Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Paragon Entertainment Corporation, Paragon Productions, Paragon
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Paragon Entertainment was a Toronto based public production and distribution company. Founded in 1981 by Jon Slan and Richard Borchiver, Paragon produced a large variety of material, including TV series, Made for TV Movies, animated TV shorts and TV movies, documentaries, and feature films. At the height of their success, Paragon had 75 employees with activities in three countries. Their Toronto office sat on Spadina Ave, in the heart of the city.
The company was able to break into the U.S. broadcast scene, with an office in L.A. Slan and his family moved to California in the late 1980’s to operate the American side of the company. While aboard, the head office in Toronto was run by Borchiver. This touchstone within the U.S. allowed Paragon to have a large presence there, with productions appearing on USA Network, PBS, HBO, and ABC. As the Canadian market was well saturated with home grown productions, Paragon’s work was not broadcast in Canada until 1992.
Paragon made moves within the film and television scene in 1994 when they purchased the British film library Handmade Films in 1994. They later purchased Lacewood, an Ottawa-based animation company. The productions have been well received by audiences across Canada and the United states, winning multiple awards.
When the production company began to falter, Gary Gladman, president of Octapixx Worldwide purchased the majority of the productions. This also included all the requisite paperwork for the creation and distribution of these productions. Octapixx Worldwide Fonds is also available at the University of Toronto Libraries, Media Archive.
Both Jon Slan and Richard Borchiver have continued to have careers in the film and television field after Paragon Entertainment closed. Since 2002, Slan has been the President of Slanted Wheel Entertainment based out of Toronto and L.A. Borchiver, with real estate entrepreneur Paul Wynn from The Wynn Group started another Toronto-based production company entitled Annex Entertainment in 1998.
Places
Toronto, Ontario
Los Angeles, California
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
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Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created July 18, 2019 by Elizabeth Carroll.
Language(s)
- English
Script(s)
Sources
Hoffman, Andy. “Paragon’s Borchiver opens Annex Ent.” Playback, July 13, 1998. http://playbackonline.ca/1998/07/13/22523-19980713/
MacDonald, Gayle. “Paragon of reinvention.” The Globe and Mail, April 12, 2002. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/paragon-of-reinvention/article1025560/
Murray, Karen. “Paragon hires Reynolds, exec for pubcaster CBC.” Variety, October 8, 1992. https://variety.com/1992/scene/news/paragon-hires-reynolds-exec-for-pubcaster-cbc-101305/
Playback Staff. “Paragon Entertainment: A year of acquisition, expansion…” Playback, December 5, 1994. http://playbackonline.ca/1994/12/05/3985-19941205/
Slanted Wheel Entertainment. “Jon Slan.” Slanted Wheel Entertainment Producers and Managers. Accessed June 27, 2019. https://www.slantedwheelentertainment.com/p