#harry warner

[citizenscreen]

The Warner Brothers: from left, Harry, Jack, Sam and Albert

[dailylooneys]

One day, Harry Warner and all the Warner Bros. people came out to meet over lunch with the cartoon directors. So we all set down, and harry Warner came in and sat down and we were all introduced. Harry says, "Ah, what do we make? I know we make Mickey Mouse, but what other things do we make?". He really didn't know. Cartoons for him were just something that went on in the back lot. He was more interested in the features, you know? He had bigger things on his mind than that. And when he thought of Mickey Mouse he figured, well, cartoons are Mickey Mouse, or something. I don't know whether he really didn't know or whether he just said that because it was supposed to be a funny joke. But I believe it was through ignorance of what animation was at that time. It was all new to them and it was just a by-product.

Friz Freleng on Harry Warner believing they made Mickey Mouse

[citizenscreen]

Michael Curtiz given a silver anniversary lunch by Warner Brothers in July 1951. Pictured: Harry Warner, Curtiz, and Jack Marner.

[citizenscreen]

Jack Warner and Harry Warner at the KFWB station microphone during the first broadcast circa 1925-26. The sign reads, “Silence during broadcasting will be appreciated.” #WB

[citizenscreen]

Harry Warner was born on this day in 1881 #WarnerBros #botd

[harrywarner]

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

The Brothers Warner

Produced, written, directed and narrated by Harry Warner’s granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, THE BROTHERS WARNER (2007, TCM, Plex) is better as family history than as film history. Early on, Sperling describes childhood memories of her grandfather and taking his hand as he lay on his deathbed. She felt some promise was exchanged at the moment, and though the story may seem self-serving, she certainly delivers with this film. Its most important accomplishment is the picture of a man who, though often in the shadow of his more colorful younger brother Jack, was a noted philanthropist, an innovator in the film industry and one of the first in that industry to tackle social problem pictures and take a stand against Nazi Germany. At times her claims may seem to be imposing contemporary viewpoints on the past. Was Harry really opposed to the blacklist? In her interpretation he was, though his statements about freedom of expression could just as easily be the same American exceptionalism that allows room for only those expressions of which conservatives approve. When it comes to the history of Warner Bros., however, the film is a bit slipshod. She never mentions the date on which the studio was incorporated, focuses her account of the early talkie period solely on the studio’s social problem pictures and gives short shrift to the stars who helped build the studio. James Cagney is the only star mentioned in conjunction with the gangster cycle. Errol Flynn is only briefly featured in a clip from THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD (1938) that depicts Robin as a social justice warrior. And she doesn’t mention a Bette Davis film until a montage of great Warner’s pictures at the end. The worst error, however, is referring to CAMELOT (1967) as the last film produced by Jack L. Warner, when he did two films afterwards. Oh, well. They don’t pay me to fact-check the documentaries.

[dweemeister]

How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started

An origin story of the siblings who incorporated a studio 100 years ago today, overcoming obstacle after obstacle before finally finding an entertainment venture they could excel at together.

April 4, 2023

By Chris Yogerst

(The Hollywood Reporter) — The Warner brothers — Harry, Sam, Albert and Jack — were different from Hollywood’s other movie moguls in the industry’s early years. They were shrewd, brash, outspoken and passionate in ways that deviated from the industry norm. The most publicly consistent brother was Harry, a stoic businessman and proud immigrant. Sam was the technical visionary who was gone too soon. Albert largely avoided the public eye, although he served as a loyal ambassador to the family brand. Jack was the wild child, the entertainer, the sometimes unpredictable one.

Those talents served them well during a transitional time for what would become the filmed entertainment industry. The year 1903 marked that transition, moving from what historian Tom Gunning calls a “cinema of attractions,” based on simple spectatorship of an event, to narrative storytelling, which allowed audiences to get lost in what they saw onscreen. There was only one way to test the viability of this new trend: with an audi­ence.

Sam Warner pitched the idea of investing in this new technology to his family. The projector cost $1,000, and it came with a copy of Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery (1903). The brothers pooled all their money, but it was not enough. Their father, Benjamin Warner, hocked his gold watch to make up the difference.

The brothers set up a tent in their yard and invited neighbors and community members to witness the moving images emanating from Sam’s projector. The attraction was a hit. Now the brothers needed a more per­manent venue. Knowing that a carnival was coming to the town of Niles, northwest of Youngstown, Ohio, they found a vacant store there and set up shop, hoping to take advantage of the influx of people attracted by the carnival.