The Warner Brothers
 

If you’ve seen Looney Tunes, March of the Penguins, Happy Feet, or the Harry Potter movies, then you are familiar with Warner Brothers Entertainment Incorporated.  Warner Brothers is the third-oldest American movie studio and one of the world’s largest producers of film and television entertainment.  It was founded by Polish-Canadian immigrants who lived right here in the Mahoning Valley!

Ben Warner emigrated from Poland to America in 1883.  His family soon joined him here and his son, Harry, came to Youngstown in 1896 looking for work.  Harry opened a shoe repair shop and soon invited his large family to move to Youngstown.  Ben always encouraged his four sons Harry, Albert, Jack, and Sam to stick together in their business ventures.  Keen businessmen, it didn’t take them long to discover their true interest: motion pictures.  They began by performing in a traveling nickelodeon show in various local places, including Idora Park.  By 1903, the Warner Brothers opened their first movie theatre-the Cascade Theatre-in New Castle, Pennsylvania, which quickly became very popular among area steelworkers.  The brothers rented and showed popular films in the Cascade Theatre, but eventually created their own movie supply company in Pittsburgh: the Duquesne Amusement Supply Company.  Wanting to create their own films, the Warner Brothers became certified Hollywood movie producers in 1917 with the premier of their first major film, My Four Years in Germany, which grossed $800,000.  This success encouraged them to continue fighting for recognition in Hollywood.  In 1923 they discovered a dog by the name of Rin Tin Tin who became one of their biggest movie stars.  In 1926, they produced Don Juan, the very first motion picture with sound, and in 1927 they produced the very first “talkie” movie: The Jazz Singer.   These triumphs made the Warner Brothers extremely successful.

In 1931, the Warner Brothers opened Warner Theatre in Youngstown on W. Federal Plaza in memory of Sam Warner who had died in 1927.  The Warner Theatre was later renamed Powers Auditorium in honor of Edward and Alice Powers who saved the theatre from demolition in 1968.  It now houses the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra.  

Jack Warner

The Warner Theatre

(now the DeYor Performing Arts Center)

The Mahoning Valley Historical Society educates and promotes an interest in the history of the Mahoning Valley by collecting, preserving, and developing material representative of the people who have inhabited the region.

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