What would be Paramount’s saving grace? Conglomerization in general and Gulf+Western in particular. The big fad among businesses at the time was to assemble smaller companies under one large corporate umbrella. Diversifying their businesses would theoretically make them less susceptible to any downturn in any one industry. Gulf+Western, therefore, was in the market for a Hollywood studio along with various other businesses. Paramount was squarely in its sights as a studio that would gain it an entrance into Hollywood that it could buy for a relative pittance.
The combination would prove to be an unlikely success. Paramount entered a renaissance of sorts under Gulf+Western, defying Hollywood’s preconceptions about what types of pictures would be produced by an impersonal conglomerate. Gulf+Western heavily invested in the studio, which led to a juggernaut that produced such acclaimed pictures as The Godfather and Chinatown. The studio even invested in television, producing such hits as Happy Days, Taxi and Mork & Mindy. Things would go so well that in this instance the conquered company would become the conquerer. Gulf+Western would sell of its non-media properties and reorganize itself as Paramount Communications.
