Jack L. Warner
Jacob Warner was born in London, Ontario, Canada, on the 2nd of August 1892. His parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants who spoke mainly Yiddish at home. They had moved from Congress Poland to the United States before settling in Baltimore. The family later relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, where Jack spent his youth. He wrote of that time as a dangerous place filled with street gangs and frequent violence. "There was a murder or two almost every Saturday night in our neighborhood," he recalled. Knives and brass knuckles were standard equipment for young men prowling the streets. Jack briefly belonged to a gang in Westlake's Crossing, a notorious area west of downtown. He found his first taste of show business singing at local theaters. During this brief career in vaudeville, he officially changed his name to Jack Leonard Warner.
In the early 20th century, Sam Warner formed a partnership to take over the Old Grand Opera House in Youngstown. The venture failed after one summer. Sam then secured a job as a movie projectionist at Idora Park. He convinced his family to invest $1,000 in a Model B Kinetoscope from a struggling projectionist. Jack contributed $150 by pawning a horse. The brothers screened The Great Train Robbery throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania. They rented a vacant store in New Castle, Pennsylvania, called the Bijou. Chairs were borrowed from a local undertaker to furnish the makeshift theater. In 1906, they purchased a small theater known as the Cascade Movie Palace. By 1907, they established the Duquesne Amusement Company. This distribution firm proved lucrative until Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company charged exorbitant fees. In 1909, Harry brought Jack into the family business in Norfolk, Virginia. That year, the Warners sold their business for a total of $52,000.
Sam Warner urged Harry to sign with Western Electric to develop talking short films using Vitaphone technology. Sam died of pneumonia in 1927 just before the premiere of The Jazz Singer. Jack became sole head of production without his brother. The studio reaped $3 million in profits from an investment of only $500,000. Hollywood's other five major studios initially attempted to block the growth of talking pictures. Warner Bros. produced twelve talkies in 1928 alone. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized Warner Bros. for revolutionizing the industry with sound. Despite new prosperity, Jack kept a tight rein on costs. He placed directors on a quota system and decreed flat lighting styles. The studio emerged relatively unscathed from the Wall Street Crash of 1929. They produced backstage musicals, crusading biopics, swashbucklers, and women's pictures. Warner Bros. became best known for hard-hitting social dramas like Little Caesar and The Public Enemy.
Jack Warner was feared by many employees and inspired ridicule with his uneven attempts at humor. He recruited top stars but also clashed frequently with them. James Cagney turned out to be Jack's greatest prize and biggest professional headache. During arguments, Cagney would scream Yiddish obscenities he learned as a boy. A 1937 Fortune magazine article noted Jack's most intense contract disputes involved Cagney. Film director Gottfried Reinhardt claimed Jack derived pleasure from humiliating subordinates. Comedian Jack Benny quipped that Jack Warner would rather tell a bad joke than make a good movie. Bette Davis fled to England to secure release from her contract yet later defended him against rumors. She said, "No lecherous boss was he! His sins lay elsewhere." Errol Flynn received a long-term deal after Jack personally selected him for Captain Blood in 1935. Jack tore up Flynn's contract in 1936 and doubled his weekly salary following the success of The Charge of the Light Brigade.
As the 1930s ended, both Jack and Harry Warner became increasingly alarmed over the rise of Nazism. They had a personal interest in exposing Nazism as sons of Polish Jews who fled antisemitic pogroms. Jack was shaken by the 1936 murder of studio salesman Joe Kaufman in Berlin. He described how Nazi hoodlums hit him with fists and clubs then kicked the life out of him. While other Hollywood studios sidestepped the issue, Warner Bros. produced films openly critical of Nazi Germany. In 1939, the studio released Confessions of a Nazi Spy starring Edward G. Robinson. The German ambassador issued a protest to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Adolf Hitler watched the film at Berchtesgaden and was outraged. Despite legal ramifications, the studio aimed for an aura of authenticity. Jack announced the studio would release no more propaganda pictures but later produced Underground and All Through the Night. In 1941, Warner also produced the influential war film Sergeant York. After the American declaration of war, Jack was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
In 1947, Jack served as a friendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He felt communists were responsible for the studio's month-long strike that occurred in the fall of 1946. On his own initiative he provided names of a dozen screenwriters dismissed because of suspected communist sympathies. Former studio employees named included Alvah Bessie, Howard Koch, Ring Lardner Jr., John Howard Lawson, Albert Maltz, Robert Rossen, Dalton Trumbo, Clifford Odets, and Irwin Shaw. This move effectively destroyed their careers. As one biographer observed, Warner was furious when Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Paul Henreid, and John Huston joined other members of the Committee for the First Amendment to preach against the threat to free expression. Lester D. Friedman noted that Warner's response was similar to other Jewish studio heads who feared a blanket equation of Communists with Jews would destroy them and their industry. Warner publicly supported Richard Nixon during the 1960 presidential election and paid for full-page ads in The New York Times.
Warner responded grudgingly to the rising popularity of television in the late 1940s. Initially he tried to compete by introducing gimmicks such as 3-D films which soon lost appeal. In 1954, Warner finally engaged the new medium providing ABC with a weekly show called Warner Bros. Presents. He made his son Jack Jr. head of the company's new television department. Within a few years Jack provoked hostility among emerging TV stars like James Garner who filed a lawsuit over a contract dispute. During this period Warner showed little foresight in treating the studio's cartoon operation. Animated characters like Bugs Bunny were always stepchildren at Warner Bros. In 1953 Jack confessed he didn't even know where the hell the cartoon studio is. Several years later Jack sold all 400 cartoons made before 1948 for $3,000 apiece. They have since earned millions but not for Warner Bros. Jack grew weary of making films and sold substantial stock to Seven Arts Productions on the 14th of November 1966. The sale yielded about $24 million after capital gains taxes. Eight months later he quipped that a butcher boy from Youngstown would end up with twenty-four million smackers.
By the end of 1973 those closest to Warner became aware of signs that he was becoming disoriented. Shortly after losing his way in the building that housed his office, Warner retired. In 1974, Warner suffered a stroke that left him blind and enfeebled. He gradually lost the ability to speak and became unresponsive to friends and relatives. On the 13th of August 1978, Warner was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Hospital. He died of heart inflammation on the 9th of September 1978. He was 86 years old. A funeral service was held at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. He was interred at Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles. Warner left behind an estate estimated at $15 million. Much of the estate including property and memorabilia was bequeathed to his widow Ann. However, Warner also left $200,000 to his estranged son Jack Jr. Newspaper obituaries recounted the familiar story of the four brothers who left the family butcher shop for nickelodeons. They went on to revolutionize American cinema. Several months after Warner's death, a tribute called The Colonel: An Affectionate Remembrance of Jack L. Warner drew Hollywood notables. Mel Blanc closed the event with a rendition of Porky Pig's famous farewell.
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Common questions
Where was Jack L. Warner born and what was his family background?
Jacob Warner was born in London, Ontario, Canada on the 2nd of August 1892 to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents who spoke Yiddish at home.
How did Jack L. Warner start his career in show business?
Jack Warner began his career by singing at local theaters before changing his name to Jack Leonard Warner during a brief stint in vaudeville.
What role did Jack L. Warner play in the development of sound films?
Jack Warner became sole head of production after his brother Sam died and oversaw the studio's transition to talking pictures with The Jazz Singer which generated $3 million in profits from a $500,000 investment.
Why did Jack L. Warner cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee?
Warner testified as a friendly witness because he believed communists were responsible for the 1946 strike and provided names of screenwriters to protect his industry from being equated with communism.
When did Jack L. Warner die and how old was he?
Jack Warner died of heart inflammation on the 9th of September 1978 at age 86 following a stroke that left him blind and unable to speak.