Sam Warner
Encyclopedia
Samuel Louis "Sam" Warner (August 10, 1887 – October 5, 1927) was an American
film producer
who was the co-founder and chief executive officer
of Warner Bros. Studios. He established the studio along with his brothers Harry
, Albert
, and Jack Warner
. Sam Warner is credited with procuring the technology that enabled Warner Bros. to produce the film industry's first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer
. He died in 1927, the day before the film's enormously successful premiere.
, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. He came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings in October 1889 on the steamship Hermann 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 many Jewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Schmuel became Samuel.
In Baltimore, Benjamin Warner struggled to make enough money to provide for his growing family. Following the advice of a friend, Benjamin relocated the family to Canada
, where he attempted to make a living by bartering tin wares to trappers in exchange for furs. Sons Jacob and David Warner were born in London, Ontario
. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and his family returned to Baltimore. Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there. In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio
, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town. 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. As a child, Samuel found himself trying to find work through a range of various odd jobs.
at Idora Park
, a local amusement park. He persuaded the family of the new medium's possibilities and negotiated the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope
from a projectionist who was "down on his luck". The purchase price was $1,000. Sam's interest in film came after seeing Thomas Edison
's The Great Train Robbery while working as an employee at Cedar Point Pleasure Resort
in Sandusky, Ohio
. During this time, Albert agreed to join Sam and together the two displayed showings of The Great Train Robbery at carnivals throughout the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania; Sam would run the film projector and Albert would sell tickets.
In 1905, Harry agreed to join his two brothers and sold his Youngstown bicycle shop. Through the money Harry made by selling the bicycle shop, the three brothers were now able to purchase a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania; The brothers named their new theater The Cascade Movie Palace. The Cascade Movie was so successful, that the brothers were able to purchase a second theater in New Castle as well. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. They maintained the theater until moving into film distribution in 1907. That year, the Warner brothers established the Pittsburgh
-based Duquesne Amusement Company, and the three brothers rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh. Harry then sent Sam to New York to purchase, and ship, films for their Pittsburgh exchange company, while he and Albert remained in Pittsburgh to run the business.
Their business, however, proved lucrative until the advent of Thomas Edison
's Motion Picture Patents Company
(also known as the Edison Trust), which charged distributors exorbitant fees. In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater for $40,000, and decided to open a second film exchange in Norfolk, Virginia; through this Norfolk company, younger brother Jacob, known as "Jack," following Sam's advice, officially joined his three brothers' business and was sent to Norfolk by older brother Harry to serve as Sam's assistant; In 1910, the Warners would sell 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".
's Independent Motion Picture Company, which challenged the monopolistic control of the Edison Trust; the brothers served as distributors for Laemmle's films in Pittsburgh.for Carl Laemmle's Independent Fillm Company. In 1912, Sam would help the brothers earn a $1,500 profit with his film Dante's Interno. In the wake of this success, Harry Warner, seeing Edison's monopoly threat grow, decided to break with Laemmle and had the brothers start their own film production company, Warner Features. After this occurred Harry Warner, who now had an office in New York with brother Albert, sent Sam and Jack to establish film exchanges in Los Angeles
and San Francisco; Sam would run the company's Los Angeles division while Jack ran the company's San Francisco division. The brothers were soon poised to exploit the expanding California movie market. Their first opportunity to produce a major film came in 1918, when they purchased the film rights for My Four Years in Germany, a bestselling novel that condemned German wartime atrocities. In the wake of the successful profits My Four Years in Germany gave the Warner's, the four brothers were now able to establish a studio in the area near Hollywood, California
. In the new Hollywood studio, Sam became co-head of production along with his younger brother, Jack. In this capacity, the two brothers secured new scripts and story lines, managed film production, and looked for ways to reduce production costs.
Between the years 1919 and 1920, unfortunately, the studio was not able to garnish any profits. During this time, banker Motley Flint-who was, unlike most bankers at the time, not antisemitic-. helped the Warners pay off their debts. The brothers then decided to relocate their production studio from Culver City to Sunset Boulevard. The studio would also rebound in 1921, after the success of the studio's film Why Girls Leave Home. As a result of the film's success, director Harry Rapf
was appointed the studio's new head producer. On April 4, 1923, following the studio's successful film The Gold Diggers, Warner Brothers, Inc. was officially established.
One of the new company's first big stars would be the dog Rin Tin Tin
. By directing Rin Tin Tin, newcomer director Daryl Zanuck's career would be greatly pushed forward too. In addition to Rin Tin Tin, the studio was also able to gain more success with German film director Lubitsch, whose first film with the studio-The Marriage Circle
- reached the New York Times Ten Best List for the 1924; the film was also the studio's most successful film of the year, and it helped establish Lubitsch as the studio's top director at this point in time. The Warners were also able to add another film to New York Times Top Ten Films of The Year 1924 List with Beau Brummell
as well. Despite success the studio had, the Warners were unable to compete with the Big Three Studios (Paramount, Universal, First National) at the time, and were soon threatened to be bought out by the end of 1924.
During this time, Harry would add more relief for the studio after he was able purchase Brooklyn's Vitagraph theater company. In 1925, Sam Warner had also acquired a radio station, KWBC, After acquiring his radio station, Sam decided to make an attempt to use synchronized sound in future Warner Bros. Pictures. After a visit to Western Electric's Bell Labritories headquarters, Sam urged his brother, Harry, to sign an agreement with Western Electric
to develop a series of "talking" shorts using the newly-upgraded Sound-on-film
technology, a sound-on-disc system for motion pictures. Harry, however, did not want to use synchronized sound in the studio's films.
By February 1926, the studio had suffered a reported net loss of $333,413.00. Harry, after a long period of refusing to accept Sam's demands, then agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts, as long as it just for usage of background music
, Harry then made a visit to Western Electric's Bell Laboratories in New York, and was impressed. on problem that occurred for the Warners though was the fact that the high-ups at Western Electric were anti-Semitic.
to use Bell Laboratories to test the sound-on-film process. Sam and younger brother Jack then decided to take a big step forward make Don Juan.
In May 1926, through the company's partnership with Western Electric, Sam formed a subsidiary known as Vitaphone
, Through Vitaphone, the studio released a series of musical shorts and the feature-length "Don Juan" (which had a synchronized music track); upon establishing Vitaphone, Sam was also made Vice President of Warner Bros. as well. Despite the money Don Juan was able to draw at the box office, it still could not match the expensive budget the brothers put into the film's production. These vehicles received further tepid responses, and Harry grew increasingly opposed to the venture.
Around this time, Paramount head Adolph Zukor offered Sam a deal as an executive producer for his studio if he brought Vitaphone with him; during the year, Harry had also become the company president. Sam, not wanting to take any more of brother Harry's refusal to move forward with using sound in future Warner films, agreed to accept Zukor's offer, but the deal died after Paramount lost money in the wake of Rudolph Valentino's death. By April 1927, the Big Five studios (First National, Paramount, MGM, Universal, and Producers Distributing) had put the Warners in financial ruin, and Western Electric renewed the Warner's Vitaphone contract with terms that it was no longer exclusive and that other film companies could test sound with Western Electric as well. Harry eventually agreed to accept Sam's demands, and Sam pushed ahead with a new Vitaphone feature, based on a Broadway play and starring Al Jolson. The Jazz Singer
broke box-office records, established Warner Bros. as a major player in Hollywood, and single-handedly launched the talkie revolution.
made its debut in New York City
, which he planned to attend. At age 40, he succumbed to complications from a sinus infection; According to Hollywood Be Thy Name, the 1993 memoir of Jack Warner, Jr., and Cass Warner Sperling, late character actor William Demarest
claimed that Sam Warner was murdered by his own brothers. This allegation, leveled in 1977, was never corroborated, and Demarest's reliability was questioned because of his long dependence on alcohol; the last time that Sam would meet with his entire family was at his parent's wedding anniversary in 1926. In September, Jack—who was working nonstop with Sam on production of The Jazz Singer
—noticed that Sam started having severe headaches and nosebleeds. By the end of the month, Sam was unable to walk straight. Sam was then hospitalized and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. Unfortunately, the sinus infection soon developed into an acute mastoid infection. The untreated infection then became systemic in Warner's body. Sam's infection soon developed into pneumonia, and on October 5, 1927, Sam died from a cerebral hemorrhage as doctors were trying to remove infected cells from his brain.
As the family grieved over Sam's sudden passing, the success of The Jazz Singer helped establish Warner Bros. as a major studio. While Warner Bros. invested only $500,000 in the film, the studio reaped $3 million in profits. Hollywood's five major studios, which controlled most of the nation's movie theaters, initially attempted to block the growth of "talking pictures". In the face of such organized opposition, Warner Bros. produced 12 "talkies" in 1928 alone. The following year, the newly formed Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recognized Warner Bros. for "revolutionizing the industry with sound".
while spending time in New York visiting the Bell Laboratories and began an intense love affair with her. On July 4, 1925, the two were married. While Sam's younger brother Jack did not object to Lina's Catholicism, the rest of the Warner family did. They refused to have any part in Lina's life, and did not acknowledge her as a member of the Warner clan. On October 6, 1926, the couple's only child, daughter Lita, was born. In 1930, the now-widowed Lina went broke, and shortly afterwards lost custody of Lita to Sam's older brother Harry.
Crowds of movie stars gathered at the Bresse Brothers funeral parlor to pay homage to Sam. A private memorial service was then held in the Warner Bros. studio on October 9, 1927. He is interred in the Warner family mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery
in East Los Angeles, California
. His tombstone shows his birth year to be 1885. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Sam Warner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film producer
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
who was the co-founder and chief executive officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
of Warner Bros. Studios. He established the studio along with his brothers Harry
Harry Warner
Harry Morris Warner 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 brothers Warner played a crucial role in the film business and played a key role in establishing Warner Bros...
, Albert
Albert Warner
Aaron "Albert" Warner was a Polish-born American film executive who was one of the founders of Warner Bros. Studios. He established the production studio with his brothers Harry, Sam, and Jack Warner...
, and Jack Warner
Jack Warner
Jack Leonard "J. L." Warner , born Jacob Warner in London, Ontario, was a Canadian American film executive who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California...
. Sam Warner is credited with procuring the technology that enabled Warner Bros. to produce the film industry's first feature-length talking picture, The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer (1927 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...
. He died in 1927, the day before the film's enormously successful premiere.
Early years
Schmuel "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser", later Samuel Louis Warner, was born in a part of the Russian Empire that is now Poland, and possibly in the village of Krasnosielc, He was the son of Benjamin "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser" a shoe maker born in KrasnosielcKrasnosielc
Krasnosielc is a village in Maków County , on the river Orzyc, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the administrative district called Gmina Krasnosielc. It lies approximately north of Maków Mazowiecki and north of Warsaw. Previous names include: Sielc, Siedlec and in...
, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. He came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings in October 1889 on the steamship Hermann 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 many Jewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Schmuel became Samuel.
In Baltimore, Benjamin Warner struggled to make enough money to provide for his growing family. Following the advice of a friend, Benjamin relocated the family to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he attempted to make a living by bartering tin wares to trappers in exchange for furs. Sons Jacob and David Warner were born in London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and his family returned to Baltimore. Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there. In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Mahoning County; it also extends into Trumbull County. The municipality is situated on the Mahoning River, approximately southeast of Cleveland and northwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania...
, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town. 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. As a child, Samuel found himself trying to find work through a range of various odd jobs.
Early business ventures
Samuel Warner, known as "Sam," was the first member of his family to move into the entertainment industry. In the early 1900s, he formed a business partnership with another Youngstown resident and "took over" the city's Old Grand Opera House, which he used as a venue for "cheap vaudeville and photoplays". The venture failed after one summer. Sam then secured a job as a projectionistProjectionist
A Projectionist is a person who operates a movie projector. In the strict sense of the term this means any movie projector and therefore could include someone who operates the projector in a home video show or school. In common usage the term is generally understood to describe a paid employee of...
at Idora Park
Idora Park, Youngstown
Idora Park was a northeastern Ohio amusement park popularly known as "Youngstown's Million Dollar Playground."Built by the Youngstown Park and Falls Street Railway Company, the park's expansion coincided with the growth of the South Side of Youngstown, Ohio, in the Fosterville neighborhood...
, a local amusement park. He persuaded the family of the new medium's possibilities and negotiated the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope
Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. Though not a movie projector—it was designed for films to be viewed individually through the window of a cabinet housing its components—the Kinetoscope introduced the basic approach that would become the standard for all cinematic...
from a projectionist who was "down on his luck". The purchase price was $1,000. Sam's interest in film came after seeing Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
's The Great Train Robbery while working as an employee at Cedar Point Pleasure Resort
Cedar Point
Cedar Point is a 364 acre amusement park located in Sandusky, Ohio, United States on a narrow peninsula jutting into Lake Erie. Cedar Point is the only amusement park with four roller coasters that are taller than...
in Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky, Ohio
Sandusky is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Erie County. It is located in northern Ohio and is situated on the shores of Lake Erie, almost exactly half-way between Toledo to the west and Cleveland to the east....
. During this time, Albert agreed to join Sam and together the two displayed showings of The Great Train Robbery at carnivals throughout the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania; Sam would run the film projector and Albert would sell tickets.
In 1905, Harry agreed to join his two brothers and sold his Youngstown bicycle shop. Through the money Harry made by selling the bicycle shop, the three brothers were now able to purchase a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania; The brothers named their new theater The Cascade Movie Palace. The Cascade Movie was so successful, that the brothers were able to purchase a second theater in New Castle as well. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. They maintained the theater until moving into film distribution in 1907. That year, the Warner brothers established the Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
-based Duquesne Amusement Company, and the three brothers rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh. Harry then sent Sam to New York to purchase, and ship, films for their Pittsburgh exchange company, while he and Albert remained in Pittsburgh to run the business.
Their business, however, proved lucrative until the advent of Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...
's Motion Picture Patents Company
Motion Picture Patents Company
The Motion Picture Patents Company , founded in December 1908, was a trust of all the major American film companies , the leading film distributor and the biggest supplier of raw film stock, Eastman Kodak...
(also known as the Edison Trust), which charged distributors exorbitant fees. In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater for $40,000, and decided to open a second film exchange in Norfolk, Virginia; through this Norfolk company, younger brother Jacob, known as "Jack," following Sam's advice, officially joined his three brothers' business and was sent to Norfolk by older brother Harry to serve as Sam's assistant; In 1910, the Warners would sell 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".
Formation of Warner Bros.
In 1910, the Warner brothers pooled their resources and moved into film production. After they sold their business, the brothers lent their support to filmmaker Carl LaemmleCarl Laemmle
Carl Laemmle , born in Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany, was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios - Universal...
's Independent Motion Picture Company, which challenged the monopolistic control of the Edison Trust; the brothers served as distributors for Laemmle's films in Pittsburgh.for Carl Laemmle's Independent Fillm Company. In 1912, Sam would help the brothers earn a $1,500 profit with his film Dante's Interno. In the wake of this success, Harry Warner, seeing Edison's monopoly threat grow, decided to break with Laemmle and had the brothers start their own film production company, Warner Features. After this occurred Harry Warner, who now had an office in New York with brother Albert, sent Sam and Jack to establish film exchanges in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and San Francisco; Sam would run the company's Los Angeles division while Jack ran the company's San Francisco division. The brothers were soon poised to exploit the expanding California movie market. Their first opportunity to produce a major film came in 1918, when they purchased the film rights for My Four Years in Germany, a bestselling novel that condemned German wartime atrocities. In the wake of the successful profits My Four Years in Germany gave the Warner's, the four brothers were now able to establish a studio in the area near Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. In the new Hollywood studio, Sam became co-head of production along with his younger brother, Jack. In this capacity, the two brothers secured new scripts and story lines, managed film production, and looked for ways to reduce production costs.
Between the years 1919 and 1920, unfortunately, the studio was not able to garnish any profits. During this time, banker Motley Flint-who was, unlike most bankers at the time, not antisemitic-. helped the Warners pay off their debts. The brothers then decided to relocate their production studio from Culver City to Sunset Boulevard. The studio would also rebound in 1921, after the success of the studio's film Why Girls Leave Home. As a result of the film's success, director Harry Rapf
Harry Rapf
Harry Rapf was a Jewish American producer. He began his career in 1917, and during a 20 year career became a well-known producer of films for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He created the comedic duo Dane & Arthur featuring Karl Dane and George K...
was appointed the studio's new head producer. On April 4, 1923, following the studio's successful film The Gold Diggers, Warner Brothers, Inc. was officially established.
One of the new company's first big stars would be the dog Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin
Rin Tin Tin was the name given to a dog adopted from a WWI battlefield that went on to star in twenty-three Hollywood films. The name was subsequently given to several related German Shepherd dogs featured in fictional stories on film, radio and television.-Origins:The first of the line Rin Tin...
. By directing Rin Tin Tin, newcomer director Daryl Zanuck's career would be greatly pushed forward too. In addition to Rin Tin Tin, the studio was also able to gain more success with German film director Lubitsch, whose first film with the studio-The Marriage Circle
The Marriage Circle
The Marriage Circle is a 1924 silent film produced by Ernst Lubitsch and Warner Brothers with direction by Lubitsch and distribution by the Warners. Based on the play Only a Dream by Lothar Schmidt, the screenplay was written by Paul Bern...
- reached the New York Times Ten Best List for the 1924; the film was also the studio's most successful film of the year, and it helped establish Lubitsch as the studio's top director at this point in time. The Warners were also able to add another film to New York Times Top Ten Films of The Year 1924 List with Beau Brummell
Beau Brummell
Beau Brummell, born as George Bryan Brummell , was the arbiter of men's fashion in Regency England and a friend of the Prince Regent, the future King George IV...
as well. Despite success the studio had, the Warners were unable to compete with the Big Three Studios (Paramount, Universal, First National) at the time, and were soon threatened to be bought out by the end of 1924.
During this time, Harry would add more relief for the studio after he was able purchase Brooklyn's Vitagraph theater company. In 1925, Sam Warner had also acquired a radio station, KWBC, After acquiring his radio station, Sam decided to make an attempt to use synchronized sound in future Warner Bros. Pictures. After a visit to Western Electric's Bell Labritories headquarters, Sam urged his brother, Harry, to sign an agreement with Western Electric
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
to develop a series of "talking" shorts using the newly-upgraded Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film
Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture. Sound-on-film processes can either record an analog sound track or digital sound track,...
technology, a sound-on-disc system for motion pictures. Harry, however, did not want to use synchronized sound in the studio's films.
By February 1926, the studio had suffered a reported net loss of $333,413.00. Harry, after a long period of refusing to accept Sam's demands, then agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts, as long as it just for usage of background music
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
, Harry then made a visit to Western Electric's Bell Laboratories in New York, and was impressed. on problem that occurred for the Warners though was the fact that the high-ups at Western Electric were anti-Semitic.
Western Electric
Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...
to use Bell Laboratories to test the sound-on-film process. Sam and younger brother Jack then decided to take a big step forward make Don Juan.
In May 1926, through the company's partnership with Western Electric, Sam formed a subsidiary known as Vitaphone
Vitaphone
Vitaphone was a sound film process used on feature films and nearly 1,000 short subjects produced by Warner Bros. and its sister studio First National from 1926 to 1930. Vitaphone was the last, but most successful, of the sound-on-disc processes...
, Through Vitaphone, the studio released a series of musical shorts and the feature-length "Don Juan" (which had a synchronized music track); upon establishing Vitaphone, Sam was also made Vice President of Warner Bros. as well. Despite the money Don Juan was able to draw at the box office, it still could not match the expensive budget the brothers put into the film's production. These vehicles received further tepid responses, and Harry grew increasingly opposed to the venture.
Around this time, Paramount head Adolph Zukor offered Sam a deal as an executive producer for his studio if he brought Vitaphone with him; during the year, Harry had also become the company president. Sam, not wanting to take any more of brother Harry's refusal to move forward with using sound in future Warner films, agreed to accept Zukor's offer, but the deal died after Paramount lost money in the wake of Rudolph Valentino's death. By April 1927, the Big Five studios (First National, Paramount, MGM, Universal, and Producers Distributing) had put the Warners in financial ruin, and Western Electric renewed the Warner's Vitaphone contract with terms that it was no longer exclusive and that other film companies could test sound with Western Electric as well. Harry eventually agreed to accept Sam's demands, and Sam pushed ahead with a new Vitaphone feature, based on a Broadway play and starring Al Jolson. The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer (1927 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...
broke box-office records, established Warner Bros. as a major player in Hollywood, and single-handedly launched the talkie revolution.
Death
Sam died the day before The Jazz SingerThe Jazz Singer (1927 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...
made its debut in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, which he planned to attend. At age 40, he succumbed to complications from a sinus infection; According to Hollywood Be Thy Name, the 1993 memoir of Jack Warner, Jr., and Cass Warner Sperling, late character actor William Demarest
William Demarest
Carl William Demarest was an American character actor. He frequently played crusty but good-hearted roles.-Early life and career:...
claimed that Sam Warner was murdered by his own brothers. This allegation, leveled in 1977, was never corroborated, and Demarest's reliability was questioned because of his long dependence on alcohol; the last time that Sam would meet with his entire family was at his parent's wedding anniversary in 1926. In September, Jack—who was working nonstop with Sam on production of The Jazz Singer
The Jazz Singer (1927 film)
The Jazz Singer is a 1927 American musical film. The first feature-length motion picture with synchronized dialogue sequences, its release heralded the commercial ascendance of the "talkies" and the decline of the silent film era. Produced by Warner Bros. with its Vitaphone sound-on-disc system,...
—noticed that Sam started having severe headaches and nosebleeds. By the end of the month, Sam was unable to walk straight. Sam was then hospitalized and was diagnosed with a sinus infection. Unfortunately, the sinus infection soon developed into an acute mastoid infection. The untreated infection then became systemic in Warner's body. Sam's infection soon developed into pneumonia, and on October 5, 1927, Sam died from a cerebral hemorrhage as doctors were trying to remove infected cells from his brain.
As the family grieved over Sam's sudden passing, the success of The Jazz Singer helped establish Warner Bros. as a major studio. While Warner Bros. invested only $500,000 in the film, the studio reaped $3 million in profits. Hollywood's five major studios, which controlled most of the nation's movie theaters, initially attempted to block the growth of "talking pictures". In the face of such organized opposition, Warner Bros. produced 12 "talkies" in 1928 alone. The following year, the newly formed Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences recognized Warner Bros. for "revolutionizing the industry with sound".
Personal life
In 1925, after years of bachelorhood, Sam met eighteen-year-old Ziegfeld Follies actress Lina BasquetteLina Basquette
Lina Basquette was an American actress noted as much for her more than 75 years in entertainment beginning in the silent film era, as her tumultuous personal life and nine marriages.-Early years:...
while spending time in New York visiting the Bell Laboratories and began an intense love affair with her. On July 4, 1925, the two were married. While Sam's younger brother Jack did not object to Lina's Catholicism, the rest of the Warner family did. They refused to have any part in Lina's life, and did not acknowledge her as a member of the Warner clan. On October 6, 1926, the couple's only child, daughter Lita, was born. In 1930, the now-widowed Lina went broke, and shortly afterwards lost custody of Lita to Sam's older brother Harry.
Legacy
For all Sam Warner's reputation as pioneer, he envisioned sound in movies not for dialogue but for music and effects only, in order to cut the costs of having live musicians in Warner theatres. And within a few years his Vitaphone was replaced by the technically superior Movietone (sound-on-film) system, which became the industry standard. Nevertheless, his determination forever changed the way motion pictures are made.Crowds of movie stars gathered at the Bresse Brothers funeral parlor to pay homage to Sam. A private memorial service was then held in the Warner Bros. studio on October 9, 1927. He is interred in the Warner family mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery
Home of Peace Cemetery
The Home of Peace Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located at 4334 Whittier Boulevard west of Interstate 710 in East Los Angeles, California.The cemetery is located across from Calvary Catholic Cemetery and next to Beth Israel Cemetery and Mount Zion Cemetery .There are a number of famous rabbis...
in East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles, California
East Los Angeles is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Los Angeles County, California, United States...
. His tombstone shows his birth year to be 1885. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Sam Warner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard
Hollywood Boulevard
-Revitalization:In recent years successful efforts have been made at cleaning up Hollywood Blvd., as the street had gained a reputation for crime and seediness. Central to these efforts was the construction of the Hollywood and Highland shopping center and adjacent Kodak Theatre in 2001...
.