Editing Jack L. Warner (section)

===Early business ventures===
[[File:Harry Warner - Feb 1919 MPW.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Harry Warner – February 1919 MPW]]
In Youngstown, the Warner brothers took their first tentative steps into the entertainment industry. In the early 20th century, Sam formed a business partnership with another local resident and took over the city's Old Grand Opera House as a venue for "cheap vaudeville and [[motion picture|photoplays]]".<ref name="vindy-yo-12-30-23">{{cite news
  | title = Heard on the Corner: How the Warner Brothers, Movie Producers, Got Their Start
  | work = The Youngstown Daily Vindicator
  | date = December 30, 1923
}}</ref> The venture failed after one summer. Sam then secured a job as a movie [[projectionist]] at [[Idora Park, Youngstown|Idora Park]], a local amusement park. He convinced the family of the new medium's possibilities, and purchased of a Model B [[Kinetoscope]] for $1000 from a projectionist "down on his luck".<ref name="Warner49-50">Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 49–50.</ref><ref name="ohiomag-march83">{{cite news
  | first = Bob
  | last = Trebilcock
  | title = A Warner Brothers Production: They parlayed Youngstown nickelodeon into a Hollywood empire
  | work = Ohio Magazine
  | date = March 1985
  | pages = 24–25
}}</ref> Jack contributed $150 to the venture by [[pawnbroker|pawning]] a horse.<ref name="vindy-yo-09-11-78">{{cite news
  | title = Warner Dies; Movie Tycoon
  | work = The Youngstown Vindicator
  | date = September 11, 1978
| page = 1
}}</ref>

The enterprising brothers screened a well-used copy of ''[[The Great Train Robbery (1903 film)|The Great Train Robbery]]'' throughout Ohio and [[Pennsylvania]] before renting a vacant store in [[New Castle, Pennsylvania]].<ref name="Warner54-55">Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 54–55.</ref> This makeshift theatre, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker.<ref name="ohiomag-march83"/><ref name="variety-09-13-78">
{{cite news
  | title = Jack L. Warner's Death Closes Out Pioneer Clan of 'Talkies'
  | work = Variety
  | date = September 13, 1978
| page = 2
}}</ref> Jack, who was still living in Youngstown, arrived on weekends "to sing illustrated song-slides during [[film reel|reel]] changes".<ref name="variety-09-13-78"/>

In 1906, the brothers purchased a small theater in New Castle, which they called the Cascade Movie Palace.<ref name="Warner54-57">Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 54–57.</ref> In 1907, the Warner brothers established the [[Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania|Pittsburgh]]-based Duquesne Amusement Company, a distribution firm that proved lucrative until the advent of [[Thomas Edison]]'s [[Motion Picture Patents Company]] (also known as the Edison Trust), which charged distributors exorbitant fees.<ref name="Warner65-66">Warner and Jennings (1964), pp. 65–66.</ref> In 1909, Harry agreed to bring Jack into the family business, sending him to [[Norfolk, Virginia]], where Jack assisted Sam in the operation of a second film exchange company.<ref name="sperling42">Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), p. 42.</ref> Later that year, the Warners sold their business to the General Film Company for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and payments over a four-year period, for a total of $52,000"<ref name="sperling4546">Sperling, Millner, and Warner (1998), pp. 45–46</ref> (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|52000|1909|r=-5}}}} today).