Hollywood, Calif. – Louis Lam just smiles when he confesses that his sister recently called again to inform him that the country sheriff's department was taking applications. He had a similar conversation with her almost two decades ago when he was actually looking for a job. But after 19 years with Paramount Pictures, Lam, who is the executive director of security services for the nation's oldest and most prestigious movie and television production studios, says he is living the dream.

"Sometimes I just have to pinch myself that we really get to work here," admits Lam with a genuine affection for his place of employment. "Everyday there is something different. It is the variety the keeps the job interesting. Plus, who wouldn't have fun working for some of the {entertainment} industry's biggest stars? You find out in a hurry that they are very normal people just going to work like the rest of us. And they expect us to keep them safe when they are here."

While most of the major motion picture studios have fled Hollywood for spots like Burbank or Culver City, Paramount remains a Hollywood icon and is the only big name movie studio still actually located in Hollywood: It also happens to be the longest continually operating studio in Hollywood. Paramount is also one of the few studios that admit the public on regular guided tours of the studio's back lot.

Founded by Adolph Zucker, Paramount moved to its current location on Gower Street in 1926, and in the subsequent years has grown into a sprawling complex that includes the former RKO studios it's absorbed in the late 1940s. Paramount is now a sprawling studio, covering an area almost as big as Disneyland. When the studio is in peak production mode it employees over 5,000 people. And according to Lam and Clint Hilbert, the facility's VP of environmental health, safety and security, Paramount is a self-contained city that includes its own water tower fire department, medical clinic, dry cleaners, credit union and restaurants.

"Paramount is a city within a city," says Hilbert of the 62-acre complex.

Hilbert has been with the Paramount less than six months after stints in several executive security positions in corporate and healthcare environments.

"The security challenges here change very quickly depending on what is being filmed on the grounds. There are very real safety and security issues to be concerned with ranging from crowd control to fire safety because of the older structures and all kinds of combustible building materials."