Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Photography and portraiture - Who is the founder of the film empire?

Who is the founder of the film empire?

Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack Warner established the West Coast Film Studio in 19 17, and established Warner Bros. Film Company in 1923. At that time, its headquarters was in new york, and its studio was in burbank near Hollywood, and it was listed on 1925. 1925 annexed Vitagraf company and invested in the audio technology jointly developed by its subsidiary Vitafeng company and western electric company.

192710/0 On October 6th, Warner Bros. released the first musical film "Jazz Singer" in the world film history, which made Warner enter the ranks of the eight major Hollywood film companies in the early 1930s. 1July, 928, the first full-tone film "Light of New York" was released. The first jazz singer with a talking film exhausted Sam Warner's efforts, and he died in the same year. Warner Bros. turned to TV production in the 1950s. In 1930s, Warner Company was famous for shooting police films, musical films and biographies, especially police films starring E.C. Robinson, J.J. Jacqueline and H. Bogart .. There were also many well-known works in the biographies, such as Zola (1937) starring P. Muni. Warner's films are generally simple, compact and low-cost, and the theme is more or less related to the American economic crisis in the early 1930s. During the depression of American movies in 1950s, Warner turned its financial resources to making TV series. Since the 1960s, more and more films have been made by investing in independent filmmakers. Successfully filmed My Fair Lady (1964), which harmed Bob Virginia Wolf (1966), Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and so on.

Jack Warner was born in a shoemaker's family in Canada on August 2, 1992. His father Ben Warner, a Polish Jew, came to Canada in the immigration tide at the end of 19. Two years after Jack was born, Ben Warner moved to Youngstown, Ohio, USA. Later, with the help of a banker, the whole family gave up their lifelong shoe repair business and started a meat product business.

At the age of seven, Jack was sent to school. He has to get up for three hours to deliver meat to his clients before going to school every day, but this part-time study career can't last long. Due to the lack of labor at home, Jack had to drop out of school at the age of 12 and start helping in the shop. But Jack soon got tired of this life. In order to get rid of this boring life, whenever someone holds a wedding or birthday party, Jack goes to perform. Soon he ran away from home and toured all over Ohio and Pennsylvania, and gave himself a stage name "Children's Singer Leon Huaddo".

Jack's brother Sam advised Jack not to dream of becoming an actor and suggested that he choose a career related to movies, such as film director or agent. Because the film industry is a new industry, it can not only make money, but also have unlimited prospects. Jack took his brother's advice. So, the two brothers took out their savings and bought a movie projector with the old horse pulling carts and delivering meat at home as collateral. In this way, 12-year-old jack warner and his brother Sam broke into an industry they knew nothing about, trying to make a fortune in this new field. When Jack Warner Bros broke into the film industry, it was only 10 years old. Warner Bros. was very talented when he first entered the film industry. The first film they showed publicly was great train robbery directed by Edwin S. Porter. Although the film ended in only 12 minutes, it became a milestone in the history of world movies because it was the earliest film with a complete story. At first, Warner Bros. didn't have its own fixed cinema, but just toured around with projection equipment. Sometimes it is shown indoors, and sometimes it is shown in an open place like a park, but their income is also very considerable. In the first week, the ticket income was more than 300 dollars, more than their father earned in a butcher shop in a month. Soon, Warner Bros. had their first cinema, and they gave the cinema a name full of money-Gemstone. Gem Cinema is located in Newcastle, Pennsylvania. 19 12, Warner Bros. began to make its own films and expand its film distribution business. By 1922, Warner Bros. had gained a firm foothold in the film industry in the silent film era.

In the mid-1920s, they set up their own studio on Hollywood Boulevard. In the 1920s, some problems existing in audio movies could be solved by recording the speakers and amplifying the sound in the "three-stage vacuum tube". So the big electric company that makes radio equipment became the owner of the patent right of sound film. At that time, these patents were mainly monopolized by American General Electric Company, Western Electric Company Group, German A. e. g. Tobies Company and Crane Film Company. Western Electric Company has suggested that major American film companies, also controlled by Morgan Consortium, adopt its recording technology. But these big film companies are satisfied with the existing achievements of silent films and think that this new technology is a scourge. Once adopted, it will definitely endanger the hegemony of Hollywood, and no one dares to risk being the first person to eat crabs. Therefore, Western electric companies chose Warner Bros. as their partners, because Jack Warner and his brother Sam Warner are not only pioneers, but also very interested in the method of replacing the orchestra with loudspeakers in the cinema. At this time, Warner Bros.' small film company has bought the ancient company Vitagraf and a small projection network composed of 15 cinemas. However, if Warner Bros. adopts this technology, it will be financially tight because the funds are used to expand its business scale. Warner Bros. decided to use the last capital only for filming Don Juan, an opera starring the famous singer Al Johnson, and it was a great success, with a box office income of $3.5 million. The success of Don Juan shows the infinite charm and potential huge market of audio movies. 1927, Warner Bros. produced The King of Jazz, which is recognized as the first sound film in the world, and this film still stars Al Johnson. This film is largely an autobiography of Jack Warner, or it can be said that it is a review of his childhood dream of becoming a singer. The release of King of Jazz was more successful than Don Juan, with a box office income of $5 million. Not only that, but the film also caused a hurricane of talking movies in Hollywood. Hollywood film companies have seen the great advantages of sound films and entered the field of sound films one after another. The success of "The King of Jazz" announced the arrival of the era of audio movies. Warner Bros. Film Company has thus become one of the film giants.

In 1930s, although the American economy was in the Great Depression, Warner Bros. made great progress, and together with MGM and Paramount, it became the three major film companies at that time. During this period, Warner Bros. released a series of movies about gangsters in big cities, such as The Fairy and Caesar starring Edward S. Robinson, which brought a whirlwind of gangster movies to the film industry. In addition, Warner Bros. also made other films, mostly based on real life, depicting social problems in a realistic way. Compared with rival film companies, Warner Bros.' films are more fashionable. From 65438 to 0940, Warner Bros. has developed into a film empire with thousands of employees and more than 50 films released every year. During World War II, Jack used movies to fight against fascism and support the just cause of world anti-fascism. He not only supported the shooting of military films from financial and material resources, so as to quickly train military talents badly needed in the war, but also filmed Confessions of a Nazi spy based on the real incident of a German spy network uncovered in the United States, and so on. For this reason, he was once threatened by the Nazis, so that he had to set up guards around his house in Beverly Hills. But as a Jew, Jack was not intimidated, but mobilized the whole Hollywood to fight against the Nazis.

After the war, under the pressure of the industry, Warner Bros. began to shake its position as a film giant, and the government also began to intervene in the film market, ordering film studios to close their own film theaters. At the same time, the rapid popularization of television directly crowded out the market of the film industry. The film industry is going downhill, and many film companies are losing money. However, Jack firmly believes that the film industry has its own world and cannot be completely occupied by the TV industry. Therefore, Jack accepted the challenge and made several groundbreaking films, such as Treasure of Madeleine Mountain and Rebellion for No Reason. Jack's efforts show that the film industry is not idle in the face of the challenges of the TV industry. As long as it keeps pace with the times, the film industry will regain its audience and reproduce its unique charm. Jack injected new vitality into the depressed American film industry after the war.

Jack Warner has never been the highest paid man in America. The studio he and his brother Harry run mainly shoots low-budget movies, which is in sharp contrast to MGM's big investment.

A story goes like this: One day, actress Ann Xie Lidan took an actor to Warner Bros. They found an old gentleman picking up nails on the floor and putting them in his mouth. The actor asked, "Who is that man? What is he doing? " Xie Lidan replied, "His name is Harry Warner, and he is the boss of this company."

Although the investment cost of Warner Bros. is very low, they still made an important contribution to the film history-they released the first feature-length audio film by jazz singers, which is two contributions if Casablanca is included.