Sam Warner

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Samuel Louis "Sam" Warner (born Szmuel Wonsal, August 10, 1887 – October 5, 1927) was an American film director who was co-founder and chief executive officer of Warner Bros.

He and his brothers Harry, Albert, and Jack L. Warner founded the studio together.

Sam Warner is credited with the invention that allowed Warner Bros.

The Jazz Singer, the film industry's first feature-length talking picture, will be released.

He died in 1927, the day before the film's explosively high premiere.

Early years

Samuel "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser" was born in Poland (then part of Congress Poland), in the town of Krasnosielc. He was one of eleven children born to Benjamin, a shoe designer born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah (née Eichelbaum), both Polish Jews. He had ten siblings. Cecilia (1877–1891), Anna (1878–1955), Rose (1890–1955), Fannie (1891–1984), and Sadie (1895–1959) were his siblings. Hirsz Mojesz (1860–1958), later identified as "Harry"), Abraham ((1892-1978), later known as "Abe"), Jacob ((1891-1939) and Milton (1896–1915).

In October 1889, the family immigrated to Baltimore, Maryland, aboard the steamship Hermann from Bremen, Germany. Their father had lived with them before emigrating to Baltimore in 1888 and repairing their shoes and boots. He changed the family name to Warner, which was later used. Some of the children's names were gradually converted into Yiddish-sounding names, as in several Jewish immigrant families. Samuel Szmuel was born Sam, and he was named Sam.

Benjamin Warner, a Baltimore native, struggled to make enough money to provide for his growing family. Benjamin moved the family to Canada, where he attempted to make a living off bartering tin wares to trappers in exchange for furs. Benjamin and his family returned to Baltimore after two arduous years in Canada. Following Harry Warner's example, the family migrated to Youngstown, Ohio, in 1896, when the family opened a shoe repair shop in the heart of the burgeoning industrial town. Before he found a loan to open a meat counter and grocery store in the city's downtown district, Benjamin worked with his son Harry in the shoe repair store. Sam Warner discovered himself looking for jobs in a variety of odd careers as a youth.

Personal life

Warner met eighteen-year-old Ziegfeld Follies performer and actress Lina Basquette while visiting the Bell Laboratories in New York in 1925. The two women began an intense love affair. The two were married on July 4, 1925. Though Warner's younger brother Jack did not object to Basquette's Catholicism, the majority of the Warner family did not. Basquette was refused to be accepted by the family because they did not know her as a member of the Warner clan. On October 6, 1926, the couple's only child, daughter Lita, was born.

After Sam Warner's death in 1927, brother Harry Watson begged Lina Basquette to relinquish custody of the couple's daughter Lita. Harry Warner expressed worry that little Lita would be raised as Catholic rather than Jewish, rather than Jewish; Basquette said that she and Sam Warner agreed to raise any female children they encountered as Catholic and any male children as Jewish). Lina Basquette and Harry Warner's wife were able to relinquish custody of her daughter, but she declined. She eventually relented after Harry Warner told her that Lita would receive a $300,000 trust fund ($4.9 million today), with Harry Warner and his wife winning legal custody of Lita on March 30, 1930. Basquette regretted her decision and attempted to regain custody of her daughter quickly. Basquette, on the other hand, was never financially sound enough to do so, as the Warner family brought a series of court suits against her in an attempt to regain Sam Warner's ownership of Warner Bros. studios. Lita will only see him twice over the next 20 years: in 1935, when Harry Warner and his family moved to Los Angeles, and when Lita married Dr. Nathan Hiatt in 1947. Basquette and her daughter reunited in 1977 after Basquette supported a case brought by Lita against her uncle Jack Warner's estate.

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Career

Samuel Warner was the first member of his family to enter the entertainment industry. He formed a business partnership with another Youngstown resident in the early 1900s and "took over" the city's Old Grand Opera House, which he used as a place for "cheap vaindeville and photoplays. After one summer, the venture fell short of being profitable. Warner later gained a job as a projectionist at Idora Park, a local amusement park. He cautioned the family of the latest medium of its possibility and arranged the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope from a forecaster who was "down on his luck." The purchase price was $1,000. While working at the Cedar Point Pleasure Resort in Sandusky, Ohio, Warner's interest in film came after reading Thomas Edison's The Great Train Robbery. Albert promised to join Warner, and together, the two performed The Great Train Robbery at carnivals in Ohio and Pennsylvania; Sam Warner will direct the film projector and Albert will sell tickets.

Harry Warner decided to join his two brothers and sell his Youngstown bicycle shop in 1905. The three brothers were now able to buy a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania, after Harry earned the money by selling the bicycle store; the brothers' new theater, The Cascade Movie Palace, has opened. The Cascade Movie Palace was so popular that the brothers were able to buy a second theater in New Castle. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was supplied with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. They remained in the theater until 1907, when it went into film distribution. The Warner brothers founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement Company, and the three brothers rented an office in downtown Pittsburgh's Bakewell building. Sam Warner and his crew went to New York to buy and ship films for their Pittsburgh exchange company, while Albert stayed in Pittsburgh to manage the company.

However, their company was profitable before Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (also known as the Edison Trust), which paid distributors exorbitant fees. The brothers sold the Cascade Theater for $40,000 and opened a second film exchange in Norfolk, Virginia; younger brother Jacob (known as "Jack") following Sam's lead, he joined his three brothers' company and was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, as Warner's assistant. The Warners would sell the family business to the GM for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and payments over a four-year cycle for a total of $52,000."

The Warner brothers gathered their funds and moved to film production in 1910. The brothers lent their support to filmmaker Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures Company, which challenged the Edison Trust's monopolistic ownership; the brothers appeared in Pittsburgh as distributors for Laemmle's films. Sam will earn $1,500 in 1912 for his film Dante's Inferno. Harry Warner, seeing Edison's monopoly threat grow, decided to break with Laemmle and start Warner Features, the brothers' own film production firm. Harry Warner, who now had an office in New York with brother Albert, and Sam and Jack were sent by Sam and Jack to film exchanges in Los Angeles and San Francisco; Sam and Jack would manage the Los Angeles division, while Jack handled the company's San Francisco division. The brothers were destined to cash in on the burgeoning California movie industry. Ambassador James W. Gerard's first attempt to film a big film came in 1918 when they acquired the film rights for My Four Years in Germany, a best-selling semi autobiographical book that condemned German wartime atrocities. The four brothers had the opportunity to open a studio in the area near Hollywood after the success of My Four Years in Germany. Warner and his younger brother, Jack, became co-heads of a new Hollywood studio. In this capacity, the two brothers obtained new scripts and storylines, produced film production, and looked for ways to reduce production costs.

The studio was not profitable between 1919 and 1920. During this period, Motley Flint, a banker who, unlike most bankers at the time, was not antisemitic, helped the Warners pay off their loans. The brothers then decided to relocate their production studio from Culver City to Sunset Boulevard. After the success of the studio's film Why Girls Leave Home, the studio would also recover in 1921. Director Harry Rapf was appointed the studio's new head producer after the film's success. Warner Brothers, Inc. was officially established on April 4, 1923, following the studio's success film Where the North Begins.

Rin Tin Tin, one of the company's first big stars, would be the dog Rin Tin Tin. Daryl Zanuck, the upcoming director of Rin Tin Tin, will have a huge influence on her career. In addition to Rin Tin Tin, the studio was also able to make more money with German film director Ernst Lubitsch, whose first film with the studio, The Marriage Circle, made it to the New York Times Top Films List of 1924. The film was also the year's most commercially successful film, and it helped establish Lubitsch as the studio's top director. Beau Brummel, the Warners, was also able to add another film to the New York Times Top Films List. Despite the studio's success, the Warners were unable to contend with Paraphrasedoutput and First National (The Big Three), and they were soon out of contention, and they were likely to be sold out by 1924.

After being able to purchase Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, Harry Warner will bring more relief to the studio during this period. Sam Warner had also purchased a radio station, KFWB, in 1925. Sam decided to try synchronized sound in future Warner Bros. Pictures after acquiring the radio station. Sam Warner, brother Harry, was compelled to sign an agreement with Western Electric to produce a string of "talking" shorts utilizing the latest ingenuity in sound-on-film technology, as well as a sound-on-disc technology for motion pictures during his visit to Bell Laboratories headquarters. Harry Warner, on the other hand, refused to use synchronized sound in the studio's films.

The studio had a net loss of $333,413. By February 1926, it had incurred a net loss of $333,413. If it were strictly used for background music, Harry Warner eventually agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts. Harry Warner spent a visit to Bell Laboratories in New York, and was enthralled. However, the Warners' high-ups at Western Electric were antisemitic, which was one of the Warners' difficulties. Sam Warner, on the other hand, was able to persuade the high-ups to join the studio after his wife Lina, who was not Jewish, wore a gold cross at a dinner they attended with the Western Electric brass. Harry Warner then signed a West Electric partnership deal with Bell Laboratories to use Bell Laboratories to test the sound-on-film process. Warner and his younger brother Jack followed Don Juan for a long time.

Sam formed Vitaphone in May 1926, as a result of the company's collaboration with Western Electric. The studio also launched a series of musical shorts and the feature-length Don Juan (which had a synchronized music track); upon establishing Vitaphone, Sam was made Vice President of Warner Bros. Despite the fact that Don Juan was able to gather at the box office, the film's budget was not able to cover the brothers' budget. These cars received still tepid responses, and Harry became more outraged about the venture.

Adolph Zukor, the company's president, gave Sam a contract as an executive producer for his studio around this time; during the year, Harry was also the company president. Sam Warner, not wanting to take any more of brother Harry's inability to use sound in future Warner films, agreed to Zukor's invitation, but the pair died after Paramount lost money in the aftermath of Rudolph Valentino's death. Cecil B. - First National By April 1927, First National Paragraphic, MGM, Universal, and Cecil B. Among the 1927 pioneers, first National, Producers Distributing (the Big Five studios) demolished De Mille's Warners, leaving the Warners in financial ruin. On the terms that Western Electric was no longer exclusive, Western Electric renewed the Warner-Vitaphone contract, allowing other film companies to test sound. Sam's demands were eventually accepted by Harry Warner, who eventually agreed to his request. The Warner brothers pushed forward with The Jazz Singer, a new Vitaphone film based on a Broadway play and starring Al Jolson. The Jazz Singer set box-office records, established Warner Bros. as a major Hollywood celebrity and single-handedly launching the talkie revolution.

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