Harry Warner

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Harry Morris Warner (born Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal;<ref name="bialczynski.pl">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> December 12, 1881 – July 25, 1958) was an American studio executive, one of the founders of Warner Bros., and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. Along with his three younger brothers (Albert, Sam and Jack), Warner played a crucial role in the film business and establishing Warner Bros., serving as the company president until 1956.<ref name=thomas226>Template:Cite book</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Warner was born Hirsz Mojżesz "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Archived at Ghostarchive Template:Cbignore and the Wayback Machine Template:Cbignore: {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}Template:Cbignore</ref> to a family of Ashkenazi Jews<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> from the village of Krasnosielc, Poland, and (then part of Congress Poland in the Russian Empire).<ref name="Sinclair">Doug Sinclair, "The Family of Benjamin and Pearl Leah (Eichelbaum) Warner: Early Primary Records," (2008), published at Doug Sinclair's Archives <http://dougsinclairsarchives.com/benjaminwarnerfamily.htm Template:Webarchive></ref><ref name="WLH">Walter L. Hixson, The American Experience in World War II. Quote: "Harry and Jack Warner were the sons of Polish Jews who had earlier fled their homeland to escape persecution"</ref><ref name="MEB">Michael E. Birdwell, in Celluloid Soldiers, speaks of his background: "Harry was a Polish-Jewish immigrant" in America (page 59, last paragraph).</ref> He was the son of Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. His given name was Mojżesz (Moses), however, he was called Hirsz (Anglicized to Hirsch) in the United States. In October 1889, he came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings on the steamship Hermann from Bremen, Germany. Their father had preceded them, immigrating to Baltimore in 1888 to pursue his trade in shoes and shoe repair. At that time that he changed the family name to Warner which was used thereafter. As in many Jewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Hirsz became Harry,<ref name="bialczynski.pl"/> and his middle name Morris was likely a version of Mojżesz.

In Baltimore, the money Benjamin Warner earned in the shoe repair business was not enough to provide for his growing household.<ref name="thomas11">Template:Cite book</ref> He and Pearl had another daughter, Fannie, not long after they arrived. Benjamin moved the family to Canada, inspired by a friend's advice that he could make an excellent living bartering tin wares with trappers in exchange for furs.<ref name="thomas11" /> Sons Jacob and David Warner were born in London, Ontario.<ref name="thomas11"/><ref name="sinclair2">Sinclair (2008), citing the 1910 US census.</ref> After two arduous years living in Canada, the Warners returned to Baltimore.<ref name="Warner23-24">Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 23–24.</ref> Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there.<ref name="sinclair3">Sinclair (2008), citing the 1900 and 1910 US censuses.</ref> In 1896, the family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry, who had established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town.<ref name="Warner25-26">Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 24–25.</ref> Benjamin worked with 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.<ref name="thomas12-13">Thomas (1990), pp. 12–13.</ref><ref name="thomas12">Thomas (1990), p. 12.</ref>

In 1899, Harry<ref name=thomas15>Template:Cite book</ref> opened a bicycle shop in Youngstown, Ohio with his brother, Abraham.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Eventually, Harry and Abe also opened a bowling alley together.<ref name="thomas15" /> The bowling alley failed and closed shortly after it opened.<ref name="thomas15" /> Harry eventually accepted an offer to become a salesman for a local meat franchise,<ref name="thomas15" /> and sold meat in Ohio and Pennsylvania.<ref name="thomas15" /> However, by his nineteenth birthday, Harry was reduced to living in his parents' crowded household.<ref name="thomas1617">Template:Cite book</ref>

Business career in filmsEdit

In 1903, Harry's brothers, Abe and Sam, began to exhibit The Great Train Robbery at carnivals across Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1905, Harry sold his bicycle shop and joined his brothers in their fledgling film business.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> With the money Harry made from selling the bicycle shop, the three brothers were able to purchase a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania. They used the building to establish their first theater, the Cascade.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The Cascade was so successful that the brothers were able to purchase a second theater in New Castle.<ref name="thomas22">Template:Cite book</ref> The makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker.<ref name="variety-09-13-78"> Template:Cite news</ref>

In 1907, the Warners expanded the business further and purchased fifteen theaters in Pennsylvania. Harry, Sam, and Albert formed a new film exchange company, The Duquesne Amusement Supply Company,<ref name="thomas22" /> and rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh.<ref name="thomas22" /> Harry sent Sam to New York to purchase, and ship, films for their Pittsburgh exchange company,<ref name="thomas22" /> while he and Albert remained in Pittsburgh to run the business.<ref name="thomas22" /> In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater and established a second film exchange company in Norfolk, Virginia. Harry agreed to let younger brother Jack be a part of the company, sending him to Norfolk to serve as Sam's assistant.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> A serious problem threatened the Warners' film company with the advent of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (also known as the Edison Trust), which charged distributors exorbitant fees.<ref name="Warner-Sperling 65–66">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1910, the Warners sold 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".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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. In 1912, the brothers earned a $1,500 profit with the film Dante's Inferno. In the wake of their success, Harry and the brothers broke with Laemmle and established their own film production company.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They named their new company Warner Features.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Once Warner Features was established, Harry acquired an office in New York with his brother Albert, sending Sam and Jack to run the new corporation's film exchange divisions in San Francisco and Los Angeles.<ref name="Warner-Sperling 54">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1917, Harry won more capital for the studio when he was able to negotiate a deal with Ambassador James W. Gerard to make Gerard's book My Four Years In Germany into a film.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1918, after the success of My Four Years in Germany, the brothers were able to establish a studio near Hollywood, California.<ref name="Warner-Sperling 65–66"/> In the new Hollywood studio, Sam became co-head of production along with his younger brother, Jack.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> They were convinced that they would have to make movies themselves if they were to ever generate a profit. Between the years 1919 and 1920, the studio did not turn a profit.<ref name="HU71-73">Template:Cite book</ref> During that time, banker Motley Flint, who was unlike most bankers at the time, not anti-semitic, helped the brothers pay off their debts.<ref name="HU71-73" /> The four brothers then decided to move their studio from Culver City, California, to the Sunset Boulevard section of Hollywood.<ref name="thomas38">Template:Cite book</ref>

Warner decided to focus on making only dramas for the studio during that time.<ref name="HU71-73" /> The studio rebounded in 1921 with the success of the studio's film Why Girls Leave Home;<ref name="HU71-73" /> The film's director, Harry Rapf, became the studio's new head producer.<ref name="thomas38" /> On April 4, 1923, following the success of the studio's film The Gold Diggers, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. was officially established, with help from a loan given to Harry by Montly Flint. Harry became company president, with Albert as treasurer and Jack and Sam as co-heads of production.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Harry and his family moved to Hollywood.<ref name=page152>Template:Cite book</ref>

Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.Edit

The studio discovered a trained German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin in 1923. The canine made his starring debut in Where the North Begins, a film about an abandoned pup who is raised by wolves and befriends a fur trapper. According to a biographer, Jack Warner's initial doubts about the project were quelled when he met Rin Tin Tin, "who seemed to display more intelligence than some of the Warner comics." The trained dog proved to be the studio's most important commercial asset until the introduction of sound. Prolific screenwriter Darryl F. Zanuck produced several scripts for Rin Tin Tin vehicles and, during one year, wrote more than half of the studio's features. Between 1928 and 1933, Zanuck was the studio's executive producer, a position whose responsibilities included the day-to-day production of films; while Warner's younger brother Jack and Zanuck were able to develop a close friendship, Warner never really accepted Zanuck as a friend.

After establishing Warner Bros., the studio had unfortunately overdrawn $1 million (the amount which Warner had borrowed from Flint) and Warner decided to pay off the debt by expanding the studio's operations further. In the process, Warner acquired forty theaters in Pennsylvania. In 1924, Warner Bros. producee two more successful films, The Marriage Circle and Beau Brummell. In 1924, after Rapf left the studio to accept an offer at MGM, Ernst Lubitsch, the successful director of The Marriage Circle, was also given the title of head producer; Lubitsch added additional success to the studio's profits. The film Beau Brummel also made John Barrymore a top star at the studio as well. Although the studio now had success, the brothers were still unable to compete with The Big Three (Paramount, Universal, and First National).

In 1925, Harry and a large group of independent film-makers assembled in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to challenge the monopoly the Big Three had over the film industry. Harry and the other independent film-makers at the Milwaukee convention agreed to spend $500,000 in newspaper advertisements; this action would help benefit Warner Bros. profits. With help from a loan supplied by Goldman, Sachs head banker Waddill Catchings, Warner would find a way to successfully respond to the growing concern the Big Three Studios further induced to Warner Bros., and expanded the company's operations further by purchasing the Brooklyn theater company Vitagraph. Because of that, Warner Pictures now owned theaters in the New York area. Around the time, Warner purchased a home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Hancock Park, where he stayed until 1929.

In the later part of 1925, Harry's younger brother Sam had also acquired a radio station, KFWB. After acquiring his radio station, Sam decided to make an attempt to use synchronized sound in future Warner Bros. Pictures. Harry had initial reservations about the idea; when Sam first made this suggestion, Harry wanted to focus on background music before delving into people talking on screen. Harry responded, "We could ultimately develop sound to the point where people ask for talking pictures" The company also began acquiring theaters. Eventually, Warner Bros. came to own and operate some 250 theaters. By February 1926, however, the brothers' radio business had failed, and the studio was facing a net loss of $333,413.00.

After a long period of refusing to accept the usage of sound in the company's films, Warner agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts, as long as it was only used for background music, Harry then made a visit to Western Electric's Bell Laboratories in New York, (which younger brother Sam had visited earlier) and was impressed. One problem that occurred for the Warners, though, was the fact that the high-ups at Western Electric were perceived as anti-Semitic. Sam, though, was able to convince the high-ups to sign with the studio after his wife Lina wore a gold cross at a dinner he attended with Western Electric brass. After that, Harry signed a partnership agreement with Western Electric to use Bell Laboratories to test the sound-on-film process.

Godfather of TalkiesEdit

The success of Warner Bros.' early talkie films (The Jazz Singer, The Lights of New York, The Singing Fool and The Terror) catapulted the studio into the ranks of the major studios. Flush with cash, the Warners abandoned their old location in the Poverty Row section of Hollywood and acquired a big studio in Burbank, California.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> As a result of this success, Warner was able to acquire the Stanley Company of America (founded by Jules E. Mastbaum), which controlled most of the first-run theaters on the East Coast.<ref name="sperling146">Template:Cite book</ref> The purchase gave them a share in rival First National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one-third.<ref name="thomas65">Template:Cite book</ref> After the transaction Warner was soon able to acquire William Fox’s one third remaining share in First National and now was officially the majority stockholder of the company.<ref name="thomas65" /> After the success of the studio's 1929 First National film Noah's Ark,<ref name=sperling151>Template:Cite book</ref> Harry Warner agreed to make Michael Curtiz a major director at the Burbank studio as well.<ref name=thomas127>Template:Cite book</ref>

After purchasing a string of music publishers,<ref name=autogenerated2>Template:Cite book</ref> Warner diversified the company by establishing a music subsidiary-Warner Bros. Music- and buying out additional radio companies, acquiring foreign sound patents, and adding a lithograph company as well;<ref name=sperling147>Template:Cite book</ref> he even was able to produce a Broadway musical Fifty Million Frenchmen.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By the time the 1st Academy Awards took place, Warner was recognized as the second most powerful figure in the movie industry, just behind MGM head Nicholas Schenck.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the wake of the success of Gold Diggers of Broadway, journalists had dubbed Warner "the godfather of the talking screen."<ref name="sperling151"/> The studio's net profit was now over $14,000,000.00.<ref name="sperling151"/> During that time, Warner soon also grew tired of the Hollywood atmosphere and acquired a twenty-two acre ranch in Mount Vernon, New York.<ref name=page152 /> Once Warner returned to New York, he and Albert were able to work together once again.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The Great DepressionEdit

After Albert's advice, Jack and Harry Warner acquired the rights to three Paramount stars (William Powell, Kay Francis, and Ruth Chatterton) for salaries doubled from their previous ones. The move proved to be a success, and stockholders maintained confidence in the Warners.<ref name="thomas7576">Template:Cite book</ref> The first year of the Great Depression, 1930, did not badly damage the studio<ref name=page160>Template:Cite book</ref> and Warner was even able to acquire more theaters for the studio in Atlantic City, New Jersey.<ref name=warnerweek>Template:Cite magazine</ref> During that time, Warner was engaged in a lawsuit with a Boston stockholder who accused him of trying use money from the studio's profitable businesses to try to purchase his vast 300 shares of stock and Template:Clarify span<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> The company however suffered a minor financial blow during the year after Motley Flint, the longtime banker for the studio, and by now also a close friend of the Warners, was murdered by an angry investor.<ref name=page72>Template:Cite book</ref>

In the latter part of 1929, much to Harry's dismay, younger brother Jack hired sixty-one-year-old actor George Arliss to star in the studio's film Disraeli.<ref name="thomas77">Template:Cite book</ref> To Warner's surprise,<ref name="thomas77"/> the film Disraeli was a success at the box office,<ref name="thomas77" /> Arliss won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and Warner was convinced to make him a top star for the studio as well.<ref name="thomas77" /> During the Depression era, the studio also produced a series of gangster films; Warner Bros. soon became known as "gangster studio."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The studio's first gangster film Little Caesar was a great success at the box office.<ref name="HBTHYNA1987">Template:Cite book</ref> After Little Caesar, the studio agreed to cast Edward Robinson in a wave of gangster pictures.<ref name="thomas77-79">Template:Cite book</ref> The studio's second gangster film, The Public Enemy,<ref name="HBTHYNA987">Template:Cite book</ref> also arguably made James Cagney the studio's new top star,<ref name="thomas81">Template:Cite book</ref> and the Warners were now further convinced to make more gangster films as well.<ref name="HBTHYNA987" /> Another gangster film the studio released during the Depression era was the critically acclaimed I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang.<ref name="thomas83">Template:Cite book</ref> The film made Paul Muni a top studio star,<ref name="thomas83" /> and also got audiences in the United States to question the country’s legal system.<ref name="(#GFSD">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

However, they would begin to feel the effects of the Depression in 1931.<ref name=page160 /> As ticket prices became unaffordable, the studio would lose money. By the end of 1931, the studio suffered a net loss of reportedly $8,000,000.00,<ref name=page160 /> During that time, Warner rented the Teddington Studios in southwest London.<ref name="thomas110">Template:Cite book</ref> Hoping to fight off the financial problems the Depression gave the studio, Warner Bros was now focused on making films for the London market<ref name="thomas110" /> and Irving Asher was appointed as the Teddington Studio's head producer.<ref name="thomas110" /> Unfortunately, the Teddington studio could not bring in additional profit for the Warners, and the Burbank studio lost $14,000,000 in 1932 as well.<ref name=page160 /> In 1934, Warner officially bought out the struggling Teddington Studio.<ref name="thomas110" />

However, relief would come for the studio after Franklin Roosevelt became US president in 1933 and the New Deal revived the US Economy. Moviegoers returned<ref name="sperling161"/> and during the year the studio was able to make a very profitable picture, 42nd Street, revived the studio's musical films business.<ref name="thomas85">Template:Cite book</ref> However, in 1933, a blow happened as the studio's longtime head producer Darryl F. Zanuck quit over disagreements with Harry Warner, which included Warner being strongly against allowing Zanuck’s film Baby Face to step outside the Hays Code boundaries;<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and refusing to restore Zanuck’s salary, which had been reduced as a result of the financial woes the studio temporarily faced from President Roosevelt's bank holiday<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> - let alone raise it in the wake of the New Deal's economic rebound.<ref name="TIMEHAR">Template:Cite magazine</ref> After Zanuck's resignation, studio director Hal B. Wallis became the studio's executive producer,<ref name="thomas88">Template:Cite book</ref> and Harry who along with his brother Jack, was a notable "penny-pincher"<ref name="thomas112">Template:Cite book</ref> finally agreed to bring salaries back up to industry expectations again.<ref name="TIMEHAR" />

In 1933, the studio was able to bring newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan films into the Warner Bros. fold.<ref name=thomas96>Template:Cite book</ref> Hearst had previously been signed with MGM,<ref name="thomas95"/> but he ended his ties with the company after a dispute with the company's head producer Irving Thalberg over the treatment of Marion Davies;<ref name=thomas9596>Template:Cite book</ref> Davies was a longtime mistress of Hearst,<ref name=thomas9596 /> and was now struggling to draw box office success.<ref name=thomas9596 /> Through the studio's partnership with Hearst, Harry's younger brother Jack was able to sign Davies to a studio contract as well.<ref name=thomas96 /> However, Hearst's company and Davies' films could not increase the studio's net profits.<ref name="thomas95"/>

In 1934, the studio had a net loss of over $2,500,000; $500,000 of the loss was the result of physical damage to the Warner Bros. Burbank studio which occurred after a massive fire broke out in the studio around the end of 1934 destroying twenty years' worth of early Warner Bros. films.<ref name=sperling209>Template:Cite book</ref> The next 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> During that time, Warner was indicted, along with six other Hollywood studio figures who owned movie theaters, of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act<ref name="sperling209" /> through an attempt to gain a monopoly over theaters in the St. Louis area.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 1935, Warner, along with executives at RKO and Paramount,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> were put on trial for this charge.<ref name=sperling209 /> After a mistrial, Warner sold the company's movie theaters, at least for a short time, and the case was never reopened. One problem that remained for Warner, however, was that the studio's projectionist labor union had fallen under Mafia control.<ref name=page211>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1935, the studio's revived musicals also had a major blow after director Busby Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk one night.<ref name=thomas86>Template:Cite book</ref> During the studio's union crisis, Warner received a threatening phone call from a union member saying that he would seize Warner's daughter Betty and adopted daughter Lita within forty-eight hours. Warner then agreed to accept the union's demands, and the kidnapping threat ended. However, in 1935 Harry got some relief as the studio rebounded with a year-end net profit of $674,158.00. Around that time, a depressed Warner—seeing that the newly recovered business no longer needed loans to pay off debts—decided to go to California and acquired Template:Convert of ranch land just northwest of Hollywood in Calabasas, California. He later moved to a 1,100-acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley.<ref name=page211 /><ref name=page212>Template:Cite book</ref>

During 1936, the studio's film The Story of Louis Pasteur was a success at the box office.<ref name="sperling114">Template:Cite book</ref> In addition to the film's box office success, Paul Muni won the Oscar for Best Actor in March 1937 for his performance as the title role.<ref name="sperling114"/> The studio's film The Life of Emile Zola (1937), also starring Muni, gave the studio its first Oscar for Best Picture.<ref name="sperling114"/>

World War IIEdit

Warner occupied a central place in the Hollywood-Washington wartime propaganda effort during the Second World War, and by the end of 1942, served as a frequent, anti-Axis spokesman for the movie industry.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Despite his conservative viewpoint<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and longtime affiliation with the Republican Party,<ref name="thomas95">Template:Cite book</ref> Warner was also a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported him during the early 1930s.<ref name="sperling161"/> During Roosevelt's fight for the Democratic nomination in early 1932, the Warners made an effort to make his name known throughout the state of California.<ref name="thomas93">Template:Cite book</ref> After Roosevelt was nominated, the three brothers asked their friends to contribute to his campaign.<ref name="thomas93" /> Jack Warner even staged a "Motion Picture and Electrical Parade Sports Pageant" at L.A. Stadium in Roosevelt's honor in 1932.<ref name="thomas93" /> During Roosevelt's 1932 campaign, Warner and the studio also contributed $10,000.00 to the Democratic National Committee.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In the wake of Nazi Germany's rise to power, Warner became a key proponent of US intervention in Europe.<ref name="sperling220"/>

Prior to the beginning of the war in Europe, Warner had produced a series of film shorts which glorified America's fight against Germany during World War I; Warner later received an honorary award for producing the shorts.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> By the fall of 1938, Warner had gradually helped block the distribution of Warner Bros. films in Nazi Germany and its ally Italy.<ref name="TIMEH">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Prior to the war's beginning in Europe, Warner supervised the production of two anti-German feature films, The Life of Emile Zola (1937)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He spent 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.<ref name=pages234>Template:Cite book</ref> Before the U.S. officially entered World War II, Warner supervised the production of three more anti-German films: The Sea Hawk (1940), which portrayed Spain's King Phillip II as an equivalent to Adolf Hitler; Sergeant York (1941), and You're in the Army Now (1941).

After America's entry into the war, Warner decided to focus on making just war films.<ref name=sperling>Template:Cite book</ref> During the duration of the war these included Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, and the controversial film Mission to Moscow.<ref name=pages247>Template:Cite book</ref> At the premieres of Yankee Doodle Dandy (in Los Angeles, New York, and London), audiences for the film purchased a total of $15,600,000.00 in war bonds for the governments of England and the United States.<ref name=pages247/> By the middle of 1943, however, it became clear that audiences were tired of war films.<ref name=pages247/> Despite the growing pressure to abandon the topic, Warner continued to produce them, losing money in the process.<ref name=pages247/> Eventually, in honor of studio contributions to the war cause, the United States Government would name a Liberty Ship after the brothers' father, Benjamin Warner, and Warner would be given the honor of christening the ship.<ref name=pages247/> By the time the war ended, $20,000,000.00 worth of war bonds would be purchased through the studio,<ref name=pages247 /> the Red Cross collected 5,200 pints of plasma from studio employees,<ref name=pages247 /> and 763 studio employees, including Warner's son-in-law Milton Sperling and nephew Jack Warner Jr., served in the U.S. armed forces.<ref name=pages247 />

After a dispute over ownership of Casablanca's Oscar for Best Picture, head producer Hal B. Wallis broke with Warner and resigned from the studio.<ref name="Thomas141143">Template:Cite book</ref> After Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart became arguably the studio's top star.<ref name="Thomas144">Template:Cite book</ref> In 1943, Olivia de Havilland (whom Warner was now loaning to different companies) sued Jack Warner for breach of contract.<ref name="Thomas145">Template:Cite book</ref> De Havilland cited that the government laws only required employee contracts to reach a maximum of seven years;<ref name="Thomas145" /> When de Havilland won her case many of the studio's longtime actors were freed of their contracts. To help retain them, Harry decided to eliminate the studio's suspension policy.<ref name=thomas148>Template:Cite book</ref>

Postwar eraEdit

In 1947, Warner, who was by now exhausted from all his years of arguing with his brother Jack, decided to spend more time at his San Fernando Valley ranch and to expand his interest in horse racing.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Along with brother Jack, in 1938, Harry Warner became one of the founders of Hollywood Park Racetrack. In partnership with Mervyn Le Roy, he created the W-L Ranch Co. Thoroughbred racing stable. In 1947, the Warner-LeRoy stable was able to acquire a valuable racehorse named "Stepfather."<ref name=Purch8>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Warner had a bitter rivalry with his brother Jack over the years, particularly due to Jack's longtime infidelities<ref name=sperling146147>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (as Jack had been engaged in affairs with a wide range of various women since Warner Bros. Inc. was established in 1923)<ref name=sperling144>Template:Cite book</ref> and waste of the Burbank studio's money.<ref name=sperling286>Template:Cite book</ref> In the 1930s Harry, like most of his relatives, also refused to accept Jack's second wife, actress Ann Paige - with whom Jack had an affair while still married to his first wife Irma Solomon - as a member of the Warner clan.<ref name="thomas102-103">Template:Cite book</ref> When Jack and Ann officially got married in January 1936, Harry and the rest of the Warner family refused to attend the ceremony.<ref name="sperling207">Template:Cite book</ref> In a letter Harry sent to Jack on his wedding day to Ann, Harry said "the only thing that could come from this day was that our parents didn't live to see this."<ref name="sperling207" />

Throughout the early years of the studio's existence, various people, including Warner's younger brother Sam, were buffers between Harry and Jack.<ref name=thomas62>Template:Cite book</ref> The last person to serve as a buffer between the two, father Benjamin Warner, died on November 5, 1935.<ref name="sperling206">Template:Cite book</ref> After Benjamin's death, Jack and Harry were now barely on speaking terms, and were merely just business partners to one another.<ref name="Freedland119">Template:Cite book</ref> Jack's marriage to Ann was also arguably a huge turning point in the two brothers' fragile relationship as well;<ref name="sperling285">Template:Cite book</ref> Harry's arguments with Jack were now practically on a daily basis.<ref name="sperling285" />

By the early 1950s, the brothers' long-simmering feud had risen to new heights, as Jack began spending a lot of his time in France, occasionally ignored managing the studio in favor of vacationing, gambling, and socializing with royalty,<ref name=sperling286 /> and spent studio money lavishly on 3-D films.<ref name=sperling286 /> On one occasion during that time, studio employees claimed they saw Harry Warner who was very furious at his brother Jack chase him through the studio with a lead pipe, shouting "I'll get you for this, you son of a b_".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The studio prospered post-war time, and by 1946, company payroll had reached $600,000 a week for studio employees,<ref name="LUI_(">Template:Cite book</ref> and the studio's net profit would reach $19,424,650.00 by the end of the year as well.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> During that time, Warner hired his son-in-law, Milton Sperling, to head an independent film production company for the studio.<ref name="LUI_(" /> In 1947, Harry also tried to move Warner Bros. headquarters from the longtime New York building to the Burbank area, but was unsuccessful.<ref name=thomas181182>Template:Cite book</ref> By the end of 1947, the studio had a record net profit of $22,000,000.00,<ref name=sperling1>Template:Cite book</ref> although the following year, the studio profits would decrease by 50%.<ref name=sperling1 />

During that time, the studio was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. antitrust case. The suit, brought by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, claimed that the five integrated studio-theater chain combinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in 1948, and ruled for the government. As a result, Warner and four other major studios were forced to separate production from exhibition. In early 1953, the brothers finally fulfilled their end of the bargain and sold their theater chain to Fabian Enterprises.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In 1948, Bette Davis, now fed up with Jack Warner, was a big problem for Harry after she and a number of her colleagues, departed from the studio after finishing the film Beyond the Forest.<ref name=thomas175176>Template:Cite book</ref> By 1949, the studio's net profit had fallen to $10,000,000.00, and the studio would soon suffer more losses with the rise of television.<ref name=sperling1 />

In 1949, Warner, seeing the threat of television grow, decided to shift his focus towards television production. However, the Federal Communications Commission would not allow Warner to do so. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bosses to switch their focus to television, he abandoned his television efforts. As the threat of television grew in the early 1950s, Warner's younger brother, Jack, decided to try a new approach to help regain profits for the studio.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the wake of United Artists' successful 3-D film Bwana Devil, Jack decided to expand into 3-D films with the studio's film House of Wax (1953). While the film proved successful for the studio, 3-D films soon lost their appeal among moviegoers.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After the downfall of 3-D films, Warner decided to use CinemaScope in future Warner Bros. films. One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and Mighty, brought the studio some profit.<ref name="pages287">Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1954, Warner and his brother Jack were finally able to engage in the new television medium, providing ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents.<ref name="autogenerated1">Template:Cite book</ref> Warner Bros. Presents was not a success. In 1955, the studio was able to debut a very successful western television drama, Cheyenne<ref name="thomas194">Template:Cite book</ref> The studio then followed up with a series of Western dramas such as Maverick, Bronco and Colt .45.<ref name="thomas194" /> The studio's television westerns, indeed, helped compensate for the net losses that the studio was now given at the box office<ref name="thomas194" /> Within a few years, Warner, who was accustomed to dealing with actors in a high-handed manner, provoked hostility among emerging television stars like James Garner, who filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. over a contract dispute. Jack Warner was angered by the perceived ingratitude of television actors who seemed to show more independence than film actors, and this deepened his contempt for the new medium.<ref name="autogenerated3">Template:Cite book</ref> Through this success, Warner began to be known as the "Strategic Generalissimo" by his employees.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

By 1956, the studio's profits had dropped to new lows.<ref name=pages287 /> Warner and Jack's tumultuous relationship worsened when Warner learned of Jack's decision to sell the Warner Bros.' pre-1949 films to Associated Artists Productions for the modest sum of $21 million. "This is our heritage, what we worked all our lives to create, and now it is gone," Warner exclaimed, upon hearing of the deal.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Shortly after doing this, Jack took a long vacation in southern France. The brothers' fragile relationship had reached a new low.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

RetirementEdit

In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on the market.<ref name="Purch88">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Jack, however, had secretly organized a syndicate, headed by Boston banker Serge Semenenko, which purchased 90% (800,000 shares) of the company's stock;<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At first Harry rejected Semenenko's earlier offer to purchase his stock in February 1956,<ref name="Purch88" /> but later accepted the offer after Semenenko increased his bid and agreed to make Simon Fabian—the head of Fabian Enterprises who had also become a friend of the Warners—president of Warner Bros.<ref name="Purch88" /> After the three brothers sold their stock, Jack (through his under-the-table deal with Sememenko) joined Semenenko's syndicate and bought back all his stock, which consisted of 200,000 shares.<ref name=page308>Template:Cite book</ref> The deal was completed in July 1956.<ref name="thomas226"/> Jack, who was now the company's largest stockholder, named himself president.<ref name=page306>Template:Cite book</ref>

Warner found out about Jack's dealing while reading an article in Variety on May 31, 1956<ref name=page306 /> and collapsed after reading the news.<ref name=page307>Template:Cite book</ref> The next day, he checked into Cedars of Lebanon Hospital and doctors told him he had a suffered a minor heart attack the previous day. While at the hospital, Warner had a stroke that impaired his walking ability and forced him to use a cane for the rest of his life.<ref name=page307 /> Six days after his stroke, he left the hospital and decided to sell 42 of his thoroughbred racehorses.<ref name=page308 /> The subterfuge proved too much for Warner and he and his family never spoke to Jack again;<ref name="thomas226" /> when Jack made a surprise appearance at Harry's San Fernando ranch, to attend Harry's 1957 wedding anniversary to Rea Levinson, nobody in the Warner family attending the event spoke to Jack.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> All Warner was now dedicated to doing was raising horses.<ref name=milestones>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Shortly after that when Jack was away one day, Warner made one last visit to the studio to take Template:USD out of his old studio account. He gave $3 million to his wife Rea, and $1.5 million each to his two daughters Doris and Betty. In the meantime, he sold a large portion of the remaining studio stock he had to Semenenko and made sure he never came near the Burbank studio ever again.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

On August 23, 1907, Warner married his girlfriend, Rea Levinson.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It has been reported by family members that Harry dedicated a huge chunk of his life to make Rea happy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Harry and Rea had three children: Lewis Ethan (b. October 10, 1908),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Doris (b. September 13, 1913),<ref name="Warner-Sperling 54"/> and Betty Leah (b. May 4, 1920).<ref name="page72"/> Harry and his family were also very faithful to Jewish customs and traditions.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

On April 5, 1931, Warner's son Lewis, whom he appointed as head of Warner Bros. Music, died after he had an infected, impacted wisdom tooth extracted, which led to sepsis and then double pneumonia.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> After Lewis' death, Warner, who was now left without a recognized heir to his empire,<ref name=thomas172173>Template:Cite book</ref> descended into an extreme state of depression.<ref name=thomas172173 /> In 1932, the Warners donated a theater in Lewis' honor to Worcester Academy, Lewis' alma mater.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Warner also felt his brother Sam's widow, actress Lina Basquette, was a tramp and not worthy of raising a child with the last name Warner.<ref name="sperling161">Template:Cite book</ref> While Jack didn't mind that Lina was Catholic, Harry and the rest of the Warner family did.<ref name="thomas4849">Template:Cite book</ref> They refused to have any part in Lina's life,<ref name="thomas4849" /> and did not acknowledge her as being a member of the Warner clan.<ref name="thomas4849" />

In 1930, Basquette went broke and Warner decided to file for guardianship over Sam and Lina's daughter, Lita.<ref name="sperling161" /> On March 19, 1930, Warner and his wife Rea became the legal guardians of Lita through a $300,000 settlement in Lita's trust fund. Basquette was never financially able to take care of or regain custody of Lita and in 1931, she tried to commit suicide by poison. After her suicide attempt, Basquette only saw her daughter on two occasions in the next twenty years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In 1947, Basquette filed for a large share of Sam's estate, which was by now worth $15,000,000 in stocks alone. Basquette claimed that the Warner brothers reorganized Sam's will under New York statutes, while Sam died while living in California, where, at the time of Sam's death in 1927, laws gave widows a larger share in their husband's wills. The lawsuit eventually ended when Basquette settled for a $100,000 trust fund from Harry's fortune.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Warner's daughter, Doris, was married to director Mervyn LeRoy on January 3, 1934. Warner, with no male heir to his studio after Lewis died, made LeRoy his new heir to the Warner Bros. studio. Harry two grandchildren, Warner Lewis LeRoy (1935-2001) and Linda LeRoy Janklow (b. 1939)<ref name="sperling220">Template:Cite book</ref> (married to Morton L. Janklow) through Doris, his daughter. On one occasion, in the late 1930s, Doris read a copy of Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind and became interested making a film adaption of the book for the studio as well;<ref name="sperling220" /> Doris then offered Mitchell $50,000 for the book's screen rights.<ref name="sperling220" /> However, Uncle Jack refused to allow the deal to take place, after seeing how expensive the film's budget would have been for the studio.<ref name="sperling220" /><ref>Gone with the Wind would be made in 1939 by Selznick International Pictures-which would later be owned by Tuner Entertainment who ironically enough also owns Warner Brothers</ref> The couple divorced on August 12, 1945, and Warner was left without an heir again. Two months after her divorce from LeRoy, Doris and director Charles Vidor got married.<ref name="page200">Template:Cite book</ref> They had three sons, Michael, Brian and Quentin.<ref name="Warner-Sperling 341">Template:Cite book</ref> Doris and Charles were married until his death in 1959.<ref name="page200" />

In 1936, Betty Warner began an affair with one of Darryl F. Zanuck's assistants Milton Sperling. They married on July 13, 1939. Betty Warner and Milton Sperling had four children, Susan (b. December 4, 1941),<ref name="sperling" /> Karen (b. April 8, 1945), and Cass (b. March 8, 1948),<ref name="sperling1" /> and Matthew.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The two remained married for twenty-four years.<ref name="Warner-Sperling 341" /> In 1964, Betty married Stanley Sheinbaum.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> His granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, and her husband, actor Wings Hauser are the parents of actor Cole Hauser.

DeathEdit

Warner died on July 25, 1958, from a cerebral occlusion. Some people close to Harry, however, believed he died of a broken heart; Harry's wife Rea even stated, after Harry's funeral took place, that "he didn't die, Jack killed him."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He left an estate valued at $6,000,000 with 50% bequeathed to his wife and 25% to each of his daughters, Doris and Betty (married to producer Milton Sperling).<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Harry Warner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.

LegacyEdit

In 2004, Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania dedicated a film institute to him.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The university also hosts an annual Harry Warner film festival.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In popular cultureEdit

In an episode of Millionaire Hot Seat in Australia, contestant Barry Soraghan had a question for $1 million, which was about the Warner Brothers and which one of them had died on the eve of The Jazz Singer. Harry Warner was incorrectly identified as the Warner brother who died on the eve of The Jazz Singer (Sam was the correct answer).

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

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