The Brothers Warner

It is not the challenge of dollars...

...it is the challenge of ideals and ideas.

If the producers of pictures

see only the dollar...

...then I believe those production efforts

will fail.

This is Harry Warner.

With three of his brothers, he founded

and ran Warner Bros. for over 50 years.

They did this with no education,

a huge amount of chutzpah...

...and the belief as long as they were told

they couldn't do something...

... they knew

they were on the right track.

To me, Harry Warner was just Grandpa...

... the guy who loved nothing more than

riding me around on the tractor at his ranch.

Grandpa passed away when I was 10...

...following a long struggle

within the family business.

The last time I saw him, he was bedridden

in an antiseptic-smelling room.

His eyes moved to take me in.

He smiled as his hand took mine.

He tried to speak but no words came.

His grip tightened.

Something special

was being entrusted to me.

I squeezed back.

A promise was made.

It wasn't until years later...

... that I would realize the magnitude

and meaning of that moment.

As a kid, I often went to the studio lot.

As long as the red light wasn't flashing...

...I could go into any sound stage

and watch the magic happening.

Cut it. Let's move in

on a close shot here.

It was better than going to the circus.

It was a place of wonder, a kingdom

and a factory of dreams and creativity...

...being fashioned by my grandfather

and his brothers.

Today, the family business

has been reincarnated into another body.

A corporation that's part

of an even bigger corporation...

... that's part

of an even bigger corporation.

In other words, a conglomerate.

So does anyone even know

who the original Warner brothers were?

Can people possibly imagine that this huge

company was once run by an actual family?

People with a story, a past, a passion

and a purpose?

I decided to find out.

When I say "Warner Bros.,"

What comes to mind?

-Bugs Bunny.

-I like Bugs Bunny.

Cartoons.

Do you think there were actual brothers,

or that Warner Bros. is just a brand name?

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I'm sorry.

I have no clue. Why do I care?

- I think it's just a brand name.

- It's just a brand name.

If there were brothers,

what do you think their names were?

I wanna say Anthony.

I'll go with Mike and Charlie

because I got no idea.

Homer.

Oscar and Stanley.

Diego?

I don't know, Time Warner?

And AOL Time Warner, I would think.

When I say the name Warner Bros.,

what's the first thing that comes to mind?

Jack Warner.

If one does remember

the brothers, they remember Jack.

He was the last man standing.

He rewrote history and

pretty much left the other brothers out.

The truth is,

they were a phenomenal team...

...that built an empire on a dream

and revolutionized Hollywood...

... while making the most classic,

relevant movies of their time.

- I reserved a table. Victor Laszlo.

- Yes, Mr. Laszlo, right this way.

Warner Bros. had a definite stamp

to their films.

That'll learn you to sit up

and hold onto this.

The lean, hard, look of Warner Bros.

It's gritty and it's tough.

They were interested in issues of prejudice,

of ethnicity.

Your money's no good here.

Come on, let's go.

You too.

Hold on a minute.

Warner Bros. by far

was known in Hollywood...

...as a studio with a social conscience.

Warner Bros. had a motto...

...to educate, entertain and enlighten.

If there was a champion

for a patriotic way of life...

...it was Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. was America.

You could not have a Harry

and Jack Warner saying:

"The hell with my profits."

There are some things more important

than profit.

I think any studio chief who said that today

would be looking for another job tomorrow.

Four brothers born

into a family of 12 children.

Out of the movie-making four,

Harry, the eldest, was born in 1881.

Albert followed three years later...

... then came Sam,

who was seven years younger...

...and last but not least,

kid brother, Jack...

... who was 11 years Harry's junior,

born in 1892.

Our family entered this country from Russia,

now Poland.

I've been searching for over 30 years

to find out what our real surname is.

Great-Grandpa Benjamin wanted

to leave the past behind.

There was too much pain connected to it,

I've been told.

There's one thing for certain:

It definitely wasn't Warner.

The reason my father came here...

...was because he could not educate

his children, number one...

...and number two, to work for a living...

...because the right to work

did not exist over there.

First of all,

they were mostly uneducated Jews...

...and when they came to this country...

...the educated Jews,

which was the Russian--

The German Jews.

--wanted nothing to do with them.

So they had to find something.

They got into the clothing business,

the rag business...

...they got into anything they could get into

which you could without an education.

We couldn't go to school,

so we started working...

...because we had to earn a living.

So I sold papers and shined shoes

on the corner of Light and Baltimore Street.

We had to stay out pretty late at night...

...because if we didn't bring home $2...

...we didn't eat much.

And I think that was

the greatest lesson of my life.

I learned how to work

and I appreciate work.

And then one day, they seized on an idea,

all about the same time.

They saw the future

of what was a nickelodeon.

It was 1903.

Sam and Harry put their nickels

on a plate...

...and sat through three shows back to back

until the manager threw them out.

Watching others

go in and out of the theater...

...they looked at each other,

shook hands and said:

"We're in the motion-picture business."

At the same time in another city...

...Brother Albert

had become a nickelodeon junkie.

When he arrived home, he announced that

he too wanted to be in the movie business.

Kismet, fate, call it what you like,

a decision was made.

Sam got wind of a second-hand kinetoscope

projector invented by Thomas Edison...

...that came with the film The Great

Train Robbery, the rave of the day.

The whole family, excited about

the potential of this new business...

...piled their savings on the dining table.

Still short, Father Benjamin pawned

the family heirloom, a gold watch...

...as well as old Bob the horse,

who pulled his meat-delivery wagon.

Now they were in

the motion-picture business.

To open up their first storefront theater,

the brothers hung a sheet on the wall...

...and cut a deal to borrow chairs

from the funeral parlor next door.

Sam ran the projector,

Albert fed the film through it...

...Harry collected the nickels,

sister Rose played the organ...

...and Jack sang...

...or more accurately, chased everyone out

when the film was done.

I was used as a chaser...

...in the early days of the motion pictures,

movies, nickelodeons.

They wanted to get rid

of an audience...

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