Sam Warner - Early Business Ventures

Early Business Ventures

Samuel Warner, known as "Sam," was the first member of his family to move into the entertainment industry. In the early 1900s, he formed a business partnership with another Youngstown resident and "took over" the city's Old Grand Opera House, which he used as a venue for "cheap vaudeville and photoplays". The venture failed after one summer. Sam then secured a job as a projectionist at Idora Park, a local amusement park. He persuaded the family of the new medium's possibilities and negotiated the purchase of a Model B Kinetoscope from a projectionist who was "down on his luck". The purchase price was $1,000. Sam's interest in film came after seeing Thomas Edison's The Great Train Robbery while working as an employee at Cedar Point Pleasure Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. During this time, Albert agreed to join Sam and together the two displayed showings of The Great Train Robbery at carnivals throughout the states of Ohio and Pennsylvania; Sam would run the film projector and Albert would sell tickets.

In 1905, Harry agreed to join his two brothers and sold his Youngstown bicycle shop. Through the money Harry made by selling the bicycle shop, the three brothers were now able to purchase a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania; The brothers named their new theater The Cascade Movie Palace. The Cascade Movie was so successful, that the brothers were able to purchase a second theater in New Castle as well. This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. They maintained the theater until moving into film distribution in 1907. That year, the Warner brothers established the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement Company, and the three brothers rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh. Harry then sent Sam to New York to purchase, and ship, films for their Pittsburgh exchange company, while he and Albert remained in Pittsburgh to run the business.

Their business, however, proved lucrative until the advent of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (also known as the Edison Trust), which charged distributors exorbitant fees. In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater for $40,000, and decided to open a second film exchange in Norfolk, Virginia; through this Norfolk company, younger brother Jacob, known as "Jack," following Sam's advice, officially joined his three brothers' business and was sent to Norfolk by older brother Harry to serve as Sam's assistant; In 1910, the Warners would sell the family business, to the General Film Company, for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and payments over a four-year period for a total of $52,000".