Albert Warner

Aaron Abraham Wonsal was born in the village of Krasnosielc, Poland (then part of Congress Poland within the Russian Empire). He was the son of Benjamin Wonsal, a shoemaker born in Krasnosielc, and Pearl Leah Eichelbaum, both Polish Jews. He came to Baltimore, Maryland with his mother and siblings in October 1889 on the steamship Hermann from Bremen, Germany. Their father had preceded them, immigrating to Baltimore in 1888 and following his trade in shoes and shoe repair. He changed the family name to Warner, which was used thereafter. As in many Jewish immigrant families, some of the children gradually acquired anglicized versions of their Yiddish-sounding names. Aaron and Jacob were late among the children to do so, becoming "Albert" and "Jack" after they came of age. However, his nickname was "Abe."

In Baltimore, the money Benjamin Warner earned in the shoe repair business was not enough to provide for his growing household. He and Pearl had another daughter, Fannie, not long after they arrived. Benjamin moved the family to Canada, inspired by a friend's advice that he could make an excellent living bartering tin wares with trappers in exchange for furs. Sons Jacob and David Warner were born in London, Ontario. After two arduous years in Canada, Benjamin and Pearl Warner returned to Baltimore, bringing along their growing family. Two more children, Sadie and Milton, were added to the household there. In 1896, the family relocated to Youngstown, Ohio, following the lead of Harry Warner, who established a shoe repair shop in the heart of the emerging industrial town. Benjamin worked with his son Harry in the shoe repair shop until he secured a loan to open a meat counter and grocery store in the city's downtown area.

In the late 1890s, Albert became fascinated by the bicycle craze that swept through the USA. and his older brother Harry opened a bicycle shop in Youngstown together as well. The two also tried to open a bowling alley together, but were unsuccessful.

Albert Warner stayed in school longer than any of his three brothers. In 1900, Warner entered Youngstown's Rayen High School, where he served as quarterback for the school's football team. Warner eventually dropped out, and in time got a job in Chicago as a salesman for the soap company Swift and Company. Warner's life would soon pursue a new direction after brother Sam was able to purchase a Kinetoscope in 1903.

As a young man, along with his brother Sam, Albert Warner entered the nickelodeon business, and started displaying copies of The Great Train Robbery from a Kinetoscope at carnivals in Ohio and Pennsylvania in 1903; Sam ran the projector and Albert sold tickets. In 1905, Harry agreed to join his two brothers' business and sold his Youngstown bicycle shop. During this time the three brothers purchased a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania; with their new building, the brothers established their first theater, The Cascade Movie Palace. The theater was so successful that the brothers were able to purchase a second theater in New Castle. This makeshift affair, called the Bijou, was furnished with chairs borrowed from a local undertaker. In 1907 the three brothers acquired fifteen additional theaters in the state of Pennsylvania, and named their new business The Dusquesne Amusement Supply Company. The three brothers then rented an office in the Bakewell building in downtown Pittsburgh with a loan from Max Fleischer. Harry then sent Sam to New York to purchase and ship films for their Pittsburgh exchange company, while he and Albert remained in Pittsburgh to run the business.

In 1909, the brothers sold the Cascade Theater to open a second film exchange company in Norfolk, Virginia, drawing youngest brother Jack into the fold. Afterwards, Sam and Jack went to Norfolk, while Harry and Albert stayed in Pittsburgh. However, one serious threat to the Warners film company was the advent of Thomas Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company (also known as the Edison Trust), which enforced Edison's patents and charged distributors exorbitant fees. In 1910 the Warners sold the family business to the General Film Company for "$10,000 in cash, $12,000 in preferred stock, and $30,000 in payments over a four-year period, for a total of $52,000". After selling their business the brothers found work distributing films for Carl Laemmle's Independent Motion Picture Company in Pittsburgh. In 1912 Sam would help the brothers earn a $1,500 profit by distributing the Italian film Dante's Inferno in the United States. Harry, encouraged by the success of Dante's Inferno and wary of Edison's growing monopoly, decided to leave Laemmle and establish an independent film production company for the four Warner brothers, Warner Features; Albert and Harry opened an office in New York, while Sam was sent to operate the company's new Los Angeles film exchange division, and Jack was sent to run the company's new San Francisco film exchange division. In 1918, thanks in part to a loan from Ambassador James W. Gerald, the brothers expanded operations and established a studio near Hollywood, California Sam and Jack moved to the West Coast to produce films while Albert and Harry remained on the East Coast to handle distribution.

Between the years 1919 and 1920 the studio was not able to earn any profits. During this time banker Motley Flint helped the Warners pay off their debts. Shortly afterwards the four brothers decided to relocate their studio from Culver City to Sunset Boulevard. The studio rebounded in 1921, after the success of the studio's film Why Girls Leave Home. As a result of the financial success of the film, its director, Harry Rapf, was appointed the studio's new head producer. On April 4, 1923, following the studio's successful film The Gold Diggers, Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. was officially established. Albert remained in New York, where he ran the company's distribution and finances.

In 1908, Warner married Bessie Krieger, in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Krieger died in 1923 from influenza. On April 23, 1925, Warner married Bessie Siegal, the widow of his friend, Jonas Siegal. The couple remained married until Warner's death in 1967. Through his marriage to Bessie Siegel, Warner had a stepson, Arthur Jack Steel, who married Ruth Mandel, and had sons John and Lewis Steel (named after Harry Warner's son Lewis Warner). Warner was noted as never adopting an upper class lifestyle, remaining unrefined throughout his life.