the oldest studios in Hollywood. The studio later became Clune Studio, then California Studio, then Gross-Krasne, followed by Producers Studios Inc., and is now known as Raleigh Studios. The new studio's first film starred Mary Pickford. Raleigh Studios is known for being the site of Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, and currently Let's Make a Deal.

In 1916, the company merged with the Jesse L. Lasky Feature Play Company to form Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, which later became Paramount Pictures.