How one family changed film history
On Warner Bros. tour, you can stand where Busby Berkeley directed his dancers and James Cagney got shot
They are phrases that have become part of America’s lexicon: “Here’s looking at you, kid.” “Go ahead, make my day.” “I don’t have to show no stinkin’ badges.” “He-e-e-re’s Johnny!” “Made it, Ma! Top of the world.” “What we got here is a failure to communicate.” “We rob banks.” “Win just one for the Gipper.”
All those quotes we hold dear share one thing in common: They originated in movies from Warner Bros. The little studio begun in 1923 by four brothers, the sons of Polish Jews who immigrated to the United States, is still producing hit TV shows and movies.
The eldest Warner brother was born in Poland, while two of the younger boys were born in the U.S. and Jack — the baby of the family — was born in Canada. The quartet, who had only a gradeschool education, first established a nickelodeon in Philadelphia and gradually expanded the business.
But Los Angeles’ average of 284 days of sunshine a year beckoned the fledgling filmmakers, and they first built a little studio in Culver City, California, later moving 32 kilometres north to Burbank, where the studio sits to this day.
To celebrate the 95th year of Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood is offering a special Classics Made Here tour. Here you can view Humphrey Bogart’s trench coat from Casablanca, the street corner where gangsters such as James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson met their match and the theatre facade where Busby Berkeley put his hoofers through their geometric paces. The special champagne tour takes you through the 110-acre lot where shows such as The Big Bang Theory, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mom and The Fosters are still produced.
A savvy tour guide leads the way on the 31⁄2-hour trek, which transports visitors from the little café in Paris where Rick, Ilsa and Sam await the arrival of German troops in Casablanca to the high school in Iowa where Harold Hill tries to con the townsfolk in The Music Man.
It wasn’t exactly green acres when the Warner brothers started their studio. They struggled mightily at first. But four years later, they scaled new heights with the very first movie to feature synchronized sound and dialogue. It was The Jazz Singer, starring vaudeville star Al Jolson.
But Jolson didn’t turn out to be the studio’s biggest star. No, that was a four-legged German shepherd who’d been rescued from a German trench during the First World War and brought to America by his saviour, Capt. Lee Duncan.
Rin Tin Tin went on to feature in 25 movies (mostly silent films) for the Warner brothers, his salary escalating to $6,000 a week. It is said that he rode in his own limo, ate only T-bone steaks and listened to on-set music to put him in the right mood.
Warner Bros. also had a twolegged star in those early days, in the form of John Barrymore, a famous theatre actor with a fondness for alcohol. Barrymore starred in Don Juan in 1926 with sound effects and a music score, but no dialogue. That would come with The Jazz Singer, which put the studio on the map.
Still, it was the shadowy gangster movies of the 1930s that personified the early Warner Bros. With hardnosed actors such as James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart and Edward G. Robinson, the grim movies often reflected the mood of the country, stunned by the Great Depression.
Subsequently, the brothers managed to corral a cadre of great actors, including Bette Davis, who made more than 50 movies on the lot, Errol Flynn and Joan Crawford.
At the start of the Second World War came maybe the greatest film of all, Casablanca, written hurriedly by identical twins Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch.
The last surviving twin, Julius, who died in 2000, said he had no idea the film would become such a legend. “You can’t tell if it’s going to be a winner or not,” he said. “Casablanca didn’t become a classic until many years after the release. It won the Academy Award, and had some respect, but to become a picture that’s being revived 50 years later, we had no idea.”
He and his brother whipped out three scripts a year. “We always had a picture playing in a theatre, one shooting on the sound stage, and you’re writing another,” he said. “Always. All contract writers did. We’d just finished shooting Arsenic and Old Lace, and we were gonna do Mrs. Skeffington. After Casablanca they gave us a new contract and made us a producer.”
For film lovers, you must know this: The Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood is at 3400 Riverside Dr. in Burbank, California. It is open Monday through Sunday, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with tours leaving every 30 minutes. The Classics Made Here tour is held Friday and Saturday. Tickets for the Classics tour are $75 US for adults and $65 for children eight to 12. For information, visit wbstudiotour.com or call 818-9778687.