Background
Jack L. Warner was born Jack Eichelbaum in London, Ontario, Canada, one of twelve children born to Polish-born Benjamin Eichelbaum, a peddler, and Pearl Eichelbaum. In 1894 the family settled in Youngstown, Ohio.
Jack L. Warner was born Jack Eichelbaum in London, Ontario, Canada, one of twelve children born to Polish-born Benjamin Eichelbaum, a peddler, and Pearl Eichelbaum. In 1894 the family settled in Youngstown, Ohio.
Jack never attended high school.
He began his career in show business by singing and dancing at neighborhood film projection showings run by his brothers Samuel (1888 - 1927), Harry (1881 - 1958), and Albert (1884 - 1967). The Warner brothers ("Warner" became the family name by 1907) were fascinated with film acquisition and distribution. They opened their first "permanent" theater in 1905 in an empty Newcastle, Pa. , store. They formed the Duquesne Amusement Supply Company in Pittsburgh and eventually opened arcades in Norfolk, Va. ; Baltimore, Md. ; Atlanta, Ga. ; and San Francisco. After selling the company in 1912, they returned to Youngstown. After the opening showing in Hartford, Connecticut, of Dante's Inferno, Jack followed Sam on the road to exhibit this popular film. Jack and Sam began producing their own films in 1917, while Harry and Albert established themselves in New York City to arrange the exhibition of those films as well as the production of other "Warner Features. " Jack focused on San Francisco, where he bought a small film theater; he rejoined Sam in Los Angeles in 1917 and continued absorbing all aspects of film production. Both Sam and Jack enlisted in the Army Signal Corps during World War I and arranged the production of Open Your Eyes, a documentary assigned by the military, with Jack acting his only film "lead. " The four brothers' first big success followed from their decision to buy rights to Ambassador James W. Gerard's best-selling 1917 book My Four Years in Germany; their film version grossed about $1. 5 million in 1919. Returning that same year to Los Angeles, Sam and Jack filmed several serials, including The Tiger's Claw and A Dangerous Adventure (1922), and won production contracts with Mack Sennett for a series of Monte Banks comedies. The four brothers incorporated themselves as Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. , in 1923, and in 1925 concluded a contract with Western Electric to form Vitaphone, a company dedicated to developing sound pictures. Jack enlisted Babe Ruth for a film, but Babe Comes Home (1926) was not popular. Rin-Tin-Tin, a dog found in the trenches of World War I, starred in a series of highly successful Warner pictures until his death in 1932. On August 6, 1926, Warner Brothers opened Don Juan, starring John Barrymore, in New York City. Although the voices of its actors were not recorded, the picture was the first ever to contain a fully synchronized musical score designed to complement the action. Warner Brothers topped this technological feat on October 6, 1927, when New York audiences heard the first words on film, spoken by Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer. Tragically, just as the era of sound motion pictures began, Sam Warner, overworked, died in California. On July 7, 1928, the Warners offered Lights of New York, the first full-length all-talking film. They also bought in that year the Stanley Company of America and extensive interests in First National Pictures, which they would eventually own outright. They thus inherited a large Burbank lot and an ever-growing roster of illustrious stars and directors. Always on the lookout for new talent, Jack and his brothers issued contracts to three young stars of the Broadway show Penny Arcade; James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, and Joan Blondell eventually became Hollywood stars. As vice-president and production chief at Warner Brothers, Jack supervised many of the artistic and financial details, from the selection of stories and directors to the use of actors, set costs, and scheduling. He also invested in hotel, restaurant, and racetrack enterprises. Although a Republican, Jack joined the Hollywood group backing Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidential candidacy. Critics often complained about Jack's pennypinching, resulting in low-budget production costs and sets, but a listing of some of the Warner Brothers films calls to mind some of the greatest visual scenes, memorable scripts, and acting performances of the American screen. Classic films in a variety of genres were authorized and supervised by Jack. Such impressive films as Little Caesar (1930), The Public Enemy (1931), and The Life of Emile Zola (1937) brought fame to the studio. Max Reinhardt's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) was the first successful sound film based on a Shakespeare play. Some films effected legal changes, such as Paul Muni's performances in I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) and Black Fury (1935). Green Pastures (1936) presented an all-black cast. Warner Brothers produced a string of memorable Busby Berkeley musicals during the 1930's, including six in the yearly Golddiggers series (1933 - 1938). Warner felt that Berkeley's 42nd Street (1933) helped lift the national spirit during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Michael Curtiz worked numerous wonders for the Warners, including his direction of a series of popular films pairing Errol Flynn with Olivia de Havilland, such as Captain Blood (1935) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). As World War II was fermenting in Europe, the studio produced the first major American antifascist film, the fact-based Confessions of a Nazi Spy (released May 1939). Effective for one year from April 17, 1942, Jack Warner served as a lieutenant colonel in a motion-picture unit of the Army Air Forces and produced several films for the military - Winning Your Wings was his first. He and his brothers donated more than $7 million of the proceeds from Irving Berlin's This Is the Army (1943) to the Army War Relief Fund and much of the profits from Hollywood Canteen (1944) went to that canteen operation. During the war Warner Brothers produced such movie classics as Casablanca (1942), Watch on the Rhine (1943), and Destination Tokyo (1943). Warner gave several eloquent speeches about his studio's wartime obligations to the American public and the film industry's subsequent urgent peacetime duties--educative as well as entertaining. Commitment to education included the Warner American History series. There also was comic cartoon relief, in the form of Bugs Bunny and other classic Warner cartoon characters. Warner was particularly proud of what he designated as the "happy" and patriotic film, Yankee Doodle Dandy, which opened in New York City in 1942. In 1944, Canada recognized his production of The Shining Future with an award on behalf of its sixth war loan drive, and California's Richmond Shipyard honored his father, the immigrant who had labored as cobbler, peddler, and butcher, by naming its last Liberty ship the Benjamin Warner. After Germany's defeat, Warner accepted the Hollywood Foreign Correspondents First World Peace Award for Hitler Lives? On the occasion he remarked, "The politically free screen must fight evil with truth. It must combat intolerance by revealing how decent people behave. " Despite awards, honors, profits, and artistic achievements during the 1940's, Warner had to deal with some tense wartime union problems, such as an eight-month Screen Actors Guild strike, which was settled in 1945. In the late 1940's the studio continued to produce its variety of film types and in the 1950's Jack led Warner Brothers into the 3-D fad, represented by the popular House of Wax. Although Warner had responded positively to Roosevelt's request to film Ambassador Joseph E. Davies's book, Mission to Moscow, with its sympathetic view of Russia and Russians, during the war, he had to defend that film before a McCarthy-era congressional committee. There he explained that the studio had always terminated employment of any anti-American director. To avoid antitrust action, Warner Brothers separated their production and theater-ownership functions in 1955 and thereafter started focusing on television production. In 1956 the brothers sold most of their stock in Warner Brothers, although Jack became the largest company stockholder by repurchasing one-third of the stock. On August 5, 1958, only weeks after his brother Harry's death, Warner suffered a near-fatal accident on the Riviera, from which he amazingly recovered. At the end of that year he dismissed his son from the studio. Jack Warner headed production until Seven Arts took over the company in 1965, whereupon he became president of Warner-Seven Arts Studio; in 1967, he sold his shares and resigned as production chief, but remained on the board as vice-chairman. After his retirement from the studio (1969), when it merged with Kinney National Service, and his disastrous attempt at Broadway production (Jimmy, 1969), he became president of Jack Warner Productions. His productions of the 1960's and 1970's included My Fair Lady (1964), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), Camelot (1967), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Dirty Little Billy (1972), and 1776 (1972). He also financed the distribution of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Key honors Jack Warner received include the President's Medal of Merit and the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award (1958) for consistent high-quality film production work. He died in Los Angeles.
He married his first wife, Irma Claire Salomon, on October 14, 1914; they had one son, Jack Warner, Jr. After Jack and Irma divorced in the 1930's, he married Ann Paige Boyar Alvarado in 1936.