Albert Warner | |
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| Born | Aaron Abraham Wonsal (1884-07-23)July 23, 1884 |
| Died | November 26, 1967(1967-11-26) (aged 83) Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Film executive Co-founder of Warner Brothers |
| Years active | 1903–1956 |
| Spouses | |
| Relatives | BrothersHarry,Sam, andJack L. Warner |
Albert Warner (bornAaron Abraham Wonsal,[1] July 23, 1884[2] – November 26, 1967) was an American film executive who was one of the founders ofWarner Bros. He established the production studio with his brothersHarry,Sam, andJack L. Warner. He served as the studio's treasurer until he sold his stock in 1956.[3]
Aaron Abraham Wonsal was born in the village ofKrasnosielc,Poland (then part ofCongress Poland within theRussian Empire).[4][5][6][7][8] He was the son of Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker born inKrasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum, bothPolish Jews.[9][10][11][12][13] He came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings in October 1889 on the steamshipHermann from Bremen, Germany. Their father had preceded them, immigrating to Baltimore in 1888 and following his trade in shoes and shoe repair. He changed the family name to Warner, which was used thereafter. As in manyJewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Aaron and Jacob were late among the children to do so, becoming "Albert" and "Jack" after they came of age.[14] However, his nickname was "Abe."[15]
In Baltimore, the money Benjamin Warner earned in the shoe repair business was not enough to provide for his growing household.[16] 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.[16] Sons Jacob and David Warner were born inLondon, Ontario.[16][17] After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and Pearl Warner returned to Baltimore, bringing along their growing family.[18] Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there.[19] In 1896, the family relocated toYoungstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town.[20] Benjamin 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.[21][22]
In the late 1890s, Albert became fascinated by the bicycle craze that swept through the USA.[23] and his older brother Harry opened a bicycle shop in Youngstown together as well.[24] The two also tried to open a bowling alley together, but were unsuccessful.[23]
Albert Warner stayed in school longer than any his three brothers.[25] In 1900, Warner entered Youngstown's Rayen High School, where he served as quarterback for the school's football team.[25] Warner eventually dropped out,[25] and in time got a job in Chicago as a salesman for the soap company Swift and Company.[26] Warner's life would soon pursue a new direction after brother Sam was able to purchase aKinetoscope in 1903.[27]
As a young man, along with his brother Sam, Albert Warner entered thenickelodeon business, and started displaying copies ofThe Great Train Robbery from aKinetoscope at carnivals inOhio andPennsylvania in 1903; Sam ran the projector and Albert sold tickets.[28] In 1905, Harry agreed to join his two brothers' business and sold his Youngstown bicycle shop.[28] During this time the three brothers purchased a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania;[28] with their new building, the brothers established their first theater, The Cascade Movie Palace.[29] The theater was so successful that the brothers were able to purchase a second theater in New Castle.[30] This makeshift affair, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker.[31] In 1907 the three brothers acquired fifteen additional theaters in the state of Pennsylvania, and named their new business The Dusquesne Amusement Supply Company.[32] The three brothers then rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh with a loan fromMax Fleischer.[30] Harry then sent Sam to New York to purchase and ship films for their Pittsburgh exchange company,[30] while he and Albert remained in Pittsburgh to run the business.[30]
In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater to open a second film exchange company in Norfolk, Virginia, drawing youngest brother Jack into the fold.[32] Afterwards, Sam and Jack went to Norfolk, while Harry and Albert stayed in Pittsburgh.[32] However, one serious threat to the Warners film company was the advent ofThomas Edison'sMotion Picture Patents Company (also known as the Edison Trust), which enforced Edison's patents and charged distributors exorbitant fees.[33] In 1910 the Warners sold the family business to the General Film Company for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and $30,000 in payments over a four-year period, for a total of $52,000".[34] After selling their business the brothers found work distributing films forCarl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company in Pittsburgh.[34] In 1912 Sam would help the brothers earn a $1,500 profit by distributing the Italian filmDante's Inferno in the United States.[35] Harry, encouraged by the success ofDante's Inferno and wary of Edison's growing monopoly, decided to leave Laemmle and establish an independent film production company for the four Warner brothers, Warner Features;[36] Albert and Harry opened an office in New York, while Sam was sent to operate the company's new Los Angeles film exchange division, and Jack was sent to run the company's new San Francisco film exchange division.[36] In 1918, thanks in part to a loan from Ambassador James W. Gerald,[37] the brothers expanded operations and established a studio nearHollywood, California[38] Sam and Jack moved to the West Coast to produce films while Albert and Harry remained on theEast Coast to handle distribution.
Between the years 1919 and 1920 the studio was not able to earn any profits.[39] During this time banker Motley Flint helped the Warners pay off their debts.[39] Shortly afterwards the four brothers decided to relocate their studio fromCulver City toSunset Boulevard.[40] The studio rebounded in 1921, after the success of the studio's filmWhy Girls Leave Home.[39] As a result of the financial success of the film, its director,Harry Rapf, was appointed the studio's new head producer.[40] On April 4, 1923, following the studio's successful filmThe Gold Diggers, Warner Bros., Inc. was officially established.[39] Albert remained in New York, where he ran the company's distribution and finances.[41]
Warner Bros' first film,Where the North Begins, brought success for the brothers not seen sinceMy Four Years in Germany.[42] The film also made the dogRin Tin Tin the studio's first star.[42] Newcomer directorDarryl Zanuck's career was also greatly boosted through his productions of Rin Tin Tin.[43] Zanuck would eventually become a top producer for the studio as well,[44] and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jack Warner's right-hand man and executive producer, a position whose responsibilities included the day-to-day production of films.[45]After establishing Warner Bros. Pictures the studio had overdrawn $1,000,000 (the amount which Warner had borrowed from Flint).[46] At this, Albert convinced Harry not to purchase the screenrights to the hit playRain. Harry then decided to help ease the company's financial status by acquiring forty theaters in the state of Pennsylvania.
More success would come for the studio after the brothers hired German directorErnst Lubitsch as head director;[43] Rapf had departed the studio and accepted an offer to work atMGM.[47] Lubitsch's first film at the studio,The Marriage Circle, became the studio's most successful film of 1924,[43] and was also on theNew York Times best list for the year.[43] The studio's 1924 filmBeau Brummel also madeJohn Barrymore a top star at the studio.[48] Despite the success the brothers now had they still could not compete with the "big three" studios (First National, Paramount, and MGM)[49]
In 1925, Albert's older brother 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.[49] Harry and the other independent film-makers at the Milwaukee convention agreed to spend $500,000 in newspaper advertisements;[50] this action would help benefit Warner Bros. profits.[50] With help from a loan supplied byGoldman, Sachs head bankerWaddill Catchings, Warner would find a way to successfully respond to the growing concern the big three studios further presented to Warner Bros., and expanded the company's operations by purchasing the Brooklyn theater companyVitagraph.[50] Through this purchase, the Warners then had theaters in the New York area.
In 1925 Sam Warner had also acquired a radio station,KWBC.[51] After this, Sam decided to make an attempt to usesynchronized sound in future Warner Bros. pictures.[52] However, Sam Warner had initial reservations about the idea, in which he is quoted as saying "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" when his brother, CEO Harry Warner proposed the idea to him. Under Warner and his brothers’ leadership, the company came to own and operate some 250 theaters to screen its films, and was a successful pioneer of the sound film industry. However, by February 1926 the brothers' radio business had failed, and the studio suffered a net loss of $333,413.[53]
After a period of refusing to accept sound in the company's films, Harry Warner now agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts for usage ofbackground music,[54] Harry then made a visit toWestern Electric'sBell Laboratories in New York[55] (which his younger brother Sam had earlier visited) and was impressed.[55] A problem for the Warners was that the high-ups at Western Electric were perceived asanti-Semitic.[55] Sam 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.[55] Afterwards, Harry signed a partnership agreement with Western Electric to use Bell Labs to test the sound-on-film process.[56]
After the agreement was signedVitaphone was established,[57] and Sam and Jack decided to take a big step forward makeDon Juan.[58] The film began with eight Vitaphone features filmed in sound.[59] Despite the success it had at the box office,[60] the film was not able to recoup its expensive budget.[61] Harry was now further convinced not to use any more sound in Warner Bros. pictures.
With Harry now refusing to allow further Vitaphone productions,Paramount headAdolph Zukor took advantage of the situation and tried to offer Sam a deal as an executive producer for his studio if he brought Vitaphone with him.[62] Sam easily accepted Zukor's offer,[62] but the offer died after Paramount lost money in the wake ofRudolph Valentino's death in late 1926.[62] By April 1927, the Big Five studios (First National, Paramount, MGM, Universal, and Producers Distributing) had put the Warners in financial ruin,[63] and Western Electric renewed the Warner's Vitaphone contract on non-exclusive terms that allowed other film company's to test sound with the company;[63] the Warners were even forced to sell some of their stock toHarry Cohn, the head of the independent film companyColumbia Pictures.[64] Eventually, Harry agreed to accept Sam's demands to continue with Vitaphone productions,[65] and the studio soon began production of the firsttalkie,The Jazz Singer;[65] soon after its release, the film would indeed help establish the Warners as, arguably the three most important figures in the film industry.[66] On October 5, 1927, Sam would die and younger brother Jack was given charge of the studio's production,[67] despite the fact that Jack still did not have as much power over the studio as Harry did, as he was only the studio's vice president.[68]
With the success of theJazz Singer, more talkies followed.[67] With the large sums of money the Warners now had on-hand, Harry was able to expand business operations further, acquiring the Stanley Corporation for the studio.[69] This gave them a share in rivalFirst National Pictures, of which Stanley owned one-third.[70] After this purchase, Warner was soon able to acquireWilliam Fox's one third remaining share in First National and was now officially the majority stockholder of the company.[70] Harry, after purchasing a string of music publishers,[71] established a music subsidiary-Warner Bros. Music- bought out additional radio companies, acquired foreign sound patents, and purchased a lithograph company.[72] In 1929, with the large amount of money he now had made off of the studio's valuable subsidiaries, Albert acquired a large home in Rye, Westchester County, New York, which he dubbed "Caradel Hall."[73]
With theWall Street crash of 1929 officially marking the beginning of theGreat Depression, Albert saw that the studio was in need of additional star power in order to survive.[74] Following Albert's advice, Jack and Harry Warner acquired three Paramount stars (William Powell,Kay Francis, andRuth Chatterton) for studio salaries doubled from their previous ones.[74] This move proved to be a success, and stockholders maintained confident in the Warners.[74] In late 1929, Jack Warner would hire sixty-one-year-old actorGeorge Arliss to star in the studio's filmDisraeli.[75] To everybody's surprise,[75] the filmDisraeli was a success,[75] and Arliss would win an Oscar forBest Actor for his role in the film and star in nine more films with the studio as well.[75]
With the collapse of the market for musicals, Warner Bros., under production headDarryl F. Zanuck, turned to more realistic and gritty storylines, 'torn from the headlines' pictures that some said glorifiedgangsters; Warner Bros. soon became known as "gangster studio.[76] The studio's first gangster filmLittle Caesar was a great success at the box office.[77] AndEdward Robinson was cast a star in many of the wave of gangster films the studio produced after Little Caesar.[78] The studio's next gangster film,The Public Enemy,[79] would also makeJames Cagney arguably the studio's new top star,[80] and the Warners were now further convinced to make more gangster films as well.[79]
Another gangster film the studio produced was the critically acclaimedI Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, starringPaul Muni.[81] In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Paul Muni was also given a big push as one of the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful filmI Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.[82] The film got audiences in the United States to question the legal system in the United States,[83] and by January 1933, the film's protagonistRobert Elliott Burns – who was still imprisoned in New Jersey – and a number of differentchain gang prisoners nationwide in the United States were able to appeal and were released.[84] In January 1933, Georgia chain gang warden J Harold Hardy – who was also made into a character in the film – sued the studio for displaying "vicious, untrue and false attacks" against him in the film.[85] After appearing in the filmThe Man Who Played God,Bette Davis would also become a top star for the studio as well.[86] In 1933, the studio's very successful film42nd Street would revive the studio's musicals[87] Most these new musicals featuredRuby Keeler andDick Powell as the stars, and were mostly directed byBusby Berkeley.[88]
By 1931, however, the studio would begin to feel the effects of the Depression as the general public became unable to afford the price for movie tickets.[89] In 1931, the studio would reportedly suffer a net loss of $8,000,000.00.[89] The following year, the studio would suffer an additional $14,000,000.00 net loss as well.[89]
In 1933, relief for the studio came afterFranklin Roosevelt became US president in 1933 and US economy rebounded due to theNew Deal;[90] because of this economic rebound, box office profits for Warner Bros. existed once again.[90] However, this same year, the studio's long time head producerDarryl F. Zanuck quit, because: 1) Harry Warner's relationship with Zanuck became strained after Harry was strongly against allowing Zanuck filmBaby Face to step outside theHays Code boundaries;[91] and 2) the studio reduced Zanuck's salary as a result of the financial woes the Great Depression gave the studio's net profits,[92] and Harry still refused to raise his salary in the wake of the New Deal's rebound.[93] Zanuck produced his letter of resignation to Jack Warner,[94] and went on to establish his own company.[93] In the wake of Zanuck's resignation, Harry Warner agreed to again raise the salary for the studio's employees.[93]
In 1933, the studio was also able to bring newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst'sCosmopolitan films into the Warner Bros. fold.[95] Hearst had previously been signed withMGM,[96] but he ended his ties with the company after a dispute with the company's head producerIrving Thalberg over the treatment ofMarion Davies;[97] Davies was a longtime mistress of Hearst,[97] and was now struggling to draw box office success.[97] Through the studios partnership with Hearst, Harry's younger brother Jack was also able to sign Davies to a studio contract as well.[95] Hearst's company and Davies' films, however, could not increase the studio's net profits.[96] In 1934, Warner officially purchased theTeddington Studio as well.[98]
In 1934, the studio would suffer a net loss of over $2,500,000.00. $500,000 of this loss was also the result of physical damage to the Warner Bros. Burbank studio 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.[99] The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare'sA Midsummer Night's Dream would fail at the box office and the studio net loss increased.[100] During the year 1935, the studio's revived musicals would also suffer a major blow after director Busby Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk one night.[101] By the end of the 1935, however, relief would come for the Warners, as the studio would rebound with a year-end net profit of $674,158.00.[102]
On November 25, 1947, Albert Warner and other executives in the motion picture industry issued theWaldorf Statement, first promulgating theHollywood Blacklist. Around this time, Albert also bought a second mansion inMiami Beach, Florida, where he lived for most of the remaining years of his life.[103] By 1956, the studio was losing money and Albert wanted to retire and live full-time in his Miami Beach house.[104]
In May 1956, the brothers announced they were putting Warner Bros. on the market.[105] Jack, however, secretly organized asyndicate headed by Boston bankerSerge Semenenko that purchased 90% (800,000 shares) of the company's stock.[106] After the three brothers sold their stock, in an under-the-table deal with Semenenko, Jack officially joined Semenenko's syndicate and bought back all his stock, which consisted of 200,000 shares.[106] The deal officially completed in July.[107] Now the company's largest stockholder, Jack appointed himself as the new company president.[106] By the time Harry and Albert learned of their brother's subterfuge, it was too late.[107]
Albert read about Jack's dealings while spending time in New York City.[106] He never spoke to Jack again, but he did later rejoin the company's board of directors to stop Jack "from stealing the stockholders blind".[106]
Albert Warner died of astroke[108] in 1967 in Miami Beach. A funeral service was held in Los Angeles.[109] Warner was then interred inBrooklyn, next to his first wife Bessie Krieger.[103] After Albert's second wife Bessie Warner died in 1970 she was interred with him as well in Brooklyn.
In 1908, Warner married Bessie Krieger,[2] in New Castle, Pennsylvania.[110] Krieger died in 1923 frominfluenza.[111] On April 23, 1925, Warner married Bessie Siegal, the widow of his friend,[112] Jonas Siegal.[113] The couple remained married until Warner's death in 1967.[109] Through his marriage to Bessie Siegel, Warner had a stepson, Arthur Jack Steel, who married Ruth Mandel, and had sons John and Lewis Steel (named after Harry Warner's son Lewis Warner). Warner was noted as never adopting an upper class lifestyle, remaining unrefined throughout his life.[114]
Like his brotherHarry, Albert too would be a fan ofThoroughbred racing and beginning in the 1930s owned horses he raced under the name Warbern Stable and later under thenom de course, Warner Stable. In March 1945 Warner purchased Elberton Hill Farm inHarford County, Maryland from G. Ray Bryson and his wife,Ella K. Bryson. The property was used for hisEast Coast racing operations under the management of trainer A. G. "Bob" Robertson.[115]
Among Warner's best horses,Native Charger won the 1965Flamingo Stakes[116] and theFlorida Derby[117] that sent him on the road to theKentucky Derby, in which he finished fourth to winnerLucky Debonair.[118]
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