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Warner Bros. - First National Studios, Burbank, circa 1928.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., or Warner Bros. (pronounced Warner Brothers), is one of the world's largest
producers of film and television entertainment.
It is currently a subsidiary of the Time Warner
conglomerate, with its headquarters in Burbank, California. Warner Bros. has several
subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner
Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Home Video, and DC Comics, as well as owning half of
The CW Television Network.
Founded in 1918, 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.
History
1903-1924: Foundation
The corporate name honors the four founding Warner brothers, Harry Warner (1881–1958),
Albert Warner (1883–1967), Sam Warner (1887–1927) and
Jack L. Warner (1892–1978), Polish Jewish brothers who imigrated from Poland to Ontario, Canada. The three elder
brothers began in the exhibition business in 1903, having acquired a projector with which they
showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio. They opened their first theatre, the Cascade, in New
Castle, Pennsylvania in 1903. (The original theater is still standing, and is being
renovated as the centerpiece of the ongoing downtown revitalization in New Castle, hoping to attract tourists.[1]) In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company (the precursor to Warner Bros. Pictures) to distribute films. Within
a few years this led to the distribution of pictures across a four-state area. In 1912 Harry Warner hired Warner Brothers
Pictures first employee, an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase who later became widely
known as "the knife", for his razor sharp skills and ability in his field of work . 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 Paul Ashley Chase handled finance and
distribution in New York. In 1923, they formally incorporated as
Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
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. Rinty was so popular that he starred in 26 films,
beginning with The Man from Hell's River in 1924, and is
credited with making the fledgling studio a success.
As the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan. With this new money Warners bought
the pioneer Vitagraph Company which had a nation-wide distribution system. They also
plunged into radio, establishing radio stations in several major cities, among them KFWB in
Los Angeles. Warners also joined the mad race to buy and build theaters.
1926-1931: Sound; color; style;
Screenshot from the first all-color all-talking film
On with the
Show, released by Warner Brothers in 1929.
At the urging of Sam Warner, the company committed to develop Vitaphone, and in
1926 began making films with music and effects tracks, most notably, in the feature
Don Juan. When this proved popular, they took the next step and offered, in
October 1927 a picture with dialogue, one that would revolutionize the business,
The Jazz Singer, starring Al
Jolson. The movie was a sensation, launching the era of "talking pictures" and
banishing silent movies. However, the brothers could not make it to the premiere of The
Jazz Singer, as Sam had died and the brothers were at his funeral.
Flush with cash thanks to the success of The Jazz Singer, in 1928 Warner bought the Stanley Company, 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, Warner bought more First National
shares, and gained control in 1929. The Justice Department agreed to allow the purchase if First
National was maintained as a separate company. But when the 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, Justice required Warner to produce and release a few films each year under the First National name
until 1938. For thirty years, certain Warner productions would be identified (mainly for tax
purposes) as 'A Warner Bros. - First National Picture.'
In 1928, the Warner Brothers 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 making sound films exclusively. In 1929, the Warner Brothers released On with the Show (1929), the first all-color all-talking feature. This was followed by
Gold Diggers of Broadway (1929) which proved to be the most
popular film of that year. (It continued to be so popular that 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). The Warner Brothers released a
large number of color films in 1929-1931. The following were features photographed entirely in Technicolor: 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), The Bride of the Regiment (1930),
Viennese Nights (1931), Woman
Hungry (1931), Kiss Me Again (1931), Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931), 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. By 1931 the country had grown so tired of musicals that the Warner Brothers were forced to cut the
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 Brothers 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).
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 that some said glorified
gangsters. The contracts of musical and silent stars were not renewed and new talent,
tough-talking, working-class types, were hired that would 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 indecent (around
1934). As a result, the Warner Brothers turned out a number of historical pictures from around 1935 in order to avoid
confrontations with the Breen office.
After Zanuck was succeeded by Hal B. Wallis 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. Others 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. This period also saw the
disappearance of a large number of actors and actresses that had characterized the realistic Pre-Code era but who were not suited to the new trend into moral and idealized pictures. The Warner Bros. had
remained the top studio in Hollywood since the dawn of talkies, but this changed after 1935 as other studios, notably
MGM, quickly overshadowed the prestige and glamor that had previously characterized
Warner Bros.
1930: Birth of Warner’s cartoons
Warner's cartoon unit had its roots in the independent Harman-Ising studio. From
1930 to 1933, Disney alumni Hugh
Harman and Rudolf Ising produced a series of musical cartoons for
Leon Schlesinger, who sold the shorts to Warner. Harman and Ising introduced their
character Bosko in the first Looney Tunes cartoon,
Sinkin' in the Bathtub, and created a sister series, Merrie Melodies, in 1931.
Harman and Ising broke away from Schlesinger in 1933 due to a contractual dispute, taking Bosko with them. As a result,
Schlesinger started his own studio, Leon Schlesinger Productions, which continued
with the Merrie Melodies while starting production on Looney Tunes starring Buddy, a Bosko clone. By the end of the decade, a new Schlesinger production team, including
directors Friz Freleng, Tex Avery, Robert Clampett, and Chuck Jones had been formed. Schlesinger's staff
developed a fast-paced, irreverent style that made their cartoons immensely popular world-wide.
Warner bought Schlesinger's cartoon unit in 1944, and in subsequent decades characters such as
Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, and Porky Pig became central to the company's image. Bugs in
particular remains a mascot to Warner Bros' various divisions and Six Flags (which Time Warner previously owned).
Post-World War II: Changing hands
The record attendance figures of the World War II years made the Warner brothers rich.
The gritty Warner image of the 1930s gave way to a glossier look, especially in women's pictures starring Davis, de Havilland and
Joan Crawford. The 1940s also saw the rise of
Humphrey Bogart from supporting player to major star. And in the post-war years Warners
continued to create new stars, like Lauren Bacall and Doris
Day.
On January 5, 1948, Warner offered the first color
newsreel, covering the Tournament of Roses
Parade and the Rose Bowl Game.
Warner was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures,
Inc. anti-trust case of the 1940s. This action, 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.
Early in 1953, the Warner theater holdings were spun off as Stanley Warner
Theaters. With no more theaters to fill there was no need to produce thirty pictures a year, and no need for expensive
contract-actors or for costly staff. After fifty years in the business the Warners saw the system winding down, and agreed to
sell the studio to a bank-led syndicate. Only after the deal was completed in 1956 did elder
brothers Harry and Albert Warner learn that the leading investor in the bank's syndicate was youngest brother Jack, who now had
control of what had been a family business. This led to a rupture in family relations. For the rest of their lives the brothers
did not speak to one another. But Jack was solely in charge at Warner Bros. Pictures.
In February 1956, Warner Brothers sold world negative rights to 784 features and 1,800 shorts filmed before 1948 to be shown
on television by Associated Artists Productions.[1]
New owners
For a time Warner Bros. rebounded, specializing in adaptations of popular plays like The Bad
Seed, No Time for Sergeants and Gypsy: A Musical Fable. There was also a successful television unit (run by William T. Orr who was Jack Warner's son-in-law) offering popular
series like 77 Sunset Strip and Maverick. Already the owner of extensive music-publishing holdings, in 1958 the studio launched Warner Bros. Records, but by the 1960s,
motion picture production was in decline. There were few studio-produced films and many more co-productions (for which Warner
provided facilities, money, and distribution), and pickups of independently made pictures.
In 1967, Jack gave in to advancing age and the changing times, selling control of the studio and
its music business for $78 million to Seven Arts Productions, run by the
Canadian investors Elliot and Kenneth Hyman, whose Associated Artists Productions had once owned the pre-1948
Warner film library. The company, including the studio, was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven
Arts.
Two years later the Hymans accepted a cash-and-stock offer from an odd conglomerate called Kinney National Company. Originating as a chain of funeral parlors, Kinney had grown by buying
service businesses like parking lots, office cleaners, and a Hollywood talent agency, Ashley-Famous. It was Ted Ashley who led Kinney-head Steve Ross to the
purchase of Warners, and Ashley became the new head of the studio, and the name was changed to Warner Bros., Inc.
Although the movie-going audience had shrunk, Warner's new management believed in the drawing-power of stars, signing
co-production deals with the big names of the day, among them Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Clint Eastwood, carrying the studio successfully through the 1970s and
1980s. Warners also made major profits on films built around the characters of Superman and Batman, owned by Warners subsidiary DC Comics.
Abandoning the mundane parking lots and funeral homes, the re-focused Kinney renamed itself in honor of its best-known
holding, Warner Communications. Throughout the 1970s and
1980s Warner Communications branched out into other business, such as its acquiring of video game
company Atari in 1976, and later the Six Flags theme parks.
From 1971 until the end of 1987, Warner's international distribution operations were a joint venture with Columbia Pictures, and in some countries, this joint venture also distributed films from other
companies (like EMI Films and Cannon Films in the UK).
Warner ended the venture in 1988 and joined up with Walt Disney Pictures, this
joint venture lasted until 1993, when Disney created Buena Vista International.
To the surprise of many, flashy, star-driven Warner Communications merged in 1989 with the
white-shoe publishing company Time, Inc. Though Time and its magazines claimed a higher tone,
it was the Warner Bros. film and music units which provided the profits. However, the merger was almost derailed when
Paramount Communications (Formerly [[Gulf+Western]], later sold to
Viacom), launched a $12.2 billion dollar hostle bid for Time,
Inc. forcing Time to acquired Warner for $14.9 billion dollar cash/stock offer. Paramount responded with a lawsuit filed
in Delaware court to break up the merger. Paramount lost both the case and the appeal and the
merger proceed.
In 1997 Time Warner sold the Six Flags unit. The takeover of
Time Warner in 2000 by then-high-flying AOL did not prove a good match, and following the collapse in "dot-com" stocks, the AOL name was banished from the
corporate nameplate.
1995-present
A panoramic view over today's studio premises
In 1995, Warner and station-owner Tribune Company of
Chicago launched The WB
Network, finding a niche market in teenagers. The WB's early programming included an abundance of teenage fare like
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and Dawson's Creek. Two extremely
successful family dramas, 7th Heaven and Charmed also helped bring The WB into the spotlight, with Charmed going for 8 seasons and being the longest
running drama with female leads and 7th Heaven going for 11 seasons and being the longest running family drama and longest
running show for The WB. In 2006 Warner and CBS Corporation decided to close the The WB
and CBS's UPN and jointly launch The CW Television
Network.
In the late 1990s, Warners obtained rights to the Harry
Potter novels, and released feature film adaptations of the first in 2001, the
second in 2002, the
third in June 2004, the fourth in November 2005, and the fifth on July 11, 2007. The sixth is slated for
November 2008. The seventh and final is announced for 2010.
Over the years, Warners has had distribution and/or co-production deals with a number of small companies. These include (but
are not limited to) Amblin Entertainment, Morgan Creek Productions (now working with Universal
Studios), Regency Enterprises (now working with 20th Century Fox), Village Roadshow Pictures,
Legendary Pictures, Silver Pictures (which
includes Dark Castle Entertainment), The
Ladd Company, and The Geffen Film Company.
Film library
Over the years, a series of mergers and acquisitions have helped Warners (the present-day Time-Warner subsidiary) to
accumulate a diverse collection of movies, cartoons, and television programs.
In the aftermath of the 1948 anti-trust suit, uncertain times led Warners in 1956 to
sell its 650 of its pre-1948 films and cartoons to a holding company which became Associated Artists Productions (AAP). Two years later AAP sold its holdings to
United Artists (UA), which held them until 1981, when
MGM bought UA. Three years later Turner
Broadcasting System, having failed to buy MGM, settled for ownership of the MGM/UA library. This included all
pre-1986 MGM features as well as the pre-1948 Warner material. Ownership of the classic Warner
films came full-circle when Time Warner bought Turner, although technically they are held by Turner Entertainment while Warner is responsible for sales and distribution.
These acquisitions, among others, mean that Warner owns almost every film they have made since its inception, excepting
certain films Warner merely distributed. Much of the United States Pictures catalog (with certain exceptions, like
Battle of the Bulge, which WB still owns) is now owned by
Republic/Paramount Pictures. Certain of
John Wayne's Warner films are owned by Batjac, Wayne's company, as are other Batjac
productions not starring Wayne - Paramount owns distribution rights to these films. The ancillary rights to ITC Entertainment films originally distributed by WB (including The Medusa Touch, Movie Movie, and Capricorn One) are now owned by Granada International,
while MGM owns theatrical distribution rights. Seven years after its 1964 release,
rights to My Fair Lady reverted to CBS, which
had backed the theatrical production, although ironically Warner now owns the DVD rights under license from CBS. (Interestingly,
35 years after that, CBS and Warner Bros. formed The CW Television Network, as
mentioned above.) In addition, one film by Alfred Hitchcock that was originally
released by WB, Rope, is now owned by Universal
Studios. One Warner film from the post-1948 era, the 1956 version of Moby
Dick, is now owned by UA.
As noted, Warner owns all pre-1986 MGM titles and cartoons; the US/Canadian and
Australian rights to a majority of the RKO Radio Pictures library; the 1933-1957
Popeye theatrical animated shorts produced by Paramount; and a portion of United Artists
material (most of this under its Turner subsidiary). In addition Warner has
acquired most of the Hanna-Barbera Productions television cartoons (as well as
Heidi's Song, but not including shows based off Happy Days, Mork and
Mindy and Laverne and Shirley which are owned by CBS Paramount
Television; among other licensed properties); most of Lorimar's television
and film holdings (including most of the Allied Artists /
Monogram and post-1974 Rankin/Bass libraries, as
well as several films made by Lorimar themselves which were released originally by Paramount
Pictures, among other studios); the National General Pictures library (except those produced with Cinema Center Films,
which are owned by CBS and Paramount Pictures); most ancillary rights to Castle Hill Productions library (which includes early UA
material); and a few films released by others, such as the 1956 version of
Around the World in Eighty Days; the 1971 film
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; most of the
pre-1991 Morgan Creek Productions library; most of the pre-1990
Saul Zaentz film library; the 1978-1981 Orion
Pictures library; the non-Japan rights to the first three Pokémon films; and
Castle Rock Entertainment films made after Turner acquired Castle Rock (except
the Region 1 rights to The Story of Us and The Last Days of Disco, as well as the international rights to The American President, all owned by Universal). In 2008, Warner Bros. will add the
Peanuts/Charlie Brown library to its collection (this will include all the television
specials and series outside of the theatrical library, which will continue to be owned by CBS and Paramount through
United Feature Syndicate, licensor and owner of the Peanuts material).
The University of Southern California Warner Bros. Archives is the
largest single studio collection in the world. Donated in 1977 to USC's School of Cinema-Television by Warner Communications, the
WBA houses departmental records that detail Warner Bros. activities from the studio’s first major feature, My Four Years in
Germany (1918), to its sale to Seven Arts in 1968.
UA donated pre-1949 Warner Bros. nitrates to the Library
of Congress and post-1951 negatives to UCLA's film library. Most of the company's legal files, scripts and production
materials were donated to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Notable films
-
See also
References
- Mordden, Ethan. The Hollywood Studios. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988.
- Schatz, Robert. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. New York: Pantheon, 1988.
- Sklar, Robert. Movie-Made America. New York: Vintage, 1994.
- Warner, Jack L. My First Hundred Years in Hollywood.
- Gabler, Neal. An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood. New York: Crown Publishers, 1988.
External links
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