Jesse L. Lasky - 1915
With limited funds, they rented a barn near Los Angeles where they made Hollywood's first feature film, DeMille's
The Squaw Man. Known today as the Lasky-DeMille Barn, it is home to the Hollywood Heritage Museum. In 1916,
their company merged with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company to create the Famous Players-Lasky Corporation.
In 1920, Famous Players-Lasky built a large studio facility in Astoria, New York, now known as the Kaufman Astoria Studios.
In 1927, Lasky was one of the thirty-six people who founded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Financial problems arose within the industry as a result of the Great Depression and the Famous Players-Lasky Company
went into receivership in 1933. Lasky then partnered with Mary Pickford to produce films but within a few years she
dissolved their business relationship. Lasky then found work as a producer at one of the big studios until 1945 when
he formed his own production company. He made his last film in 1951 and in 1957 published his autobiography,
I Blow My Own Horn.
Jesse L. Lasky died at age 77 from a heart attack in Beverly Hills. He is interred in Hollywood Forever Cemetery,
adjacent to Paramount Studios. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6433 Hollywood Boulevard, and
Lasky Drive in Beverly Hills was named in his honor.