The Brothers Warner Page #4

...than I would have had.

They weren't wrong.

I give them a lot of credit.

I don't think I would, in my 50s...

...would I have wanted to take on

a little child, another child.

So Harry Warner, I think

one of his beautiful things about him...

...is he wanted to take care

of the whole family.

Many a time, I walk out of

the theater with tears in my eyes...

...because when you find the dream

realized...

...and you know that no dream such as

mammoth as that one was to undertake...

...was done easy.

Today to have all of you enjoy

that which even life was given for.

Opening night of The Jazz Singer

at Grauman's Chinese...

...Irving Thalberg came out of the theater...

...he turned to my father and said,

"This thing won't last, it's a one shot."

- Really?

- Yes.

They were stuck with a lot of

pictures that did not have sound on them...

...and if this idea worked,

they were all in trouble.

The Jazz Singer...

...was the thing that inspired Steamboat

Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon.

The Jazz Singer came out and Walt goes,

"Gotta have sound."

Started a whole new, in secret--

Now, the studio at the time

was like five people.

And in secret from the other four,

he had an animator start up this talkie...

...and it became this worldwide

phenomenon...

...but it was because of the success

of The Jazz Singer...

...that that all happened.

And we were into the era of sound.

The Warner Bros.

What else did they do?

They didn't have to do anything else.

Think what a thing it was

to bring sound to movies.

And it will take them from poverty-row status

to first-tier studio status.

The Jazz Singer remained the

biggest moneymaker in Hollywood history...

...until Gone With the Wind.

The brothers had made it to the top.

The next challenge was

how to get theaters wired for sound.

They bought First National...

...which had the largest theater chain

in the country...

...and a sprawling lot in Burbank.

Then they went on and they made

the great pictures of the 30s and 40s.

Great stars and all that.

Nobody had a crystal ball saying,

"The Depression is coming."

But Harry was smart enough...

...had enough business savvy

to say it's not really the smartest thing...

...to have all of our eggs in one basket.

And so he diversified the company

in the late 1920s...

...so that they got into publishing

and they got into music.

Leading this new division...

...was a Warner brother of the next

generation. Harry's only son, Lewis.

- That's Lewis and my dad.

- And Arthur.

- That's Arthur.

- And who's the pretty girl?

I don't know, but I guarantee

it was with Lewis and not Arthur.

Lewis was always

a bit of a devilish character.

- And my father-- And my father...

- Yes, he was.

- ...was very shy, very shy.

- Gorgeous. Okay.

- Yeah, he was a leader and a half, that guy.

- Lewis was. Oh, yeah.

But not always in the right,

proper direction.

Well, that depends.

If you like girls, it was the perfect direction.

That's what he was known for.

The house was always like a party,

and he played music a lot.

And, yeah, he was a fun person.

He was great to be with.

He was marvelous to me.

He treated me, you know,

extremely lovingly.

He was in New York

at the New York office...

...and he was helping with that.

He was also producing plays

on Broadway.

He was a very attractive young man...

...and very bright,

and wonderful personality.

He had two girlfriends...

...and he decided that

he and one of his girlfriends...

...would go down to Cuba for a vacation.

While he was down there,

his wisdom tooth, which was impacted...

...bothered him

and he had to come back.

By the time he got back,

it was infected...

...so they put him in the hospital...

...and two weeks later, he was gone.

Years later, Grandpa is quoted as saying:

"The one thing I wanted in this world

was to have a son...

...but God took him away

when he was 23 years old and I was 50.

He had a tooth pulled.

If it had happened today,

penicillin would have saved him...

...but God took him."

Probably the biggest tragedy

in my dad's life...

...was that my brother died...

...before both their dreams

could be fulfilled.

No music was allowed in

the house as Rea mourned for three years.

Harry tried to bury his grief

by working even harder...

...as the Depression was well underway.

When we think about

the history of Hollywood...

...if you ask somebody

"What's the purpose of Hollywood?"...

...most people would jump,

"To entertain me."

"Let us entertain you."

"Take me away from my worries."

Harry Warner certainly

was committed to education...

...and a lot of that,

I think he got from his father.

His father said to him:

"If you wanna go into films,

then take that tool...

...and make it a tool for social good."

I think that film is the most powerful

means of communication that there is.

I actually think that it does affect

the way you think or feel...

...and it can effect social legislation.

And because of that...

...I think that We filmmakers

have a powerful social responsibility.

And I think you always must entertain...

...but you have to be aware of

the messages that you're sending...

...and I think you have

to act responsibly.

Take a look at that.

The skunk.

You're next.

Take his stinking shirt off.

Warner Bros. Iooked at some of

the harsher realities of the United States...

...and that's another, I think, sort of

courageous move on Warner Bros.' part...

...in that they looked at

the prison system...

...they looked at

sort of the underside of America.

All right, let him out.

Come on.

Public outcry resulting from this film...

...forced prison reforms

throughout the United States.

It is true that Warner Bros.

was sued by the Ku Klux Klan.

Soldiers of the Black Legion,

you see before you an instrument of death.

- We give you this....

- In the film Black Legion...

...they wore uniforms that looked

very much like the uniforms of the Klan.

And the Klan believed that the film

was being made to disparage them.

They sued Warner Bros. and they lost.

Criminal disregard of germs and

their power to invade the bloodstream...

...is causing a death rate

in childbirth alone...

...of three out of every 10 mothers...

...or in the city of Paris, over 20,000

innocent and helpless women annually.

They were really trying to enlighten people

and trying to educate people.

It wasn't just entertaining.

They did--

And they did a great job of it too.

Because most of the things

that I learned as a kid...

...and I think most of Americans, was what

we learned from the movies in those days.

Really was.

Hey, Tom, Wait a minute.

- What happened?

- Nothing. I just got burned up, that's all.

What do you Wanna run out on me for?

We're together, ain't We?

Sure.

You know, in connection With that Whole

idea of the criminal element or the loner...

...or the antisocial person

being the hero of the film...

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