Sam Warner established the studio along with his brothers Harry, Albert, and Jack L Warner.
34 Facts About Sam Warner
2.
Sam Warner is credited with procuring the technology that enabled Warner Bros.
3.
Sam Warner died in 1927, on the day before the film's enormously successful premiere.
4.
Sam Warner was one of eleven children born to Benjamin, a shoe maker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah, both Polish Jews.
5.
Sam Warner's sisters were Cecilia, Anna, Rose, Fannie and Sadie.
6.
Sam Warner's brothers were Hirsz Mojzesz, Abraham, Jacob, David and Milton.
7.
Sam Warner changed the family name to Warner, which was used thereafter.
8.
In Baltimore, Benjamin Sam Warner struggled to make enough money to provide for his growing family.
9.
In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry Sam Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town.
10.
Samuel Warner was the first member of his family to move into the entertainment industry.
11.
Sam Warner then secured a job as a projectionist at Idora Park, a local amusement park.
12.
Sam Warner persuaded the family of the new medium's possibilities and negotiated the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope from a projectionist who was "down on his luck".
13.
In 1905, Harry Sam Warner agreed to join his two brothers and sold his Youngstown bicycle shop.
14.
That year, the Sam Warner brothers established the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement Company, and the three brothers rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh.
15.
In 1910, the Sam Warner brothers pooled their resources and moved into film production.
16.
In 1912, Sam Warner would help the brothers earn a $1,500 profit with his film Dante's Inferno.
17.
In 1925, Sam Warner had acquired a radio station, KFWB.
18.
Harry Sam Warner objected to using synchronized sound in the studio's films.
19.
Harry Sam Warner ultimately agreed to use synchronized sound in Sam Warner Bros.
20.
Harry Sam Warner then made a visit to Western Electric's Bell Laboratories in New York and was impressed.
21.
Sam Warner was able to convince the high-ups to sign with the studio after his wife Lina, who was not Jewish, wore a gold cross at a dinner they attended with the Western Electric brass.
22.
Harry Sam Warner then signed a partnership agreement with Western Electric to use Bell Laboratories to test the sound-on-film process.
23.
In May 1926, through the company's partnership with Western Electric, Sam Warner formed a subsidiary known as Vitaphone.
24.
Sam Warner, not wanting to take any more of brother Harry's refusal to move forward with using sound in future Warner films, agreed to accept Zukor's offer, but the deal between them died after Paramount lost money in the wake of Rudolph Valentino's death.
25.
The Sam Warner brothers pushed ahead with The Jazz Singer, a new Vitaphone feature based on a Broadway play and starring Al Jolson.
26.
In 1925, after years of bachelorhood, Sam Warner met eighteen-year-old Ziegfeld Follies performer and actress Lina Basquette while spending time in New York visiting the Bell Laboratories.
27.
Harry Warner claimed he was concerned that little Lita would be raised as Catholic instead of Jewish.
28.
Sam Warner finally relented after Harry Warner promised her that Lita would receive a $300,000 trust fund, with Harry Warner and his wife awarded legal custody of Lita on March 30,1930.
29.
Sam Warner was hospitalized and was diagnosed with a sinus infection that was aggravated by several abscessed teeth.
30.
Doctors discovered that Sam Warner had developed a mastoid infection of the brain.
31.
Sam Warner died of pneumonia caused by sinusitis, osteomyelitis and epidural and subdural abscesses on October 5,1927, the day before the premiere of The Jazz Singer.
32.
Sam Warner is interred in the Warner family mausoleum at Home of Peace Cemetery in East Los Angeles, California.
33.
The former Main Building was named "Army Hall" and the former Reception House was named "Finley Hall," Sam Warner Gym kept its name.
34.
The HOA buildings, with the exception of Warner Gym, were demolished in 1956 to make way for the Jacob H Schiff Park.