Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story [Paperback]

Cass Warner Sperling (Author), Cork Millner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 6, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0813109582 | ISBN-13: 978-0813109589

The real story of the Warner brothers has all the drama of a big screen production—a rags-to-riches tale with tension and strife among four brothers, love and marriage, death and divorce, plotting and betrayal. Hollywood Be Thy Name transports readers into the lives of Hollywood’s most enduring legends.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This book is what it claims to be: the lives of the brothers Warner from immigrant beginnings to fabulous wealth and the rise of Warner Brothers Pictures from a storefront theater to a massive empire. Sperling's name gives a clue to her insider status (she is Harry Warner's granddaughter). While she dutifully chronicles the deteriorating relationship between the brothers, for the most part the family dirt is kept under the rug. There are reports of deception both business and personal, with a few affairs thrown in for spice, but all in all these folks don't appear capable of amassing the power that they wielded. Family sentiment definitely clouds the picture. However, the book records an important part of Hollywood lore, and the "Other Voices" segments--personal remembrances of stars, studio employees, and family members--are a nice addition. Readers shouldn't expect an expose. A satisfactory addition to large film collections.
- Sherle Abramson, Williamsburg Regional Lib., Va.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Intimate story of Harry, Jack, Albert, and Sam Warner and how they rose from immigrant rags to Hollywood riches by founding the Warner Brothers Studio--as told by Harry's granddaughter and family archivist Sperling, who spent 11 years researching, aided by Millner and with contributions by Jack Warner Jr., Ronald Reagan, and others. Though its invented dialogue reads like fiction, this biomosaic of the Warner brothers and their studio comes off as a neat bit of storytelling, shored up with long quotes from family members, studio executives, and the talents who worked with the Warners. Jack Warner--the youngest brother, who outlived the others and who, through a swift shot of financial skulduggery, became sole brother in charge--is marked as the singing and joking villain of the piece. Benjamin Warner flees the Russian village of Krasnashiltz and arrives in New York in 1883. In 1904, his young sons fall in love with the nickelodeon business, soon buy their own projector, lease a theater, and, by 1907, form the Duquesne Amusement Supply Company for distributing films. Jack, formerly Jacob, quits school in fourth grade, brings home two dollars a week by singing in public, then is hired by his brothers to drive people out of the theater between shows with his bad voice. The studio's growth as it makes features on Poverty Row--with Jack and Sam heading production in Hollywood and Harry running the New York office as final authority--first climaxes with Al Jolson introducing talkies at the thrilling premiere of The Jazz Singer, though fun-loving brother Sam dies as Jolson opens. Harry tries to give the studio some class while vulgar Jack focuses on slam-bang movies from the headlines. Finally, the monster that is TV arises. Best pages are from Jack Warner, Jr., the son fired from the studio by his father for reminding him too strongly of the father's first wife. (Thirty-two-page photo insert) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky (August 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813109582
• ISBN-13: 978-0813109589
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,480,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than a "Rags to Riches" Story of Hollywood's Beginnings, April 3, 2003

By 

Shelley Abate (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story (Paperback)

I read "Hollywood Be Thy Name" with great interest and curiosity. Author, Ms. Cass Warner Sperling has kept her unspoken "promise" made to Grandpa Harry (patriarch of the Warner brothers) at his deathbed when she was a ten year old girl, to convey to others his deep beliefs and ideals.

I rate it 5 stars because the story and writing style paints an incredible picture of not just another "rags to riches" story but one of tragedy and great sacrifice leading to an enduring legend of the motion picture industry directly because of the "can do and make it go right" attitudes of the Warners.

From the family gold watch (later to be hocked in order to secure payment for the brothers first projector) placed in 1883 into the secret pocket of Benjamin Warner for his immigration to America into New York and the arrival of wife Pearl and children less than a year later, to a realization of a movie empire that had as its motto "Educate, entertain, and enlighten" which is a Hollywood legacy.

A must read for movie buffs and those interested in the beginnings of Hollywood. This is a book that has "all the right stuff" for the making of a fascinating mini-series as told by granddaughter Cass and others.

Shelley Abate, movie buff and avid reader.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than a "Rags to Riches" Story of Hollywood's Beginnings, April 3, 2003

By 

Shelley Abate (Italy) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story (Paperback)

I read "Hollywood Be Thy Name" with great interest and curiosity. Author, Ms. Cass Warner Sperling has kept her unspoken "promise" made to Grandpa Harry (patriarch of the Warner brothers) at his deathbed when she was a ten year old girl, to convey to others his deep beliefs and ideals.

I rate it 5 stars because the story and writing style paints an incredible picture of not just another "rags to riches" story but one of tragedy and great sacrifice leading to an enduring legend of the motion picture industry directly because of the "can do and make it go right" attitudes of the Warners.

From the family gold watch (later to be hocked in order to secure payment for the brothers first projector) placed in 1883 into the secret pocket of Benjamin Warner for his immigration to America into New York and the arrival of wife Pearl and children less than a year later, to a realization of a movie empire that had as its motto "Educate, entertain, and enlighten" which is a Hollywood legacy.

A must read for movie buffs and those interested in the beginnings of Hollywood. This is a book that has "all the right stuff" for the making of a fascinating mini-series as told by granddaughter Cass and others.

Shelley Abate, movie buff and avid reader.

25 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too many inaccuracies, February 24, 2000

By 

Craig Loftin (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hollywood Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story (Paperback)

If the authors of this book spent so much time researching (11 years according to the Kirkus Review above) then one wonders why their historical contextualization is as sloppy and superficial as it is. Let me cite one egregious example. On page 274, the authors explain that Elia Kazan's naming names fed Joe McCarthy's ambition which resulted in the blacklisting of the Hollywood 10. In fact, McCarthy had absolutely nothing to do with the Hollywood 10 (who were blacklisted in 1947--McCarthy didn't rise to fame until 1950), and Elia Kazan wasn't brought before HUAC until years later. Any high school history textbook will be clear about this. Also, the melodramatic quality of this book, especially in its fictionalized dialogues, leads the reader to question whether the authors had any intention of writing a factual book, or whether they wanted to invent a history that was dramatic and would sell a lot of copies.