Centennial Celebration 2: Paramount Pictures

Joe Gillis: You’re Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.

Norma Desmond: I am big. It’s the pictures that got small.

~Sunset Boulevard (1950)

Director, Billy Wilder, on the set of Sunset Boulevard (1950). This 1920s house was located on Wilshire Boulevard.

Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) and Joe Gillis (William Holden) star in Sunset Boulevard

A scene from Sunset Boulevard

If you haven’t seen Sunset Boulevard, the Academy -ward winning film noir starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson, then I highly recommend it. You will not only watch a compelling story about love, fame, age, and fortune, but also catch excellent performances by Hollywood’s best actors, enjoy a 1950s Los Angeles, and glimpse the Paramount Pictures backlot, where a few scenes were filmed.

In this scene, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) arrives at the Paramount studio backlot

“Sunset Boulevard” Cecil B.DeMille and Gloria Swanson behind the scenes 1950 Paramount

This year, in 2012, Paramount Pictures celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Founded on 8th May, 1912, it is the only remaining major Hollywood studio and has  consistently produced top-grossing hits, including:

Raiders of the Lost Ark, Chinatown, Sabrina, To Catch a Thief, The Ten Commandments, The Godfather, Saturday Night Fever, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, MacGyver, Crocodile Dundee, Family Ties, She’s Having a Baby, Days of Thunder, Mission Impossible… and more.

“Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”: Tom Cruise hanging from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, 1700 feet above the ground.

Paramount Pictures Headquarters are located at 5555 Melrose Avenue and has an excellent backlot tour, The Paramount Pictures Studio Tour, which runs daily.

Paramount Studios ~ Photo Marina Chetner

Did you know? Studio 13 doesn’t exist because of a long standing superstitious belief.

In celebration, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Film Independent are screening “two stylish crime classics starring Michael Caine: The Italian Job and the steely Cold War thriller Funeral in Berlin” on May 17.

LACMA’s Urban Lights exhibit ~ Photo Marina Chetner

You may find this interesting…

To celebrate the company’s 100th anniversary, a new logo was created by Devastudios, Inc. The studio’s first logo, a rugged, snow-covered peak from the Wasatch mountain range, was created in 1916. The new logo includes a surrounding mountain range and shining sun in the background.

Paramount will use the logo throughout its centennial year in 2012. In 2013, just the wording about the 100^th anniversary will be removed.

The first film to introduce the 100th anniversary logo was Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.

(Sources: Collider and Wikipedia)