[4][5][6][7][8] He was the son of Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum, both Polish Jews.

"[15] In Baltimore, the money Benjamin Warner earned in the shoe repair business was not enough to provide for his growing household.

Benjamin moved the family to Canada, inspired by a friend's advice that he could make an excellent living bartering tin wares with trappers in exchange for furs.

[16][17] After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and Pearl Warner returned to Baltimore, bringing along their growing family.

[19] In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town.

[20] Benjamin worked with his son Harry in the shoe repair shop until he secured a loan to open a meat counter and grocery store in the city's downtown area.

[31] In 1907 the three brothers acquired fifteen additional theaters in the state of Pennsylvania, and named their new business The Dusquesne Amusement Supply Company.

[33] In 1910 the Warners sold the family business to the General Film Company for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and $30,000 in payments over a four-year period, for a total of $52,000".

[34] After selling their business the brothers found work distributing films for Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company in Pittsburgh.

[34] In 1912 Sam would help the brothers earn a $1,500 profit by distributing the Italian film Dante's Inferno in the United States.

Harry then decided to help ease the company's financial status by acquiring forty theaters in the state of Pennsylvania.

[49] Harry and the other independent film-makers at the Milwaukee convention agreed to spend $500,000 in newspaper advertisements;[50] this action would help benefit Warner Bros.

[50] With help from a loan supplied by Goldman, Sachs head banker Waddill Catchings, Warner would find a way to successfully respond to the growing concern the big three studios further presented to Warner Bros., and expanded the company's operations by purchasing the Brooklyn theater company Vitagraph.

[52] However, Sam Warner had initial reservations about the idea, in which he is quoted as saying "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

[53] After a period of refusing to accept sound in the company's films, Harry Warner now agreed to use synchronized sound in Warner Bros. shorts for usage of background music,[54] Harry then made a visit to Western Electric's Bell Laboratories in New York[55] (which his younger brother Sam had earlier visited) and was impressed.

[55] Sam was able to convince the high-ups to sign with the studio after his wife Lina wore a gold cross at a dinner he attended with Western Electric.

[56] After the agreement was signed Vitaphone was established,[57] and Sam and Jack decided to take a big step forward make Don Juan.

[67] With the large sums of money the Warners now had on-hand, Harry was able to expand business operations further, acquiring the Stanley Corporation for the studio.

[70] After this purchase, Warner was soon able to acquire William Fox's one third remaining share in First National and was now officially the majority stockholder of the company.

"[73] With the Wall Street crash of 1929 officially marking the beginning of the Great Depression, Albert saw that the studio was in need of additional star power in order to survive.

[74] Following Albert's advice, Jack and Harry Warner acquired three Paramount stars (William Powell, Kay Francis, and Ruth Chatterton) for studio salaries doubled from their previous ones.

[74] In late 1929, Jack Warner would hire sixty-one-year-old actor George Arliss to star in the studio's film Disraeli.

[79] Another gangster film the studio produced was the critically acclaimed I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, starring Paul Muni.

[81] In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Paul Muni was also given a big push as one of the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful film I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.

[88] By 1931, however, the studio would begin to feel the effects of the Depression as the general public became unable to afford the price for movie tickets.

[99] The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream would fail at the box office and the studio net loss increased.

[100] During the year 1935, the studio's revived musicals would also suffer a major blow after director Busby Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk one night.

[102] On November 25, 1947, Albert Warner and other executives in the motion picture industry issued the Waldorf Statement, first promulgating the Hollywood Blacklist.

Around this time, Albert also bought a second mansion in Miami Beach, Florida, where he lived for most of the remaining years of his life.

[105] Jack, however, secretly organized a syndicate headed by Boston banker Serge Semenenko that purchased 90% (800,000 shares) of the company's stock.