The Warner Brothers By Chris Yogerst (University of Kentucky Press‚ 360 pages‚ $34.95) I visited Hollywood California in the summer of 2022 and shared my LA story in these pages. I toured some of the major sites‚ including Warner Brothers Studio where the studio tour plays homage to its most well-known classic films such as Casablanca  (1942) starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman‚ the movie that gave us the famous line “Here’s looking at you‚ kid.” LA is also home to the Griffith Observatory‚  the location of the climactic scene in the celebrated Warner Brothers film Rebel Without a Cause  (1955)‚ starring James Dean‚ Natalie Wood‚ and Sal Mineo. Given this recent experience‚ I was delighted to learn of film professor Chris Yogerst’s latest book‚ The Warner Brothers‚  a comprehensive history of the legendary film studio and its four founding brothers‚ Harry (1881-1958)‚ Albert (1884-1967)‚ Sam (1887-1927)‚ and Jack (1892-1978).Chris Yogerst is to be commended for writing such a thoroughly researched portrait of these cinematic pioneers. With the purchase of a $1‚000 projector these brothers launched what would ultimately become an international multibillion-dollar film production and distribution powerhouse. The Warner Brothers tells the story of the four brothers and their groundbreaking contributions and enduring legacy to cinema. They cultivated the medium’s potential to not only entertain audiences but to also educate and influence them. Now more than 100 years since inception‚ Warner Brothers remains a force in the film industry with their recent distribution of last summer’s $1.442 billion blockbuster Barbie (2023)  starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling‚ and this month’s much anticipated prequel Wonka  starring Timothée Chalamet. (READ MORE from Leonora Cravotta: Fauci Lied‚ People Died: Sen. Rand Paul Dissects the COVID Cover-Up) The Warners’ parents Benjamin and Pearl immigrated from Poland to the United States in the late 1800’s and eventually settled in Youngstown‚ Ohio. Ben‚ the father of twelve‚ saw the value of assimilation and ultimately decided to Americanize his family’s Yiddish names. However‚ he also encouraged his children to retain their Jewish identity‚ a lesson that was not lost on the brothers who continued to acknowledge their Jewish heritage while building their Hollywood careers. This was not typical at a time when Jewish actors‚ directors‚ producers‚ and writers shied away from any outward expression of Jewishness to avoid prejudice. The book begins with the Warner family’s immigration to the United States and ends with the death of the youngest son Jack in 1978‚ nine years after his retirement as Warner Studio’s company president. Yogerst provides a comprehensive portrait of the Warner brothers’ childhood and the genesis of their interest in moving pictures. Due to some instability in Ben’s work and the sheer size of the family‚ the Warners moved multiple times while living in Youngstown‚ a situation that made the children more resilient. Since money was scarce‚ the sons all had jobs. It was while working at a penny arcade at Cedar Point Amusement that Sam first witnessed a kinescope projecting a motion picture. He later learned of a local business person who was selling a projector for $1‚000 along with a copy of Edwin S. Porter’s film The Great Train Robbery (1903). The brothers pooled their money to purchase the projector. When they came up short‚ Ben pawned his gold watch to cover the balance. The author details how the brothers used the projector to exhibit The Great Train Robbery in their backyard for a fee and negotiated with local venues to create their makeshift theaters. As legend has it‚ they ran out of money to purchase chairs for the Cascade‚ their first theater‚ and they borrowed chairs from a local funeral home on the days when a funeral was not taking place. As the money started coming in‚ the brothers would invest it in purchasing used films. By 1907‚ the Cascade and its sister theater the Bijou were bringing in $2‚000 a week. Harry decided to sell the Cascade for $40‚000 and then invested the proceeds in a new film exchange. The author details the brothers’ various early partnerships and exhibition efforts. And while they had no shortage of creativity and continued to invest in content and distribution‚ they were often strapped for cash. In 1913‚ they made the pivotal decision to sell their stock in Warner Features‚ Inc. while retaining the rights to their name. The new organization had Pat Powers as president‚ Albert Warner as vice president‚ and Harry Warner as sales manager. This re-organization proved to be a match made in heaven. “Powers had the capital‚ and the brothers had the ideas. If the Warners could secure funding‚ their tested methods of exhibition‚ distribution‚ and production were sure to provide big returns.” The Warner family would ultimately resume control of their organization. On April 4‚ 1923‚ Warner Brothers was incorporated in the state of Delaware with $50 million in capital and the Warners creating three corporations and issuing five hundred shares of stock. “By 1930‚ Warner Brothers held 51 companies‚ 93 film exchanges‚ and 525 theaters in 188 American cities‚ in addition to the studio lots. The company stock was valued at over $200 million‚ and it employed a total of 18‚500 people.” The brothers were endowed with different talents. Harry‚ the oldest who served as the company’s president for many years‚ had a firm understanding of the industry from a financial perspective. He was also an even-tempered person who cultivated relationships. Albert was the master of distribution and exhibition. Jack‚ was the consummate showman with an eye for content with a mercurial personality. Sam was the technology wizard‚ who is credited with forming a partnership with Western Electric to create the Vitaphone‚ a synchronized film sound system that Warner Brothers deployed to produce the first sound picture The Jazz Singer  (1927). Unfortunately‚ in a cruel twist of fate Sam contracted a mastoid infection of the brain and died of pneumonia shortly before the premiere of The Jazz Singer‚ which garnered millions of dollars and turned the Warner Brothers into household names. (READ MORE: From Deconstruction to Wokeness: French Conservatives Fight Back) In the 1930s‚ Harry Warner started advancing the notion that due to the increasing number of moviegoers‚ Hollywood had a social responsibility. “This steadily increasing influence over recreational hours of millions has grown a corresponding responsibility‚ and we have not shirked it.” To that end‚ the studio believed in creating realistic “ripped from the headlines” dramas that brought attention to important social problems such as crime‚ poverty‚ and mental disorders. During the depression of the 1930s‚ Warner Brothers produced many gangster films such as Little Caesar  (1930) starring Edward G. Robinson and The Public Enemy   (1931) with James Cagney. The brothers also maintained that it was equally important to provide the movie-going public with other film genres. Consequently‚ they balanced their social dramas with musicals such as Gold Diggers of 1933  (1933) and 42nd Street  (1933).  It is important to note that even though these films featured beautifully choreographed dance sequences‚ they were not escapist fare. They were punctuated by references to the social and economic realities of the Depression. The Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration was also aware of the moving picture’s potential to disseminate messaging and influence thought. In the wake of the poverty associated with Herbert Hoover’s presidency‚ the Warner brothers who were previously Republicans‚ saw that FDR could regain the nation’s trust with his proposed recovery plan. Consequently‚ Warner Brothers cultivated a  reputation as  ‘the studio that most explicitly upheld the New Deal in its production.” The studio and the White House were not shy about promoting this collaboration. In advance of FDR’s inauguration‚ Warner Brothers promoted its 1933 portfolio of films as “inaugurating a NEW DEAL IN ENTERTAINMENT.”  Warner Brothers also ran a full page advertisement in Film Daily with a photo of FDR which read “OFF WITH THE OLD LEADERS. ON WITH THE NEW! WARNER BROTHERS PICTURES‚ THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE.”  Interestingly enough‚ Jack would later return to the Republican party to support Richard Nixon in his failed bids for the presidency in 1960 and the California Governor’s office in 1962‚ The Warner Brothers also provides in-depth coverage of the many times that the film industry was at risk of being censored or silenced by various entities‚ including the Hays Commission‚ the Production Code Administration‚ the House Un-American Activities Committee etc. In 1941‚ the industry had to defend itself against allegations of propagandizing films. In 1947‚ they were on the hot seat for the House Un-American Activities Committee’s communist blacklist hearings‚ and in 1955‚ the industry had to fend off allegations that films such as  Rebel Without a Cause  (1955) and Blackboard Jungle  (1955) promoted juvenile delinquency. During the 1955 hearings‚ Jack Warner reinforced the comments that his brother Harry had made twenty years prior about the social responsibility of filmmakers. “I have very rarely ever seen a film that hasn’t had some kind of moral‚ either for good or bad‚ but they have some kind of moral … Motion pictures must be entertaining and therefore‚ must have dramatic content. You cannot make motion pictures about a tranquil world or a utopia because it does not exist. When you make films‚ you have to show the bad and how good triumphs.” Yogerst also does an effective job of conveying the film industry’s behind-the-scenes perspective.  For aficionados of movie lure‚ the book is peppered with anecdotes about why a certain actor was cast instead of the original choice‚ who exhibited diva behavior on the set or some other offputting behavior. The author also includes several examples of Warner family internal discord. Most notably‚ he depicts Jack’s famous betrayal of Harry. When the brothers decided to sell a 90 percent stake in the studio to Semenenko in the late 1950’s‚ Jack struck a deal with the new owners to buy his way back into the company and assume the presidency‚ effectively pushing out Harry. Jack’s behavior created a rift between him and Harry that was never resolved. And when Harry died in 1958‚ Jack did not attend his funeral‚ although he later attempted to make amends with other family members. (READ MORE: Barbie Questions the Success of Feminism)  The Warner Brothers is a highly engaging book about an ambitious family and their namesake studio who revolutionized the film industry with their instinct for content and talent‚ their mastery of technology‚ their optimization of distribution‚ and of course their passion for storytelling. Chris Yogerst is to be commended for writing such a thoroughly researched portrait of these cinematic pioneers whose contributions to the seventh art continue to cast a big shadow to this day.   The post The Warner Brothers and American Cinema appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.