Page "Paramount Pictures" Paragraph 12

As always, Paramount films continued to emphasize stars ; in the 1920s there were Swanson, Valentino, and Clara Bow.

By the 1930s, talkies brought in a range of powerful new draws: Miriam Hopkins, Marlene Dietrich, Mae West, Gary Cooper, Claudette Colbert, the Marx Brothers, Dorothy Lamour, Carole Lombard, Bing Crosby, the band leader Shep Fields and the famous Argentine tango singer Carlos Gardel among them.

In this period Paramount can truly be described as 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 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 the Production Code, as the newly formed organization the Catholic Legion of Decency threatened a boycott if it was not enforced.