Top 10 Facts about Jack L. Warner

Jack Warner, Monty Banks, and Sam Warner. Photo by: Warner Bros- Wikimedia.

Top 10 Facts about Jack L. Warner

Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-American film executive who founded and ran the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner’s career lasted 45 years, far outlasting that of any other seminal Hollywood studio businessman.

As co-head of production at Warner Bros. Studios, he collaborated with his brother, Sam Warner, to secure the technology for The Jazz Singer, the film industry’s first talking picture (1927).

1.Warner’s family business background

The greatest and youngest of four brothers—Harry (1881-1958), Albert (1884-1967), Samuel (1888-1927), and Jack—who founded Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., which grew to become one of Hollywood’s Big Five studios.

The brothers got their start in the film industry by purchasing their own film projector and using it for traveling shows. They opened a movie theater in New Castle, Pennsylvania, around 1903.

Since the film distribution network at the time was untrustworthy, the brothers created a group of theatre owners into a distribution exchange, which proved so impactful that film producers set out to sabotage it. The Warner brothers realized that they would have to create their own films.

2. Jack’s early career in film

In Youngstown, the Warner brothers made their historic, albeit restricted, foray into the film industry. Sam Warner worked as a projectionist at Idora Park, a local amusement park, in the early 1900s.

He easily convinced his family of the new medium’s potential and organized for the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope from a “down on his luck” projectionist. Before purchasing a small theater in 1906, the enterprising brothers tested a used copy of The Great Train Robbery throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania.

That year, the brothers bought the Cascade movie palace in New Castle, Pennsylvania, which they ran until 1907, when they moved into film distribution.

The Warner brothers founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement Company, which prospered until the arrival of the Motion Pictures Patent Company, which charged hefty prices to vendors.

3. How the Warner’s Brothers was created

The Warner Brothers — from left to right: Albert, Jack, Harry and Sam Warner — founders of Warner Bros. Entertainment- Wikimedia.

The Warner brothers accumulated their resources and ventured into film production in 1910. When Warner Brothers was founded in 1918, Jack and his elder brother Sam shared the role of co-head of production.

Sam died in 1927, just before the premiere of the first “talking” film, The Jazz Singer, and Jack took over as sole producer. He ruled over Warner Bros.’ Burbank, California studio with an iron fist.

In 1956, Jack, Harry, and Al announced their intention to sell Warner Bros. Jack secretly formed a syndicate that purchased control of the company. It was too late for Harry and Al to learn about their brother’s business dealings.

The three brothers had many disagreements over the years, but this deception was too much for Harry and Al; they never spoke to Jack again. Jack Warner died of heart disease in Los Angeles on September 9, 1978.

“Jack Warner would rather tell a bad joke than make a good movie,” comedian Jack Benny once said of Warner Brothers.

4. What Warner’s left behind

Jack was the second chief to also serve as company president, following Columbia Pictures’ Harry Cohn, but he was unable to keep up with industry adjustments.

After generating the film version of Lerner and Loewe’s Camelot, he sold the studio to Seven Arts Productions in 1967, but continued to work as an independent producer until the early 1970s. 1776, another film version of a Broadway musical, was one of his final works.

Jack Warner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Blvd. for his contributions to the movie business. He is also honored with a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto, which honors outstanding Canadians from all walks of life.

5. Warner’s family background

Press photo of Jack Warner- Wikimedia.

Jack Warner, the youngest of 12 children born to Polish immigrants in London, Ontario, went on to become one of the most important and successful Hollywood executives and producers of his period. After spending his childhood traveling around Canada and the United States with his family, Warner’s connection with films began in 1903, when the family gambled their meager resources on purchasing a nickelodeon in Newcastle, Pennsylvania.

6. Jack’s journey in film

In 1917, Jack founded a film exchange company in San Francisco, and their first major film, ‘My Four Years in Germany,’ was released in 1918. The movie was a huge success. Following this, the Warners’ founded a studio in California, with Jack and Sam in charge of producing.

7. Jack’s only appearance in a film

Jack Warner, Monty Banks, and Sam Warner. Photo by: Warner Bros- Wikimedia.

Jack made his only screen appearance in 1919, in the film ‘Open Your Eyes,’ which was a financial failure for the studio. Following that, the studio suffered massive losses, and the Warner’s were saddled with bank loans in 1920. As a result, they relocated their production studio from Culver City to Hollywood. This, however, had little effect on their financial situation.

8. Jack’s marriages and children

From 1914 to 1935, Jack was married to Irma Claire Salomon. They had one son, Jack M Warner. Jack named his son after himself, breaking with an Eastern European Jewish tradition that explicitly forbids naming children after living family members.

Jack divorced Irma so that he could marry Ann Page. Barbara was Ann and Jack’s daughter. Irma later sued Jack for abandonment. The marriage of Jack and Ann was never approved by his family, and it harmed his relationship with his son.

In Jack Jr.’s 1964 autobiography, ‘My First Hundred Years in Hollywood,’ he is not even addressed. The couple never reconciled.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Jack had a string of relationships. One of them was with actor Jackie Park, who looked a lot like Ann. The two had a fight that  unfortunately led to their break up.

9. Jack unfortunately fell ill

Press photo of Jack Warner- Wikimedia.

Due to his disorientation, Jack decided to retire near the end of 1973. Following a stroke in 1974, he became blind and weakened. He eventually lost his voice. He also had short-term memory loss.

Jack died of heart inflammation on September 9, 1978. He was laid to rest in East Los Angeles, California, at the ‘Home of Peace Cemetery.’

10. Who got Jack’s wealth after he died?

The large percentage of his money and assets were left to his widow, Ann. He only left Jack Jr. $200,000 to keep him from disputing the will.