[3] In late 1931 Sax, considered “a no-nonsense studio executive of the old school”, began work with Warner Brothers as general production manager for their Brooklyn Vitaphone facility.
[6] The organizational methods Sax included highly structured and disciplined work schedules enforced by the trade unions, which banned overtime and providing film product delivered at or under budget.
Everyone has a holiday Sunday-and we try to [see that] folks get legal holidays- a most unusual thing in the movie business.”[9]By 1938, Sax was presiding over the filming of about 140 reels of shorts per year for Warners, each with an average screen duration of 5 or 6 minutes.
[11] In an effort to profitably utilize all available footage, Sax devised the assembly of “vaudeville compilations”, unrelated snippets of “one forgotten act after another” used to create entertaining shorts that had little thematic unity.
[12] Comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle attempted to resume his screen career with six two-reelers at Vitagraph’s Big V Comedies logo under Sax’s auspices and were well-received.