When Warners Brought Broadway to Hollywood, 1923-1939

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. A Warner Bros. Story Retold

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 1-17

3. Broadway on Film: The Gold Diggers (Beaumont 1923)

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 19-50

4. Lubitsch’s The Marriage Circle (1924)

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 51-77

5. The Best of Broadway at Warner Bros., 1924–1929

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 79-104

6. The George Arliss Star Company at Warners, 1929–1933

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 105-134

7. Broadway on a Budget: Gold Diggers of 1933 (LeRoy 1933) and Lilly Turner (Wellman 1933)

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 135-162

8. The Petrified Forest: A Drama for Broadway and Hollywood, 1935–1936

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 163-187

9. Warners’ Prestige Drama Queen: Bette Davis, 1937–1939

   • Martin Shingler

   Pages 189-216

10. Reviewing Warners’ Production of Broadway-Based Prestige Pictures of the 1920s and 1930s

    • Martin Shingler

    Pages 217-226

11. Back Matter

    Pages 227-237

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This book offers a different take on the early history of Warner Bros., the studio renowned for introducing talking pictures and developing the gangster film and backstage musical comedy. The focus here is on the studio’s sustained commitment to produce films based on stage plays. This led to the creation of a stock company of talented actors, to the introduction of sound cinema, to the recruitment of leading Broadway stars such as John Barrymore and George Arliss and to films as diverse as The Gold Diggers (1923), The Marriage Circle (1924), Beau Brummel (1924), Disraeli (1929), Lilly Turner (1933), The Petrified Forest (1936) and The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). Even the most crippling effects of the Depression in 1933 did not prevent Warners’ production of films based on stage plays, many being transformed into star vehicles for the likes of Ruth Chatterton, Leslie Howard and Bette Davis.

• Warner Brothers
• Warner Bros
• Acting
• Actors
• movie stars
• prestige pictures
• theatrical films
• forgotten film stars
• melodrama
• Warner Bros’ early history
• performance analysis
• Broadway
• Hollywood
• Star studies
• Bette Davis
• films based on stage plays
• John Barrymore
• George Arliss
• Ruth Chatterton
• Leslie Howard

“An interesting take on Hollywood studio-era history that challenges the narrow focus of existing scholarship and revises familiar perceptions of Warner Bros. The focus on acting and performance usefully opens up the relationship between theatre and cinema, and the impact of Broadway on film acting and studio working practices in the crucial period of the transition to synchronised sound. Highly recommended as a valuable contribution to the area of acting and performance studies.”(Pam Cook, Professor Emerita in Film, University of Southampton, UK.  Editor of The Cinema Book Third Edition (BFI, 2007) and author of Nicole Kidman, BFI/Palgrave, 2012) “This book is a fascinating account of the creative symbiosis between stage and screen at a crucial juncture in Hollywood’s history. Shingler’s fully historicized and contextualized account revises what Warner Bros stood for and achieved with its prestige pictures and stars. By interweaving the histories of early sound technologies, Broadway’s acting traditions and the economic imperatives of studio filmmaking, this book highlights key performers and studio personnel long neglected in standard histories of Hollywood. With its refreshing focus on acting craft and method before ‘the Method’, the book produces a vital, new perspective on how films were made, played and received in 1923-39.” (Sarah Street, Professor of Film and Foundation Chair of Drama, University of Bristol, UK)

“Martin Shingler’s clearly argued and informative book offers a compelling new perspective on early Warner Bros. history. Moving past the studio’s reputation as the home of Rin Tin Tin and gritty gangster dramas, the book highlights Warners’ pursuit of Broadway talent, stories and audiences in the 1920s and 1930s. Exploring acting styles, the coming of sound, and key films and filmmakers, When Warners Brought Broadway to Hollywood is a lively, perceptive and important addition to the scholarly literature on the Hollywood studio era.” (Mark Glancy, Reader in Film History at Queen Mary, University of London, UK. Author of When Hollywood Loved Britain, 1999)

• University of Sunderland, Sunderland, United Kingdom

  Martin Shingler

Martin Shingler, Senior Lecturer in Film & Radio at the University of Sunderland, UK. Author of Star Studies: A Critical Guide (2012) and numerous essays on Bette Davis.

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