Harry Warner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other persons named Harold Warner, see Harold Warner (disambiguation).
Harold Morris Warner

Harry M. Warner, 1921
Born Hirsch Warner
December 12, 1881(1881-12-12)
Poland
Died 25 July 1958 (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California USA
Years active 1903 - 1958

Harold Morris "Harry" Warner (12 December 1881 – 25 July 1958), likely born Hirsch Varna[1] in Poland, was one of the founders of Warner Bros. and a major contributor to the development of the film industry.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Harry Warner was born into a Yiddish-speaking Jewish family in Krasnosielc, Poland.[2] He was the only co-founder of Warner Bros. Studios who was born in Europe.[3] Harry was the eldest son of Benjamin Warner(whose original last name has not been identified)[4],, a cobbler, and his wife, the former Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. After their marriage in 1876, the couple had three children, including Harry; one child died at a young age.[2] In search of a better future for his family and himself, in 1883 Benjamin made his way to Hamburg, Germany, and then took a ship to America;[5] upon arriving in America, Benjamin introduced himself as "Benjamin Warner"[1] and renamed Hirsch "Harry" as well.[6] Pearl Warner and the two surviving children, including Harry, joined him in Baltimore, Maryland less than a year later. In Baltimore, five more children were born to the family, including Albert and Sam.[3]

Benjamin Warner relocated the family to Canada, where he attempted to make a living by bartering tin wares to trappers in exchange for furs. In Canada, two more Warner children arrived, including Jacob (later Jack) was born in London, Ontario.[7] After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin Warner and his family returned to Baltimore.[8] In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town.[9] Benjamin Warner worked with his son, Harry, in the shoe repair shop, until he secured a loan to open a meat counter and grocery store in the city's downtown area.[10] In Youngstown, two more children were added to the crowded household.[11] In 1899, Harry opened a bicycle shop in Youngstown as well.[12]

[edit] Business career

In 1903, at Sam's advice, Albert and Sam agreed to distribute films at carnivals across Ohio and Pennsylvania.[13] In 1905, Harry agreed to join his two brothers'in the film business, and sold his bicycle shop.[13] With the money he made from selling the bicycle shop, the three brothers were able to purchased a bulding in New Castle, Pennsylvania;[14] the brothers would use this building to establish their first theater, the Cascade Theater.[14] In 1907, Harry expanded the business further and purchased fifteen theaters in Pennsylvania;[15] As a result of these purchases, Harry, Sam, and Albert would form a new film exchange company, The Duquesne Amusement Supply Company.[15] In 1909, the brothers were able to successfully sell the Cascade Theater and establish a second film exchange company in Norfolk, Virginia;[16] through this second exchange company in Norfolk, Harry agreed to let younger brother Jack be apart of the company, and sent him to Norfolk to serve as Sam's assistant.[16]Unfortunately, a serious threat to the Warners film company wit the advent of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (also known as the Edison Trust), which charged distributors exorbitant fees.[17]In 1910, the Warners would sell the family business, to the General Film Company, for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and payments over a four-year period for a total of $52,000".[18]

After they sold their business, Harry and his three brothers joined forces with Independent filmmaker Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company, and began distributing films from his Pittsburgh film exchange division.[19] In 1912, the brothers would earn a $1,500 profit with the successful film Dante's Interno.[20] In the wake of this success, Harry, realizing Edison's threat was still growing, and the brothers decided to break with Laemmle and establish their own film production company.[19] The company would be named Warner Features.[21] After Warner Features was establish, Harry acquired an office in New York with his brother Albert, and sent Sam and Jack to run the new corporation's film exchange divisions in San Francisco and Los Angeles.[22] In 1917, Harry was able to add more relief for the studio after he was able to successfully negotiate a deal with Ambassador James W. Gerald, to make Gerald's book My Four Years In Germany into a film for the studio.[23]

In 1918, after the success of the film My Four Years In Germany,[24] the brothers were able to establish a studio in Hollywood, California;[25] in the new Hollywood studio, Sam became co-head of production along with his younger brother, Jack.[26] They were convinced that they would have to make movies themselves if they were to ever have success at showing them and generating a profit. Between the years 1919 and 1920, unfortunately, the studio was not able to garnish any profits.[27] During this time, banker Montley Flint-who was, unlike most bankers at the time, not anti-semetic-.[28] helped the Warners pay off their debts.[28] During this time, Harry decided to focus on making dramas for the studio.[28] The studio would also rebound in 1921, after the success of the studio's film Why Girls Leave Home.[29] On April 4, 1923, following the studio's successful film The Gold Diggers,[30] Warner Brothers, Inc. was officially established.[31]

Eventually, Sam decided to expand operations by including synchronized sound in film. Harry had initial reservations about the idea, in which he is memorably quoted as saying "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" when his brother, CEO Sam Warner proposed the idea to him. Under Harry's and his brothers leadership, the company came to own and operate some 250 theatres in which to screen its films, and, more importantly, was a successful pioneer of the sound film industry and the company still thrives today. In 1925, with help from a loan supplied by banker Waddill Catchings,[32] Harry would also help expand the business after he purchased the theater company Vitagraph[32] After a period of refusing to accept the usage of sound in the company's films,[33] Harry eventually agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts, as long as it just for usage of backround music [33]

[edit] Godfather of Talkies

With the succcess that drew from the studio's talkie films(The Jazz Singer, The Lights of New York, The Singing Fool, and The Terror), Warner Bros. became one of the top studios in Hollywood.[34] As a result of this success, Harry was able to acquire First National Pictures and the Stanley Corporation for the studio,[35] and was even able to establish a music subsidary-Warner Bros. Music- and buy out radio companies, foreign sound patents, and a lithograph company as well;[36] he even was able to produce a Broadway musical Fifty Million Frenchmen[37] By the time the First Academy Awards took place, Harry was recognized as the second most powerful figure in the movie industry, just behind MGM head Nicholas Schenck.[38] In the wake of the success of The Gold Diggers of Broadway, journalists had dubbed Harry as "the godfather of the talking screen."[39]

[edit] The Great Depression

While the first of the Great Depression-1930- did not damage the studio so badly,[40] the studio would begin to feel the effects of the Depression by 1931.[40] As ticket prices became unaffordable, the studio would lose money.[40] In 1931, the studio suffered a net loss of reportedly $8,000,000.00,[40] and would loss an additional $14,000,000 in 1932 as well.[40] Relief, however, would also come for the studio after Franklin Roosevelt became US President in 1933 and the New Deal revived the US Economy.[40] During the year, the studio was able to make a very profitable musical, 42nd Street. In 1934, however, the studio would suffer a net loss of over $2,500,000.00.[41] $500,000 of this loss was also the result of physical damage to the Warner Bros. Burbank that occurred after a massive fire that broke out in the studio around the end of 1934, and destroyed twenty years worth of early Warner Bros. films.[41]

During this time, Harry was also indicted, along with six other Hollywood studio figures who owned movie theaters, of conspiracy to violate the Sherman AntiTrust Act.[41] In 1935, Harry was put on trial for this charge.[41] After a mistrial occurred, Harry sold the company's movie theaters, and the case was never reopened.[42] The year 1935 also saw the studio rebound with a year-end profit of $674,158.00.[42] Around this time, Harry decided to move to California,[42] and acquired 3,000 acres of ranchland just northwest of Hollywood in Calabass, Californaia;[43] Harry later moved into a 1,100 ranch in the San Fernando Valley.[43]

[edit] World War II

Harry Warner also occupied a formidable central place in the Hollywood-Washington wartime propaganda effort during the Second World War, and served as a frequent, anti-Axis spokesman for the movie indusrty by the end of 1942.[44] Despite his conservative viewpoint,[45] Warner was also a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a key proponent of intervention in Europe.[46] Prior to the war's beginning in Europe, Harry had produced two anti-German films, The Life of Emile Zola (1937)[47] and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939),[48] and spend large sums of money to get many of his relatives and employees out of Germany when the war officially began in the latter part of 1939.[49] Harry made three more anti-German films-The Sea Hawk(1940),which mirrored Spain's King Phillip II as an equivalent to Hitler, Sergeant York (1941), and You're In the Army Now (1941)- before the U.S officially entered World War II with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.[50] After this occurred, Harry decided to focus on making just war films;[51]

Among the war films Harry made during the duration of the war were Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, and the controversial film Mission to Moscow[52] At the first primieres of Yankee Doodle Dandy (in Los Angeles, New York, and London), audiences for the film would purchase an altogether total of $15,600,000.00 in war bonds to the governments of England and the United States.[53] By the middle of 1943, however, it became clear that audiences were tired of war films.[54] Despite the growing pressure to cancel abandon war films,[53] Harry continued to make them[53] and would lose money in the process.[53] Eventually, in honor of the studio's contributions to the war cause, a Liberty Ship would be named after the brother's father Benjamin Warner, and Harry would be the one who christened the ship.[53] By the time the war ended: $20,000,000.00 worth of war bonds would be purchased through the studio; the Red Cross collected 5,200 pints of plasma from the studio; and 763 of the studio's employees would be recognized with having the honor of having served as in the armed forces[55]

[edit] Postwar Era

After the war ended, Harry-by now, barely on speaking terms with brother Jack- decided to spend more time at his San Fernando Valley ranc, and took up an interest in horseracing[56] Warner also had a bitter rivalry with his brother Jack over the years, particularly due to Jack's womanizing[57][58][59] and his use of the studio money; by the early 1950's, the feud had risen to new heights, as Jack spent a lot of time vacationing in France and wasting studio money[60] He even once chased brother Jack with a lead pipe, shouting "I'll get you for this, you son of a bitch" and threatening to kill him.[61]

Though the studio prospered after the war, problems also occured.[62] By 1946, movie sets had become too expensive for Harry to use.[63] During this time, Harry hired his son-in-law Milton Sperling in charge of an independent film production company for the studio.[64] In 1947, the studio would suffer a record net loss of $22,000,000.00.[65] The following year, the studio profits would decrease by an additional 50% as well.[65] In 1949, with the film industry declined with the advent of television and the ruling in the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. against studios having the privilege of owning theaters- Harry decided to shift his focus towards television production.[66] However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not allow Harry to do so.[66] After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bosses to which their focus to television, Harry abandoned his television efforts[66] By 1956, Harry had sold his share of studio stock.[67]

[edit] Personal Life

On August 23, 1907, Harry married his girlfriend, Rea Levinson.[68] Together, the couple had three children: Lewis (b. October 10, 1908),[69] Doris(b. September 13, 1913),[70] and Betty (b. May 4, 1920).[71] On April 5, 1931, tragedy would strike Harry as his son Lewis-whom he appointed as head of Warner Bros. Music-;[36] died from pneumonia.[72] In 1930, after Sam's widow Lina Basquette went broke, Harry decided to file for guardianship over Sam and Lina's daughter Lita.[73] On March 19, 1930, Harry and his wife Rea became the legal guardians of Lita;[74] Lina would only see her daughter on two occassions in the next twenty years.[74]

Harry's daughter, Doris, was married to director Mervyn Leroy on January 3, 1934. Together, the couple gave Harry two grandchildren, Warner Lewis Leroy (b. 1936) and Linda Leroy (b. 1939).[75] The couple would later divorce on August 12, 1945,[76] and Doris would marry director Charles Vidor two months later.[76] Together the couple had two sons (Brian and Quentin).[77] The two remained married until Vidor's death in 1959.[76]

In 1936, Betty Warner began an affair with one of Daryl Zanuck's-a former Warner Bros. producer who had by now left Warner Bros. to find work at Twentieth Century Fox Studios- and the two would marry on July 13, 1939.[78] Through this marriage, Harry would also three other grandchildren, Susan (b. December 4, 1941),[75] Karen (b. April 8, 1945),[65] and Cass (b. March 8, 1948),[65] and Matthew.[79][80] The two remained married for twenty-four years.[79]

[edit] Death

Harry Warner died on July 25, 1958. For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Harry Warner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2004, Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania dedicated a film institute to him. They also host an annual Harry Warner film festival. He is interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.

[edit] Brothers

Harry Warner was the oldest of the Warner Brothers. The other Warner brothers were:

Harry Warner had a son, Lewis Warner, who attended Worcester Academy, in Worcester, Massachusetts, as a boarding student. Shortly after graduation from the Academy in 1928 Lewis passed away. The Warners had a theater constructed in California, taken apart, and reassembled on the Worcester Academy campus. The building is known as the Lewis J. Warner Memorial Theater (Warner Theater to its students and faculty).

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 20.
  2. ^ a b Thomas (1990), p. 10.
  3. ^ a b Warner and Jennings (1964), p. 20.
  4. ^ www.adherents.com/people/pw/Jack_Warner.html
  5. ^ Warner and Jennings (1964), p. 18.
  6. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 20.
  7. ^ Thomas (1990), p. 11.
  8. ^ Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 23–24.
  9. ^ Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 24–25.
  10. ^ Thomas (1990), pp. 12–13.
  11. ^ Thomas (1990), p. 12.
  12. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 26.
  13. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 32
  14. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 34.
  15. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 40.
  16. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 42.
  17. ^ Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 65–66.
  18. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 45-46
  19. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 46.
  20. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 48
  21. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 51.
  22. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 54.
  23. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 62.
  24. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 65.
  25. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 66.
  26. ^ Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 100–101.
  27. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 71
  28. ^ a b c Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 72
  29. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 73
  30. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 76
  31. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 77
  32. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 86.
  33. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 94.
  34. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 142.
  35. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 146.
  36. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 147.
  37. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 148.
  38. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 149.
  39. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 152.
  40. ^ a b c d e f Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 160
  41. ^ a b c d Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 209
  42. ^ a b c Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 211
  43. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 212
  44. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 245.
  45. ^ Tales Of The Warner Brothers
  46. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 235.
  47. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 224.
  48. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 233.
  49. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 234.
  50. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 241-247.
  51. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 240.
  52. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 247-254.
  53. ^ a b c d e Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 255.
  54. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 247-254.
  55. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 256-257.
  56. ^ Sperling, p. 268-269
  57. ^ Sperling, p. 146-147
  58. ^ Sperling, p. 164-165
  59. ^ Sperling, p. 206
  60. ^ Sperling, p. 286
  61. ^ Sperling, p. 283
  62. ^ Sperling, p. 273
  63. ^ Sperling, p. 258
  64. ^ Sperling, p. 259-261
  65. ^ a b c d Sperling, p. 279
  66. ^ a b c Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 286
  67. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 306
  68. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 38
  69. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 44
  70. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 54
  71. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 72
  72. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 179
  73. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 161.
  74. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 163.
  75. ^ a b Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 235.
  76. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named YHBTHYNA51ksd
  77. ^ Sperling, p. 341
  78. ^ Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 230-231.
  79. ^ a b Sperling, p. 341
  80. ^ http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE5DF1531F93AA1575BC0A96E948260

[edit] References

  • Sperling, Cass Warner; Milner, Cork; and Warner, Jack Jr. (1998). Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story. Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813109582
  • Freedland, Michael (1983). The Warner Brothers. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 0312856202
  • Higham, Charles (1975). Warner Brothers. New York: Scribner. ISBN 0684139499
  • Thomas, Bob (1990). Clown Prince of Hollywood: The Antic Life and Times of Jack L. Warner. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company. ISBN 0070642591
  • Warner, Jack; Jennings, Dean (1964). My First Hundred Years in Hollywood. New York: Random Books.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

[edit] References

  • "Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story" by Cass Warner Spelling, Cork Milner and jack Warner Jnr, University Press of Kentucky.
  • "The Warner Brothers" by Michael Freedland, St Martins Press.
  • "Warner Brothers" by Charles Higham, Scribner.


Persondata
NAME Warner, Harold Morris
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Warner, Hirsch
SHORT DESCRIPTION
DATE OF BIRTH 1881-12-12
PLACE OF BIRTH Poland
DATE OF DEATH 1958-7-25
PLACE OF DEATH Los Angeles, California USA