Harry Morris Warner was an American studio executive.
Background
Harry Morris Warner was born in Krasnosielce, Poland, the son of Benjamin Warner and Pearl Eichelbaum. (Harry Warner always listed the Americanized name of the village, Krasnashiltz. In 1881 Poland contained three villages with that approximate spelling; Warner probably came from the one in eastern Poland. ) Benjamin Warner, a poor cobbler, immigrated to the United States during the 1880's to escape persecution as a Jew. He sent for his wife and four children sometime between 1887 and 1890. The family first settled in Baltimore.
Education
In Baltimore Harry Warner attended elementary school for two years at most.
Career
The family then moved frequently as Benjamin Warner sought better jobs, finally settling in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1895. The family by then included seven children. In Youngstown, Benjamin Warner opened a shoe repair shop and later operated other small retail operations. The older sons added to the family income: Harry began as an apprentice cobbler and later became a salesman for Armour and Company, the meat packers. In 1898 he set up a bicycle shop. In 1903 the teenaged Sam Warner began touring eastern Ohio presenting motion pictures. Soon his brothers Harry, Albert, and Jack, and his sister Rose joined the enterprise. (The specific dates for these early activities are unknown. The best data comes from the official histories provided by Warner Bros. Pictures in later years. ) During this period the brothers' division of labor evolved: Harry supervised and handled all financial matters, Albert negotiated sales and controlled advertising, Jack produced the show (and later the movies themselves), and Sam managed the technical end. In 1905 the Warner brothers opened their first permanent theater, a nickelodeon, in New Castle, Pa. To ensure a constant supply of films, Harry Warner organized a company to distribute motion pictures, the Duquesne Amusement Supply Company. This exchange (in industry terminology) was one of the earliest. The company prospered until 1912, when the monopolistic Motion Picture Patents Company forced the brothers to sell. The Warners then began producing low-cost features and serials, which they distributed through small, independent firms. Gradually the Patents Company lost power, and opportunities for the Warners increased. In 1917 they produced their first major success, a feature-length film, My Four Years in Germany. Immediately Harry moved all production to Hollywood. In 1923 Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. , was formed with Harry as president. Thereafter Warner devoted most of his time to corporate activities. His chief hobby was horse breeding and racing. For many years he owned an important California stable. During the early 1920's the American motion picture industry was dominated by three firms: Loew's, Famous Players, and First National. Harry Warner reasoned that Warner Bros. must either expand or be absorbed by one of these three. As a first step, in 1925 he negotiated the takeover of the Vitagraph Corporation. Next, with the help of Wall Street's Goldman Sachs and Company, Warner Bros. moved into international distribution. It also purchased important theaters in major American cities and initiated motion pictures with sound. Warner moved slowly and conservatively toward full production of sound pictures. First Warners produced short filmed recordings of popular vaudeville acts, then all-talking shorts, and finally all-talking narrative feature-length films. Warner Bros. ' first sound movie show opened on August 6, 1926. Nearly two years passed before Warners had its major "talkie" hits: Lights of New York and The Singing Fool. During 1928 and 1929 Warners absorbed the 250-theater Stanley chain and the First National studio. Harry's expansionary policies had paid off. By 1930 Warner Bros. was America's second largest film company, with assets of $230 million; controlled 800 theaters; maintained exchanges in seventy foreign countries; and operated fifty-one subsidiaries, including holdings in the radio, music publishing, and phonograph industries. Warner Bros. survived the Great Depression in relatively good shape and prospered throughout World War II. During the 1930's Warners produced many important films, but became famous for its gangster films (Little Caesar, The Public Enemy), its musicals (Gold Diggers of 1933, 42nd Street), and its social consciousness films (I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, They Won't Forget). Its most noted stars included James Cagney, Bette Davis, Edward G. Robinson, Pat O'Brien, Ida Lupino, and Humphrey Bogart. During the late 1930's and throughout World War II, Harry Warner spoke out strongly in favor of pro-American, anti-Nazi films while his fellow movie moguls remained silent. Warner Bros. films such as Watch on the Rhine, Destination Tokyo, and Air Force realistically portrayed the war effort. And these films made money; the corporation generated, on average, $10 million profit (before federal taxes) each year between 1935 and 1945. Warner nevertheless worried constantly about the company's finances. He tried to run it like an assembly-line factory and minimized costs wherever he could. Competitors outspent Warners two-to-one for feature films. Harry's cost-conscious attitude helped the brothers retain control of Warner Bros. Pictures during the Great Depression but caused several bitter strikes and well-publicized contract disputes. In 1948 the Justice Department won an antitrust case against the major movie companies, including Warner Bros. Warner Bros. was ordered to sell its theaters. By 1953 the Stanley-Warner circuit had taken over the bulk of Warner's movie houses. Consequently, in 1951 Warner and his brother Albert decided to retire. They announced that their shares of Warner Bros. stock, a controlling interest, would be sold. Since television and suburban living had caused movie attendance to decline significantly after World War II, they found it difficult to locate acceptable buyers. Finally, in 1956, they sold nearly all of their stock for $16. 5 million to a syndicate headed by Serge Semenenko, a Boston banker. This transaction caused a major split between Harry and Jack Warner, who succeeded him as president of the company. Harry remained on the company's board of directors until his death in Bel Air, Calif.
Achievements
He was one of the founders of Warner Bros. , and a major contributor to the development of the film industry. Along with his three brothers (Albert, Sam and Jack) Warner played a crucial role in the film business and played a key role in establishing Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc, serving as the company president until 1956. In 2004, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania dedicated a film institute to him. The university also hosts an annual Harry Warner film festival.
Connections
On August 20, 1907, Harry Warner married Rea Levinson. They had three children, and in 1927, after Sam Warner's death, assumed the guardianship of his only child.
