Albert Warner - The Great Depression

The Great Depression

With the Wall Street Crash of 1929 officially marking the beginning of The Great Depression, Albert saw that the studio was in need of additional star power in order to survive. Following Albert's advice, Jack and Harry Warner acquired three Paramount stars (William Powell, Kay Francis, and Ruth Chatteron) for studio salaries doubled from their previous ones. This move proved to be a success, and stockholders maintained confident in the Warners. In late 1929, Jack Warner would hire sixty-one year old actor George Arliss to star in the studio's film Disraeli. To everybody's surprise, the film Disraeli was a success, and Arliss would win an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in the film and star in nine more films with the studio as well.

With the collapse of the market for musicals, Warner Bros., under production head Darryl F. Zanuck, turned to more realistic and gritty storylines, 'torn from the headlines' pictures that some said glorified gangsters; Warner Bros. soon became known as "gangster studio. The studio's first gangster film Little Caesar was a great success at the box office. and Edward Robinson was cast a star in many of the wave of gangster films the studio produced after Little Caesar The studio's next gangster film, The Public Enemy, would also make James Cagney arguably the studio's new top star, and the Warners were now further convinced to make more gangster films as well.

Another gangster film the studio produced was the critically acclaimed I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, starring Paul Muni. In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Paul Muni was also given a big push as one the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful film I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. The film I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang got audiences in the United States to question the legal system in the United States. and by January 1933, the film's protagonist Robert Elliot Burns-who was still imprisoned in New Jersey- and a number of different chain gang prisoners nationwide in the United States were able to appeal and were released. In January 1933, Georgia chain gang warden J Harold Hardy-who was also made into a character in the film- sued the studio for displaying "vicious, brutual and false attacks" against him in the film. After appearing in the film The Man Who Played God, Bette Davis would also become a top star for the studio as well. In 1933, the studio's very successful film 42nd Street would revive the studio's musicals Most these new musicals featured Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell as the stars, and were mostly directed by Busby Berkeley.

By 1931, however, the studio would begin to feel the effects of the Depression as the general public became unable to afford the price for movie tickets. In 1931, the studio would reportedly suffer a net loss of $8,000,000.00. The following year, the studio would suffer an additional $14,000,000.00 net loss as well.

In 1933, relieve for the studio would come again after Franklin Roosevelt became US President in 1933 and was able to rebound the US Economy with the New Deal; because of this economic rebound, box office profits for Warner Bros. existed once again. This same year, however, a blow would also occur as the studio's longtime head producer Darryl F. Zanuck would quit, because: (1) Harry Warner's relationship with Zanuck became strained after Harry was strongly against allowing Zanuck film Baby Face to step outside the Hays Code boundaries; and 2) the studio reduced Zanuck's salary as a result of the financial woes the Great Depression gave the studio's net profits, and Harry still refused to raise his salary in the wake of the New Deal's rebound. Zanuck produced his letter of resignation to Jack Warner, and went on to establish his own company In the wake of Zanuck's resignation, Harry Warner agreed to again raise the salary for the studio's employees.

In 1933, the studio was also able to bring newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan films into the Warner Bros. fold. Hearst had previously been signed with MGM, but he ended his ties with the company after a dispute with the company's head producer Irving Thalberg over the treatment of Marion Davies; Davies was a longtime mistress of Hearst, and was now struggling to draw box office success. Through the studios partnership with Hearst, Harry's younger brother Jack was also able to sign Davies to a studio contract as well. Hearst's company and Davies' films, however, could not increase the studio's net profits. In 1934, Warner officially purchased the Teddington Studio as well.

In 1934, the studio would suffer a net loss of over $2,500,000.00. $500,000 of this loss was also the result of physical damage to the Warner Bros. Burbank studio that occurred after a massive fire that broke out in the studio around the end of 1934, and destroyed twenty years worth of early Warner Bros. films. The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream would fail at the box office and the studio net loss increased. During the year 1935, the studio's revived musicals would also suffer a major blow after director Busby Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk one night. By the end of the 1935, however, relief would come for the Warners, as the studio would rebound with a year-end net profit of $674,158.00.