Warner Bros. Studio in the 1920s

Identification: American film studio

Date: Incorporated on April 4, 1923

Throughout the 1920s, Warner Bros. Studio produced feature films ranging from popular adventures starring the dog actorRin Tin Tin to dramatic adaptations of serious literature. The studio pioneered the use of the Vitaphone sound system, becoming one of the first studios to produce talking motion pictures. With films such as The Jazz Singer (1927), Warner Bros. helped usher in a new era in filmmaking.

One of several film studios to rise to prominence during the 1920s, Warner Bros. was founded by brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner. The brothers had first entered the film industry early in the twentieth century, traveling and exhibiting short films as early as 1903. In the following years, they opened several permanent theaters in New Castle, Pennsylvania. The brothers established the Duquesne Film Exchange, a film distribution company with a catalog of more than two hundred titles, by 1908. The Warners soon relocated to Culver City, California, where they began producing motion pictures such as the financially successful My Four Years in Germany, released in 1918. The brothers purchased property for a studio in Hollywood later that year.

Warner Bros. Studio was incorporated on April 4, 1923. Although the studio faced significant competition from larger, more established studios such as Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), it released a number of films during the early 1920s and focused on acquiring popular talent such as John Barrymore. In addition to the four Warner brothers, the studio employed such notable industry professionals as publicity director and later producer Hal B. Wallis and writer and producer Darryl F. Zanuck.

Vitaphone

In 1925, Sam Warner began to investigate the possibility of producing sound films. While short films with synchronized sound had already been produced by various independent inventors and companies, this technology had yet to capture the interest of the mainstream film industry. One of the major contributors to the development of talking motion pictures was Bell Laboratories, the research and development branch of Western Electric and the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), which developed a sound-on-disk system known as the Vitaphone. In this system, sound was recorded onto a disk resembling a phonograph record, which was then played at the same time as the film. Recognizing the possibilities of this technology, Warner Bros. acquired the rights to produce films using the Vitaphone system.

Warner Bros. began producing films with synchronized music and sound effects in 1926 and speech the following year. By 1928, the studio was a leader in the production of sound films. This success led Warner Bros. to purchase First National Pictures, a Burbank, California, studio with newer production facilities and an extensive distribution operation.

Films

Warner Bros. produced hundreds of films during the 1920s, releasing as many as eighty films per year by the end of the decade. The studio produced many of its most notable films following the acquisition of Vitaphone technology, entertaining audiences with synchronized background music, dialogue, and even elaborate musical numbers. Don Juan (1926), starring John Barrymore, became the first feature film to use this new technology and included a synchronized score and sound effects. It was accompanied by a number of short sound films, some with synchronized speech. Released the following year, the full-length film The Jazz Singer featured synchronized songs performed by singer Al Jolson as well as several lines of synchronized dialogue. Talking motion pictures proved popular with 1920s audiences, and Warner Bros. further distinguished itself as a leader in the medium with the release of Lights of New York(1928), the first “all-talking” feature-length film, and On With the Show! (1929), the first all-talking feature film with full color.

Other Warner Bros. films of the 1920s included a number of features starring the dog actor Rin Tin Tin, among them Clash of the Wolves (1925) and Land of the Silver Fox (1928). The studio also produced various film adaptations of popular books; these included The Beautiful and Damned (1922), based on the novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Main Street (1923), based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis.

Impact

Despite the effects of the Great Depression, Warner Bros. continued to prosper during the 1930s, producing popular adventure films and musicals similar to those of the late 1920s as well as serious films dealing with gang violence, prison life, and other social concerns. The success of these films and those of later decades, many of which came to be considered classics of the medium, made Warner Bros. one of the most influential film studios in the United States.

Bibliography

Eyman, Scott. The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution,1926–1930. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997. A discussion of the development of the talking motion picture, including the role of Warner Bros. in popularizing the medium.

Hirschhorn, Clive. The Warner Bros. Story. New York: Crown, 1987. A history of the studio, including descriptions of its films.

Schatz, Thomas. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010. A comprehensive study of the “film factory” mentality that drove the major Hollywood companies, including Warner Bros., during the 1920s and afterward.

Schickel, Richard, and George C. Perry. You Must Remember This: The Warner Bros. Story. Philadelphia: Running Press, 2008. A heavily illustrated history of the studio from its origins through its many changes in corporate ownership.

Sperling, Cass Warner, Cork Millner, and Jack Warner Jr. Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1998. A biography of the four Warner brothers.