The Brothers Warner Page #3

...would take over the studio

and not Jack.

Sam Warner came to New York

and saw me and met me.

And I was 18. He was 40.

In those days, a man 40 years old is old,

especially when you're 18.

It didn't take long for Sam

to propose and marry Lina.

Mother was under the impression...

...that Sam Warner

was a bigshot movie man.

So she was very upset

when she found out the truth...

...that Sam wasn't such a bigshot.

They were struggling in those days,

the Warner brothers.

They had to sell Rin Tin Tin pictures

to meet the payroll.

I was earning more money

as a salary from Ziegfeld Follies...

...than he was getting from the company.

For years, Edison and others

had been looking unsuccessfully...

...to add sound to pictures.

In 1925, Sam was introduced

to a new system...

...developed by Bell Labs

and Western Electric...

... which he thought could work.

It recorded sound

on a 16-inch record disc.

My brother phoned me

that there' s an apparatus I should see...

...and after seeing it...

...I then made up my mind

that through this instrument...

...talking pictures would be possible.

One example of Harry Warner's

willingness to take risks...

...was his decision in 1 925

to buy Vitaphone.

Harry gambled everything

they had, borrowed $7 million...

...which today would be 150 million...

...oftentimes paying for this money

at 40-percent interest.

There' s a Yiddish expression...

... tokhes afn tish,

"put your ass on the table."

And they did that.

It was the music of the instrument

that I saw that attracted me mostly...

...and beyond that,

I was attracted by the screen...

...being used as our future education...

...because through the screen,

you could educate.

What was impossible to do

with the silent picture...

...was possible to perform

by this instrument.

It was the general belief at that time...

...that motion pictures had progressed

as far as they could go...

...as a medium of dramatic expression

and satisfying entertainment.

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.

To this goal, we dedicated

the full resources of Warner Bros.

There were setbacks and discouragements

and a great deal of criticism...

...from doubters who were annoyed with us

for not letting well enough alone.

If you look at history of Hollywood...

...they've always been skeptical

of any innovation...

...and so that was the reason...

...that most of the moguls

wanted nothing to do with sound.

It's very difficult...

...especially for large,

successful companies, to change quickly...

...and so any sort of introduction

of new technology...

...puts into question every business

and profit model that they have in place...

...and rehiring people and restructuring

is a very scary, risky thing.

Sam didn't see it as a risk,

but more as an opportunity.

He was determined to make

the synchronization of sound on film...

...a commercial success.

He named it Vitaphone,

the living voice.

Sam and Lina now had a child...

...and she had gone back to Paramount

as an actress...

...and wanted Sam to bring his invention

to a bigger, more successful studio.

I begged him.

I begged him to sever his relationship

with the company and go to Paramount.

At the last minute, you know...

...they got his mother and the father

on the phone and they cried...

...and the sisters and there were

other brothers too, you know.

And I really never quite forgave him

for turning down the Paramount deal.

The brothers made a historic

decision to do a feature film, Don Juan...

...with the star John Barrymore.

The film had a track of swords clashing...

...doors opening,

and the shattering of glass...

...as well as using the best orchestra

money could buy...

... the New York Philharmonic...

... which only the wealthy

could afford to go to hear at the time.

The closest any actor came

to making a sound...

...was during the 191 kisses

Barrymore laid on his costars.

Don Juan created a lot of excitement

but it had drained the coffers...

...and bankers were turning a deaf ear

to Harry's pleas for more loans.

Mama, darling,

if I' m a success in this show...

...We' re gonna move from here.

Oh, yes,

we're gonna move up to the Bronx.

Lot of grass up there,

and lot of people you know.

There's the Ginsbergs, the Guttenburgs

and the Goldbergs. A lot of Bergs--

The brothers gambled everything

to hire the world's greatest entertainer...

...Al Jolson, to star in The Jazz Singer...

...and show the perfection

of a synchronized voice...

...moving exactly with the picture.

This was the scene

that put sound on the map.

The whole film contained barely

two minutes' worth of synchronized talking.

Stop!

Jack Warner has always had the credit

for The Jazz Singer.

Sam was the one

who produced The Jazz Singer.

Wait a minute, wait a minute,

you ain't heard nothing yet.

Wait a minute, I tell you,

you ain't heard nothing.

You wanna hear "Toot Toot Tootsie"?

All right, hold on.

It was Sam who insisted

that Al Jolson's famous line...

...which was ad-libbed,

be kept in the film.

He knew magic when he saw it.

Sam was popping aspirin like candy...

...due to terrible headaches

and sinus troubles.

A t the end of filming, when he

showed an unsteadiness on his feet...

...the doctors demanded

that he go to the hospital for treatment.

The other brothers went to New York...

...to get ready for the premiere

on October 6th, 1927.

His condition worsened.

Harry and Albert

grabbed two specialists...

...and got on the first train they could

to Los Angeles.

They arrived three hours too late,

as Sam had died of a cerebral hemorrhage.

Regarding Sam's death, Jack said:

"The Jolson debut

was an empty victory for us.

There's no doubt

that The Jazz Singer killed him.

Something wonderful

went out of our lives."

Quiet Albert was moved

to give a rare statement to the press:

"The three of us who are left

will carry on...

...and I believe we will always accomplish

more work in one day...

... than any other trio of men

will in three...

...not because we're smarter,

but because we trust each other implicitly."

I was doing a film at Paramount

when he died.

All of a sudden, I'm a widow at 20

with an 11-months old child...

...and I probably was very foolish.

I was young and rebellious.

My mother was young,

and she was a different religion...

...and Harry Warner was very conservative,

you know that, and didn't--

I don't think really much liked actors

and actresses and people like that.

They just never, never let up on me,

particularly Harry Warner.

After Sam's death, Harry and

wife Rea petitioned the court to adopt Lita.

Lina was awarded $300,000...

...and Lita was raised by Harry and Rea

as one of their own.

I really look back and love them,

and they took great care of me...

...and I had a probably much better life...

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