W.W. Hodkinson

Pioneering film producer/distributor W. W. Hodkinson was born in Pueblo, CO, in 1881.

He got into the motion picture business early, opening a theater in Ogden, UT, in 1907. He was successful enough to buy out the only two other theaters in Ogden, then headed for the "big time" in Salt Lake City. He moved up from exhibiting films to distributing them, joining the General Film Co. , opening offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco and eventually becoming one of the biggest distributors on the West Coast.

One of the first masterminds of film distribution in the early 1910s. He banded loosely organized distribution territories into statewide systems that remained in effect for four decades. Unfortunately, one of the producers he signed to supply his need for product was the hard-driving Adolph Zukor, who wanted to control distribution himself. He eventually maneuvered Hodkinson out of the chairmanship of his company, W.W. Hodkinson Corp., which eventually became Producers Distributing Corp., which in turn eventually became Paramount Pictures. Hodkinson later became an aircraft manufacturer.

In 1914 he consolidated 11 film-rental firms into one company that could distribute films nationwide, and named it Paramount Pictures. Up until then films had been distributed mainly in two ways: (1) "states rights", in which producers would sell the rights to their films to a variety of local distributors in various areas of the country for a flat fee, and (2) "road show", which generally meant that a producer would show his film in a particular theater or theaters in an area himself and receive a certain percentage of the box-office receipts, then move on to the next city and do the same thing. Hodkinson came up with the concept of "block booking"--if exhibitors wanted a particular film they had to also agree to show a "block" of films from companies that had signed exclusive distribution agreements with Paramount. This meant that exhibitors could count on a steady supply of product for their theaters, producers were guaranteed a market for the films they produced, and because Paramount would help producers finance and promote their films--while taking a 35% distributors fee when they were ready for distribution--all parties involved stood to make money.

In 1916 producers Adolph Zukor and Jesse L. Lasky merged their companies into Famous Players-Lasky and--through what might be termed somewhat "shady" maneuvering--managed to buy out Paramount and merged their firms under the Paramount banner. Wanting to get the new company into producing as well as distributing films--which Hodkinson apparently didn't want to do--Zukor and Lasky forced him out, with Zukor becoming president of the company. After his ouster Hodkinson formed the W. W. Hodkinson Co. , which produced and distributed films. That company later became Producers Distributing Corp.

, which lasted until 1929.

Hodkinson left the film business in 1929 and started an aircraft manufacturing company, Hodkinson Aviation Corp.

He and a partner formed a company that began airline service in Guatemala, but an unfortunate series of plane crashes resulted in the company ceasing business and pulling out in 1936.