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warner
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warner
bros and warner communications
This profile considers Warner Bros studio and Warner Communications,
the US media group that merged with Time Inc to form Time
Warner.
It covers -
 introduction
In 1989 Time Inc, examined on the first page of this profile,
acquired Warner Communications, Inc. for US$14 billion.
the
studio
The
Warner Brothers Studio was founded in Hollywood in 1923
by Harry Warner (1881-1958) and brothers Albert (1882-1967),
Sam (1887-1927) and Jack (1892-1978). Establishment was
driven by the desirability of securing content for cinemas
and film exchanges controlled by the brothers and their
associates. It reflected similar integration by groups
such as MGM and Paramount.
The three oldest brothers were born in Poland; Jack was
born in Ontario. By 1903 the Warners had changed their
name (from Eichelbaum) and opened a nickelodeon in New
Castle, Pennsylvania, going on to acquire other venues
in the US east coast. In 1912 they began film production
in New York City and opened a studio in California (in
Sunset Strip, LA) in 1918. Jack served as production chief,
with Albert looking after distribution and Harry acting
as corporate president of a group that integrated production,
distribution and exhibition.
In 1925 Warners established the Vitaphone Co. using technology
from AT&T, beginning experimental
sound pictures at the Warner Vitagraph studio in Brooklyn.
A year later Warners Don Juan, starring John Barrymore,
featured music but no spoken dialogue. In 1927 Warners
moved Vitaphone to Hollywood and released Al Jolson's
The Jazz Singer, a box-office hit generally considered
to mark the breakthrough into talking pictures. That -
and endorsement by AT&T - enabled them to get backing
for acquisition of First National Pictures (studios in
Burbank, California) and the Stanley Company's 250 cinemas.
During the 1930s the studio became known for noir films
- sometimes accused of glorifying the gangster lifestyle
- and costume epics such as Robin Hood and The
Crimson Pirate. Warner stars included James Cagney,
Edward G Robinson, Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn. The
Warner cartoon studio (centred on Bugs Bunny and Daffy
Duck) began in 1930 with refugees from Disney (notably
animators Rudolf Ising and Friz Freleng). It entered the
music business in 1930 with acquisition of Brunswick Records
and four music publishers for US $28 million; those operations
were sold by the end of the decade.
In 1948 Warners was the first major US studio to show
a color newsreel and sold much of its film library to
MGM. That did not perceptibly lessen
the impact of television - the brothers failed to proceed
with a proposal to buy the ABC network
- or relinquishment of its US exhibition operations in
the 1950s following the Paramount Consent Decree. The
end of the 'studio system' had begun in 1944, with a court
ruling that Warners must release Olivia de Havilland after
a 7 year contract. Warners had increased its stake in
ABPC to 37.5% in 1945 but in 1949
was ordered to divest cinema chain.
Harry and Albert sold their stake in 1956 but Jack Warner
remained as executive in charge of production until 1967
when he sold his stake in Warners - and thus control of
the group (inc Warner Bros. Records and Reprise Records)
- to Seven Arts Productions. The overall cost of the deal
was around US$95 million. Seven Arts, which had been founded
in 1957 by Ray Stark (1914-2004) and Eliot Hyman, then
merged with its subsidiary, becoming Warner-Seven Arts.
Warner Bros. Records had been launched in 1958, gaining
attention for a 1960 deal with the Everly Brothers - supposedly
the first million dollar record contract. In 1963 it acquired
Reprise Records, founded by Frank Sinatra in 1960. Seven
Arts purchased Atlantic Records in 1967.
Warner
Communications
Durting 1967 DC Comics (founded 1937), All-American Comics
and Ashley Famous talent agency had been acquired by parking-lot
to funeral parlour group Kinney National Services. The
conglomerate had been formed in 1966 through the merger
of the Kinney Parking Company and the National Cleaning
Company.
In 1969 Warner-Seven Arts was acquired by Kinney National.
In 1971, amid financial scandal over its parking operations
(spun off and acquired by Central Parking in 1998 for
US$205 million), Kinney was renamed Warner Communications.
In the preceding year Warner Music opened in Australia
and the group bought Elektra records (founded by Jac Holzman
in 1950) for US$10 million, subsequently combining its
music operations under the Warner Elektra Asylum (WEA)
banner.
During 1976 Warner Communications acquired Atari from
Nolan Bushnell for US$28 million, only to unload most
of Atari to Jack Tramiel (the founder of Commodore Computers)
in 1984. It sold Panavision and its cosmetics business
at that time. A resurgent Warner paid Polygram
some US$275 million for Chappell Music publishing in 1987.
During the following year WEA acquired Teldec records
(Germany) and Magnet records (UK)
In 1990 Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to
form Time Warner.
after
the merger
In 1995 Warner Bros - and the Time Warner film and audio
arm - created the WB Network as a broadcast outlet for
Warner Brothers' programming.
Studies
Connie Bruck, author of The Predator's Ball, provided
the best study of Steve Ross and Warner Communications
in Master of the Game: Steve Ross & the Creation
of Time Warner (New York: Simon & Schuster 1994).
Context for the first fifty years is provided by the essential
Movies & Money: Financing the American Film Industry
(Norwood: Ablex 1982) by Janet Wasko, The American
Film Industry (Madison: Uni of Wisconsin Press 1985)
edited by Tino Balio, Tom Sito's Drawing the Line:
The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to
Bart Simpson (Lexington: Uni Press of Kentucky 2007)
and The American Movie Industry: The Business of Motion
Pictures (Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni Press
1982) edited by Gorham Kindem. Douglas Gomery's superb
The Hollywood Studio System (New York: St Martins
1986) and Thomas Schatz' The Genius of the System
(New York: Simon & Schuster 1988) can be supplemented
by Hollywood In The Age of Television (Boston:
Unwin Hyman 1990) edited by Tino Balio
For the Warner studio see Jack Warner's thin memoir My
First Hundred Years in Hollywood (New York: Random
House 1965) and Clown Prince of Hollywood: The Antic
Life & Times of Jack L. Warner (New York: McGraw-Hill
1990) by Bob Thomas.
Charles Higham's Warner Brothers (New York: Scribner
1975) concentrates on the warts; Here's Looking at
You, Kid: 50 Years of Fighting, Working, and Dreaming
at Warner Bros (Boston: Little-Brown 1976) by James
Silke looks at the stars. The Warner Bros. Story
(New York: Crown 1979) by Clive Hirschhorn and Inside
Warner Bros. (1935-1951) (New York: Viking 1986) offer
photos and anecdotes, complemented by the more searching
A New Deal in Entertainment: Warner Brothers in the
1930s (London: BFI 1983) from Nick Roddick.
We have noted Richard Clurman's To The End of Time
(New York: Simon & Schuster 1992) for its insider's-eye
view of the Warner takeover of the Time-Life empire in
a previous bout of industry consolidation. The three
volume Time Inc: The Intimate History of a Publishing
Enterprise (New York: Atheneum 1968-1986) by Robert
Elson is a solid corporate history.
Fredric Dannen's Hit Men: Power Brokers & Fast
Money Inside The Music Business (New York: Vintage
1991) is an acerbic expose of fine times among the contemporary
music business. Norman Lebrecht's Maestros, Masterpieces
& Madness: The Secret Life and Shameful Death of the
Classical Record Industry (London: Allen Lane 2007)
and When The Music Stops (New York: Simon &
Schuster 1996) provide a similar account of classical
music recording.
Tom King's David Geffen: A Biography Of New Hollywood
(London: Hutchinson 2000) suggests that while industry
structures have changed - more independent production
for example - the personalities haven't. Stephen Singular's
The Rise & Rise of David Geffen (New York:
Birch Lane 1997) is less substantial.
For Atlantic see Music Man: Ahmet Ertegun, Atlantic
Records, & the Triumph of Rock 'n' Roll (New York:
1990) by Dorothy Wade & Justine Picardie, Making
Tracks: Atlantic Records and the Growth of a Multi-Billion-Dollar
Industry (London: Panther 1975) by Charlie Gillett
and Exploding: The Highs, Hits, Hype, Heroes, and
Hustlers of the Warner Music Group (New York: HarperCollins
2003) by Stan Cornyn & Paul Scanlon.
Christopher Byron's The Fanciest Dive: What Happened
When The Media Empire of Time/Life Leaped Without Looking
Into The Age of High Tech (New York: Norton 1986)
is overly anecdotal but suggests that the suits at AOLTW
are rediscovering - the hard way - that 'it ain't as easy
as it looks'.
Digital Babylon (New York: Arcade 1999) by John
Geirland & Eva Sonesh-Kedar is a similar account of
Hollywood meets the internet.
For perspectives on the evolving cable television industry
we recommend Vertical Integration in Cable Television
(Cambridge: MIT Press 1997) by David Waterman & Andrew
Weiss.
For DC Comics see Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters
and the Birth of the Comic Book (New York: Basic
Books 2004) by Gerard Jones.
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