Change In Business - Personal History

Self Experience -- A brief story of our first major foray into the business world

The year is 1993 and three young men, who share a penchant for business, are searching for the right materials to get involved with after deciding that distribution as compared to manufacture is the way ahead in the day’s particular climate.

The studies went on for almost two years and as luck would have it, a relative of two of the men controlled a soft drink’s production factory; it was then intimated to the men that if they could source a certain product for him, even at the same price, he would give them a contract.

The men duly did this, the product was sourced and the new business was up and running.

Over the following several years, the product range expanded and the customer base continued growing, using the same business model of distribution with ever-increasing storage facilities, creating an ability to from an efficient part of any company’s supply chain management.

Then, as is the subject title of this article, the business had to change, was forced to change -- through clever marketing and good fortune we won a supply contract for packaging related materials that we did not even supply!

Hence we suddenly required a great deal of additional space, a great deal of new equipment and guess what? We were involved in a business model which went against the grain of every ounce of our studies and took us in a totally different direction to that planned. Thus, we had changed.

One may argue that business is always the same -- it’s just the commodity that changes.

So there we were with 45000 square feet of storage and manufacturing space, a large work force, health and safety issues and lorries to boot-everything we had planned against -- but we had a contract.

However, the years went by and we began to see a pattern emerging throughout the country of manufacturing businesses closing around UK in favour of moving to Eastern Europe or indeed the Far East.

Since our business was primarily in the field of primary or secondary packaging and it is essentially manufacturing company’s that use packaging we decided that it was time to sell the business as too many companies were chasing an ever-decreasing market.

So when we received an offer from our managers to buy, we accepted it and moved on.

Summarising, it is no longer possible to be inflexible in business and more than ever, since general market knowledge is greater than ever before due to the internet, the customer must be treated with kid gloves and cannot be pressed too strongly.

Whereas in times gone by, it was relatively easy to work with decent margins, even on generic products, customers can access swathes of information at the press of a button, thus forcing the seller’s position down and down.

This is all very well but it must be remembered that a business producing anything or storing anything must work off a decent profit level to be able to maintain the standards of quality and delivery performance.

History of Warner Bros

Based in Burbank, California Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. is one of the largest producers of television programs and films. The other companies which are a part of Warner Bros. are Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Animation, The CW Television Network and DC Comics. The founders of the studio were the Warner Brothers - Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack L. Warner. The first three brothers started with projecting movies in the Ohio and Pennsylvania. They bought their first theater the Cascade in 1903. They also founded Duquesne Amusement and Supply Company for distribution purpose in Pittsburg.

They began film production by the onset of World War I and they soon opened the Warner Bros. studio in 1918. Sam and Jack Warner were into film production and the other two brothers handled finance and distribution. Their first big success came after the creation of the character "Rin Tin Tin". It became so popular that it was used in twenty six subsequent movies. They bought the pioneer Vitagraph Company, which had presence all over the nation, with the help of loan taken from Goldman Sachs. They also took over many radio stations and also constructed many theaters. They incorporated music and special effects in their production and were the first ones to start talking pictures.

The Warner Bros. bought the Stanley Company and gained shares and control of the First National Pictures and the merger was named as A Warner Bros. - First National Picture. After the merger their first all-talking and all-color film caused the whole industry to change overnight. They made many musicals after that and after a point of time, the audience wanted a change. The production head Darryl F. Zanuck now concentrated on making more serious and realistic productions. These productions were said to be encourage gangsters and thus faced many censorships. The studios then changed their course of direction to historic dramas, melodramas and adaptation of best sellers to avoid scissors of censor. Though the Warner Bros. were ruling the industry for a while, MGM slowly took over them after some time.

In 1930s, Warner Bros. took a plunge into cartoons with Looney Tones cartoons. They launched their own Warner Bros. Records in 1958 but by 1960s the motion pictures were on a decline. Finally they decided to sell the studio to Seven Arts Productions and the company was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Steve Ross purchased this company later and made Ted Ashley as the head of the studio and renamed it as Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. joined with Columbia Pictures for film distributions till 1988 and then made a joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures till 1993. Along with Tribune Company of Chicago they launched The WB Network in 1995.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Dawson's Creek"," Smallville", "7th Heaven" and" Charmed" caught the eye of millions of people. 7th Heaven went for eleven seasons making it the longest running family drama and Charmed went for eight seasons making it the longest running drama with actresses in the lead. CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. replaced The WB Network with The CW Television Network. They obtained rights to produce the famous Harry Potter series in the end of 1990s and the first Harry Potter movie was released in 2001 and till date a total of four Harry Potter movies have been released.

History of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

The California based Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation formed after the merger of two companies Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935. Darryl F. Zanuck, Raymond Griffith, William Goetz and Joseph Schenck started the Twentieth Century Pictures in 1933 and the Fox Film Corporation's founder was William Fox who founded it in the year 1915.

William Fox built many theaters and created many legends in his impressive career. Sound Fox bought the rights of a German film sound processing technique and Fox was able to produce movies with music and effect track in 1926. The company was growing and more land was required for expanding. He bought around three hundred acre of land in Beverly Hills where he built the Movietone City. After the death of his rival, Marcus Loew, William thought of buying Loew's Inc. It had nearly two hundred theaters and also MGM studios under it. The deal was made and the companies were officially merged in 1929. But the owner of MGM studios, Louis B. Mayer, wasn't happy with this idea and he revolted by calling on the Justice Department's anti-trust unit and using political influence. Luck wasn't on William's side and he was injured in a car crash and by the time he was back to normal again the stock market crashed and he was totally bankrupt. He lost all his fortune and was even had to go to jail. The only way out was to merge with another larger company. This is when the merger of Twentieth Century and Fox took place. Fox had nearly two hundred theaters under its belt, but at that time the Twentieth Century was in better financial condition, so the name of the new company was Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, which began functioning on May 31, 1935. Schenck became the chief executive and Zanuck was the head of production. The leading actor of this company Will Rogers was killed in a plane crash and the leading actress Janet Gaynor also began losing popularity. Zanuck then decided to sign up new artists with some fresh talent. That was when Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Henry Fonda, Sonja Henie, and Don Ameche became a part of the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. They made many musical-dramas and movies on famous biographies, which became huge hit with the audiences.

The fortune of the company was rising rapidly and it became the third profitable studio of America, by overtaking RKO and MGM. During the World War II, Zanuck went to serve the country and his partner William Goetz took over the company. He made many lighthearted movies. But after Zanuck returned from the war, he wanted to produce some serious entertainment and made movies like "Gentleman's Agreement", "Pinky", "Wilson" and "Boomerang" which also fell into adult films category.

After the World War, public were more attracted to television. Fox started experimenting on new ideas so as to bring the crowd back to the theater. With the help of three projectors the movie was projected on a huge concave curve, which created the illusion of three-dimensional character. The effect was achieved without polarized glasses with the help of French anamorphic projection, and this feature was named Cinemascope. They made other theater owners to switch to this technology and also bore the conversion costs. "The Robe" and "How to Marry a Millionaire" were the first experimental films using this technology. After seeing their success other rival studios also adopted this technique. Although this attracted audiences for a while the numbers started to diminish again by 1956. The same year Zanuck announced his resignation.

Buddy Adler fitted into the shoes of Darryl Zanuck but he also died after a year. Others who followed couldn't do anything to bring success to the company. Producer Walter Wagner convinced Elizabeth Taylor to star in "Cleopatra" and the movie proved to be a hit. Actress Marilyn Monroe was also roped in to work in "Something's Got to Give". But due to her untimely death the film was left uncompleted. Other movies were also rushed and Spyros Skouras the successor of Buddy Adler wasn't able to manage the company properly. Zanuck returned back again and somehow made the directors to take him back. He made his son Richard Zanuck the president. At first Zanuck was able to give big hits like "The Sound of Music" but his credential were questioned again there string of flops after that. Eventually he was removed from the company and president Dennis Stanfill and production head Alan Ladd, Jr. pulled the company back. Many investors joined the bandwagon and great hits were produced ever after that.

The History of MGM

Although MGM was originally found in 1915 as Triangle Pictures located in Culver City which was 7 miles south west of Hollywood. Thomas Ince, D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett then owned the Studio. Samuel Goldwyn then acquired the studio in 1918 and the name was changed to Goldwyn Studios. It is then when it got its Leo the Lion logo. It merged with Metro Pictures and Mayer Pictures in 1924 and the studio went onto become the greatest studio in the history of Hollywood by the name Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM) on April 16, 1924. The inauguration took place with a grand ceremony attended by Former President both President Calvin Coolidge and famous performer Will Rogers. This is how the legendary MGM Studios was born.

MGM became the powerhouse of cinema pretty soon and was renowned for its lavish sets, stylish films and unmatched array of Film stars in their productions. It was a dream for many new actors to work for MGM. Within a year of its formation MGM took over Universal Studios as the biggest producer of movies in the year 1925 and retained this distinction for next quarter of the century. The studio also inherited the classic silent movie Ben-Hur that was under production when the studio was formed. The movie was the most expensive silent movie ever made with the cost of production of over $5 million. The movie was also a blockbuster hit.

The Studio was city in itself having its own police, fire, telegraph and post departments. It had everything that a city has so that a complete movie can be shot inside the studio without ever going to different places. With the advent of talkies in the late twenties the Studio attracted best of the talent of that era with big names like Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy, Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, Frank Sinatra, Fred Astaire, Jimmy Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor etc. the list goes on.

During the peak years MGM churned as many as fifty films a year and it has as many as five thousand employees. The studio once bragged that there are more stars in MGM than sky. The studio acquired one more building for administration in 1938, which was named after Irving Thalberg who was the head of production. Then Louis B. Mayer took over the reins until 1951 when he lost power to Dore Schary. The golden age of the studio was from its inception to the Second World War during which it gave memorable movies like 'The Wizard of Oz', 'Gone with the wind', 'The Tarzan Adventures', 'The Thinman Series' and many Marx Brothers comedies. 'Gone with the wind' is still the highest earning movie till date if you adjust for inflation. MGM movies created many more records with Ben-Hur made in 1959 bagging 11 Oscars which was a record until recently when it was equaled by 'Titanic' and 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King'.

The golden era of MGM ended after the Second World War when it became expensive to produce large number of movies and the when viewers attention was diverting towards the television. The 1950's and 1960's saw one of the worst periods in the history of the studio with company making loses for the first ever time. To offset these loses and to get into the television market slowly they sold the rights of their movie 'The Wizard of Oz' to CBS which made a lot of money back then. But even as the company tried to come out of the financial turmoil it sank further deep each year. The studio was ultimately sold to Edgar Bronfman, Sr., a Canadian Investor. When he too was not able to manage the studio he sold it to Nevada millionaire Kirk Kerkorian who was more interested in it as a real estate property than a studio. He sold the vast collection of Studio's props, furnishings and memorabilia; the lot was used for a huge real estate project.

The company almost stopped producing movies in 1970's and 1980's. The company acquired United Artists in 1981 and in 1986 Ted Turner bought it. It again changed many owners in 1990's. In 2004 there was a cat race to buy MGM with Turner, Sony and many other big companies bidding to acquire it. But the highest bidder proved to be Sony with the support of other firms like Comcast and venture capital bankers Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners.

MGM ventured into theatrical distribution in 2006 releasing over fourteen films in the year. The studio also restructured itself and is once again back in business and keeping with the modern day demands by announcing in 2007 that all MGM movies can be downloaded through Apple's iTunes. With the company molding itself to the needs of the digital world we only hope that the company regains its lost reputation once again.

History of Universal Studios

Universal Studios or Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios is one of the largest American film studios. It was established in 1906 when Carl Laemmle started his first theater in Chicago. He started by playing short silent movies. He later switched to production and distribution. To start the production of his own films, he opened the Independent Moving Picture Company in New York in 1909. His first work, Hiawatha, was released in the same year.

Laemmle's dream was to make his presence felt all over America. His next target was the west where he bought the Nestor Studio in Hollywood. He formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company on June 8, 1912. This company which was New York based, incorporated the already existing Independent Moving Picture Company and five other companies into it. By that time he had already conquered the east and the west coast of America and now he decided to centralize his production companies. He asked Isadore Bernstein to buy plots in Los Angeles. The two hundred and thirty acre land bought became the Universal City, the entertainment center of the world. Although film production here began in 1914 and in 1915 it was officially inaugurated on March 15, 1915. The first production of this studio was Damon and Pythias. Many films were released after the studio opened including comedies, drama, action, and adventure.

Some of the popular movies that were produced in this studio are "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Dracula", "Bride of Frankenstein"," The Phantom of the Opera", "The Mummy", and "All Quiet on the Western Front". Laemmle developed a habit of inviting guests to watch the movie making procedure and to give suggestions to improve them. It then became a tradition at Universal studios, and later temporarily visitors were banned because of the disturbances on the sets.

Carl retired in 1936 and sold the company to Standard Capital Company. In 1946, Universal merged with International and it was named as Universal-International. In 1947, the company produced "Hamlet" which won the Best Picture Academy Award. In 1952, Universal-International was sold to Decca Records. Decca Universal gave many hits in Milt Rackmil. Music Corporation of America, Inc. bought the Universal City studio and shifted its studio there and both the companies merged officially in 1962. Jules Stein was the founder of MCA, Inc., who was later joined by Lew Wasseman in 1936. At first this company prepared bands to perform in clubs and parties. Later it became the leading talent agency and conquered the entertainment world. They made motion pictures and also serials for television. Later they also ventured into the world of musical entertainment around 1960s to 1980s. The tradition of tours was started once again.

The company was taken over by Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company Ltd. in 1991. The Seagram Company Ltd. Bought large number of shares in 1995 and MCA Inc. was finally named as Universal Studios on December 10, 1996. The Universal International television operations merged with USA Networks in 1998. At the end of the year the company took over PolyGram and Universal Music Group became the largest music company in the world. The Seagram collaborated with Vivendi and Canal in June 2000 and today Universal Studios is a part of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

History of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

The California based Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation formed after the merger of two companies Fox Film Corporation and Twentieth Century Pictures in 1935. Darryl F. Zanuck, Raymond Griffith, William Goetz and Joseph Schenck started the Twentieth Century Pictures in 1933 and the Fox Film Corporation's founder was William Fox who founded it in the year 1915.

William Fox built many theaters and created many legends in his impressive career. Sound Fox bought the rights of a German film sound processing technique and Fox was able to produce movies with music and effect track in 1926. The company was growing and more land was required for expanding. He bought around three hundred acre of land in Beverly Hills where he built the Movietone City. After the death of his rival, Marcus Loew, William thought of buying Loew's Inc. It had nearly two hundred theaters and also MGM studios under it. The deal was made and the companies were officially merged in 1929. But the owner of MGM studios, Louis B. Mayer, wasn't happy with this idea and he revolted by calling on the Justice Department's anti-trust unit and using political influence. Luck wasn't on William's side and he was injured in a car crash and by the time he was back to normal again the stock market crashed and he was totally bankrupt. He lost all his fortune and was even had to go to jail. The only way out was to merge with another larger company. This is when the merger of Twentieth Century and Fox took place. Fox had nearly two hundred theaters under its belt, but at that time the Twentieth Century was in better financial condition, so the name of the new company was Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, which began functioning on May 31, 1935. Schenck became the chief executive and Zanuck was the head of production. The leading actor of this company Will Rogers was killed in a plane crash and the leading actress Janet Gaynor also began losing popularity. Zanuck then decided to sign up new artists with some fresh talent. That was when Tyrone Power, Betty Grable, Henry Fonda, Sonja Henie, and Don Ameche became a part of the Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation. They made many musical-dramas and movies on famous biographies, which became huge hit with the audiences.

The fortune of the company was rising rapidly and it became the third profitable studio of America, by overtaking RKO and MGM. During the World War II, Zanuck went to serve the country and his partner William Goetz took over the company. He made many lighthearted movies. But after Zanuck returned from the war, he wanted to produce some serious entertainment and made movies like "Gentleman's Agreement", "Pinky", "Wilson" and "Boomerang" which also fell into adult films category.

After the World War, public were more attracted to television. Fox started experimenting on new ideas so as to bring the crowd back to the theater. With the help of three projectors the movie was projected on a huge concave curve, which created the illusion of three-dimensional character. The effect was achieved without polarized glasses with the help of French anamorphic projection, and this feature was named Cinemascope. They made other theater owners to switch to this technology and also bore the conversion costs. "The Robe" and "How to Marry a Millionaire" were the first experimental films using this technology. After seeing their success other rival studios also adopted this technique. Although this attracted audiences for a while the numbers started to diminish again by 1956. The same year Zanuck announced his resignation.

Buddy Adler fitted into the shoes of Darryl Zanuck but he also died after a year. Others who followed couldn't do anything to bring success to the company. Producer Walter Wagner convinced Elizabeth Taylor to star in "Cleopatra" and the movie proved to be a hit. Actress Marilyn Monroe was also roped in to work in "Something's Got to Give". But due to her untimely death the film was left uncompleted. Other movies were also rushed and Spyros Skouras the successor of Buddy Adler wasn't able to manage the company properly. Zanuck returned back again and somehow made the directors to take him back. He made his son Richard Zanuck the president. At first Zanuck was able to give big hits like "The Sound of Music" but his credential were questioned again there string of flops after that. Eventually he was removed from the company and president Dennis Stanfill and production head Alan Ladd, Jr. pulled the company back. Many investors joined the bandwagon and great hits were produced ever after that.

History of Universal Studios

Universal Studios or Universal Pictures or Universal City Studios is one of the largest American film studios. It was established in 1906 when Carl Laemmle started his first theater in Chicago. He started by playing short silent movies. He later switched to production and distribution. To start the production of his own films, he opened the Independent Moving Picture Company in New York in 1909. His first work, Hiawatha, was released in the same year.

Laemmle's dream was to make his presence felt all over America. His next target was the west where he bought the Nestor Studio in Hollywood. He formed the Universal Film Manufacturing Company on June 8, 1912. This company which was New York based, incorporated the already existing Independent Moving Picture Company and five other companies into it. By that time he had already conquered the east and the west coast of America and now he decided to centralize his production companies. He asked Isadore Bernstein to buy plots in Los Angeles. The two hundred and thirty acre land bought became the Universal City, the entertainment center of the world. Although film production here began in 1914 and in 1915 it was officially inaugurated on March 15, 1915. The first production of this studio was Damon and Pythias. Many films were released after the studio opened including comedies, drama, action, and adventure.

Some of the popular movies that were produced in this studio are "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Dracula", "Bride of Frankenstein"," The Phantom of the Opera", "The Mummy", and "All Quiet on the Western Front". Laemmle developed a habit of inviting guests to watch the movie making procedure and to give suggestions to improve them. It then became a tradition at Universal studios, and later temporarily visitors were banned because of the disturbances on the sets.

Carl retired in 1936 and sold the company to Standard Capital Company. In 1946, Universal merged with International and it was named as Universal-International. In 1947, the company produced "Hamlet" which won the Best Picture Academy Award. In 1952, Universal-International was sold to Decca Records. Decca Universal gave many hits in Milt Rackmil. Music Corporation of America, Inc. bought the Universal City studio and shifted its studio there and both the companies merged officially in 1962. Jules Stein was the founder of MCA, Inc., who was later joined by Lew Wasseman in 1936. At first this company prepared bands to perform in clubs and parties. Later it became the leading talent agency and conquered the entertainment world. They made motion pictures and also serials for television. Later they also ventured into the world of musical entertainment around 1960s to 1980s. The tradition of tours was started once again.

The company was taken over by Matsushita Electrical Industrial Company Ltd. in 1991. The Seagram Company Ltd. Bought large number of shares in 1995 and MCA Inc. was finally named as Universal Studios on December 10, 1996. The Universal International television operations merged with USA Networks in 1998. At the end of the year the company took over PolyGram and Universal Music Group became the largest music company in the world. The Seagram collaborated with Vivendi and Canal in June 2000 and today Universal Studios is a part of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.

History of Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation owned by media conglomerate Viacom was founded in the year 1912. The founder Adolph Zukor of Famous Players Film Company decided to make feature films that would fulfill the demands of immigrants. By the mid of next year he made five successful films. In the same year Jesse L. Lasky founded Lasky Feature Play Company and hired Cecil B. DeMille for his first movie "The Squaw Man". Both these production companies sought help of Paramount Pictures to release their movies. Paramount Pictures was a new company at that time and was a merger of many small firms by W. W. Hokinson. The idea was appreciated and the new company, Famous Players-Lasky, got a good start. Lasky and his brother-in-law, Goldfish became in charge of the production, along with DeMille. Hiram Abrams was responsible for the distribution where as Zukor made plans for the development of the company. The company soon touched great heights. In 1916, Zukor decided to talk about the merging of the three companies with Lasky and Hodkinson. Public can take guided tour into the Paramount Studios situated in Hollywood, California.

Zukor made the first slogan of the company "Famous Players in Famous Plays". He was the man behind successful actors like Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Wallace Reid and Gloria Swanson. Paramount Pictures were the first to introduce the concept of block booking; this meant that if a particular firm wanted to buy the rights of a particular actor, they were also required to buy the other productions of Paramount Productions for that year. This concept proved to be a huge success and boosted the company's sale.

Under the leadership of Zukor, Paramount had huge success. He was responsible for building number of theaters which had nearly two thousand screens altogether. He also had big investments in radio and in 1926 he gained control over the Balaban & Katz chain. Barney Balaban became the president and Sam Katz handled the Paramount Publix theater chain. The company's name, Famous Players-Lasky was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation, in 1927. Due to the success of Publix theater chain the name was changed to Paramount-Publix Corporation in 1930.

By 1932 Zukon left all his old partners behind as the company was facing bankruptcy due to the enormous expansion projects. A bank reorganization team, consisting of Otto Kahn and John Hertz took over the company but kept Zukon in the company. After dealing with bankruptcy, the company was named Paramount Pictures, Inc. and Barney Balaban became the chairman. Many actors and singers were roped in and on a yearly basis; the company was producing nearly seventy movies a year. They also tried their hand at cartoon and the two characters, Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop became an instant hit.

The government was having problems with the block booking, so the company decided to end it in 1940, after which the company's production went down to twenty movies a year. While the company was making an effort to attract audience during the World War II, the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department reopened the case, U.S. vs. Paramount Pictures and the Supreme Court ordered the split of the company into two. Due to the loss of theater chains, the position of Paramount Pictures was very unstable and the company was sold to Gulf and Western Industries.

Paramount collaborated with Universal Studios to form Cinema International Corporation in 1970. They began producing for television. After the realease of movies "Grease" and "Saturday Night Fever", the interest in movies were back again. Paramount Pictures began making albums when they purchased rights for Paramount Records. Cinema International Corporation became United International Pictures, in 1981, which was renamed as Paramount Communications in 1989. Paramount became a prominent name in Hollywood once again and gave tough competition to its rivals. Some survived by moving to another place like Warner Bros. and some closed down like for instance RKO.

History of Warner Bros

Based in Burbank, California Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. is one of the largest producers of television programs and films. The other companies which are a part of Warner Bros. are Warner Bros. Studios, Warner Bros. Television, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Home Video, Warner Bros. Animation, The CW Television Network and DC Comics. The founders of the studio were the Warner Brothers - Harry Warner, Albert Warner, Sam Warner and Jack L. Warner. The first three brothers started with projecting movies in the Ohio and Pennsylvania. They bought their first theater the Cascade in 1903. They also founded Duquesne Amusement and Supply Company for distribution purpose in Pittsburg.

They began film production by the onset of World War I and they soon opened the Warner Bros. studio in 1918. Sam and Jack Warner were into film production and the other two brothers handled finance and distribution. Their first big success came after the creation of the character "Rin Tin Tin". It became so popular that it was used in twenty six subsequent movies. They bought the pioneer Vitagraph Company, which had presence all over the nation, with the help of loan taken from Goldman Sachs. They also took over many radio stations and also constructed many theaters. They incorporated music and special effects in their production and were the first ones to start talking pictures.

The Warner Bros. bought the Stanley Company and gained shares and control of the First National Pictures and the merger was named as A Warner Bros. - First National Picture. After the merger their first all-talking and all-color film caused the whole industry to change overnight. They made many musicals after that and after a point of time, the audience wanted a change. The production head Darryl F. Zanuck now concentrated on making more serious and realistic productions. These productions were said to be encourage gangsters and thus faced many censorships. The studios then changed their course of direction to historic dramas, melodramas and adaptation of best sellers to avoid scissors of censor. Though the Warner Bros. were ruling the industry for a while, MGM slowly took over them after some time.

In 1930s, Warner Bros. took a plunge into cartoons with Looney Tones cartoons. They launched their own Warner Bros. Records in 1958 but by 1960s the motion pictures were on a decline. Finally they decided to sell the studio to Seven Arts Productions and the company was renamed Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. Steve Ross purchased this company later and made Ted Ashley as the head of the studio and renamed it as Warner Bros. Pictures. Warner Bros. joined with Columbia Pictures for film distributions till 1988 and then made a joint venture with Walt Disney Pictures till 1993. Along with Tribune Company of Chicago they launched The WB Network in 1995.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Dawson's Creek"," Smallville", "7th Heaven" and" Charmed" caught the eye of millions of people. 7th Heaven went for eleven seasons making it the longest running family drama and Charmed went for eight seasons making it the longest running drama with actresses in the lead. CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. replaced The WB Network with The CW Television Network. They obtained rights to produce the famous Harry Potter series in the end of 1990s and the first Harry Potter movie was released in 2001 and till date a total of four Harry Potter movies have been released.