By Ethan D. Ampel
The four Warner brothers founded Warner Brothers Studios in Hollywood, California in 1923 and made it one of the three most famous movie studios in the world.
The real last name of all four brothers was Eichelbaum. Of the four brothers, the most famous was Jack L. Warner who was born in 1892 in Canada and died in Los Angeles, California in 1978. Jack was the youngest of twelve children. He co-founded Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. with brothers Harry, Sam and Albert. Jack was the studio’s executive in charge of production until 1967 when he sold the studio to Seven Arts. He lost interest in the studio after the death of Albert made him the last surviving Warner in 1927 with Al Jolson. In the 1930s the studio gave employment to a parade of stars, including Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Paul Muni, James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and a man whose star would eventually rise in the 1940s, Humphrey Bogart. Decades later, the firm’s successor, Warner Communications Inc., merged with Time Inc. to become Time Warner Inc., the world’s largest media and entertainment company. Jack Warner was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), which is the organization that awards Oscars each year.
Harry Warner, born in 1881 as Harold Eichelbaum, died in Los Angeles in 1958. Harry was the oldest of twelve children. Sources conflict on whether he was born in Russia or Poland. He was the co-founder of Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. along with his other three brothers, Jack, Sam and Albert. Harry, the business brains of the family, became the company’s president.
Albert Warner was born in 1882 in Poland. He died in 1967 in Miami Beach, Florida where he had retired. Albert was the Treasurer of Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc.
Sam Warner was born in 1887 in Baltimore Maryland and died in 1927 in Los Angeles, California. He was the Chief Executive of Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. and was known as the “Father of Talking Pictures”.
In 1925 the Warner Brothers acquired Vita graph and its network of exchanges and First National Pictures and began a systematic acquisition of motion picture theatres. In 1927, they launched The sound era with The Jazz Singer. One of Jack Warner’s famous quotes was to Einstein, “I have a theory of relatives too. Don’t hire ‘em.” Some of the Warner Brother’s most famous films are Camelot (1967); My Fair Lady (1964); Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948); Dark Passage (1947); Of Human Bondage (1946); The Big Sleep (1946); Objective Burma! (1945); To Have and Have Not (1944); Arsenic and Old Lace (1944); Casablanca (1942); Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942); The Roaring Twenties (1939); Brother Rat (1938); Gold Diggers of 1937; The Man With Two Faces (1934); High Sierra (1941); and Knute Rockne, All American (1940).
