The Brothers Warner

"The Brothers Warner" is the definitive family biography and intimate portrait of the four legendary Warner brothers. It is told through the eyes of Harry Warner's granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, and through the voices of others who knew them.

The definitive family biography and intimate portrait of the four legendary Warner brothers as told through the eyes of Harry Warner's granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, and in the voices of others who knew them.

Behind the scenes at the legendary Warner Brothers film studio, where four immigrant brothers transformed themselves into the moguls and masters of American fantasy Warner Bros charts the rise of an unpromising film studio from its shaky beginnings in the early twentieth century through its ascent to the pinnacle of Hollywood influence and popularity. The Warner Brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack—arrived in America as unschooled Jewish immigrants, yet they founded a studio that became the smartest, toughest, and most radical in all of Hollywood. David Thomson provides fascinating and original interpretations of Warner Brothers pictures from the pioneering talkie The Jazz Singer through black-and-white musicals, gangster movies, and such dramatic romances as Casablanca, East of Eden, and Bonnie and Clyde. He recounts the storied exploits of the studio’s larger-than-life stars, among them Al Jolson, James Cagney, Bette Davis, Errol Flynn, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, Doris Day, and Bugs Bunny. The Warner brothers’ cultural impact was so profound, Thomson writes, that their studio became “one of the enterprises that helped us see there might be an American dream out there.”

This text charts the real story of the Warner brothers and contains all the drama of a big screen production. The book tells of tension and strife among four brothers, love and marriage, death and divorce, and plotting and betrayal.

This 100th Anniversary Edition of "The Brothers Warner" is the definitive family biography and intimate portrait of the four legendary Warner brothers. It is told through the eyes of Harry Warner's granddaughter, Cass Warner Sperling, and through the voices of others who knew them.

Photographs and text recapture the memorable moments and personalities of Warner Brothers' films during the Thirties and Forties.

Since 1928, Warner Bros. has produced thousands of beloved films and television shows at the studio’s magical 110-acre film factory in Burbank. This collection of evocative images concentrates on the Warner Bros. legacy from the 1920s to the 1950s, when timeless classics such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and East of Eden came to life. It also looks at WB’s earlier homes along Hollywood’s “Poverty Row,” the birthplace of Looney Tunes, and the site of WB’s pioneering marriage between film and sound in the 1920s. Early Warner Bros. Studios also tells the tale of four brothers—Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner—scions of a Polish Jewish immigrant family who rose from the humblest of origins to become Hollywood moguls of enormous and lasting influence.