Paramount Pictures’ Logo Started as a Desktop Doodle, and Has Endured for 105 Years

And no, the stars have nothing to do with the glitterati

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Hollywood isn’t just an incubator of celebrity culture. It’s also home to some of the most durable brand logos in American capitalism. The celluloid trade calls them title screens, and odds are that most every adult consumer can name them by sight: Warner Brothers’ “WB” shield, Cinderella’s Castle of Disney Pictures fame and, of course, MGM’s lion.

This coterie of famous frames also includes the one with more mystique than the others—Paramount Pictures. That star-encircled, snow-capped mountain peak has marked the opening of movies well before movies even had sound.

And while the mountain in question has been modified and stylized to suit the era, it’s remained remarkably constant for the last 105 years—and as well it should, in the view of Paramount archivist Andrea Kalas.

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This story first appeared in the March 4, 2019, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.