Warner Brothers

Warner Brothers for most of us is associated with a pleasant movie experience. We all remember the screen saver with the image of a golden shield with the letters "WB" against the blue sky.

The company, which has become a legend in cinematography, began as a risky venture of four brothers. In essence, the history of Warner Brothers is the story of four like-minded people who decided to devote themselves to their favorite business.

History of Warner Brothers

Warner Brothers was named after its founders, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner, whose parents were immigrants from the Russian Empire. Its history dates back to 1903, when the brothers organized film screenings for workers from Pennsylvania. There, in the state of Pennsylvania, they opened their first movie theater called "Cascade".

The film industry was expanding at an unprecedented rate at the time, and the Warners sensed that this industry could be profitable. In 1904, they founded the Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, the purpose of which was to distribute films. The brothers' intuition was right - within a few years, their company covered four states with its activities, thereby bringing in considerable income.

Therefore, it was only a matter of time before the Warner brothers would create their own films. And they did indeed do so, although only 15 years after they began their work. In 1918, they created Warner Bros. Studio, the office of which was located right on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. At that time, the brothers decided to divide their responsibilities. Thus, the two younger brothers, Sam and Jack Warner, took on the production of films, and the two older ones, Harry and Albert, took on finance in New York.

The Warner brothers were constantly invested in the development of their company. By the 1940s, Warner Brothers had become one of the largest film companies of its time. The brothers acquired radio stations and film distribution networks, and built movie theaters to show their own films.

The reason for Warner Brothers' success was the surefire instinct of its owners. The Warners had a strange way of guessing possible trends in the development of cinema and were ahead of them. Thus, Sam Warner was one of the first in cinema to advocate the development of sound films. Other film companies were still wary of this innovation when Warner Brothers released The Jazz Singer in 1927. It was a colossal success, completely turning the world of cinema upside down and directing the development of cinema in a completely different direction.

Incidentally, Warner Brothers also released the world's first sound horror film. Filmed in 1928 based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Terror" was extremely well received by both audiences and critics. Unfortunately, the unprecedented success did not bring joy to the Warner brothers. That same year, forty-year-old Sam Warner passed away, never living to see the idea he supported come to life.

Meanwhile, Warner Brothers continued to grow and develop. First, it bought out the Stanley Company cinema chain, and then it absorbed its main competitor, First National Pictures.

Following sound, Warner Brothers also introduced color into their films. The films "On with the Show" and "Gold Diggers of Broadway" became the first full-color films in the history of cinema. Incidentally, the latter film became so popular that it was shown on screens for over ten years.

In the 1930s, Warner Brothers presented viewers with cartoons. "Merry Melodies" with their jazz sketches are probably familiar to many of our compatriots. It was during these years that the company also released the beloved Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and a little later delighted its young viewers with a series of cartoons about Tom and Jerry.

The success of the company continued to grow, and even the Second World War could not become an obstacle to this. On the contrary, it was in the 40s that many actors were discovered by the efforts of Warner Brothers, who later achieved world fame.

But if there are ups, there are always downs. Hard times came for Warner Brothers when the US Supreme Court decided in 1948 to separate film production from movie theaters. Having lost their main source of income along with the chain of movie theaters they owned, the Warner brothers were forced to sell their film company to a large banking syndicate. The signing of this sale agreement could have been the beginning of the end for the company. But as it turned out, as long as the Warner brothers were alive, their company would also develop. The main investor in the syndicate that bought the film company was the youngest of the Warner brothers, Jack. And although Harry and Albert could never forgive him for such a prank, the company continued to be in the safe hands of one of its founders.

It was thanks to the efforts of the competent manager Jack Warner that Warner Brothers continued to achieve success and did not lose the momentum it had gained. This lasted until 1967, when the last of the brothers did not decide to finally retire. He sold his offspring to the Canadian company Seven Arts Productions for almost 80 million dollars. Since then, Warner Brothers has repeatedly changed its owners, and accordingly its name (Warner Bros.-Seven Arts, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Communications).

Today, the film company is called Time Warner (as a result of the merger with Time Inc.) and is owned by AOL. In 2008, Warner Bros. absorbed New Line Cinema, while continuing to actively release new and new products. It was at the Warner Brothers studio that such films as The Green Mile, The Matrix, Inception, The Departed, The Devil's Advocate, Sherlock Holmes, the Harry Potter series, and many, many others were filmed. This means that even without the Warner brothers, the film company's business can go well.

Warner Brothers logo

By the way, the Warner Brothers logo has also undergone a number of changes throughout the years of the company's existence. At first, it was just a black, schematically drawn shield with the letters WB in its lower part. The upper half of the shield was occupied by an image of the building in which the company's office was located, and below there was an inscription: "Warner Brothers - a classic of the screen." Soon the letters WB increased and occupied almost the entire space of the shield. After some time, the logo acquired the color and background of the blue sky we know. Anniversary and designer versions of the logo were periodically released, but all of them, as a rule, were not delayed for long.