Movie moguls started their careers in the greater Youngstown area

YOUNGSTOWN — Long before the legendary Warner brothers — Harry, Sam, Albert and Jack — hit the big time in Hollywood, they were struggling to make ends meet in Youngstown.

The sons of Jewish-Polish immigrants, the brothers lived here during the early 1900s and sold soap, ice cream and bicycles and operated a butcher shop, among other things.

They learned to stick together and, according to the book “Hollywood Be Thy Name,” written by Cass Warner Sperling and Cork Millner, the boys’ father, Ben Warner, told his sons that by sticking together, they were guaranteed to prosper.

This, of course, proved amply true.

After the brothers acquired a Kinetoscope movie projector in 1906 and began traveling across Ohio, Pennsylvania and neighboring states, showing silent films in tents, they were on their way.

In 1907, the brothers opened the Cascade Movie Theater in New Castle, Pa.

To seat patrons, they borrowed 99 chairs from a neighboring funeral parlor and charged 5 cents for admission.

A wall painted white served as a movie screen and two modest oil lamps lighted the dark room.

The brothers soon invested in other theaters in Youngstown and surrounding areas, and in spring 1907, established the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement Company.

By 1918, they had established a production company in California, and in 1923, the Warner Bros. Company was born.

They continued to buy and build movie theaters, among them the Warner Theater in Youngstown in 1931 — now Edward W. Powers Auditorium.

This theater was built in memory of Sam Warner, who died in 1927.

XSource: “Hollywood Be Thy Name,” by Cass Warner Sperling and Cork Millner