After hisbrother Barney Balaban went on to become the president of Paramount Pictures and brother-in-law Sam Katz left the company to become head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Elmer took over the company. Soon after, in 1926, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, the forerunner of Paramount Pictures, bought a controlling interest in the Balaban and Katz. Taking his share of the sale, Elmer went on to found his own theater company with his brother Harry, the H&ECorporation (named after Harry and Elmer). They differentiated their offerings by showing both Hollywood blockbusters as well as films from independent and foreign studios; the firm eventually grew to 125 movie theaters. In the mid-1950s, Balaban sold the movie theaters and used the profits to pur- chase some 45 television and radio stations mostly in Dallas, St. Louis and Hartford. Balaban developed an early version of pay television where people would feed quarters into a box on top of a television which would show movies. Although the experiment did not succeed, it led Balaban to invest in cable television and he founded Plains Television which became one of the largest early cable providers by focusing on ex- panding television to under-served rural areas in the South and Midwest. Upon his retirement, his brother Barney asked him if he wanted to succeed him as head of Paramount; Elmer turned him down as he wanted to stay in Chicago.