Samuel Louis "Sam" Warner is Born

Today in Masonic History Samuel Louis "Sam" Warner is born in 1887.

Samuel Louis "Sam" Warner was an American entertainment mogul.

Warner was born Schmuel "Wonsal" or "Wonskolaser" in the Kingdom of Poland under the Russian Empire on August 10th, 1887. At the age of 1, Warner immigrated to America, specifically Baltimore, Maryland, with his family. His father, who had preceded the family, had a hard time making enough money to take care of the family. He moved with them for two years to Canada and then back to Baltimore. Finally they followed Warner's older brother Harry to Ohio.

Warner was the first member of the family to enter the entertainment business. In the early 1900s he "took over" the city's Old Grand Opera House which he and his partner used as a venue for "cheap vaudeville and photoplays". The venture only lasted the summer. Warner then secured a job as a projectionist at a local amusement park. He truly became interested in film when he saw Thomas Edison's The Great Train Robbery. Warner bought a Model B Kinetoscope from a "down on his luck" projectionist for $1,000 so he could start showing films himself. Warner and his brother Albert showed Edison's film at fairs and carnivals around Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In 1905, Warner convinced his older brother Harry to join Albert and himself in the entertainment industry. They purchased theaters in Pennsylvania. Eventually they went into film distribution. They later were joined by their brother Jack. The company was lucrative until Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company was started. The Patents Company also known as the Edison Trust, charged huge fees to theaters looking to show Edison films. The Warners sold off their movie theatre and went strictly into distribution, aligning themselves with an independent film production company.

In 1910, Warner and his brothers expanded their distribution business to the west coast. In 1918 the opportunity arose for them to produce their own movie, which the did. It wasn't until 1923 when Warner Brothers, Inc was officially established.

In 1925, Warner tried to convince his brother Harry to start using a technology produced by Western Electric. Warner worked hard to convince his brother to sign a deal with Western Electric to own the exclusive rights to produce sound films with the technology. Eventually Harry agreed to the deal. Unfortunately Western Electric executives were anti-semitic and the deal almost fell through, when at a dinner with executives, Warner's wife Lina, who was Catholic, wore a crucifix to the dinner.

Harry Warner allowed the new technology to be used in a limited fashion, not trusting the technology. When the studio began to slump, Harry finally gave the go ahead to Warner to make a sound picture. The movie was The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson. It broke new ground in Hollywood and was the start of the talking motion picture (talkies).

Unfortunately, Warner didn't live to see the debut of the movie. During the making of the film, Warner had fallen ill and it was discovered he had several abscesses and the infections had spread to his brain. After several surgeries to remove the infection, Warner slipped into a coma and passed away on October 5th, 1927.

Warner was a member of Mount Olive Lodge No. 506 in California.

This article provided by Brother Eric C. Steele.