Jack Warner
Born: 1892
Died: 1978
Source of Wealth: Entertainment
The youngest of the four Warner brothers, Jack Warner was the family’s bon vivant. He wore loud clothing, associated with the stars and starlets, and was the founding father of the Hollywood Turf Club, which was later to become Hollywood Park.
As vice president in charge of production, then head of the studio and, after the last of his older brothers retired in 1956, president of the company, Jack Warner made Warner Brothers Pictures Inc. one of Hollywood’s most prolific studios. In the 1930s the studio was churning out more than 100 movies a year, including classic gangster flicks like “Little Caesar,” romantic dramas starring Bette Davis and swashbuckling adventure films with Errol Flynn.
The four sons of immigrant Polish cobbler Benjamin Eichelbaum started out in the film business around the turn of the century. They began by showing moving pictures in a tent in Youngstown, Ohio, and from 1903 onward expanded by acquiring theaters and distributing films.
Jack and Sam Warner moved to Hollywood in 1917 and set up the original Warner Brothers studio on Sunset Boulevard, while the two other brothers, Harry and Albert, remained on the East Coast to oversee theater and distribution operations. Warner Brothers Pictures was established in 1923.
The big break came in the mid-’20s with the introduction of “talkies.” Warner Brothers pioneered the use of sound in films, with “Don Juan” in 1926 and “The Jazz Singer” in 1927. Initially, they used the bulky ‘Vitaphone’ sound system, which recorded sound on disks, but eventually they switched to recording sound directly on film.
Jack, who after the death of Sam Warner in 1927 became solely responsible for the studio, used the company’s wealth to build a new headquarters in Burbank in 1928. He also signed a slew of stars who solidified Warner’s reputation as the predominant Hollywood studio.
Edvard Pettersson
