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Yep, it's very hard to see the vast majority of Paramount features of the Era. In 1958, the studio sold all but a handful of its sound features from 1929 to 1948 to MCA Television for distribution in various packages to local TV stations. MCA was subsequently absorbed by Universal, which still owns the films today.
The Paramount features were very common on local TV into the 1980s, but they've almost entirely disappeared since then, with the exception of the Lubitsch pictures, the Mae West films, the Marx Brothers, the "Road Pictures," and a few other popular series that have been licensed to TCM for short runs or given video releases. A small number of Paramounts by Crosby, Stanwyck, Carole Lombard, W. C. Fields, and other name stars have been given the box-set treatment by MCA/NBC Universal, but not many. A few films weren't included in the deal for various reasons related to script or story rights, including a few pictures by Billy Wilder, Preston Sturges, and other prominent directors, and have been released on home media by Paramount itself -- but the vast majority of Universal-owned Paramounts haven't been seen anywhere in almost forty years. Universal has resisted the trend toward made-on-demand video release or licensing to streaming services, and seems satisfied to sit on these films indefinitely. "Who wants to see a bunch of old black and white movies with a lot of dead people, when they can see the 1,000,000th rerun of "Jurassic Park?"
Thank you for refreshing my memory (about what you've told me before, but I forgot). It seems crazy to me that they wouldn't try to "monetize" the hell out of these old movies, but maybe, as you note, "rights" issues make it difficult. It's a shame as it seems there are some darn good pictures just rotting away.