Origins
William Wadsworth Hodkinson founded American film corporation Paramount Pictures in 1914. Famous Players-Lasky Corporation acquired the company in 1916 and by the 1920s Paramount had become a key player in Hollywood. The company founded or acquired many film production and exhibition properties; among these were the 2,000-screen theater chain United Paramount Theatres (UPT), newsreel service Paramount News, and animation studio Famous Studios. The company became one of the "big five" Hollywood studios. By the 1940s, however, Paramount was the target of several anti-trust lawsuits brought against the studio by the federal government, which accused Paramount of conducting monopolistic practices. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) forced Paramount to sell off its theater division in 1949.
As early as 1937, executives at Paramount Pictures were interested in the new medium of television. The following year, Paramount purchased a minority interest in DuMont Laboratories, a pioneer in early television technology founded by Dr. Allen B. DuMont. Relations between Paramount and DuMont staff were strained by 1940, when Paramount, without DuMont, opened Chicago television station WBKB and Los Angeles station KTLA. Dr. DuMont claimed that the original 1937 acquisition proposal required that Paramount would expand its television interests "through DuMont". Paramount representative Paul Raibourn denied that any such restriction had ever been discussed (a 1953 examination of the original draft document vindicated DuMont on this point). The stock in DuMont, coupled with the Chicago and Los Angeles stations, gave Paramount full or partial ownership of four of the first nine television stations in the United States.
DuMont Laboratories launched the DuMont Television Network in 1946. Despite Paramount's partial ownership of DuMont, Paramount's two stations never aired television programs from DuMont's television network (with the exception of one year on KTLA in 1947–48), and competed against DuMont's affiliates in Los Angeles and Chicago. According to authors Auter and Boyd, Paramount's construction of KTLA and WBKB and its subsequent launch of the Paramount Television Network "undercut" DuMont, a company it had invested in.
KTLA began commercial broadcasts in January 1947; its first evening broadcast was hosted by Bob Hope and featured Kirk Douglas, William Bendix, Dorothy Lamour, William Demarest, Ray Milland, and Cecil B. DeMille. KTLA was the first commercial station west of the Mississippi River. Although other Los Angeles TV stations operated experimentally and received commercial licenses, KTLA had a head start that resulted in a large viewership; a 1949 audience estimate from the C.E. Hooper company indicated that KTLA was broadcasting 28 of the top 30 television series in Los Angeles. The popularity of KTLA's local programs opened up the possibility that they would become national hits if released to other stations across the country.
Read more about this topic: Paramount Television Network
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