Warner Bros. Pictures: Difference between revisions
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==Background== | |||
Warner Bros. Pictures was founded in 1918 by the Warner brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack - Polish-Jewish brothers who emigrated from Krasnosielc, Poland to Ontario, Canada. It is the third-oldest American movie studio in continuous operation, after Paramount Pictures was founded on May 8, 1912 as Famous Players Film Corporation, and Universal Studios founded on June 8, 1912. Warner Bros. incorporated on April 4, 1923. The studio has been the subject to numerous acquisitions over the decades. Warner Bros. merged with Seven Arts Productions in 1967, renaming it to "Warner Bros.-Seven Arts". The studio was purchased by Kinney National Co. in 1969, which was later reincorporated as Warner Communications in 1972 when it spun-off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations. Since 1989, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner (WarnerMedia since 2018), formed as a merger between the conglomerates Time, Inc. and Warner Communications. In 1992, Time Warner formed "Time Warner Entertainment" by merging all of its entertainment operations for the first time. Internet giant AOL merged with Time Warner in January 2001, renaming the company as AOL Time Warner, but in summer 2003, the conglomerate name was reverted back to Time Warner (often with no space in between the words) due to lawsuits and losing $99 billion from the collapse of the dot-com bubble. AOL officially split from Time Warner in 2009. In 2018, after numerous legal hurdles, AT&T acquired Time Warner. Subsequently, it was rebranded "WarnerMedia". The status of the acquisition was settled in February 2019 when it was upheld on appeal and the Justice Department declined to pursue their case against the acquisition any further. Today, with the exceptions of some films WB merely distributed, such as Sayonara (currently owned by the estate of the producer), Moby Dick (currently owned by MGM), Rope (currently owned by Universal Studios) and Hondo (owned by Batjac Productions with distribution exclusively handled by Paramount), the pre-1950 catalog is held by WB subsidiary Turner Entertainment Co. | |||
==1st Logo (November 17, 1925-August 30, 1929)== | |||
===Nicknames=== | |||
"Brain Shield", "Studio Shield", "Brain WB Shield", "The Early Shield" | |||
===Logo=== | |||
On a black background, a large, bizarrely shaped shield is seen, with a very wide top. The top part of the shield shows a picture of the original Warner studio in Hollywood CA (now known as "Sunset Bronson Studios"), the bottom having a squashed, stylized "WB". "a WARNER BROTHERS" is above the shield (with "WARNER BROTHERS" in an arc around the shield, a la the first Columbia logo), with "CLASSIC of the SCREEN" below. Starting in 1926 or so, it changed to "PRODUCTION". | |||
===Closing Titles=== | |||
There are two closing titles for this WB era: | |||
Closing | 1st Closing Title: We see the words "THE END" all in capitals on both sides of the WB shield, with "THE" on the left and "END" on the right. The "T" on "THE" and the "E" on "END" are bigger than the other letters. Below the shield, we see "A WARNER BROTHERS CLASSIC OF THE SCREEN" in big capital letters. But on some movies, the WB shield was omitted. For example, Beau Brummel (1924) had a BG with some books and two candles on both sides of the screen. Above the books, we see the "The End" in a small, fancy white script arched above a small "A WARNER BROTHERS "CLASSIC of the SCREEN"" text. | ||
2nd Closing Title: The second variant is the one you are seeing on the 3rd photo from left to right. On The Jazz Singer (1927), it was superimposed on a marble-like BG. | |||
===FX/SFX=== | |||
None. | |||
===Music/Sounds=== | |||
None or a film's opening theme. | |||
===Availability=== | |||
Extremely rare. This logo was thought to have been extinct for years. Evidence of it was seen on a Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary trailer on 1998 Warner videos. However, it has appeared at the start of the film The Jazz Singer, and was kept intact on the 75th Anniversary DVD as well as on the 1981 Magnetic Video release, where it's preceded by a United Artists "Transamerica T" logo. This is retained on all extant silent-era Warner Bros. films shown on TCM such as The Better 'Ole. The logo premiered at the beginning of Clash of the Wolves and made its final appearance on Gold Diggers of Broadway. | |||
===Editor's Note=== | |||
The first design of the WB shield, it's noted by modern viewers for having a strange look to it. However, the addition of the WB Studios inside the shield wouldn't be referenced again until the 1998 logo. | |||
==2nd Logo (November 7, 1929-August 29, 1936)== | |||
Nicknames: "Vitaphone Shield", "Shield and Flag" | Nicknames: "Vitaphone Shield", "Shield and Flag" | ||