The Warner Brothers
Warner Brothers is an American company that produces movies and television shows. It started as a small family business operated by four brothers — Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack Warner. In nineteen-oh-three, the brothers began their business by traveling throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania showing movies using a projector. By nineteen-oh-seven, they opened a movie theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Two of the brothers sold tickets. Another operated the projector. And the youngest, Jack, sang songs between the films. Within ten years, the Warner brothers started producing movies, and moved that part of the business to California.
In nineteen eighteen, their first complete picture was called “My Four Years in Germany.” The film was based on a book by the United States’ambassador to the court of Kaiser Wilhelm. In nineteen twenty-five, Sam and Harry Warner heard the first experimental movies with sound in a laboratory in New York City. They immediately went to work to include the technology for sound in their movies.
Two years later, Warner Brothers Pictures released the first major movie with sound, or “talking picture.” It was called “The Jazz Singer” and it was a huge success. In the nineteen thirties, the company made several films that were highly praised. These included movies about criminals such as “Little Caesar,” “The Public Enemy” and musicals like “The Gold Diggers” and “Forty-Second Street.”
The Warner Brothers’ success continued in the nineteen forties with movies like “The Maltese Falcon,” and “Casablanca.” Movies during this time starred popular actors like Ingrid Bergman, Humphrey Bogart, James Cagney, Gary Cooper and Bette Davis. The company continues to produce popular movies today.
By the nineteen seventies, the Warner Brothers studios had also become well established in television. In nineteen ninety, Warner Communications combined with Time Incorporated to form Time Warner Incorporated.
In two thousand one, the company combined with America Online. The company now includes film production, cable television networks, music and publishing. This year, the company announced a deal with the CBS Corporation to form a new television broadcast network.. The CW began broadcasting this month.