Warner Bros.

Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc. (also known as Warner Bros. Pictures,

or simply Warner Bros.—the shortened form of the former official,
sometimes still used, formal corporate name: Warner Brothers) is one of
the world's largest producers of film and television entertainment.

One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its
headquarters in Burbank, California and New York City. Warner Bros. has
several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner
Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros.
Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line
Cinema, TheWB.com and DC Comics. Warner owns half of The CW
Television Network.

Founded in 1918 by Jewish immigrants from Poland, Warner Bros. is the

third-oldest American movie studio in continuous operation, after
Paramount Pictures, founded in 1912 as Famous Players, and Universal
Studios, also founded in 1912. Some of its most notable actors include
Bette Davis, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Doris Day and more
recently, Clint Eastwood.

History
1903–1925: Founding

The corporate name honors the four founding Warner brothers (born
Wonskolaser), Harry (born Hirsz), Albert (born Aaron), Sam (born Szmul),
and Jack (born Itzhak), Jews who emigrated from Poland, Russian Empire
to Ontario, Canada. The three elder brothers began in the exhibition
business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films
in the mining towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio. They opened their first
theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania in 1903. (The site of the
Cascade is now the Cascade Center, a shopping, dining and entertainment
complex honoring its Warner Bros. heritage.) In 1904, the Warners
founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company
(the precursor to "Warner Brothers Pictures" [now Warner Bros. Pictures
subsidiary of Warner Entertainment]) to distribute films.

Within a few years this led to the distribution of pictures across a four-
state area. In 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley
Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, and in
1918 the brothers opened the Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in
Hollywood. Sam and Jack Warner produced the pictures, while Harry and
Albert Warner and their auditor and now controller Chase handled finance
and distribution in New York City. It was during World War I and their first
nationally syndicated film was My Four Years in Germany based on a
popular book by former American Ambassador James W. Gerard. On April
4, 1923, with help from a loan given to Harry Warner by his banker Motley
Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures,
Incorporated.

The first important deal for the company was the acquisition of the rights
to Avery Hopwood's 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers from
theatrical impresario David Belasco. However, what really put Warner
Bros. on the Hollywood map was a dog, Rin Tin Tin, brought from France
after World War I by an American soldier. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the short
Where the North Begins. The short was so successful Jack Warner agreed
to sign the dog to star in more short films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin
became the top star at the studio. Jack Warner nicknamed him "The
Mortgage Lifter" and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanuck's career.
Zanuck eventually became a top producer for the studio and between
1928 and 1933 served as Jack Warner's right-hand man and executive
producer, with responsibilities including the day-to-day production of
films. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director;
Harry Rapf left the studio and accepted an offer to work at MGM.
Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle was the studio's most successful film of
1924, and was on The New York Times best list for the year.

Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners was still unable
to achieve star power. As a result, Sam and Jack decided to offer
Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummell. The film
was so successful, Harry Warner agreed to sign Barrymore to a generous
long-term contract; like The Marriage Circle, Beau Brummell was named
one of the ten best films of the year by The New York Times. By the end of
1924, Warner Bros. was arguably the most successful independent studio
in Hollywood, but it still competed with "The Big Three" Studios (First
National, Paramount Pictures, and MGM). As a result, Harry Warner —
while speaking at a convention of 1,500 independent exhibitors in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin — was able to convince the filmmakers to spend
$500,000 in newspaper advertising, and Harry saw this as an opportunity
to finally be able to establish theaters in big cities like New York and Los
Angeles.

As the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924
Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan. With this new money, the Warners
bought the pioneer Vitagraph Company which had a nation-wide
distribution system. In 1925, Warners also experimented in radio,
establishing a successful radio station, KFWB Los Angeles.

1925–1935: Sound, colour, style

Warner Bros. was a pioneer of films with synchronized sound (then known
as "talking pictures" or "talkies"). In 1925, at the urging of Sam, the
Warners agreed to expand their operations by adding this feature to their
productions. Harry, however, opposed it, famously wondering, "Who the
hell wants to hear actors talk?" By February 1926, the studio suffered a
reported net loss of $333,413.

After a long period of refusing to accept Sam's request for sound, Harry
now agreed to accept Sam's demands, as long as studio's usage of
synchronized sound was for background music purposes only. The
Warners then signed a contract with the sound engineer company
Western Electric and established Vitaphone. In 1926, Vitaphone began
making films with music and effects tracks, most notably, in the feature
Don Juan starring John Barrymore. The film was silent, but it featured a
large number of Vitaphone shorts at the beginning. To hype Don Juan's
release, Harry Warner also acquired the large Piccadilly Theater in
Manhattan, New York and renamed it the Warner Theater.

Don Juan premiered at the Warner Theater in New York on August 6, 1926.
Throughout the early history of film distribution, theater owners hired
orchestras to attend film showings and provide soundtracks. Through
Vitaphone, however, Warner Bros. produced eight Vitaphone shorts (which
aired at the beginning of every showing of Don Juan across the country) in
1926, and got many film production companies to question the necessity.
While Don Juan was a success at the box office, it did not earn back its
production cost and Lubsitch left Warner for MGM. By April 1927, the Big
Five studios (First National, Paramount, MGM, Universal, and Producers
Distributing) had put the Warner brothers in financial ruin, and Western
Electric renewed Warner's Vitaphone contract with terms that allowed
other film companies to test sound.

As a result of the financial problems the studio was having, Warners took
the next step and released The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson. This movie,
which has very little sound dialog but does feature sound segments of
Jolson singing, was a sensation. It signaled the beginning of the era of
"talking pictures" and the twilight of the silent era. However, as Sam died,
the brothers were at his funeral and could not attend the premiere. Jack
became sole head of production. Sam's death also had a great effect on
Jack's emotional state, as Sam was arguably Jack's inspiration and favorite
brother. In the years to come, Jack ran the studio with an iron fist. Firing of
studio employees soon became his trademark. Among those whom Jack
fired were Rin Tin Tin (in 1929) and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. -- who had
served as First National's top star since the brothers acquired the studio in
1928—in 1933.

Thanks to the success of The Jazz Singer, the studio was suddenly flush
with cash. Jolson's next film for the company, The Singing Fool was also a
success. With the success of these first talkies (The Jazz Singer, Lights of
New York, The Singing Fool, and The Terror), Warner Bros. became one of
the top studios in Hollywood and the brothers were now able to move out
from the Poverty Row section of Hollywood and acquire a big studio in
Burbank, California. They were also able to expand studio operations by
acquiring the Stanley Corporation, a major theater chain. This gave them
a share in rival First National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one-third.
In a bidding war with William Fox, Warners bought more First National
shares on September 13, 1928; Jack Warner also appointed producer
Darryl Zanuck as the studio's manager of First National Pictures.

In 1929, Warners also bought the St. Louis-based theater chain Skouras
Brothers. Following this take-over, Spyros Skouras, the driving force of the
chain, became general manager of the Warner Brothers Theater Circuit in
America. He worked successfully in that post for two years and managed
to eliminate the losses and eventually even increase the profits. This was
a welcome gain given the financial hardships occasioned by the Great
Depression.

In addition, Harry Warner was also able to acquire a string of music

publishers and form Warner Bros. Music. Despite failing to also purchase
Brunswick Records, Harry was still able to obtain a string of radio
companies, foreign sound patents, and even a lithograph company. After
establishing Warner Bros. Music, Harry appointed his son, Lewis, to serve
as the company's head manager.

In 1929, Harry was also able to produce an adaptation of a Cole Porter

musical titled Fifty Million Frenchmen. Through First National, the studio's
profit increased substantially. After the success of the studio's 1929 First
National film "Noah's Ark", Harry also agreed to make Michael Curtiz a
major director at the Burbank studio. Mort Blumenstock, a First National
screenwriter, became a top writer at the brothers' New York headquarters.

In the third quarter of 1929, the Warners gained complete control of First
National, when Harry purchased the company's remaining one-third share
from Fox. The Justice Department agreed to allow the purchase if First
National was maintained as a separate company. When the Great
Depression hit, Warner asked for and got permission to merge the two
studios; soon afterward Warner Bros. moved to the First National lot in
Burbank. Though the companies merged, the Justice Department required
Warner to produce and release a few films each year under the First
National name until 1938. For thirty years, certain Warner productions
were identified (mainly for tax purposes) as 'A Warner Bros. - First
National Picture.'

In the latter part of 1929, Jack Warner hired sixty-one year old actor
George Arliss to star in Disraeli, which was a surprise success. Arliss won
an Academy Award for Best Actor and went on to star in nine more movies
with the studio. In 1930, Harry acquired more theaters in Atlantic City,
despite the beginning of the Great Depression. In July 1930, the studio's
banker, Motley Flint, was murdered by a disgruntled investor in another
company.

By 1931, however, the studio began to feel the effects of the Depression
as the general public became unable to afford the price of a movie ticket.
In 1931, the studio reportedly suffered a net loss of $8 million, and an
additional $14 million the following year. In 1931, Warner Bros. Music
head Lewis Warner died from an infection.

Around that time, Warner Bros. head producer Darryl Zanuck hired
screenwriter Wilson Mizner. While at the studio, Mizner had hardly any
respect for authority and found it difficult to work with studio boss Jack
Warner, but nevertheless became a valuable asset. As time went by,
Warner became more tolerant of Mizner and helped invest in Mizner's
Brown Derby restaurant. On April 3, 1933, Mizner died from a heart
attack.

In 1928, the Warner Bros. released Lights of New York, the first all-talking
feature. Due to its success, the movie industry converted entirely to
sound almost overnight. By the end of 1929, all the major studios were
exclusively making sound films. In 1929, National Pictures released their
first film with Warner Bros., Noah's Ark.[48] Despite its expensive budget,
Noah's Ark was profitable. In 1929, the Warners released "On with the
Show", the first all-color all-talking feature. This was followed by Gold
Diggers of Broadway which was so popular it played in theatres until
1939. The success of these two color pictures caused a color revolution
(just as the first all-talkie had created one for talkies). Warner Bros.
released a large number of color films in 1929-1931, including The Show
of Shows (1929), Sally (1929), Bright Lights (1930), Golden Dawn (1930),
Hold Everything (1930), Song of the Flame (1930), Song of the West
(1930), The Life of the Party (1930), Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930), Under A
Texas Moon (1930), Bride of the Regiment (1930), Viennese Nights
(1931), Woman Hungry (1931), Kiss Me Again (1931), Fifty Million
Frenchmen (1931), and Manhattan Parade (1932). In addition to these,
scores of features were released with Technicolor sequences as well as a
numerous variety of short subjects. The majority of these color films were
musicals.

Three years later, the audience had grown so tired of musicals, the studio
was forced to cut the musical numbers of many of the productions and
advertise them as straight comedies. The public had begun to associate
musicals with color and thus the movie studios began to abandon its use.
Warner Bros. had a contract with Technicolor to produce two more
pictures in that process. As a result, the first mysteries in color were
produced and released by the studio: Doctor X (1932) and Mystery of the
Wax Museum (1933). In the latter part of 1931, Harry Warner rented the
Teddington Studios in London, England. The studio focused on making
films for the London market, and Irving Asher was appointed as the
studio's head producer. In 1934, Harry Warner officially purchased the
Teddington Studios.

In February 1933, however, Warner Bros. produced 42nd Street, a very

successful musical that saved the company from bankruptcy. In the wake
of 42nd Street's success, the studio produced further profitable musicals.
These starred Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell and were mostly directed by
Busby Berkeley. In 1935, the revival suffered a major blow when Berkeley
was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk. By the end of
the year, people again tired of Warner Bros. musicals, and the studio —
after the huge profits made by the 1935 film Captain Blood — shifted its
focus on producing Errol Flynn swashbucklers.

1931–1935: Pre-code realistic period

With the collapse of the market for musicals, Warner Bros., under
production head Darryl F. Zanuck, turned to more realistic and gritty
storylines, "'torn from the headlines" pictures some said glorified
gangsters; Warners soon became known as a "gangster studio". The
studio's first gangster film, Little Caesar, was a great box office success
and Edward G. Robinson was a star in many of the subsequent wave of
Warner gangster films. The studio's next gangster film, The Public Enemy,
made James Cagney arguably the studio's new top star, and the Warners
were now convinced to make more gangster films.

Another gangster film the studio produced was the critically acclaimed I
Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, based on a true story and starring Paul
Muni. In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Muni was also given a big push
as one the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful
film which got audiences to question the legal system in the United
States. By January 1933, the film's protagonist Robert Elliot Burns — who
was still imprisoned in New Jersey — and a number of different chain gang
prisoners nationwide in the United States were able to appeal and were
released. In January 1933, Georgia chain gang warden J Harold Hardy —
who was also made into a character in the film — sued the studio for
displaying "vicious, brutual and false attacks" against him in the film. After
appearing in the film The Man Who Played God, Bette Davis became a top
star for the studio.

In 1933, relief for the studio came after Franklin D. Roosevelt became
president and was able to stimulate the economy with the New Deal;
because of this economic rebound, Warner Bros. again became profitable.
The same year, long time head producer Darryl F. Zanuck quit. One
reason was Harry Warner's relationship with Zanuck had become strained
after Harry strongly opposed allowing Zanuck's film Baby Face to step
outside Hays Code boundaries. Also, the studio reduced Zanuck's salary
as a result of the losses as a result of the Great Depression, and Harry
continued to refuse to restore it in the wake of the New Deal's rebound.
Zanuck resigned and established his own company. In the wake of
Zanuck's resignation, Harry Warner agreed to again raise the salary for
studio employees.

In 1933, Warner was able to bring newspaper tycoon William Randolph

Hearst's Cosmopolitan films into the Warner Bros. fold. Hearst had
previously been signed with MGM, but ended the relationship after a
dispute with the company's head producer Irving Thalberg over the
treatment of Marion Davies; Davies was a longtime mistress of Hearst and
was struggling for box office success. Through his partnership with Hearst,
Warner was able to sign Davies to a studio contract. Hearst's company
and Davies' films, however, could not increase the studio's profits.

In 1934, the studio lost over $2.5 million, of which $500,000 was the
result of a fire at the Burbank studio at the end of 1934, destroying twenty
years worth of early Vitagraph, Warner Bros., and First National films. The
following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A
Midsummer Night's Dream failed at the box office and the studio's net loss
increased. During this time, Warner Bros. President Harry Warner and six
other movie studio figures were indicted of conspiracy to violate the
Sherman Antitrust Act, through an attempt to gain a monopoly over
theaters in the St Louis area. In 1935, Harry was put on trial; after a
mistrial, Harry sold the company's movie theaters, at least for a short
time, and the case was never reopened. 1935 also saw the studio rebound
with a net profit of $674,158.00.

By 1936, contracts of musical and silent stars were not renewed and new
talent, tough-talking, working-class types, were hired who more suitably
fit in with these sort of pictures. Stars such as Dorothy Mackaill, Bebe
Daniels, Frank Fay, Winnie Lightner, Bernice Claire, Alexander Gray, Alice
White, and Jack Mulhall that had characterized the urban, modern, and
sophisticated attitude of the 1920s gave way to stars such James Cagney,
Joan Blondell, Edward G. Robinson, Warren William, and Barbara Stanwyck
who would be more acceptable to the common man. The studio was one
of the most prolific producers of Pre-Code pictures and had a lot of trouble
with the censors once they started clamping down on what they
considered indecency (around 1934). As a result, Warner Bros. turned out
a number of historical pictures from around 1935 in order to avoid
confrontations with the Breen office. In 1936, following the success of The
Petrified Forest, Jack Warner also signed Humphrey Bogart to a studio
contract. Warner, however, did not think Bogart was star material, and
decided to only cast Bogart in infrequent roles as a villain opposite either
James Cagney or Edward Robinson over the next five years.

After Hal B. Wallis succeeded Zanuck in 1933 and the Hays Code began to
be enforced in 1935, the studio was forced to abandon this realistic
approach in order to produce more moralistic, idealized pictures. The
studio naturally turned to historical dramas which would not cause any
problems with the censors. Other offerings included melodramas (or
"women's pictures"), swashbucklers, and adaptations of best-sellers, with
stars like Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Paul Muni, and Errol Flynn. In
1936, Bette Davis, by now arguably the studio's top star, was unhappy
with the roles Warner was giving her. She fled to England and tried to
break her contract with Warners. Davis lost the lawsuit and soon returned
to America. Although many of the studio's employees had problems with
Jack Warner, they considered Albert and Harry fair.
Code era

This period also saw the disappearance of a large number of actors and
actresses who had characterized the realistic pre-Code era but who were
not suited to the new trend into moral and idealized pictures. Warner
Bros. remained a top studio in Hollywood since the dawn of talkies, but
this changed after 1935 as other studios, notably MGM, quickly
overshadowed the prestige and glamour that previously characterized
Warner Bros. However, in the late 1930s, Bette Davis became the studio's
top draw and was even dubbed as "The Fifth Warner Brother."

In 1935, Cagney sued Jack Warner for breach of contract. Cagney claimed
Warner had forced him to star in more films than his contract required.
Cagney eventually dropped his lawsuit after a cash settlement.
Nevertheless, Cagney left the studio to establish an independent film
company, Grand National Films, with his brother Bill. The Cagneys,
however, were not able to get good financing for their productions and ran
out of money after their third film. Cagney then agreed to return to
Warner Bros., after Jack Warner agreed to a contract guaranteeing Cagney
would be treated to his own terms. After the success of Yankee Doodle
Dandy at the box office, Cagney again questioned if the studio would
meet his salary demand and again quit to form his own film production
and distribution company with his brother Bill.

Another employee with whom Warner had troubles was studio producer
Bryan Foy. In 1936, Wallis hired Foy as a producer for the studio's low
budget B-films. Foy was able to garnish arguably more profits than any
other B-film producer at the time. During Foy's time at the studio,
however, Warner fired him seven different times.

During 1936, the studio's film The Story of Louis Pasteur proved a box
office success and Paul Muni, the film's star, won the Oscar for Best Actor
in March 1937. The studio's 1937 film The Life of Emile Zola gave the
studio its first Best Picture Oscar.

In 1937, the studio hired Midwestern radio announcer Ronald Reagan.

Although Reagan was initially a small-time B-film actor, Warners were
impressed by his performance in the final scene of Knute Rockne, All
American, and agreed to pair him with Errol Flynn in their film Santa Fe
Trail (1940). Reagan then returned to B-films. After his performance in the
studio's 1942 Kings Row, Warner decided to make Reagan a top star and
signed him to a new contract, tripling his salary.

In 1936, Harry Warner's daughter Doris read a copy of Margaret Mitchell's

Gone with the Wind and was interested in making a film adaptation. Doris
then offered Mitchell $50,000 for the book's screen rights. Jack, however,
refused to allow the deal to take place, realizing it would be an expensive
production.
Another studio actor who proved to be a problem for Jack Warner was
George Raft. Warner had signed Raft in 1939, hoping he could substitute
in gangster pictures when either Robinson or Cagney were on suspension.
Raft had difficulty working with Bogart and refused to co-star in any film
with him. Eventually, Jack Warner agreed to release Raft from his
contract. Following Raft's depature, the studio gave Bogart the role of Roy
Earl in the 1941 film High Sierra, which helped establish him as one of the
studio's top stars; following High Sierra, Bogart was also given a role in
John Huston's successful 1941 remake of the studio's 1931 failure, The
Maltese Falcon.