Harry Warner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Harry Warner
Warner c. 1919
Born	Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal (1881-12-12)December 12, 1881 Krasnosielc, Congress Poland, Russian Empire
Died	July 25, 1958(1958-07-25) (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, United States
Resting place	Home of Peace Cemetery, East Los Angeles
Occupation	Film executive Co-founder of Warner Bros.
Years active	1903–1958
Spouse(s)	Rea Levinson
Children	3
Relatives	brothers Albert, Sam, and Jack L. Warner

Harry Morris Warner (born Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal; December 12, 1881 – July 25, 1958) was an American movie studio boss. He was one of the people who started Warner Bros.. Harry and his three younger brothers, Albert, Sam, and Jack, were very important in the movie business. Harry was the president of Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. until 1956.

Harry Warner's Early Life

Harry Warner was born Hirsz Mojżesz Wonsal in a village called Krasnosielc, in a part of Poland that was then controlled by Russia. His parents were Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. His first name was Mojżesz (Moses), but in the United States, he was called Hirsz (which became Harry).

In October 1889, Harry came to Baltimore, Maryland, with his mother and siblings on a ship called the Hermann from Germany. His father had already moved to Baltimore in 1888 to work as a shoemaker. That's when the family changed their last name to Warner. Like many immigrant families, some of the children changed their names to sound more English. Hirsz became Harry, and his middle name, Morris, was probably a version of Mojżesz.

In Baltimore, Benjamin Warner's shoemaking didn't earn enough money for his growing family. They had another daughter, Fannie. So, Benjamin moved the family to Canada, hoping to trade tin goods for furs. Two more sons, Jacob and David, were born in London, Ontario. After two tough years in Canada, the Warners returned to Baltimore. Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were born there.

In 1896, the family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, because Harry had opened a shoe repair shop there. Benjamin worked with Harry in the shop until he got a loan to open a grocery store. In 1899, Harry opened a bicycle shop in Youngstown with his brother, Abraham. They also opened a bowling alley, but it didn't last long. Harry then became a salesman, selling meat in Ohio and Pennsylvania. By the time he was 19, Harry was living back with his parents.

Starting a Movie Business

In 1903, Harry's brothers, Abe and Sam, started showing a movie called The Great Train Robbery at carnivals. In 1905, Harry sold his bicycle shop and joined his brothers in their new movie business. With the money from the bicycle shop, the three brothers bought a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania. They turned it into their first movie theater, called the Cascade. It was so popular that they bought a second theater, the Bijou, which used chairs borrowed from a local funeral home.

In 1907, the Warners bought 15 more theaters in Pennsylvania. Harry, Sam, and Albert then started a new company called The Duquesne Amusement Supply Company. They rented an office in Pittsburgh. Harry sent Sam to New York to buy films for their company, while he and Albert stayed in Pittsburgh to manage the business.

In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater and started another film company in Norfolk, Virginia. Harry let his younger brother Jack join the company as Sam's helper. A big problem came up for the Warners' company because of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company, which charged high fees. In 1910, the Warners sold their family business for a total of $52,000.

After selling their business, Harry and his brothers teamed up with filmmaker Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company. They started distributing films from their Pittsburgh office. In 1912, the brothers made a $1,500 profit with a film called Dante's Inferno. After this success, Harry and his brothers left Laemmle and started their own film production company, called Warner Features.

Harry and Albert opened an office in New York, while Sam and Jack managed the company's film offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 1917, Harry made a deal to turn Ambassador James W. Gerard's book My Four Years In Germany into a film, which brought more money to the studio.

In 1918, after the success of My Four Years In Germany, the brothers built a studio near Hollywood, California. Sam and Jack became the co-heads of movie production there. They realized they had to make their own movies to earn a profit. Between 1919 and 1920, the studio didn't make money. During this time, a banker named Motley Flint helped the brothers pay off their debts. The four brothers then moved their studio from Culver City, California to the Sunset Boulevard area of Hollywood.

Harry decided to focus on making only dramas for the studio. The studio did much better in 1921 with the film Why Girls Leave Home. The film's director, Harry Rapf, became the studio's new main producer. On April 4, 1923, after the success of The Gold Diggers, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. was officially started. Harry became the company president, Albert was the treasurer, and Jack and Sam were the co-heads of production. Harry and his family moved to Hollywood.

Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. Grows

In 1923, the studio found a trained German Shepherd named Rin Tin Tin. This dog became a star in the movie Where the North Begins. Rin Tin Tin was a very important asset for the studio until sound movies came along. A writer named Darryl F. Zanuck wrote many scripts for Rin Tin Tin's movies. Between 1928 and 1933, Zanuck was the studio's executive producer, meaning he managed the daily production of films.

After starting Warner Bros., the studio had spent too much money. Harry decided to pay off the debt by making the studio bigger. He bought 40 theaters in Pennsylvania. In 1924, Warner Bros. made two more successful films, The Marriage Circle and Beau Brummell. After Harry Rapf left, Ernst Lubitsch became the new head producer, bringing more success. The film Beau Brummel also made John Barrymore a big star. Even with this success, the brothers still couldn't compete with the biggest studios like Paramount and Universal.

In 1925, Harry and other independent filmmakers met to challenge the big studios' control over the movie industry. They agreed to spend $500,000 on newspaper ads to help Warner Bros. Harry also got a loan and bought a theater company called Vitagraph. This meant Warner Pictures now owned theaters in the New York area. Around this time, Harry bought a home in Los Angeles.

Later in 1925, Harry's younger brother Sam bought a radio station, KWBC. Sam then wanted to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. movies. Harry wasn't sure about this idea at first. He wanted to focus on background music before having people talk on screen. He said, "We could ultimately develop sound to the point where people ask for talking pictures." The company also started buying theaters and eventually owned about 250. By February 1926, their radio business had failed, and the studio was losing money.

After a while, Harry agreed to use synchronized sound in short films, but only for background music. He visited Bell Laboratories in New York and was very impressed. Sam was able to convince the people at Western Electric to work with the studio. After this, Harry signed a deal with Western Electric to use their technology for sound-on-film.

The "Godfather of Talkies"

The success of Warner Bros.' early sound films like The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool made the studio one of the major players. With more money, the Warners moved to a bigger studio in Burbank, California. Harry was also able to buy the Stanley Company of America, which owned many important theaters on the East Coast. This purchase also gave them a share in a rival company, First National Pictures. Harry soon bought more shares in First National and became the main owner. After the success of the 1929 film Noah's Ark, Harry Warner also made Michael Curtiz a major director at the Burbank studio.

Warner bought several music publishers and started a music company called Warner Bros. Music. He also bought radio companies and even produced a Broadway musical. By the time the first Academy Awards happened, Harry Warner was considered the second most powerful person in the movie industry. Because of the success of Gold Diggers of Broadway, journalists called Warner "the godfather of the talking screen." The studio was now making over $14 million in profit. Harry also bought a ranch in Mount Vernon, New York, and worked with Albert there.

Facing the Great Depression

Following Albert's advice, Jack and Harry Warner hired three big stars from Paramount: William Powell, Kay Francis, and Ruth Chatterton, paying them double their old salaries. This helped the studio, and investors still trusted the Warners. The first year of the Great Depression, 1930, didn't hurt the studio much, and Harry even bought more theaters in Atlantic City.

However, the studio started to feel the effects of the Depression in 1931. As movie ticket prices became too expensive for many, the studio lost money. By the end of 1931, the studio had lost about $8 million. During this time, Warner rented the Teddington Studio in London, England. To help with money problems, Warner Bros. focused on making films for the London market, and Irving Asher became the head producer there. Unfortunately, the Teddington studio didn't bring in enough profit, and the Burbank studio lost another $14 million in 1932. In 1934, Warner officially bought the Teddington Studio.

Relief came for the studio after Franklin Roosevelt became US president in 1933 and his New Deal plan helped the US economy. Movie tickets became affordable again. In 1933, the studio made a very profitable musical, 42nd Street, which brought back the studio's musical films. However, in 1933, the studio's longtime head producer Darryl F. Zanuck left. This was because Harry didn't want his film Baby Face to break the rules of the Hays Code. Also, the studio had cut Zanuck's salary, and Harry refused to raise it back up. After Zanuck left, Hal B. Wallis took his place as executive producer. Harry, who was known for being careful with money, finally agreed to raise salaries again.

In 1933, the studio also partnered with newspaper boss William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan films. Hearst had left MGM after a disagreement about how his partner, Marion Davies, was treated. Through this partnership, Harry's younger brother Jack signed Davies to a studio contract. However, Hearst's company and Davies' films didn't increase the studio's profits.

In 1934, the studio lost over $2.5 million. $500,000 of this was due to a big fire at the Warner Bros. Burbank studio that destroyed many early films. The next year, Hearst's film A Midsummer Night's Dream didn't do well at the box office, and the studio's losses grew. During this time, Harry Warner faced a legal issue about trying to control too many theaters in the St. Louis area. In 1935, Warner and other studio executives were put on trial. After a mistrial, Warner sold the company's movie theaters for a short time, and the case was closed.

During a union problem at the studio, Warner received a threatening phone call about his daughters. Harry then agreed to the union's demands, and the threat ended. However, 1935 also brought some good news as the studio made a profit of $674,158.00 by the end of the year. Around this time, Harry, seeing that the studio was doing better, moved to California and bought a large ranch in Calabasas, California. He later moved to another ranch in the San Fernando Valley.

In 1936, the studio's film The Story of Louis Pasteur was a success. Paul Muni won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in the film. The studio's film The Life of Emile Zola (1937) won the studio its first Oscar for Best Picture.

Warner Bros. During World War II

Harry Warner played a big part in Hollywood's efforts to support the war during World War II. By the end of 1942, he often spoke out against the Axis powers (Germany, Italy, Japan) for the movie industry. Even though he was a Republican, Warner was a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported him. During Roosevelt's 1932 campaign, the Warners helped make his name known and asked friends to donate to his campaign. Jack Warner even held a big event for Roosevelt. Warner and the studio also gave $10,000 to the Democratic National Committee. As Nazi Germany grew powerful, Warner strongly believed the US should get involved in Europe.

Before the war began in Europe, Warner made short films that celebrated America's fight in World War I. He later received an award for these films. By late 1938, Warner had helped stop the distribution of Warner Bros. films in Nazi Germany and Italy. Before the war officially started, Warner oversaw the making of two anti-German films: The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939). He spent a lot of money to help his relatives and employees leave Germany when the war began in 1939.

Before the U.S. officially joined World War II, Warner oversaw the production of three more anti-German films: The Sea Hawk (1940), Sergeant York (1941), and You're in the Army Now (1941). After America entered the war, Warner decided to focus only on making war films.

Among the war films Warner made were Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, and the film Mission to Moscow. At the premieres of Yankee Doodle Dandy, audiences bought $15.6 million worth of war bonds for England and the United States. By mid-1943, however, people were getting tired of war films. Despite this, Warner continued to make them, even losing money.

To honor the studio's help during the war, the U.S. Government named a ship after the brothers' father, Benjamin Warner. Harry had the honor of christening the ship on its first trip. By the end of the war, $20 million worth of war bonds had been bought through the studio. The Red Cross collected 5,200 pints of blood from studio employees. 763 studio employees, including Warner's son-in-law Milton Sperling and nephew Jack Warner Jr., served in the armed forces.

After a disagreement over who owned the Oscar for Best Picture for Casablanca, head producer Hal B. Wallis left the studio. After Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart became the studio's top star. In 1943, Olivia de Havilland sued Jack Warner for breaking her contract. She argued that laws only allowed employee contracts to last a maximum of seven years. De Havilland won her case, and many of the studio's long-time actors were now free from their contracts. To keep these actors, Harry decided to stop the studio's policy of suspending actors.

The Post-War Years

In 1947, Harry Warner, tired of arguing with his brother Jack, decided to spend more time at his San Fernando Valley ranch and focus on horse racing. In 1938, Harry Warner and his brother Jack helped start the Hollywood Park Racetrack. Harry also started a horse racing stable called W-L Ranch Co. In 1947, their stable bought a valuable racehorse named "Stepfather." Harry and Jack had a difficult relationship, especially because Jack spent the studio's money carelessly. In the 1930s, Harry, like most of his family, also didn't accept Jack's second wife, Ann Paige.

For many years, various people, like Harry's younger brother Sam, helped keep the peace between Harry and Jack. The last person to do this, their father Benjamin Warner, died in 1935. After Benjamin's death, Jack and Harry barely spoke and were only business partners. Jack's marriage to Ann also made their relationship worse, and Harry and Jack argued almost every day.

By the early 1950s, the brothers' long-standing feud got even worse. Jack started spending a lot of time in France, sometimes ignoring the studio to go on vacation, gamble, and socialize with important people. He also spent a lot of studio money on 3-D films. Once, studio employees claimed they saw a very angry Harry Warner chase his brother Jack through the studio with a lead pipe.

The studio did well after the war. By 1946, the company was paying $600,000 a week to employees, and the studio's profit reached $19,424,650.00 by the end of the year. During this time, Warner hired his son-in-law, Milton Sperling, to lead an independent film production company for the studio. In 1947, Harry tried to move Warner Bros. headquarters from New York to Burbank, but he wasn't successful. By the end of 1947, the studio had a record profit of $22 million, though the next year, profits dropped by 50%.

During this time, the studio was involved in a legal case called United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. The government claimed that five big studios, including Warner Bros., were unfairly controlling the movie business by owning both film production and theaters. The Supreme Court ruled against the studios in 1948. As a result, Warner and four other major studios had to separate their movie production from their theater ownership. In early 1953, the brothers sold their theater chain. In 1948, Bette Davis, who was tired of Jack Warner, left the studio after finishing the film Beyond the Forest, causing problems for Harry. By 1949, the studio's profit had fallen to $10 million, and they soon faced more losses because of the rise of television.

In 1949, Harry Warner saw the growing threat of television and decided to focus on making TV shows. However, the Federal Communications Commission wouldn't allow Warner to do this. After trying and failing to convince other movie studio bosses to switch to television, he gave up his TV plans. As television became more popular in the early 1950s, Harry's younger brother, Jack, decided to try a new way to make money for the studio.

After United Artists' successful 3-D film Bwana Devil, Jack decided to make 3-D films, starting with House of Wax (1953). While the film was successful, 3-D movies soon lost their appeal. After 3-D films declined, Warner decided to use CinemaScope for future Warner Bros. films. One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and Mighty, brought some profit.

In 1954, Harry and his brother Jack were finally able to get into television. They provided ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents, but it wasn't very successful. In 1955, the studio debuted a very successful western TV drama, Cheyenne. The studio then followed with other Western dramas like Maverick, Bronco, and Colt .45. These TV Westerns helped make up for the money the studio was losing at the box office. Within a few years, Warner, who was used to telling actors what to do, caused problems with new TV stars like James Garner, who sued Warner Bros. over a contract dispute. Jack Warner was annoyed by TV actors who seemed more independent than film actors. Through this success, Warner became known as the "Strategic Generalissimo" by his employees.

By 1956, the studio's profits were very low. Harry and Jack's difficult relationship got worse when Harry learned that Jack had sold Warner Bros.' films made before 1949 to Associated Artists Productions for $21 million. "This is our heritage, what we worked all our lives to create, and now it is gone," Harry exclaimed. Shortly after this, Jack went on a long vacation. The brothers' relationship was getting worse.

Retirement and Later Life

In May 1956, the brothers announced they were selling Warner Bros. However, Jack had secretly arranged for a group, led by banker Serge Semenenko, to buy 90% of the company's stock. Harry had first refused Semenenko's offer in February 1956, but later accepted it when Semenenko offered more money and agreed to make Simon Fabian, a friend of the Warners, the new Warner Bros. President. After the three brothers sold their stock, Jack secretly bought back all his shares and became the company's largest stockholder, naming himself president.

Harry found out about Jack's secret deal by reading an article in Variety magazine on May 31, 1956, and collapsed. The next day, he went to the hospital, where doctors told him he had a minor heart attack. While in the hospital, Harry also had a stroke that affected his ability to walk, making him use a cane for the rest of his life. Six days after his stroke, he left the hospital and decided to sell 42 of his racehorses. This trickery was too much for Harry, and he and his family never spoke to Jack again. When Jack made a surprise visit to Harry's ranch for Harry's 1957 wedding anniversary, no one in the Warner family spoke to Jack. Harry then focused only on raising horses.

Shortly after this, when Jack was away, Harry made one last visit to the studio to take about $6 million from his old studio account. He gave $3 million to his wife Rea, and $1.5 million to each of his two daughters, Doris and Betty. He sold a large part of his remaining studio stock to Semenenko, making sure he would never be near the Burbank studio again.

Harry Warner's Family Life

On August 23, 1907, Harry Warner married his girlfriend, Rea Levinson. Family members said that Harry spent a lot of his life making Rea happy. They had three children: Lewis Ethan (born 1908), Doris (born 1913), and Betty Leah (born 1920). Harry and his family followed Jewish customs and traditions.

On April 5, 1931, Harry's son Lewis, whom he had made head of Warner Bros. Music, passed away. After Lewis's death, Harry, who now had no clear heir to his movie empire, became very sad. The next year, the Warners donated a theater in Lewis's honor to Worcester Academy, Lewis's old school.

Harry also felt that his brother Sam's widow, actress Lina Basquette, was not suitable to raise a child with the Warner name. While Jack didn't mind that Lina was Catholic, Harry and the rest of the Warner family did. They didn't want to be involved in Lina's life and didn't accept her as part of the Warner family.

In 1930, Lina Basquette ran out of money, and Harry decided to seek legal guardianship of Sam and Lina's daughter, Lita. On March 19, 1930, Harry and his wife Rea became Lita's legal guardians through a $300,000 settlement in Lita's trust fund. Lina Basquette was never able to financially care for or regain custody of Lita. In 1947, Basquette asked for a larger share of Sam's estate, which was worth $15 million in stocks. The lawsuit ended when Basquette settled for a $100,000 trust fund from Harry's money.

Warner's daughter, Doris, married director Mervyn LeRoy on January 3, 1934. Because Harry had no male heir after Lewis died, he made LeRoy his new heir to the Warner Bros. studio. Together, Doris and Mervyn gave Harry two grandchildren, Warner Lewis LeRoy (1935-2001) and Linda LeRoy Janklow (born 1939). Once, in the late 1930s, Doris read Gone With the Wind and wanted to make a film version for the studio. She offered the author $50,000 for the movie rights. However, Uncle Jack refused because the film's budget would have been too expensive for the studio. Doris and Mervyn later divorced on August 12, 1945, and Harry was again without an heir. Two months after her divorce, Doris married director Charles Vidor. They had three sons, Michael, Brian, and Quentin. They stayed married until Vidor's death in 1959.

In 1936, Betty Warner started a relationship with Milton Sperling, who worked for Darryl F. Zanuck. They married on July 13, 1939. Through this marriage, they gave Harry four more grandchildren: Susan (born 1941), Karen (born 1945), Cass (born 1948), and Matthew. They were married for 24 years. In 1964, Betty married Stanley Sheinbaum. Harry's granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, and her husband, actor Wings Hauser, are the parents of actor Cole Hauser.

Harry Warner's Death

Harry Warner passed away on July 25, 1958, from a brain blockage. Some people close to Harry, however, believed he died of a broken heart. Harry's wife Rea even said after his funeral, "he didn't die, Jack killed him." He left an estate worth $6 million, with 50% going to his wife and 25% to each of his daughters, Doris and Betty. For his important work in the movie industry, Harry Warner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.

Harry Warner's Legacy

In 2004, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania named a film institute after Harry Warner. The university also holds an annual Harry Warner film festival.

Images for kids

• 

  Warner c. 1919