Famous Players- Lasky Corporation Studios, ca. 1920. Famous Players-Lasky Corporation was an American motion picture and distribution company created in 1916 through a merger. The new firm built this film studio in Astoria because of its proximity to the Broadway theatre district. The first two Marx Brothers films were shot here in 1929 and 1930. In 1932 all Paramount studio operations (which Famous Lasky was now part of) were moved to California. Between 1942 and 1971 the studios were used by the Army Pictorial Service for training films. Since 1993 Sesame Street has filmed here and in 2013 it became New York City's only backlot.