There were actually brothers named Warner behind the formation of Warner Brothers Studios.  Jack, Sam, Harry & Albert Warner (born Wonskolaser and with different first names each.) They started out in the movie theatre business in Pennsylvania, before acquiring a film distributorship. By the closing years of WW I they already a full-fledged studio in Los Angeles where they were making their own films.

On this day, March 10, in 1918 Warner Brothers Studios released its first film, My Four Years in Germany, a semi-documentary about the American ambassador to Berlin. It was a silent film – the addition of sound to movies would come years later, also from WB.

Sound could have been added to film even for WB’s first film, but few studios believed in its practicality. Undaunted, the brothers forged ahead and added a wax cylinder with music and sound effects synchronized with the action on screen. The first such “talkie” film was Don Juan, a commercial success, but still not enough to convince other studios that sound in movies was the next big thing.