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[jazz music plays]

NARRATOR: When modern art lights illuminate

the Hollywood heavens, it's a sign of a premiere

of a new and important motion picture.

A largest premiere crowd in many years witnessed

the Hollywood opening of Warner Brothers' production

of Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The great and near great of movieland,

dressed in their best, turned out en masse

to greet this new innovation in talking pictures.

[indistinct]

Radio announcers describe the happenings

to unseen millions.

It was one of the most brilliant premieres

in the history of Hollywood.

The crowd goes wild as Bette Davis arrives

and poses with her husband for the newspaper photographers.

No wonder thousands of movie fans

jammed the streets in excitement.

Here is Jack L. Warner, Vice president,

in charge of production for Warner Brothers.

NEAL GABLER: Probably, the most interesting things

about the motion picture industry in the United States

is that the individuals who created

the motion picture industry were marginalized men.

They were all Russian immigrants,

or Hungarian immigrants, uh, German immigrants.

They were all Jewish.

Uh, they were all poverty stricken.

Uh, they were all what no one in America

at that time, turn of the century,

would have regarded as Americans, mainstream Americans.

They certainly were not that.

And yet these individuals came to create

an industry that is quintessentially American,

and through that industry created a mythology

about this country that defines this country.

We are defined by our movies,

and the people who defined our movies

were marginal Americans.

And I-- and I think that's a delicious irony.

[piano music plays]

SHIRLEY JONES: And who was Jack Warner?

Well, he was a-- he was a stand-up comic

with a mustache and a cigar in his mouth

and when he walked into a room,

uh, the room would light up one way or the other. [chuckles]

Either, people would-- would get up

and walk out of the room, if he was there,

or they would sit and absolutely be mesmerized

by this very individual human being.

♪♪♪

And if somebody had to guess what he did for a living,

they would never, ever imagine

that he was a movie mogul, or the head of a studio.

♪♪♪

[camera reel rolling]

[piano music plays]

NARRATOR: When he was 12 years old,

Gregory Orr made a home movie.

♪♪♪

In the movie, he and a friend play astronauts

whose spaceship collides with a meteor.

After crash landing on a strange planet,

the young astronauts awaken and each believing

the other had been killed,

journey their separate ways in search of help.

The movie concludes with each astronaut

discovering it is not just his comrade who has died

and gone to heaven, but himself as well.

The film was made at the home of Gregory's late grandparents

Ann and Jack Warner, and it is with good reason

that he titled itParadise.

♪♪♪

Now, some 25 years later,

Gregory Orr was returning to the site of those memories,

to the home everyone knew by its address, 1801.

GREGORY ORR: My grandparents lived in this beautiful

nine acre estate in Beverly Hills,

which, when I was a kid,

was a very magical place to visit.

♪♪♪

NARRATOR: The estate was about to be sold,

so, like many children who returned

to the home of parents, or grandparents

who have recently died,

Gregory was coming back to remember the man and woman

who built such splendor and lived in its comfort

for nearly 50 years.

GREGORY: Each place in this beautiful estate

was-- was really a magical playground for me.

The waterfalls were an adventure in themselves

as I climbed up there as a kid,

so the whole feeling of the house

is really something removed from the normal world.

♪♪♪

My brother, sister and I

were always on our best behavior when we went up there.

And, uh, though we found ways to be,

in a sense, children of play,

we never felt as comfortable there

as we felt at the homes of our other grandparents.

It was a little like going to see royalty

and you were treated well and were included,

but we children had to be seen and not heard.

Jack Warner was one of the few men

who actually owned Hollywood in the 1930s '40s and '50s.

Along with his brothers who founded Warner Brothers Studios,

they were considered the pioneers

of the film industry.

When I was growing up, I knew my grandfather

was an important man.

He had photographs at home and in his office,

photographs with movie stars and presidents and so forth.

But I think the thing that-- that convinced me

that he was really important was when I was about 12 years old.

And I was in the back seat of his car,

he was driving along Sunset Boulevard.

And he's talking away and not paying any attention

to the fact that he's driving through every red light in town.

Until finally, a cop comes along,

pulls us over, comes up to the window,

my grandfather gives him his license

and the cop suddenly becomes very nice

and says, "Oh, Mr. Warner, uh,

"just be a little more careful in the future

"and-- and have a good day," and-- and lets us go.

So that convinced me that this guy had some clout.

When you think of Warner Brothers movies,

you think of speed...

- [engine roars] - ...you think of action.

You think of an urban environment,

you think of Cagney, Edward G. Robinson,

Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis.

No other studio has stars like those.

- What's up, doc? - JACK WARNER: One for you.

And I believe those stars,

the Cagneys and the-- the Bogarts

and the Robinsons and the Davises

are all made in the image of Jack Warner.

That is how Jack Warner idealized himself.

A fast talking, flashy underdog.

That underdog element

is prevalent in almost all of Warner's movies

in the '30s and into the '40s.

EFREM ZIMBALIST, JR: I see him as the superstar himself.

I think that's the way he thought of himself.

He was a dashing man, Jack was.

And I-- I think he-- I think he-- he kind of

uh, played the-- the role that he never did on film.

Uh, I-- I had that feeling about him.

He was-- he was a-- he was a swashbuckler in life.

[chuckles]

RUDY BEHLMER: He liked to be the mogul,

the movie mogul of the Warner Brothers.

And he liked the fact

that, uh, that he was running one of the best studios.

I'm sure he was not perfect.

He certainly had his shortcomings,

but he certainly ran, for a long, long time,

a studio in a day when there were

fast turnovers of management elsewhere

and new people coming in here, musical chairs going on.

He hung in a long time.

I have an image of Mr. Warner, who was very sure of himself,

who was a very funny guy,

always dressed beautifully, collected magnificent antiques,

had a lot of, uh, unique character.

He was a unique character, like Sam Goldwyn,

like L. B. Mayer.

He was just a great, classic fellow.

A lot of people say that my grandfather told bad jokes.

I'm not really sure all the jokes were bad,

simply because of the way he delivered them.

There was such a spirit about him,

such life to him,

that it rubbed off on you, so you'd laugh,

even if you didn't find it funny,

just because he was so lively.

He'd go into his routine the minute he met a new person,

and certainly, if it was an attractive female,

which, obviously, he thought I was at the time.

I mean, I was-- [laughs] he was in his glory

telling me all the-- all the new jokes that he had.

PAT BUTTRAM: He always said that I was favorite comedian,

or one of his favorites, but he really loved Jack Benny,

I think more than anyone

but Benny once summed up Jack Warner,

he said, you know, "He'd rather tell a bad joke

"than to make a good movie." [chuckles]

GREGORY: I think my grandfather

did not have a self censor, or if he did,

he'd leave it at home most of the time.

Even when Albert Einstein came to visit the studio,

my grandfather said to him, "You know, Professor,

"I have a theory about relatives, too.

"Don't hire 'em."

We're looking at one crowd one night

and they were gowned, beautiful,

and they were the top people in Hollywood.

And he said, "Look at them," he said, "Look at our stars.

"Aren't they beautiful? They're beautiful people."

He said, "It's no wonder they screw each other." [laughs]

They don't make too many men like my father,

which is, in a certain sense,

that's-- that's good for humanity,

but it's also not too good,

because it takes people who are out of the ordinary,

maybe a little warped here and there,

a cracked there and other places,

to push the rest of us who aren't.

JACKIE PARK: He was the last of the moguls.

He was the last one.

But you know, as-- as loving,

you know, he-- there were many facets of him,

wonderful sense of humor,

very compassionate, very loving,

but also very, very, very cruel.

I mean to the point that he could be loving,

he could-- he could be cruel.

I mean, it was amazing, that part of him

that-- that you never knew--

you never knew when it was going to come up.

You never-- he could just turn--

he-- he could just turn on you just like that.

In the 1920s silent motion pictures

were strongly established as popular entertainment.

There was a general belief at that time

that motion pictures had progressed as far as they go.

My brothers and I believed otherwise.

We were determined to break the barrier of silence

and bring full life to the screen

by giving it a voice

that would be heard around the world.

[soft piano music plays]

[camera reel rolling]

NARRATOR: Of the four Warner Brothers,

Harry was the oldest,

followed by Albert, Sam, and then Jack.

The brothers' parents, Ben and Pearl Warner,

were Polish Jews who had emigrated to the United States

in the late 19th century

after leaving the tiny village of Krasnosielc, Poland,

90 kilometers north of Warsaw.

Ben Warner didn't leave Europe to be a tourist.

He left because the Cossacks were coming into his town

and grabbing hold of all the young men

and then putting them in the army

and raping the daughters and burning the village.

And he got out with his oldest sons

and then sent for his wife and daughters later,

and he did it to survive.

[singing in Yiddish]

♪♪♪

NEAL: The Warner Brothers' family

is a very interesting case.

Uh, it's filled with tension,

tension that ultimately I think

is manifested in the studio

and in the movies that the studio made.

On the one side, you have the older siblings,

particularly Harry.

Those siblings, most of whom,

all of whom, in fact, were born in Europe,

uh, are more traditional.

Uh, they are-- are more old world.

Then, on the other side of-- of what I might call

the fault line, in the Warner's family,

you have the younger siblings, Sam and Jack.

Um, they are much more Americanized.

Uh, Jack being born in Canada,

in fact, he was not a-- an immigrant.

NARRATOR: In 1881, the Warner Brothers' father, Ben,

arrived in Baltimore, Maryland.

He opened a small shoe repair shop

and within a year had saved enough money

to send for his wife

and two children back in Poland.

In 1890, the Warners moved North to London, Ontario,

in Canada, where Ben sold pots and pans

to the local fur traders, in exchange for pelts.

GREGORY: But he had a partner

who he would send these pelts to,

but the partner fled and took all the money with him.

So, Ben Warner was, once more, back in the poor house.

Uh, this would happen several times

to the Warner family, they would start to build up,

something would happen and they'd be back to-- to zero.

NARRATOR: Perhaps the only good to come

from Ben and Pearl Warner's hardships in Canada

was the birth of their ninth child

on August 2nd, 1892.

They gave him the traditional Jewish name of Jacob,

but in the new world in which he was born,

he would always be known as Jack.

♪♪♪

In 1894, the Warner family returned

to the United States and settled

in the bustling industrial town of Youngstown, Ohio.

It would be here that the Warner Brothers would find

their future in a new form of entertainment

called the movies.

CASS SPERLING: They came from nothing.

You know, they had nothing.

And they brought themselves up by their bootstraps.

And-- and Jack had a saying where he said,

"You know, if we were told we couldn't do something,

"we knew we were on the right track."

They tried everything.

They had operated an ice cream cone machine.

They opened up a bowling alley.

They had a bicycle shop.

They tried any kind of business they could find.

It was this industriousness of the Warner Brothers, I think,

that would eventually pay off,

when they got into the movie business,

because they were very close to their audience.

They knew people

by all these businesses they had been in.

They had been in very close contact

with the very same people they would eventually be

showing movies to, and I think that was

a big secret to their success.

JACK JR: My father, I think, had a lot of gypsy in him.

I think today you'd be a little concerned

of a boy like that,

because he was out on the streets a hell of a lot.

I see, in my mind, pictures of him,

um, getting thrown out of places

for being a pest.

He was, um...

a juvenile delinquent ahead of his time.

My grandfather was really a frustrated performer.

As a child, he had taken on

the stage name of Leon Zuardo, the boy soprano.

He actually had a pretty good voice.

WILLIAM ORR: He'd taken some lessons from a man

in Youngstown, Ohio,

and he'd taken about three lessons.

He was supposed to get five lessons

for "X" amount of dollars, and the guy died.

So he says, "I never got my voice."

So, then, he did the-- then he did

some vaudeville with a young guy,

ran around the country, and, so, he-- he was a ham bone.

Underneath all that skill he had running his studio,

he really wanted to be an actor, I think.

Maybe that's why he didn't like actors.

They were acting and he wasn't, I don't know.

NARRATOR: It was called a Kinetoscope,

and it was invented by Thomas Edison to show movies.

Unveiled commercially in 1894,

the device unwound its brief, flickering images,

to the amazement of viewers in the US and Europe.

By 1896, inventors in France,

England, Germany and the United States,

all working separately,

had adapted Edison's idea and begun to build machines

that would project the image onto a screen.

These first projectors heralded the arrival

of the motion picture industry

and gave birth to thousands of movie theatres

called nickelodeons.

In 1903, Jack's brother, Sam Warner,

became intrigued by movie projectors

after working as a projectionist for Hales Tours,

then a concession at White City Amusement Park, in Chicago.

A projector had been set up

in the back of a mocked up railroad car.

A film showing a tour through Yosemite National Park

was projected on the screen,

and the train car was rocked

up and down to add to the effect.

When a similar show came to Youngstown,

Sam rushed home and got the projectionist job.

Soon, the entire Warner family was sold

on the possibilities of this new form of entertainment.

When a second-hand Edison projector

became available at the bargain price of $150,

the family pooled their resources.

But it was not enough.

What they ended up doing was turning to

their delivery wagon horse, Bob, and pawned him,

and with that they had enough money

to buy the projector.

NARRATOR: The projector came with the print

ofThe Great Train Robbery.

Though, only 12 minutes long,

it is considered a landmark film today,

for it was one of the first movies with a storyline.

It was also a giant success,

and with it the Warner boys toured towns and carnivals

in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

By the end of their first week

they had made over $300,

more than their father made in a month

back at the family Store.

With the success ofThe Great Train Robbery,

the Warner Brothers set up a nickelodeon of their own

in nearby Newcastle, Pennsylvania,

and called it the Bijou Theatre.

With 99 chairs borrowed from a local undertaker,

the Bijou opened its doors

to capacity audiences, hungry for entertainment.

GREGORY: It was such a success, this theatre,

uh, that people were staying

to see the show over and over again,

not allowing new customers to get in.

So, the brothers sent for their--

their secret weapon, which was my grandfather,

who would take the trolley from Youngstown,

and in between shows would get up on stage and sing.

JACK: Gentlemen introduced me as a former singer

and I must admit I did sing [indistinct],

I was used as a chaser, in the early days

of the motion pictures movies, nickelodeons,

when they want to get rid of the audience.

They have someone like me come out and sing.

And, of course, I sang very badly,

which I sing worse tonight.

- MAN: Yes. - Are you ready?

- Yes. - Well, you have more than I am.

[singing dramatically in Italian]

That's just-- that's all I'm gonna do about it.

All right, I'm out.

♪♪♪

NARRATOR: In 1907, Jack's oldest brother Harry,

decided that the real profits lay in film distribution,

where money could be made from the rental of films

to hundreds, if not thousands of theatres.

In Pittsburgh, Harry, Albert and Sam

opened the Duquesne Amusement Supply Company,

where 15-year-old Jack soon joined them

after convincing his father to let him leave home.

Ben Warner had never really appreciated

his son's irreverent sense of humor.

Jack had been the problem boy,

the kid who had been thrown out of Hebrew school

after yanking the rabbi's beard.

In his autobiography, Jack notes that on the day

he and his father traveled together to Pittsburgh

to meet Jack's brothers, there seemed to be a truce.

JACK: "We got off the train and went down the street

"to a little restaurant he knew.

"He handed me a menu, but I knew what I wanted.

"I wanted ham and eggs, a dish that was never served

"at our kosher home.

"But I was afraid he would scold me.

"'Come now, boy,' he said. 'Well, what are you gonna eat?'

"'If it's all right with you, Pop,' I blurted,

"'I'd like ham and eggs.'

"'Fine, boy,' he said,

"'I'll have the same, country style.'

"Our eyes met and we smiled.

"Fellow schemers sharing a secret sin.

"I would never again be as close to him."

[cheerful music plays]

NARRATOR: In 1912, the Warners embarked

on their first film production

with the forgettable two-reel Western

calledPerils of the Plains,

directed by Sam and written by Jack.

More films followed of equal quality.

♪♪♪

Ordered west by Harry in 1912,

to open a film exchange office in San Francisco,

20-year-old Jack happily found himself

on his own for the very first time,

making decisions far from the watchful eyes

of his older brothers back east.

WILLIAM: There's a story Jack told

that he had rounded up $5,000

and it was some baseball picture

and they hired the stadium and they spent all the money

and the cameraman had not taken the lens cover off.

So there went the $5,000.

I never did hear how he got another 5,000,

but they finally made the picture.

My mother's family financed

some of his operations, some picture making.

Now I remember my mother once saying to me,

"You think he ever paid them back?"

Because she was annoyed by it.

But no, I figure, you know, you get paid back in other ways.

So they had a happy life for many, many years.

NEAL: When Jack Warner married, uh, Irma,

uh, he was marrying up.

She was a-- a German, she was--

who in fact was a practicing as much Christian Science

as she was Judaism, and that's important,

uh, because it was clear that Jack was-- was on a--

was on a station to assimilation

as so many of the Hollywood moguls were.

And his wife, this blonde wife of his,

was the first step,

was the first station on that road.

I can only remember very happy, exciting, interesting times.

My father was a vigorous,

buoyant, uh, man

and, uh, he, uh, dominated the scene when he was in it.

He-- I kind of remember him wearing riding pants and boots

like the old Cecil B. DeMille type.

- [feet marching] - [drum pounding]

[marching band playing]

NARRATOR: America's entry into World War One in 1917

inspired the patriotic Harry Warner

to produce the company's first unqualified success.

My Four Years in Germany, based on the popular book

by America's ambassador to Germany,

told of alleged wartime atrocities

committed by the Kaiser's troops.

♪♪♪

NARRATOR: By 1919, the Warner Brothers

felt successful enough to move to Los Angeles, California,

fast becoming the film capital of the world,

and open a movie studio of their own.

["California, Here I Come" by Al Jolson playing]

♪ California, here I come ♪

♪ Right back where I started from ♪

♪ Where bowers of flowers bloom in the sun ♪

♪ Each morning at dawning birdies sing at everything ♪

♪ A sun-kissed miss said "Don't be late" ♪

♪ That's why I can hardly wait Come on! ♪

♪ Open up that Golden Gate ♪

♪ California, here I come ♪

♪ Here I come, yeah ♪

♪ Right back where I started from ♪

♪ Where bowers of flowers bloom in the spring ♪

♪ Each morning at dawning the birdies sing at everything ♪

♪ A sun-kissed miss said, "Don't be late" ♪

♪ That's why I can hardly wait Come on! ♪

♪ Open up, open up, open up that Golden Gate ♪

♪ California ♪

♪ Here I come ♪

[people cheering]

NARRATOR: The early 1920s saw

the continued expansion of the studio,

with Harry and Albert overseeing business from New York

while Sam and Jack supervised production in Hollywood.

Though still considered a second-class studio,

the Brothers ambition enabled them on occasion

to hire first-grade talent,

such as the great actor, John Barrymore.

The brother's biggest star at the time, though,

was not an actor at all, but a dog.

Rin Tin Tin was the brainchild

of a 24-year-old writer named Darryl F. Zanuck,

who would soon rise to become

head of all production under Jack Warner.

LINA BASQUETTE: Sam once told me that there were times

when they had $1.63 between them.

And you know, he used to go to Europe

and sell Rin Tin Tin pictures that meet the payroll.

My mother once said something about

how all her jewels were in hock for a while.

Moviemaking then was a very, very ad lib,

haphazard, fun kind of a thing.

My father produced and wrote and directed

and there were times when we all--

the whole family acted.

And remember now, these were the Warner Brothers.

There were not a lot of studios

that were run by a family.

Their strength was their-- was their unity

as a-- as a business team

and they each had, uh, their own ability.

RUDY: Jack was always the one, who was the production guy.

Harry was the businessman, and he was in control of things

and set policy, mostly at that time from New York.

CASS: Albert was in charge of distribution and sales.

He was called Honest Abe. You know, everybody loved him.

He-- everybody trusted him.

Uh, Sam, certainly with his ability

to look around the corner like a periscope

and see what was coming, I mean, Sam had that ability.

He also was a buffer between Jack and Harry.

Well, I mean, I think one of my greatest regrets

was the friction between Harry and Jack.

Uh, but that was their natures.

But I think it was mainly that my father resented

authority of his older brother,

and this goes back to when he was a little kid

being pushed around by older brothers.

LINA: Well, they all fought amongst themselves.

The sisters fought amongst themselves.

Everybody was fighting all the time.

And hating each other.

So, you know, why did I expect to be loved?

NEAL: I think the tension between Harry and Jack

was very healthy for Warner Brothers movies,

whatever it did to their own personal relationship

and to the family, because it created

a kind of edge to Warner Brothers

that I don't believe any other studio had.

[crowd clamoring]

Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain't heard nothing yet.

Wait a minute, I tell ya. You ain't heard nothing.

You wanna hear a good, good, good thing?

All right, hold on, hold on.

NARRATOR: "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

was Harry Warner's first reaction

to the idea of talking pictures.

But Sam Warner soon convinced him

that the future lay in sound.

In 1925, Warner Brothers,

in cooperation with the engineers at Bell Labs,

began developing a sound system called Vitaphone.

A complicated device that synchronized

a film projector with a pre-recorded disc.

LINA: You couldn't live with Sam Warner

and not be enthusiastic

but the brothers thought it was a toy phonograph.

They-- they ridiculed it.

The other studios weren't particularly interested

because it meant changing, you know,

modifying the studios,

the sound stages, the-- the theatres.

Putting in speakers in-- in the projection booth,

changing everything to accommodate something

that they didn't need,

and also they didn't know

whether the audience would accept it.

[Witt & Burg singing]

♪[indistinct lyrics] ♪

- MAN: Thanks, boys. - [whistle blows]

NEAL: Jazz Singer is a very interesting film

to be the, kind of, milestone picture of--

of the Warner Brothers Studio.

Here is a movie that is about a--

a Jewish kid, the son of a cantor,

deeply religious, who is making the adjustment

to America through entertainment.

Leaving behind all of his religious upbringing

and all of those traditions,

and embracing the world of showbiz,

which is quintessentially American.

Of course, that's the very tension within

the Warner Brothers' family

between Harry on the one hand, the--

the-- the religious side

and Jack on the other, the show business side.

NARRATOR: Though Jack Warner was very much involved

in the making ofThe Jazz Singer

and signed Al Jolson in the leading role,

it was Sam Warner who oversaw the daily production problems

confronting the picture.

LINA: He produced The Jazz Singer,

he had to put up with Al Jolson and--

and Jolson was a great performer,

but, in my opinion,

he was never a very nice human being.

NARRATOR: Working around the clock,

Sam exhausted himself

to complete the picture in time

for its New York premiere

on October 6th, 1927.

[crowd clamoring]

While Jack, Harry and Albert were back east,

preparing for the opening, Sam fell ill,

and was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital.

Stricken with a cerebral hemorrhage,

his condition worsened.

Jack and his brothers chartered a special train

to speed them back to Los Angeles.

They brought with them two specialists,

but they arrived three hours too late.

At age 39, Sam Warner died on the eve

of the Warner Brothers' greatest triumph.

It just-- I've never been able to quite understand

why destiny, you know, took him.

He died three days before the--

The Jazz Singer opened in New York.

JACK JR: Sam Warner was a man that was a friend--

friendly, who was respected by the back lot.

He was a, uh, a pal of--

he wasn't the boss.

Uh, I think the history would have been quite different

had he survived, but that never happened.

NEAL: Sam was the family's diplomat,

although I think, ultimately, in the balance of power,

he sided with Jack.

But when Sam died,

that balancing mechanism fell.

And now it really became,

you know, Harry against Jack.

LINA: After Sam died,

and they started zooming up in the air

and they became very, you know,

they went from a third class studio practically overnight.

GREGORY: So, none of the Warners were in New York

for the opening of their greatest triumph,

and they are not there for that moment

when Al Jolson walks onto the screen

and, for the first time, talks.

["My Mammy [From The Jazz Singer]"by Al Jolson playing]

♪ Mammy ♪

♪ Mammy ♪

♪ The sun shines east, the sun shines west ♪

♪ But I know where the sun shines best ♪

♪ Mammy ♪

♪ Mammy ♪

♪ My heartstrings are tangled around ♪

♪ Alabammy ♪

♪ Mammy, I'm coming ♪

♪ I hope I didn't make you wait ♪

♪ Mammy, I'm coming ♪

♪ Oh, God, I hope I'm not late! ♪

♪ Mammy ♪

♪ Don't you know me? ♪

♪ It's your little baby ♪

♪ I'd walk a million miles ♪

♪ For one of your smiles ♪

♪ For my ma ♪

♪ Mammy ♪

[song ends]

This was an overnight smash,

you know, people talk about these things,

but in this case, it's true.

NARRATOR: The success ofThe Jazz Singer

and the new Vitaphone process propelled the Warner Brothers

into the forefront of motion pictures.

Until now, studios such as Paramount and MGM

had dominated the movies,

but with the coming of sound, that all changed.

As the other studios scrambled to adapt,

Warner Brothers expanded,

acquiring new theatres and distribution networks.

And in the city of Burbank,

just over the Cahuenga Pass from Los Angeles,

a brand new state-of-the-art studio.

VINCE SHERMAN: Uh, when you came in-- in the morning,

I guess there were a couple of thousand people working there.

It was-- actually, it was, it was a city within itself

and they had their own police force, you see,

so it was great.

♪♪♪

Well, here we are. This is the Warner studio.

Gee, I've never been so thrilled in all my life.

- Will I meet Dick Powell? - Sure. He's working in Dames.

ALJEAN HARMETZ: It was, uh, very different

from the other studios,

uh, it didn't have the upper class sheen.

You know, there's this feeling that Warner Brothers

was a-- a second rate studio.

It was a cut-rate studio,

but it wasn't second-rate.

The people who ran the studio, the Warner Brothers,

because of their desire

to squeeze pennies until they shouted,

somehow, uh, left the impression

that the studio was inferior.

Which, indeed it wasn't.

VINCE: They were considered the toughest studio

in town to work for.

And the truth was, in general,

that if you could make it at Warners,

you could make it anywhere.

NARRATOR: While Harry and Albert continued

to manage the company from New York,

38-year-old Jack supervised

the studio's growing roster of stars,

directors, writers and producers.

Under the guidance of production executive, Darryl Zanuck,

the studio developed a unique style of films

with the introduction of contemporary urban dramas

such asLittle Caesar,

starring a Broadway actor named Edward G. Robinson.

AndPublic Enemy, with a New Warner Brothers star

named James Cagney.

Stick 'em up.

Stick 'em up.

NARRATOR: In 1933, production executive, Darryl Zanuck

left the studio after a bitter fight with Harry and Jack

and was replaced by Hal Wallis,

a cool, meticulous man who had gotten his start

in the studio's publicity department.

While Wallis oversaw daily film production,

Jack kept a close watch on all studio operations

where no detail was too insignificant for his attention.

JACK: "To Hal Wallis, October 5th, 1933.

"We must put braziers on Joan Blondell

"and make her cover up her breasts.

"Otherwise we are going to have these pictures

"stopped in a lot of places.

"I believe in showing their forms,

"but for Lord's sake, don't let those bulbs stick out.

"I'm referring to her gown inConvention City."

"March 10th, 1936.

"I'm now looking at the new tests of Errol Flynn

"with his mustache darkened and he looks very good.

"I think it would be a good idea to leave the mustache on.

"It gives him a little more punch in this particular role."

"To producer Henry Blankey, May 25th, 1938.

"The park sequence inFour Daughters is very good,

"but it could have been shot on our lot here.

"We spend a fortune building a park in the studio

"and then everybody wants to go on location.

"The other fellows' grass only seems the greenest."

He was aware of just about everything

that went on in the studio,

whatever was going on on the stage.

This picture was doing well.

The director seemed to be right on top of it.

And another picture which was falling behind,

the director-- he'd put his camera up in one place

and then decided that he didn't like it there

and move it over there and that was time consuming.

So, a nice pink slip would go down to the director

saying, "One move is enough."

♪♪♪

NARRATOR: The mid 1930s to early '40s produced

what is considered to be

the Golden Age of Warner Brothers films.

[adventurous music playing]

Did I upset your plans?

You've come to Nottingham once too often.

When this is over, my friend,

there'll be no need for me to come again.

[romantic music playing]

[plane rotor roaring]

[epic music playing]

Are you ready, Ilsa?

Yes, I'm ready.

Goodbye, Rick.

God bless you.

Gotta hurry. You'll miss that plane.

♪♪♪

Ha!

NARRATOR: Jack's tight control of production

earned the company the reputation

for being the San Quentin of Studios.

Writers, actors and directors often felt like prisoners.

Hired, fired or assigned to movies as the warden decreed.

Protests were in vain, for the studio system assured

that power remained with the moguls.

In spite of such constraints,

the system created many of the studio's best films

starring actors and actresses who have since become legend.

["Give My Regards to Broadway" by George M. Cohan playing]

♪ Whisper of how you're yearning ♪

♪ To mingle with the old-time throng ♪

♪ Please give your regards to old Broadway ♪

♪ And say that you'll be there, e'er long ♪

[audience applauding]

Jack, you know, he had to contend with so much, you know.

He had to contend with the Cagneys

and the Bette Davises, who could be

very obstreperous at times, Bette Davis in particular.

[audience applauding]

Only the last word, God damn it.

He wasn't hesitant about putting somebody on suspension.

In fact, I think Warner Brothers

had more people on suspension over the years

than any studio did.

SHIRLEY: You know, I don't think he was too thrilled with actors.

At least that was the-- the feeling I got

that, you know, actors were really way down--

down the line as far as human beings.

I'll tell you what-- what he said about actresses.

I said, "Oh, aren't actresses wonderful?"

"Yeah," he says, "I guess so."

And he says, like, "Don't ever be an actress.

"Actresses, I mean, they would kill

"their grandmother for a part.

"Even if they had to eat through the wolf to get to her."

I thought, "What an analogy."

I couldn't believe it. I thought it was so funny.

And I told Gordon, he says, "Yeah, he doesn't like us."

He was talking about Bogart

one night to me and he said, uh,

"Oh," he said, "Bogart's quite a guy,"

said, "He's good," said "His only problem

"he has is, uh, when Bogey's drinking,

"and along about 11:30,

"he really thinks he's Bogart." [chuckles]

If an actor or producer came to him

and would argue over some point about a movie,

the argument was going on too long.

He'd point out the window and say,

"Whose name's on the water tower?"

In time, people became so familiar with this,

all he would have to do is just point.

DAFFY DUCK: You're killing me! I'm being murdered!

I can't stand this torture anymore.

I'm dying. You're killing me.

I'm telling you, J.L.,

you're typecasting me to death.

Comedy. All this comedy.

[imitates laughing]

Honest, J.L., you just gotta give me a dramatic part.

There were, you know, bad days and good days,

and the actors were always bitching,

complaining they weren't getting the right stories,

they weren't getting enough money and this and that.

But we were all a big family, you know,

a big quarreling family sometimes,

but on the whole, really, a very big family.

Uh, Bette, I want to thank you for coming tonight.

And, uh, just a year ago I had the extreme pleasure

congratulating you on this very spot for being awarded

the Best Actress of 1935.

And tonight is with extreme pleasure

Paul or Paul Muni to congratulate you.

I won't ad lib, I'm just stuttering along a little.

ALJEAN: I find it interesting

that many of the Warner Brothers stars

mirrored Jack Warner physically

and in terms of personality.

People like, uh, James Cagney,

Humphrey Bogart, Paul Muni.

They were all short, combative, feisty,

uh, surly.

Um, suspicious of entanglements.

I'm not fighting for anything anymore except myself.

I'm the only cause I'm interested in.

ALJEAN: His son, Jack Warner Jr.,

told me that he felt that in the bedrock

of his father's personality, his father was thinking,

"Everyone is taking advantage of me,

"everyone is trying to take advantage of me."

JACK JR: Success was his ruination.

As a young, struggling guy, he was terrific.

As an older, successful man,

he could be a dreadful person.

BILL: He did enjoy being the head of a studio.

It was his meat and drink.

In fact, he devoted probably more time to it

than he should have for his family's sake.

JACK JR: His business took him away from the home so much,

and that was another problem.

He was away a lot, working,

coming home late at night,

plus which, he was in a business which is unique.

No place, that I can think of,

is a man who is susceptible to beauty,

exposed to more beauty, feminine,

and my father liked the-- liked women.

Not woman. Women.

LINA: I guess Irma's life with Jack

wasn't very happy cause I think he probably...

did a little chasing around,

but I was very surprised when I heard the--

the rumors, you know, that-- that Jack Warner was seeing

the former wife of Don Alvarado.

NARRATOR: Ann Alvarado and Jack Warner

had met in 1932,

and though both were married, they fell very much in love.

Jack was captivated by Ann's sophisticated beauty

and intelligence which many assumed

was a product of a wealthy upbringing.

But like Jack,

Ann had come from meager beginnings.

For the next four years,

Ann and Jack would pursue their affair.

During this time, Ann's daughter, Joy,

was sent away to boarding school.

But she remembered meeting the new man in her mother's life

and related the story years later to her son, Gregory.

GREGORY: Though most of Hollywood knew about the affair,

my grandmother cautioned my mother to...

keep the fact of it a secret.

Matter of fact,

Jack Warner was introduced to my mother

not as Mr. Warner, but as Mr. Wakefield.

SHEILA MACRAE: Ann was very exciting, very much alive.

She was a great match for Jack.

The other thing that she had was

she could look and see if someone

was going to be a star.

I hear it that she's the one who found Errol Flynn.

NARRATOR: Finally, in 1936,

Jack divorced his wife, Irma,

and he and Ann were married.

In deference to his parents,

Jack had delayed the wedding until after their deaths.

But the gesture made little difference

to the other family members.

The damage was done.

CASS: Harry couldn't stand the fact

that Jack divorced his first wife.

You know, he's stayed with the woman he married

for over 50 years.

NARRATOR: Even Jack's son, Jack Jr.,

had sided with his mother in the divorce proceedings,

creating a rift between father and son that would never heal.

JACK JR: I think that the problems were

after he and my mother were divorced

and I lived with her

and he remarried and lived elsewhere,

and the-- the two lives got kind of scrambled.

Uh, with me, anyhow.

My mother's home, my father's home,

so, I was on a tightrope.

This might have been one of the reasons

I joined the Marine Corps,

you know, I wanted to get out of one hassle

and get into a controllable hassle.

NARRATOR: In letters to his son,

what emerges, is the frustration,

the impatience and the hurt of Jack Warner,

the father, who urges his son to patch up the differences,

and be better friends with Ann, his new wife.

JACK: "Dear Jackie, so, you're going

"around the world to gain knowledge.

"I'm very happy to learn that knowledge begins

"at the [indistinct] roof.

"Remember when I said keep your fingers crossed

"as well as parts of your anatomy,

"and lookout for those socialites

"whose social activity is sometimes

"more than just active.

"I'm still waiting for that letter

"to be sent to Ann that you so ardently promised.

"I think I'm entitled to many things,

"which apparently, Jackie,

"you avoid making much effort to achieve.

"Signed, your loving father."

"My dear son Jack,

"please don't keep me on needles and pins,

"and write me like a good son should.

"This is very, very cold, and I cannot understand

"how you can be this way.

"I hate to be bawling you out,

"but it seems, in defense of my own feelings,

"I have to do something.

"Your alibi being too busy does not hold water.

"Signed, with love from your father."

"Dear Jack,

"received your letter, but was surprised

"that you did not answer more to the point

"on the one that I wrote you from New York.

"I hope you will see my side, so that we can have

"a happier life together.

"I do not want to always be finding fault, Jackie,

"but unless there is some hope in one of your letters,

"it is really hopeless for me to continue writing,

"because my heart would not be in it.

"However, if you really don't want

"to give me an encouragement, let's forget it.

"Signed, your father."

NARRATOR: Thirty years later, Jack Warner would still remember

the sting of those bitter days,

and exclude from his autobiography

any mention of his first wife or of his son.

The new Mrs. Warner had no intention

of ever being excluded from her husband's memoirs.

With ambition to match her husband's,

Ann set about redesigning the Warner home in Beverly Hills

that Jack had built with his first wife.

BILL SCHAEFER: It was a heavy Spanish type house,

and it certainly didn't suit your grandmother's personality.

And-- and Jack too, I think it was--

It was a heavy house I've seen furnished.

Terrible taste, terrible taste.

GREGORY: My grandmother completely redesigned the house

over the next couple of years.

Became quite beautiful, but also very expensive.

And it led to Jack Warner saying at parties and so forth

when toasting my grandmother, he'd raised his glass and say,

"To Ann, the woman I owe everything for."

I think their happiest moments, really--

uh, her happiest moments

were when she was really creating 1801.

She had marvelous taste.

She should have been an architect

or an interior designer.

I think Ann Warner

was the ultimate domestic engineer

in that her job was to be Mrs. Warner,

and entertain his clients and his friends,

and to build a home for him

that would be impressive and comfortable

and memorable.

And it is memorable.

50 years later, 60 years later,

Sotheby experts are walking around going "Wow,"

and we're probably the most jaded people in the world.

[uplifting instrumental playing]

SHEILA: And there, on the wall,

I believe above the fireplace,

on the paneling, was this beautiful Dali.

I thought it was extraordinary.

And it was a picture of Ann Page Warner

with hair that looked somewhat

a little bit like Medusa, like snakes.

And in the background, this house is sort of

a little falling off a ravine.

So the first thing Jack says, "Oh, look at that.

Yeah, that Spaniard,

"he made her look like an embalmed wop."

So, you got the feeling

that everything that she treasured, you know,

or at least, a lot of the things that she treasured,

he sort of would make fun of,

but I got the feeling he did that about everything.

NARRATOR: In truth, Jack was delighted

with the house and with Ann,

for not only had she provided him

with a beautiful new home,

she had given him a second chance at fatherhood

with the arrival of their daughter, Barbara.

[jaunty instrumental playing]

Joining the new family, was Ann's daughter, Joy,

seen here with Jack and Barbara in 1938.

♪♪♪

SHEILA: I think she was a nervous mother.

Not nervous that she didn't like them,

but she was fearful, I think.

JEAN HOWARD: I really don't think

Ann was a very good mother, I really, don't.

Uh, they sent, uh, Barbara away

to Switzerland, far away.

And, uh, little kids don't like that.

♪♪♪

WILLIAM: Every man and his wife is different from somebody else.

And-- and, uh,

well, he-- he and Ann had different perspectives on life,

she-- she was more metaphysical,

and read all these wonderful things

about hereafter and--

not that she was that religious,

but she was interested in all sorts of,

what Jack used to call fog off the lake.

JEAN: I think he also did not like the unknown.

The one thing that he had, is he lived for the day.

[delightful instrumental continues]

[music ends]

[boots thumping]

[crowd cheering]

NEAL: Nazis imposed a very difficult dilemma

for the Hollywood Jews.

Because on the one hand,

they only want to be regarded as Americans.

On the other hand, the whole idea of Nazism

and what Nazis were doing

to their co-religious in Europe

pushed them and pushed them and pushed them

into embracing their Jewishness.

ALJEAN: It blew my mind.

Warner Brothers closed down its operations

in Germany in 1934.

And some of the studios were still running operations

at the time the Second World War began

when the Germans marched into Poland in 1939.

Every time the Germans occupied a country,

Warner Brothers would pull out.

And I-- I just am amazed

at the ethical...

and moral stance that the brothers took.

It was Harry, but Jack wasn't dragged

screaming and kicking into it.

He was carried along.

[Warner Bros. Pictures' theme song playing]

Warner Brothers, uh, made

the first anti-Nazi, uh, film

and that was Confessions of a Nazi Spy.

It was based on an actual trial.

They have been but little cogs

in the vast and intricate machine.

A worldwide spy network whose organized efficiency

leaps all oceans and boundaries

to the inner sanctums of present Germany's

highest official level.

You have done excellent work in the United States

for the [indistinct], Doctor.

From now on,

National Socialism in the United States

must place itself in the American flag.

It must appear to be a defense of Americanism.

DURWOOD BANKER: They started making movies about the Nazis,

and when they did, they were not, uh,

movies that the Nazi liked.

So, what they did, they sent them a letter

with the map of their house

and tell them if they didn't quit making these movies

about anti-Nazism,

that they were going to be buried

in a certain spot on the property.

And when they got that,

that's when they put the guards out there.

And that's why they would refuse

to have anybody take a picture of the place.

They didn't want anybody to have a map of the place after that.

They wanted their privacy, and you could understand that.

[shells blasting]

NARRATOR: World War Two found Jack Warner in uniform

as a Colonel in the Army Air Force.

Though still head of the studio, he had been drafted

to make recruiting films for the military.

["The US Air Force Song" playing]

♪ Off we go into the wild sky yonder ♪

♪ Keep the wings... ♪

Winning Your Wings was an early example,

and starred a young Air Force Lieutenant

named Jimmy Stewart.

The film addressed the nation's growing need for combat pilots,

and was shown in theatres and on college campuses

throughout the United States.

♪♪♪

Well, hello.

It looks like I'm back in the movies again, aren't I?

Well, as a matter of fact, I'd like to do some talk.

Heh?

Don't go away while I get this thing off.

I went in to see Jack,

and he turned the whole studio over...

uh, on 24-hour basis

for anything that I wanted or needed

or any department or whatever it would be.

And in 11 days, it was showing in the theatres.

Nothing had ever happened that fast before.

And it's an absolute fact,

they traced, uh...

more than 150,000

enlistment registrations to seeing that film.

♪♪♪

REPORTER: Jack L. Warner, Motion Picture executive,

arrives at March Field, California,

where he receives the Medal of Merit

from General H.H. Arnold, former Air Corps chief.

The decoration, highest conferred on a civilian,

is awarded to Mr. Warner for recruiting and Organization

of Motion Pictures for the Armed Forces personnel.

NARRATOR: A year later, Jack Warner dissolved

his commission in the Army Air Force.

He returned full time to running the studio,

but kept his military rank as a new form of address.

Colonel was now added to the list of nicknames

that included Boss, J.L.,

and the one most often used, Chief.

Uh, we were together overseas during the war for a while.

He came over there with a commission or something

from the movie industry, and we talked about--

we-- I had him come into my hotel room.

I was in a-- uh, where was that, Weisbaden,

and I had this little room, and he sat down.

He was tired out from a hard day,

and he-- he said, "Can I sleep a while?"

I said, "Sure, you relax."

And I sat down, and I read, and he slept,

and he woke up, and we talked, and we talked about--

well-- and the-- when this war is over

and, uh, we get back, things will be different.

And he-- he sounded like he wanted it to be different,

but when we got back, it wasn't different.

I know what happened.

He was great the farther away from Hollywood he got,

but there was something about being here.

NARRATOR: Jack Jr. would never become the heir

to his father's empire.

By war's end, Jack Warner was a healthy 54

with no thoughts of giving up the crown to a younger man.

But then his stepdaughter married a young actor

just out of the army, and the chance of someday,

passing on the mantle was rekindled.

Bill Orr was just 17 when he'd come west

from New York to try his luck in Hollywood.

He landed a movie contract at Warner Brothers.

How was Hollywood?

Oh, Hollywood is swell.

Uh, they just weren't ready for me yet.

I don't know if Jack Warner knew I was at Warner Brothers or not.

I know he did say, "Hello, son," once walking down the street,

so I thought that was very personal of him.

NARRATOR: Invited to the Warner home one night,

for a movie screening, he met Jack's stepdaughter, Joy,

who already was an accomplished actress

after her screen debut in the 1942 Warner Brothers film

Casablanca.

Where's your husband?

At the roulette table,

trying to win enough for our exit visas.

Of course, he's losing.

How long have you been married?

Eight weeks.

We come from Bulgaria.

WILLIAM: We were talking about getting married after the war,

and then Jack went to some party,

and Louella Parsons said to him,

"I understand Bill Orr is, uh--

"uh, are you-- is he going to marry, uh, your daughter?"

And Jack said, "Oh, yeah, I think so.

"It's not nice for them to go around too long."

[laughing] So, I called Joy from the post, and said,

"Jack has just announced that we're getting married,

"and, uh, just say yes, and we'll figure it out later."

NARRATOR: One year later,

Bill Orr abandoned his acting ambition

and accepted his father-in-law's offer

to join the studio

as an assistant production executive.

He and Jack would become close friends

over the next two decades, leading many to speculate

that Jack Warner had chosen a new heir at last.

[soft instrumental playing]

JUDGE: Mr. Warner, do you solemnly swear

that the testimony you're about to give is the truth,

the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,

so help you God?

NARRATOR: By the summer of 1947,

Jack Warner was occupied by more pressing worries

than the state of the box office,

which had fallen off sharply since the end of World War Two.

In Washington DC,

The House Un-American Activities Committee

had stepped up its campaign

to weed out suspected communists

in the motion picture industry.

The heads of the major studios were being asked

to supply the names of writers, actors, directors,

anyone, in fact, who might have sympathized

with the communist cause or whose views

might be deemed too liberal.

[Warner Bros. Pictures' theme song playing]

Though never doubted for their patriotism,

Jack and his brothers were criticized

for unknowingly helping the communist cause

with the film they made during World War Two,

calledMission to Moscow.

Produced at the personal request of President Roosevelt,

the film was an oversimplified piece of propaganda

designed to portray the decency and goodwill

of America's wartime ally,

the Soviet Union, and its leader, Joseph Stalin.

Besides your work here in Moscow,

I understand you have visited

many other sections of the Soviet Union.

I've been greatly impressed by what I've seen.

Your industrial plants, the development

of your natural resources and the work being done

to improve living conditions everywhere in Russia.

I believe, sir, that history will record you

as a great builder for the benefit of mankind.

It is not my achievement, Mr. Davies.

JACK JR: They made the Mission to Moscow

and Action in the North Atlantic,

and you had people in Washington

who felt those were pro-communist,

and what they were, were pro-Allies.

They had forgotten the Russians were on our side then.

[muffled chattering]

NEAL: Fear runs through Hollywood

from the moment that the first Hollywood moguls

entered the industry till the moment they left it.

Obviously, the HUAC period is a period of enormous fear,

because the rules have been changed for them.

LAWYER: These documents...

NEAL: Because the one thing

by which they had guided their lives,

namely, this path of patriotism and Americanism,

was now being challenged.

They were being regarded as the supervisors

of a system of subversion.

SHEILA: Jack built this platform

outside the-- the main entrance to the studio.

Everybody had to walk up and pledge that they were--

swear that-- and say they were not a communist,

and pledge to the United States.

And I said, of course, "I can't-- I can't believe

"that you have to say that."

He says, "I wanna say it.

"Me and Jack were wearing our army uniforms,

"and I certainly am saying I'm not a communist."

I said, "Yeah, but do you have to say it

"if you're not a com--"

He says, "Oh, stop being so British."

And then Jack said,

"Yeah, that's the trouble with the Brits.

"You let them curse the king and the queen,

"and everything else right in Hyde Park,

"and right outside of Buckingham Palace,

"they got those commie devils out there."

And I said, "But they're not doing anything wrong, Jack,

people can talk about things."

He says, "Not on my lot."

Our American way of life is under attack

from without and from within our national borders.

I believe it is the duty of each loyal American

to resist those attacks and defeat them.

[crowd chanting]

My brothers and I will be happy to subscribe generously

to a pest removal fund.

We are willing to establish such a fund to ship to Russia

the people who don't like

our American system of government

and prefer the communistic system to ours.

NARRATOR: Eventually, Jack Warner joined those

in capitulating to the demands

of the House committee.

Names were given, black lists compiled,

careers ended.

♪♪♪

"Uneasy lies the head that wears the toilet seat,"

Jack Warner would often say in the face of adversity.

With the departure of producer Hal Wallis in 1944,

Jack had taken an even greater role

in overseeing the studio's production of movies.

The split with Wallis had come

after the 1943 Academy Awards,

where Jack had rushed the stage to accept

the Best Picture Award forCasablanca,

a movie Wallis had independently produced

while at the studio.

[man speaking indistinctly]

Come over to 103, will ya?

NARRATOR: Warner Brothers continued to make

memorable movies throughout the late 1940s to mid-50s.

Though the number of films released each year

had been cut by half since the beginning of the war.

Hello, everybody.

This is Mrs. Norman Maine.

[audience applauding]

Aw, leave him alone.

Can't you see the old man's nuts?

[laughs] Nuts? Nuts, am I? Let me tell you something...

NARRATOR: In 1948, director John Huston

broke with tradition by shooting his production

ofTreasure of the Sierra Madre on location in Mexico,

far from the studio back lot

and the watchful eyes of Jack Warner.

...You don't even see the riches

you're treading on with your own feet.

NARRATOR: Other breaks with tradition came

with the signing of a moody young actor

named James Dean,

seen here shooting his second film

for Warner Brothers, Rebel Without a Cause.

[suspenseful instrumental playing]

MAN: Dr. Minton! Dr. Minton!

Hey.

All right, you asked for it, you got it.

- What is it? - Trouble.

Are you satisfied or do you want some more?

NARRATOR: The post war years had brought a profound change

to the men who ran the studios.

The once iron grip of the moguls

was being pried loose by forces beyond their control.

Actors were suing, and suing successfully

to break long-term contracts that had kept them

virtual prisoners of the studio system.

Television, that new and little understood medium,

was also a threat, as audiences stayed home,

preferring the black and white images

that flickered from the tube

over the 3D and widescreen color epics

Hollywood was making to lure them back

into the theatres.

Ah, there's someone with a bag of popcorn.

Close your mouth. It's the bag I'm aiming at.

Not your tonsils. Here she comes.

NARRATOR: Even the United States government

had seemingly conspired to hurt the moguls

in what became known as the Consent Decrees,

the studios were forced to sell off their movie theatres

in order to avoid antitrust lawsuits.

To an outsider, it might appear as business as usual,

but for anyone paying attention, the verdict was in.

Heading up a major motion picture studio

was not as much fun as it used to be.

RUDI FEHR: Every morning,

Bill Schaefer would call me, called the Boss,

and then he would warn me

"He's a little scratchy this morning."

He was scratchy almost every morning.

JACK: "To Steve Trilling, December 26th, 1947.

"I can't impress upon you emphatically enough

"the importance of cutting the budgets.

"Everything must come down, and anyone

"who doesn't want to cooperate will just have to.

"We are fighting a hell of a battle,

"and you must tell every director and writer

"in no uncertain terms."

I think, as the studio began contracting

uh, and there were fewer

actors and actresses under contract,

and fewer directors under contract.

More people going independent,

and the rise of agencies in that period,

all of these things happening simultaneously.

The whole industry became discombobulated.

And then there's another factor

that has nothing to do with the industry itself,

but that has everything to do, I think,

with the power of the moguls, and that is age.

I mean, these men had commanded this industry

for a remarkably long period of time,

virtually from its inception, now to the early '50s.

And into the early '50s they are much, much older

and the resilience that they had when they were young,

and they could challenge everybody

and take on all comers was gone.

They didn't have that kind of-- of ability.

And so the Harry Warners, the Louis B. Mayers,

the Harry Cohns, eventually, all fall by the wayside,

because they can't adapt anymore.

They've lost that-- that jungle ability to adapt.

["La Mer" by Starlite Orchestra playing]

♪ La mer ♪

♪ Qu'on voit danser ♪

NARRATOR: Old age was of no concern

to Jack Warner, who in 1955, was a youthful 63.

While his brothers Harry and Albert,

as well as some of the other studio bosses,

might have been slowing down,

Jack continued with the energy of a man half his age.

The demands of the movie business

were not enough to dampen his spirits

or prevent a yearly vacation at his villa

in the south of France.

Here, under the Mediterranean sun,

Jack held court, entertaining friends and family

such as his stepdaughter, Joy, and her husband Bill Orr,

now as senior Warner Brothers Executive.

GREGORY: Listen, I had a great time with him.

He was always up.

Ninety-nine percent of the time he seemed to be enjoying life.

I never saw him down.

I never heard him worry about something in the past.

He says, "Who let the-- Clark Gable go? Me.

"So I'm still here, and I don't worry

"about those things," and that was his attitude.

Done, done.

RUDI: Uh, at times I had a feeling he dreaded going home.

We-- we all know that his relationship

was not the best with Mrs. Warner at the time.

Many times he took me home with him

because he wanted to run film.

After dinner, we never-- I never saw Mrs. Warner.

He and I had dinner alone

and we were invited to dinner parties,

my wife and I.

On-- to your father's birthday once.

And, uh, I knew Mrs. Warner was in her room

because the lights were on.

But Mr. Warner would say

that, "Oh, she's in Palm Springs

"and right now at-- at--" you know...

made excuses for her.

BILL: "That's why your grandmother," she told me.

On one of our-- the last trips,

well, I think, I guess it could have been the last trip

that I made when she was along.

Uh, that she said, you know,

"I'm-- I'm tired of the Hollywood scene.

"It's so funny and, uh,

"I-- I just don't care to be part of it."

And from about that time, shortly after, she stopped--

they stopped entertaining.

Which is too bad in a way,

because it caused your grandfather

to do things he normally wouldn't have done.

Yeah, you know, taking out other women.

[inaudible chatter]

NARRATOR: It had never been a complete secret,

even from Ann,

that Jack enjoyed the company of women

other than his wife.

But now he was taking his mistress

to premieres and parties, and on more than one occasion,

attempting to pass her off

as a titled Lady of the British Aristocracy.

JACKIE: We went to the command performance of My Fair Lady

and I-- and the whole place stood up,

you know, when we walked in and I thought, "Oh,

this is it, this is Cinderella."

This is the-- this is the fantasy.

So then we went to, uh, the party in London,

Lord Louis Mountbatten's house and he introduced me

and he said, "This is Lady Scarborough,

she has a heart of gold and is snatched to match."

And I just wanted to go under the table

and everybody... [laughs] ...everybody laughed.

But this is the way he would introduce me.

The world knows that ours is

the best-advertised nation on Earth.

NARRATOR: Harry Warner was the one person

Jack wanted out of his life more than anyone else.

The oldest Warner brother

had moved to Los Angeles from New York

and had tried to become more involved

in the day-to-day operations of the studio.

With Harry and Jack now living in the same city,

the tension between them mounted.

We used to have a private dining room there

and Harry used to come in from time to time

and do a critique on one of our pictures

that he didn't think was so good.

And, uh, Jack used to say,

"Harry, I don't know what good you're doing.

"Here's the producer, and here's the director.

"And the writers are here. What good are you doing?

"The picture isn't good. We know it's not good.

"You don't have to make a speech about it."

A little more angry than that.

As long as Harry had stayed in New York

and Jack stayed in Los Angeles, they got on great.

But Harry immersed himself in the creative area

instead of the business.

My father resented it and there was, uh, friction

and it hurt the company

and eventually I think it led to the breakup,

uh, because the brothers had bad blood

and Abe was a distant referee.

I always think of him wearing a striped shirt.

NARRATOR: In 1956, Jack saw his chance

to be rid of Harry once and for all

when the three brothers agreed

to sell their stock in the studio

to a syndicate of bankers.

Unbeknownst to Harry and Albert, Jack had made prior arrangements

to buy back his shares and keep his job.

Immediately after the sale, Harry was devastated

when he learned of his brother's duplicity,

but there was nothing he could do.

Jack Warner had become sole head of Warner Brothers.

CASS: As soon as he found out

Jack was president of the company,

he, um, had a stroke.

That day he had a stroke.

And he never really fully recovered.

Um, from that he walked with the cane after that

and then he just deteriorated from that point on.

[somber music playing]

NARRATOR: In 1958,

two years after what he considered

to be his brother's ultimate betrayal,

Harry Warner fell victim

to a more serious stroke and died.

Jack was on his way to the South of France

for his annual vacation when he heard the news.

He chose not to return for his brother's funeral.

A week after Harry's death,

Jack was returning to his villa in the South of France

with $40,000 worth of winnings

from the casino tables in nearby Cannes...

when he smashed his Alfa Romeo sports car

into an oncoming truck.

And made headlines that prematurely pronounced

Jack Warner dead.

WILLIAM: Yeah, he was badly hurt.

He was-- he was really broken up

and he had all sorts of things.

He had, uh, a cracked skull, ribs.

And he had-- whatever he-- he could have

without dying he had, he was in very bad shape.

NARRATOR: The French doctors packed his battered body in ice,

hoping it would stabilize his injuries.

The treatment worked,

but it would be many months

before he recovered.

Upon his return to the studio,

one of his first acts would be to fire his son, Jack Jr.,

who had been in charge of a division

that made commercials and educational films.

In Jack Warner's eyes, his son had betrayed him

by speaking to the press soon after the accident.

His statements were interpreted as confirmation

that his father was dying,

a suggestion Jack Warner could never forgive.

JACK JR: Uh, I was out of there

the day before he came back.

Arnold Grant told me he wouldn't return

if I was still there.

I mean, it was that, uh...

that violent of a response.

Why? I don't know. What did I do to him?

NARRATOR: With the dismissal of Jack Warner's son,

many in Hollywood assumed that Warner Brothers executive,

Bill Orr, would become successor to Jack's studio.

ANNOUNCER: From the entertainment capital

of the world comes Warner Brothers presents

the hour that presents Hollywood to you.

Made expressly for television

by one of the great motion picture studios.

NARRATOR: Since 1956,

Bill Orr had been supervising the studio's output

of successful television series,

which includedMaverick starring James Garner,

and77 Sunset Strip,

featuring a young actor named Efrem Zimbalist Jr.

Your father's product,

uh, nine-- nine series, I think,

we had-- we had going, uh, with the whole ABC output.

It was the whole prime time product of ABC

and, uh, it-- it was-- it was supporting the studio

and they-- they could make money with features

or lose money with features

but that was-- that was footing the bill.

GREGORY: My father tells a story that,

when he was put in charge of television

and making these TV shows,

Jack Warner never once saw any of the television shows

before they went out to be delivered to the TV stations.

He didn't even want to know about 'em.

They made him money, that was fine,

but he really hated the medium.

NARRATOR: By 1964,

Jack Warner had promoted Bill Orr

to executive in charge of all production.

The message seemed clear.

Jack Warner was stepping aside in favor of his son-in-law.

But that was before a Warner Brothers vice president

named Ben Kalmenson

proved instrumental in changing the course

of Jack Warner's life and that of Bill Orr's.

WILLIAM: I think he had a long range plan,

which was to get Jack to step back,

put me in charge of it,

which he thought maybe he'd want.

And then get Jack to quit.

And then fire me. [laughs]

I do know that Benny did want to be president of the company.

I just think he was getting a lot of...

flak from-- from Benny.

I don't know if you call it flak, or...

or pressure, a lot of pressure.

Then the thing of selling the studio came along.

And, uh...

um, just prior to selling it,

uh, I was, uh, terminated, I guess, is the word.

NARRATOR: In 1965,

heeding the advice of Ben Kalmenson,

Jack Warner instructed his attorney

to contact his son-in-law and fire him.

JACK: Most of the time, fortunately,

I don't really care what people think of Jack Warner.

I learned early in life that many people

do not have friendly feelings about successful men.

There was a time when I was thin-skinned about many things.

But I was finally cured of too much sensitivity

by an unlikely combination of friends.

NARRATOR: Charlie Chaplin and Al Jolson

had been his friends,

as had Sid Grauman of movie theatre fame.

But these relationships had,

for various reasons, fallen by the wayside.

Death, too, played its part

in separating Jack from those

he knew and loved when young.

There was Doc Saloman,

a Warner Brothers employee since the beginning,

killed in London during the Blitz of World War Two.

Motley Flint,

the banker who believed in Jack and his brothers

before many others did.

Also killed when a vengeful client

marched into a courtroom

and shot the banker point blank in the face.

Brother David Warner, who died in 1936

in a Boston sanatorium after a lengthy illness.

And who never got the chance

to join his illustrious brothers

in the movie business.

Younger brother, Milton,

a star baseball player in high school

who died young on the eve

of signing with the New York Giants.

And of course, Sam Warner,

who had been Jack's closest friend

while growing up.

Perhaps the only man who came close

to the affection Jack felt for his late brother

was not a friend or family member,

but an employee.

JACK: The man who knew me best

and might have offered to talk about me

in his fumbling but honest way

is no longer here.

His name was Abdul Maljan

and around the lot he was known as Abdul The Turk.

I paid him about $200 a week and in exchange,

though he would have worked for nothing,

he gave me a kind of faith that

does not seem to exist very often these days.

He literally pulled me out of bed every morning

and forced me into a cold shower.

He got me into the steam room,

even though I complained that I didn't have the time

and that I was perhaps risking large sums

every minute I stayed away from the office.

"Any bum make millions," he would murmur,

"But only smart man learn how to live."

It may seem ironic and strange to some people in Hollywood

that the boss of a studio had to rely on a Turkish masseur

for one of the intimate friendships of his life.

NARRATOR: Though he knew

the days of the studio mogul were dying,

Jack managed in those last years

to see a handful of memorable and innovative movies get made.

In 1964,

60 years after he and his brothers

had pawned their father's horse

so as to buy a used movie projector,

Jack Warner produced his greatest triumph.

My Fair Lady, starring Rex Harrison

and Audrey Hepburn,

would go on to earn eight Academy Awards,

including Best Picture.

["I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" by Rex Harrison]

♪ But I'm so used to hear her say ♪

♪ "Good morning" ev'ry day ♪

♪ Her joys, her woes ♪

♪ Her highs, her lows ♪

♪ Are second nature to me now ♪

♪ Like breathing out and breathing in ♪

♪ I'm very grateful she's a woman ♪

♪ And so easy to forget ♪

♪ Rather like a habit one can always break ♪

♪ And yet ♪

♪ I've grown accustomed to the trace ♪

♪ Of something in the air ♪

♪ Accustomed to her face ♪

I washed my face and hands before I come, I did.

Where the devil are my slippers?

NARRATOR: Jack had gambled once more

and unlike that fateful night

six years earlier in the south of France,

had returned home with his winnings in hand.

JACK: Not only am I happy, everybody is happy

to have participated in the making of this film

because it's an outstanding production.

Have you ever seen the film, by the way?

Can I quote you? What is your name?

- MAN: My name is[indistinct]. - [indistinct]

All right, brother, you-- you-- thank you.

I shouldn't kid with you. Thank you for everything.

MAN: You have a good backhand but no taste in movies.

INTERVIEWER: How about you, Mr. Harrison, what...

NEAL: It was the end of-- of the giants.

The whole system had changed

and the giants couldn't control it anymore.

In an industry where things were all kind of fooling apart,

uh, stars going off and signing with agents

and-- and making their own deals,

directors becoming freelance.

I mean, it was a period of free agency.

And in a period of free agency,

It's not the owner who controls the situation.

And it's the players who control the situation

and in that kind of environment...

it was almost impossible for Jack Warner to survive.

NARRATOR: In 1967,

in a scheme reminiscent of Jack's betrayal

11 years earlier of his own brother, Harry,

Warner Brothers Vice President Ben Kalmenson

convinced his boss to sell his shares in the studio.

A decision he would later regret.

Though allowed by the new owners

to keep his title as chief of production,

Jack Warner soon realized he was a chief in name only.

In 1969, he quit the studio

and drove out the Warner Brothers gates

for the last time.

He returned to his home in Beverly Hills.

And except for two films made independently,

neither of which impressed audiences or critics,

he stayed away from making movies.

♪[indistinct lyrics] ♪

MAN: [indistinct], for God's sake, listen to them.

♪[indistinct lyrics] ♪

Hollywood is a very forgetful place.

Hollywood is a-- is a community with very little perspective.

Once you were separated from the studio,

which was the source of all of your power,

the source of all of your status,

you had nothing.

Jack Warner, separated from Warner Brothers

was nothing.

He was no longer Jack Warner.

To be Jack Warner

you had to be attached to the Warner Brothers Studio.

This was a kind of Siamese twin relationship,

but when you hack the twins away,

one of them's going to die.

And in this case, it was Jack Warner.

Oh, yes, you can go and play tennis.

You know, you can-- you have, you know,

a small coterie of friends,

but you don't have the very things

that sustained you for your entire professional life.

Those things are gone.

NARRATOR: In 1978,

Jack Warner died from the effects of a stroke

suffered several years earlier while playing tennis at home.

JACK JR: No one called. I read it in the paper.

I had been trying to see him

for months and months and months.

I came up to the house over in Angelo

and all I talked to was the, uh, guard

and the, uh, speaker box.

That's a part of-- uh, of the history

that is unbelievable.

Uh...

uh, I'm, you know the--

he was, uh...

I-- I don't know how to put this word.

It's-- I-- in fact, I'm not gonna put it,

it was just unfortunate

that was a part of-- uh, of the history

that was badly written and poorly played out.

[somber music playing]

NARRATOR: Jack's casket lay in the sanctuary

at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles

under the murals depicting the history of the Jews.

Murals that had been a gift of the Warner Brothers

many years before.

His widow, Ann, had insisted on a small funeral

attended only by family members and a few close friends.

The setting was too grand for such an intimate gathering,

so the casket was moved upstairs to a smaller chapel.

And it was there that the family said goodbye.

12 years later, Jack's wife Ann passed away

and was buried with her husband.

GREGORY: I used to think of my grandfather

as a character, a vaudevillian,

but I now see him as more like an entertainment machine,

like the studio system he helped create.

And in that system everyone has a role or a department...

but I found there was no department named "Family."

So we parked in "Visitor."

NARRATOR: Within three months, their home in Beverly Hills

was purchased for a record sum

and the entire content sold at auction.

I think these moguls left a remarkable legacy,

especially when you consider

that these were impoverished immigrants,

totally uneducated.

They left something that may be

the most powerful legacy

in the 20th century in America.

Not only did they leave

a brilliant set of motion pictures,

which I think people will continue to watch

for hundreds of years.

But they also created values

which continue to govern our lives even now.

They left a mythology...

about who we are as Americans,

where we came from and where we're going

that is as powerful in shaping our lives

as any single mythology

in this country.

So I think that when-- when you look at the legacy,

you're really looking at the definition

of who we are as Americans.

RICK BLAINE: Of all the gin joints

in all the towns and all the world...

she walks into mine.

MARIE BROWNING: You know how

to whistle, don't you, Steve?

You just put your lips together

and blow.

CHARLOTTE VALE: Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon.

We have the stars.

GREGORY: What I admire most about my grandfather

was his ability to adapt.

Despite the limitations of a sixth grade education,

he found a way to survive the film industry.

♪ Over there, over there ♪

♪ Send the word, send the word, over there ♪

Many people were forced out along the way.

He hung in there for over 50 years

to run a movie studio.

♪ So prepare, say a prayer ♪

♪ Send the word, send the word to beware ♪

♪ We'll be over, we're coming over ♪

♪ And we won't be back till it's over... ♪

SOLDIER: What's the matter, old timer?

Don't you remember this song?

Seems to me I do.

Well, I don't hear anything.

♪ Send the word, send the word, over there ♪

♪ That the Yanks are coming... ♪

GREGORY: So when people look at the history of the studio,

I'd like them to see the man behind the movies.

[Jack laughs]

Yeah, so I think you want to know the people

whom I had a part in making motion picture stars.

- Correct? - Yes.

Oh, people, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn,

Edward G. Robinson, Jimmy Cagney,

James Dean, Clark Gable.

Oh, a hundred more active names, Humphrey Bogart.

And of course the greatest of all stars at that time

was Rin Tin Tin.

It was a dog.

[speaking in other language] ...Rin Tin Tin.

R-- R-- Rin Tin Tin.

[overlapping chatter]

["When the Red Red Robin" by Al Jonson playing]

♪ I heard a robin this mornin' ♪

♪ I'm feeling happy today ♪

♪ Gonna pack my cares in a whistle ♪

♪ Gonna blow them all away ♪

♪ What if I've been unlucky? ♪

♪ Really, I ain't got a thing ♪

♪ There's a time I always feel happy ♪

♪ As happy as a king ♪

♪ When the red, red robin ♪

♪ Comes bob, bob bobbin' along, along ♪

♪ There'll be no more sobbing when he starts throbbing ♪

♪ His own sweet song ♪

♪ Wake up, wake up, you sleepy head ♪

♪ Get up, get up, get out of bed ♪

♪ Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red ♪

♪ Live, love, laugh and be happy ♪

♪ What if I've been blue ♪

♪ Now I'm walking through fields of flowers ♪

♪ Rain may glisten ♪

♪ But still I listen for hours and hours ♪

♪ I'm just a kid again, doing what I did again ♪

♪ Singing a song ♪

♪ When the red, red robin ♪

♪ Comes bob, bob bobbin' along ♪

♪ When the red, red robin ♪

♪ Comes bob, bob bobbin' along, along ♪

♪ There'll be no more sobbing when he starts throbbing ♪

♪ His own sweet song ♪

♪ Wake up, wake up, you sleepy head ♪

♪ Get up, get up, get out of bed ♪

♪ Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red ♪

♪ Live, love, laugh and be happy ♪

♪ What if I've been blue ♪

♪ Now I'm walking through fields of flowers ♪

♪ Rain may glisten ♪

♪ But still I listen for hours and hours ♪

♪ I'm just a kid again, doing what I did again ♪

♪ Singing a song ♪

♪ When the red, red robin ♪

♪ Comes bob, bob bobbin' along ♪