| Warner Bros. recently made news by
opening a museum on its historic studio lot in Burbank.
It was news because no other studio has done anything
like it, and it was notable because Hollywood has so
little regard for its own history.
But then, Warners has always been an exceptional studio.
It was founded by four brothers in the silent film era,
and one of them--the flamboyant Jack L.--was still running
things (with an iron hand) when CAMELOT and BONNIE AND
CLYDE were made there in the late 1960s.
J.L. had one trait that must endear him to film historians
everywhere: he believed in writing things down, and
he encouraged his colleagues to do likewise. Because
of this, the Warner archive is filled to overflowing
with memos, letters, and telegrams that document a "living
history." (If this piques your curiosity at all,
I urge you to read Rudy Behlmer's book, Inside Warner
Bros, a fascinating compilation of those missives.)
 |
| One
of Warners' great stars, James Cagney, has lunch
with his leading lady, Olivia de Havilland, in the
studio dining room while filming Strawberry Blonde
in 1941. |
This is partly what sets the Warners museum apart from
other movie memorabilia exhibits. Not only can you
see costumes worn by Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, and
Errol Flynn, you can read (usually angry) letters they
wrote to their boss! (Davis blithely inquires as to
whether their contract standoff is likely to be resolved,
so she can decide whether or not to open her summer
house.) There are some hilarious letters from John
Wayne, written to Warner from the Mexican location of
HONDO in the early 1950s, begging for an updated 3-D
camera, or, "more money."
Those documents have been housed for many years at
the University of Southern California, where Leith Adams
was in charge of this special collection. In him Warners
found a perfect corporate archivist; as part of a team,
with designer Ruth Gilliland and Marisa o'Neil, and
animation archivist Geno Dubois, he has put together
a wondrous display of Hollywood history. Visitors to
the Warner lot can stroll in any time between 11:00
a.m. and 2:00 p.m. daily, while members of the public
can visit it as part of the Warner Bros. studio tour.
At the opening night party for the museum a few weeks
ago, such luminaries as Elizabeth Taylor, Warren Beatty,
Faye Dunaway, and Dennis Hopper were there. (You can
see Dunaway's dress from BONNIE AND CLYDE, with bullet
holes that were hastily repaired to allow for retakes
on the bloody final sequence.) Chuck Jones, Mrs. Friz
Freleng, and the children of Bob Clampett were in attendance
to represent the great Warner Bros. cartoon unit, which
is celebrated on the second floor of the museum, in
the most creative display of animation art I've ever
seen.
Other Warner veterans were there, as well, the kind
movie buffs like me moon over: musical star Janis Paige,
dancer Gene Nelson, leading lady Virginia Mayo, ingenue
Beverly Roberts, child actress Sybil Jason, singing
star Irene Manning, and veteran directors Vincent Sherman
and Andre De Toth, to name just a few.
There were others I got to know as the party was winding
down. They weren't stars or big-name directors, but
they were also a part of Warners history--and carry
that tradition with
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them into the 90s. Bill Young, Senior Vice President
of Worldwide Feature Production, oversees the logistics
of making a movie (and figuring out what it will cost),
as he has for many years. He grew up in the business.
His uncle was William Beaudine, who worked for Warners
in the 1920s and went on to become the king of B movies
at such lesser outfits as Monogram. His grandfather
was James Flood, who had the promise of a major directing
career (and codirected such Warners hits as THE MOUTHPIECE,
back in 1932) but didn't work for ten years because
he was "cantankerous" and spoke his mind.
He got himself in dutch with Jack Warner...but it was
that same studio chief who hired him back into the business,
because Flood's wife was friendly with J.L.'s wife Ann.
Some of the rarest and most impressive items in the
museum were found right on the lot: costumes and artifacts
from CASABLANCA which have been sitting quietly in the
wardrobe and property departments for more than half
a century.
Director of Production Services Domenick Bruno told
me about the incredible collections of furniture in
other Warner warehouses. Way back when, top studio
designers would go to England and buy out entire estates
when the great manors were selling off their property.
They would then become Warners property department staples,
routinely used in period pictures. Some of that material
is still there, and Dominick looks after it, aware of
its historical importance.
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It's rare to find this kind of continuity anywhere
in Hollywood, where studio heads come and go, and so
do corporate owners. MGM is up for sale--again--and
the Culver City lot that was home to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
for sixty years now houses Columbia Pictures. But the
name on the sign that towers over Washington Boulevard
isn't Columbia; it's Sony.
So Warner Bros is unusual for a number of reasons.
Robert Daly and Terry Semel have run the company for
sixteen years--an almost unprecedented tenure in the
topsy-turvy world of show business. What's more, their
egos don't demand that Warner history begin with their
arrival; they are proud of the studio's past.
Perhaps the nicest thing about the Warner Bros. museum
is that the doscents who answer your questions and take
you through the exhibits are veteran studio employees.
From former gate guards to longtime costumers, these
retirees are happy to share their memories and their
knowledge. And we movie fans are lucky to be the beneficiaries.
[Terry Semel and Robert Daly have left, and the company
is now called AOL Time Warner, but the Warner Bros.
Museum continues to thrive, adding new exhibits on a
regular basis. If you take the WB studio tour you’ll
be able to visit this wonderful attraction.] |
