Harry Warner - World War II

World War II

Warner occupied a central place in the Hollywood-Washington wartime propaganda effort during the Second World War, and by the end of 1942, served as a frequent, anti-Axis spokesman for the movie industry. Despite his conservative viewpoint and longtime affiliation with the Republican Party, Warner was also a close friend of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported him during the early 1930s. During Roosevelt's fight for the Democratic nomination in early 1932, the Warners made it an effort to make his name known throughout the state of California. After Roosevelt was nominated, the three brothers asked their friends to contribute to his campaign. Jack Warner even staged a "Motion Picture and Electrical Parade Sports Pageant" at L.A. Stadium Franklin Roosevelt's honor in 1932. During Roosevelt's 1932 campaign, Warner and the studio also contributed $10,000.00 to the Democratic National Committee. In the wake of Nazi Germany's rise to power, Warner became a key proponent of US intervention in Europe.

Prior to the beginning of the war in Europe, Warner had produced a series of film shorts which glorified America's fight against Germany during World War I; Warner later received an honorary award for producing these shorts. By the fall of 1938, Warner had gradually helped block the distribution of Warner Bros. films in Nazi Germany and its ally Italy. Prior to the war's beginning in Europe, Warner supervised the production of two anti-German feature films, The Life of Emile Zola (1937) and Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939). He spent large sums of money to get many of his relatives and employees out of Germany when the war officially began in the latter part of 1939. Before the U.S officially entered World War II, Warner supervised the production of three more anti-German films: The Sea Hawk(1940), which mirrored Spain's King Phillip II as an equivalent to Adolf Hitler, Sergeant York (1941), and You're in the Army Now (1941). After America's entry into the war, Warner decided to focus on making just war films.

Among the war films Warner made during the duration of the war were Casablanca, Yankee Doodle Dandy, This Is the Army, and the controversial film Mission to Moscow. At the premieres of Yankee Doodle Dandy (in Los Angeles, New York, and London), audiences for the film would purchase an altogether total of $15,600,000.00 in war bonds for the governments of England and the United States. By the middle of 1943, however, it became clear that audiences were tired of war films. Despite the growing pressure to abandon production of war films, Warner continued to produce them, losing money in the process. Eventually, in honor of studio contributions to the war cause, the United States Government would name a Liberty Ship after the brothers' father, Benjamin Warner, and Warner would be the one who was given the honor to christen the ship during its first voyage. By the time the war ended, $20,000,000.00 worth of war bonds would be purchased through the studio, the Red Cross collected 5,200 pints of plasma from studio employees, with 763 of the studio's employees, as well as Warner's son-in-law Milton Sperling and nephew Jack Warner Jr., would be recognized with having the honor of having served as in the armed forces.

Following a dispute over ownership of Casablanca's Oscar for Best Picture, head producer Hal B. Wallis broke with Warner and resigned from the studio. Following Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart became arguably the studio's top star In 1943, Olivia de Haviland (whom Warner was now loaning to different companies) sued Jack Warner for breach of contract. de Haviland cited that the government laws only required employee contracts to reach a maximum of seven years; de haviland had been employed under her studio contract since won her case, and many of the studio's longtime actors were now free of their contracts. To help keep these actors at the studio, Harry now decided to give up the studio's suspension policy.