Sam Warner Totally Explained

Everything about Sam Warner totally explained

Samuel Warner (August 10, 1887 – October 5, 1927, aged 40) was a 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.

Early years

Samuel Warner was born in Baltimore, Maryland, into a Yiddish-speaking family of Polish Jewish immigrants. Along with Albert Warner, Sam was one of the two founders of Warner Bros. Studios who were born in the United States. He was the fourth surviving son of Benjamin Warner, a cobbler from Krasnosielc, Poland, and his wife, the former Pearl Leah Eichelbaum. Following their marriage in 1876, the couple had three children in Poland, one of whom died at a young age. In search of a better future for his family and himself, in 1883 Benjamin made his way to Hamburg, Germany, and then took a ship to America. Pearl Warner and the two surviving children, including Hirsch (later Harry), joined him in Baltimore, Maryland less than a year later. In Baltimore, five more children were born to the family, including Sam and his brother, Albert. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin Warner and his family returned to Baltimore. 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 Warner 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. In Youngstown, two more children were added to the crowded household.

Early business ventures

Sam Warner 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. 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. The Warner brothers screened a well-used copy of The Great Train Robbery throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania before renting a vacant store in New Castle, Pennsylvania. 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, which 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 Warners sold the family business 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. Then, in 1912, the brothers lent their support to filmmaker Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company, which challenged the monopolistic control of the Edison Trust. That same year, Harry Warner sent Sam and Jack to establish film exchange in Los Angeles and San Francisco. The brothers were soon poised to exploit the expanding California movie market. When Warner Bros. was formed that same year, 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.
In 1925, Sam Warner urged his brother, Harry, to sign an agreement with Western Electric to develop a series of "talking" shorts using the newly developed Vitaphone technology, a sound-on-disc system for motion pictures. He formed a subsidiary known as Vitaphone, which released a series of musical shorts and the feature-length "Don Juan" (which had a synchronized music track). Upon buying Vitaphone, Sam was also made Vice President of Warner Bros. as well. These vehicles received a tepid response, and Harry grew increasingly opposed to the venture. But 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. Sam died the day before The Jazz Singer made its debut in New York City. 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 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. Hollywood's five major studios, which controlled most of the nation's movie theaters, initially attempted to block the growth of "talking pictures".

Legacy

For all Sam Warner's reputation as pioneer, it should be noted that 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.
He is interred in the Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California. His tombstone (External Link

) 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.

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