--- title: Paramount Pictures: Behind the Scenes at a Hollywood Giant description: LIFE.com presents a series of photos capturing both the faded magic and the undeniable appeal of a uniquely self-absorbed industry: the movies. canonical: https://time.com/3871509/the-stuff-of-dreams-behind-the-scenes-at-paramount-pictures/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-03-08T02:34:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:56.107Z og:title: Paramount Pictures: Behind the Scenes at a Hollywood Giant og:description: LIFE.com presents a series of photos capturing both the faded magic and the undeniable appeal of a uniquely self-absorbed industry: the movies. og:url: https://time.com/3871509/the-stuff-of-dreams-behind-the-scenes-at-paramount-pictures/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9634e8bde1c2a8b/69884703cd684824b209eeea/01_1112169971.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Paramount Pictures1970 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paramount Pictures: Behind the Scenes at a Hollywood Giant twitter:description: LIFE.com presents a series of photos capturing both the faded magic and the undeniable appeal of a uniquely self-absorbed industry: the movies. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9634e8bde1c2a8b/69884703cd684824b209eeea/01_1112169971.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Stuff of Dreams: Behind the Scenes at Paramount Pictures > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Mar 8, 2012 2:34 AM UTC  Original caption from LIFE: The scene of countless cowboy shoot-outs, a phony Western town drowses beneath a painted sky on the Paramount back lot. Original caption from LIFE: The scene of countless cowboy shoot-outs, a phony Western town drowses beneath a painted sky on the Paramount back lot. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Mar 8, 2012 2:34 AM UTC We sit in the dark, surrounded by strangers. Gradually, and then suddenly, it happens. On the big screen, a familiar logo appears — maybe it’s a huge “WB” in the shape of a shield, or the Earth partially encircled by the word “UNIVERSAL” — and just like that, we’re not a room full of strangers anymore. We’re an audience, we’re fans, ready and willing to be entertained. For decades, for countless moviegoers the world over, no movie studio logo has been more iconic, or more immediately and purely suggestive of imminent celluloid bliss, than Paramount Pictures’. We see that soaring, solitary mountain crowned by a halo of stars, and we think to ourselves: _Here we go_. _Show time!_  Pawel Kopczynski—Reuters Pawel Kopczynski—Reuters Founded in 1912 by Hungary-born Adolph Cukor (left, at 97 years old, in his chauffeured golf cart), Paramount might have lacked the strong identity forged by some of the other major studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Warner Bros. was for years known for its gritty crime thrillers; MGM produced glitzy extravaganzas and musicals. Paramount, on the other hand, was all over the map — but that was perfectly okay. After all, if a studio could deliver movies like (just to name a few) _The Ten Commandments_, _Chinatown_, _Rosemary’s Baby_ and _The Godfather_, it had to be doing something right. But even hugely successful companies that have been around for generations sometimes need to take stock and reassess — which is exactly the situation that Paramount, and Hollywood as a whole, found itself having to navigate in the early 1970s. AS LIFE magazine put it in a February 27, 1970 cover story entitled, “The Day the Dream Factory Woke Up”: --- > “” --- Here, LIFE.com presents a series of photos chronicling that “painful housecleaning” — pictures that capture both the faded magic and the heady appeal of a unique, profoundly self-absorbed industry that, perhaps more perfectly than any other, has always embodied the enduring struggle between Art and Commerce. _Photo credit, Zukor and chauffeur: Co Rentmeester—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images_ _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter_ [_@lizabethronk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Original caption from LIFE: The scene of countless cowboy shoot-outs, a phony Western town drowses beneath a painted sky on the Paramount back lot. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Back lot of Paramount Pictures. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures, Stage 18, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Paramount Pictures props, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  "Behind the cowtown street on Paramount's Hollywood lot, a fake sunny blue sky rises unruffled by wind or rain or dark of night." Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Paramount Pictures props, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures costumes, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures props, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures props, 1970. Henry Groskinsky—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Paramount Pictures, 1970. 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