Harry Warner - Postwar Era

Postwar Era

In 1947, Warner, who was by now exhausted from all his years of arguing with his brother Jack, decided to spend more time at his San Fernando Valley ranch and to expand his interest in horse racing. Along with brother Jack, in 1938 Harry Warner became one of the founders of Hollywood Park Racetrack. In partnership with Mervyn Le Roy, he created the W-L Ranch Co. Thoroughbred racing stable. In 1947 the Warner-LeRoy stable was able to acquire a valuable racehorse named "Stepfather." Warner had a bitter rivalry with his brother Jack over the years, particularly due to Jack's longtime infidelities (as Jack had been engaged in affairs with a wide range of various women since Warner Bros. Inc. was established in 1923) and waste of the Burbank studio's money. In the 1930s Harry, like most of his relatives, also refused to accept Jack's second wife, actress Ann Paige - with whom Jack had an affair while still married to his first wife Irma Solomon - as a member of the Warner clan. When Jack and Ann officially got married in January 1936, Harry and the rest of the Warner family refused to attend the ceremony. In a letter Harry sent to Jack on his wedding day to Ann, Harry stated "the only thing that could come from this day was that our parents didn't live to see this."

Throughout the early years of the studio's existence, various people, including Warner's younger brother Sam, had served as buffers between Harry and Jack. The last person to serve as a buffer between the two, father Benjamin Warner, died on November 5, 1935. Following Benjamin's death, Jack and Harry were now barely on speaking terms, and were merely just business partners to one another. Jack's marriage to Ann was also arguably a huge turning point in the two brothers' fragile relationship as well; Harry's arguments with Jack were now practically on a daily basis.

By the early 1950s, the brothers' long-simmering feud had risen to new heights, as Jack began spending a lot of his time in France, occasionally ignored managing the studio in favor of vacationing, gambling, and socializing with royalty, and spent studio money lavishly on 3-D films. On one occasion during this period, studio employees claimed they saw Warner chase Jack through the studio with a lead pipe, shouting "I'll get you for this, you son of a bitch".

The studio prospered post-war time, and by 1946, company payroll had reached $600,000 a week for studio employees, and the studio's net profit would reach $19,424,650.00 by the end of the year as well. During this time, Warner hired his son-in-law, Milton Sperling, to head an independent film production company for the studio. In 1947, Harry also tried to move Warner Bros. headquarters from the longtime New York building to the Burbank area, but was unsuccessful. By the end of 1947, the studio had a record net profit of $22,000,000.00, although the following year, the studio profits would decrease by 50%.

During this time, the studio was a party to the United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc. anti-trust case. This action, brought by the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, claimed that the five integrated studio-theater chain combinations restrained competition. The Supreme Court heard the case in 1948, and ruled for the government. As a result Warner and four other major studios were forced to separate production from exhibition. In early 1953, the brothers finally fulfilled their end of the bargain and sold their theater chain to Fabian Enterprises. In 1948, Bette Davis, now fed up with Jack Warner, would serve as a big problem for Harry after she, and a number of her colleagues, departed from the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest. By 1949, the studio's net profit had fallen to $10,000,000.00, and the studio would soon suffer more losses with the rise of television.

In 1949, Warner, seeing the threat of television grow, decided to shift his focus towards television production. However, the Federal Communications Commission would not allow Warner to do so. After an unsuccessful attempt to convince other movie studio bosses to switch their focus to television, he abandoned his television efforts. As the threat of television grew in the early 1950s, Warner's younger brother, Jack, decided to try a new approach to help regain profits for the studio.

In the wake of United Artist's successful 3-D film Bwana Devil, Jack decided to expand into 3-D films with the studio's 1953 film House of Wax. While the film proved successful for the studio, 3-D films soon lost their appeal among moviegoers. After the downfall of 3-D films, Warner decided to use CinemaScope in future Warner Bros. films. One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and Mighty, brought the studio some profit.

In 1954, Warner and his brother Jack were finally able engage in the new television medium, providing ABC with a weekly show, Warner Bros. Presents. Warner Bros. Presents was not a success. In 1955, the studio was able debut a very successful western TV drama, Cheyenne The studio then followed up with a series of Western dramas such as Maverick, Bronco and Colt .45. The studio's TV westerns would, indeed, help accumulate for the net losses that the studio was now given at the box office Within a few years, Warner, who was accustomed to dealing with actors in a high-handed manner, provoked hostility among emerging TV stars like James Garner, who filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. over a contract dispute. Jack Warner was angered by the perceived ingratitude of television actors who seemed to show more independence than film actors, and this deepened his contempt for the new medium. Through this success, Warner began to be known as the "Strategic Generalissimo" by his employees.

By 1956, the studio's profits had dropped to new lows. Warner and Jack's tumultuous relationship worsened when Warner learned of Jack's decision to sell the Warner Bros.' pre-1949 films to United Artists Television for the modest sum of $21 million. "This is our heritage, what we worked all our lives to create, and now it is gone," Warner exclaimed, upon hearing of the deal. Shortly after doing this, Jack took a long vacation in southern France. The brothers' fragile relationship was now worsening even more.