In 1903, Jewish immigrant brothers Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack set up a tent in an Ohio yard and exhibited a short film. Cut to 25 years later when these Warner brothers behind Warner Bros. purchased a 62-acre film studio that had recently been built on Burbank farmland, nestled near the Verdugo Hills and the Los Angeles River, just northeast of LA.
Obviously, plenty can change in one generation. From 1903 to 1928, the world experienced a plague and a Great War, as well as the advent of the Model-T, the theory of relativity, and penicillin. In the entertainment business, a seismic change took place propelling the early adopters at Warner Bros. to lofty heights. The company made a deal to acquire nascent audio technology that allowed them, in 1926, to release the pioneering Don Juan, a film with a synched musical soundtrack. In 1927, the studio released The Jazz Singer, with synched dialogue, marking the momentous transition from the silent film era to talkies, and sending the company’s market valuation skyrocketing.
Fresh off these successes, in 1928 the company bought that 62-acre lot that First National Pictures had constructed just two years prior. The overall acreage and number of indoor sound stages and outdoor sets has ebbed and flowed—a fire here, a partnership there, a purchase of nearby ranch property—but from day one, Warner Bros. has made films (and television and more) here at 4000 Warner Boulevard.
Eighty-six films were shot in 1929 alone. The next year, nine new sound stages were built; in 1935, the largest one yet was added; and in 1937, the Mill Building went up, with rooms for below-the-line necessities such as scene painting and metal shop. Early Warner Bros. films tended to be fast-paced, quick-witted, and have unconventional anti-heroes. The studio hit it big with pre-code gangster pictures, including The Public Enemy (1931) with James Cagney and Little Caesar (1931) with Edward G. Robinson. Maltese Falcon (1941) and Casablanca (1942) followed, with global war as backdrop. Busby Berkeley’s extravagantly choreographed spectacles were filmed here. Errol Flynn swashbuckled. The Three Stooges, stooged. In short: the lot has seen a lot.
As the film business grew, so too did Burbank. Named for a dentist who had a sheep ranch there in 1867, the city incorporated in 1911. After Warner Bros. came, so did other entertainment companies including Walt Disney Studios, Columbia Pictures, and NBC television, along with rail, an airport, freeways, and the nation’s largest IKEA. Burbank took to calling itself the “media capital of the world.”
Today, Warner Bros. Studios consist of 110 acres, 36 sound stages, and 14 outdoor sets. That includes the main space and the nearby 411 North Hollywood Way “ranch” address, over on the north side of the 134 Freeway. More space—built vertically—is near completion at the time of this writing. In time for the 2023 centennial of Warner Bros. founding, architect Frank Gehry designed a complex of seven– and nine-story office buildings on the south end of the lot.