September 25, 2011

When I was asked by a kind soul who is "a big believer in the passing of wisdom between generations, the wisdom of elders, and the preservation of legacies" to come and speak, I was honored. I'd like to personally thank Gerard Holmes at the Investment Industry Association of Canada for having me be part of the finale of his event.

The enormity of pleasure I get in sharing some of the philosophy that existed in The Golden Years of Hollywood puts a permanent smile on my soul. I even got to see a couple wonderful films at the Toronto Film Festival.

Being a curious sort, I asked for those in the audience to raise their hands if they felt, "Those who produce films influence how we think and act?" I equate media today as our tribal drum--a beat or tune that we hear over and over again. It's similar to what one of the Warner brothers said, "Those who control the films control the morality of the world." You reading this, please let me know what YOU think?

Wishing you joy in whatever it is you're creating! Cass

Jun 14, 2011

Greetings all!

A very warm thank you to WILES MAGAZINE ("For Sexy, Savvy Socialites"), and especially to the editor-in-chief and writer, Teryl Warren for her article. It's a beautiful thing to have such words as this said about my film, "Like any great film, The Brothers Warner has all of the essential story elements: there’s a noble, socially responsible hero, an insatiable, formidable foe, and a bevy of beautiful by-standers caught in the middle of their epic power struggle."

Please click here and enjoy the link below for more wonderful words. Much love, Cass

Mar 7, 2011

Sharing THE BROTHERS WARNER documentary with 435 Warner Bros. employees at The Ross Theater on the Warner lot, and presenting the Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Mr. Barry Meyer, with a gift from the family for his stellar and dedicated leadership and for his caring for human rights was truly an honor! (The gift was a photo of my grandfather in 1937 and an article he wrote called "Initiative".) It's events like this that puts a smile on my soul.

To the collective sense of optimism! With love, Cass

Sep 19, 2010

A quick reminder from a proud mama--my talented son, Cole Hauser, is starring as Jimmy Godfrey in the TV series, CHASE which starts airing weekly this Monday, September 20th at 10pm on NBC. It's a fast-paced drama that drops you right in the middle of a game of cat-and-mouse as a team of U.S. marshals hunt down American's most dangerous fugitives.

ENJOY, and let me know what you think! Mama Cass

Mar 20, 2010

Hi Friends!

It's been quite a wonderful couple of weeks for Warner Sisters, THE BROTHERS WARNER & me! The recent FaceBook postings were to announce the recent Warner Home Video release of the DVD now available at the Official Online Store of Warner Bros. Studios. Needless to say, I've very proud to have my film "home"! Here's the website: WarnerBrothers

Great reviews are beginning to come out such as in the San Francisco Chronicle (click here) and in the Chicago Daily Herald. (click here)

To top things off, on Sunday, I was honored to be presented the International Family Film Festival "Best Documentary Award" by my incredible friend, Nancy Cartwright. I dedicated it to men like my grandfather who cared not only for his family but for what he could do to make the world a better place with the films he made.

To the beauty & joy of creating! Cass

Jul 28, 2009

We're very proud of this new article in THE HUFFINGTON POST about Cass and her award winning documentary, THE BROTHERS WARNER.

Preserving Family and Hollywood History: The Brothers Warner


Cass Warner Sperling is the granddaughter of Harry Warner, one of the four founding brothers of the Warner Brothers movie studio.

Harry Warner and his brothers, Albert, Sam and Jack, strove to make films of social conscience and relevance. "The brother's credo upon founding the studio was 'to educate, to entertain and enlighten," Cass says.

Through many mergers and corporate takeovers, Warner Brothers has morphed into part of the largest existing entertainment conglomerate. It is rare to find anyone who remembers the origins of Warner Brothers as a family business. Additionally, a large part of the Warner family story had been lost due to a painful family rift.

Nearly three decades ago, Cass set out to learn more about Harry Warner and his brothers. She calls herself "the Warner family private investigator."

Her investigation has culminated in part with a fascinating documentary, The Brothers Warner. The film is as much a compelling family saga as it is a must see for anyone interested in Hollywood history.

Although Cass did not begin exploring her family's past until her early twenties, her inspiration stemmed from a memory of the last time she saw her grandfather.

As Harry Warner lay dying and unable to speak after repercussions of a debilitating stroke, ten-year-old Cass was brought to see him. Harry took Cass's hand and held it tight. A powerful and silent exchange took place between the two, but Cass did not fully understand or grasp its significance at the time.

Years later, Cass sensed that her Grandpa Harry passed something on to her in their last moments together. As an adult, she came to view the interaction as Harry's way of asking her to keep a promise, much like one she learned he'd made to his own father.

In the early 1900s, Harry and his brothers swore an oath to their father Benjamin. The promise was that nothing would ever break the bonds of their family.

Benjamin particularly held Harry accountable for the family mandate. "Harry," Benjamin would say, "you are the oldest of my sons and it is your responsibility to keep your brothers together. As long as you stand together, you will be strong."

Sadly, the brothers' promise to their father was broken when an unfathomable betrayal fractured the Warner family for decades. The family rift and the reasons for it were rarely discussed. If the situation was talked about, it was only in hushed tones.

In fact, in the mid-1970s, Cass's cousin, Jack Warner, Jr., was thwarted by his own father when he attempted to publish a fictionalized account of the family events. Cass says, "Jack Warner, Sr. was so powerful that there was no way Jack Jr. could publish the story using real names. He had to fictionalize." The book was called Bijou Dream, and names were changed to protect the innocent (or the guilty).

"Regardless of precautions Jack Jr. took," Cass continues, "Jack Sr. soon realized that Bijou Dream was a veiled attempt to expose the family secrets. Jack, Sr. issued an edict and the book was yanked from shelves."

The family history, even euphemistically told, was once again buried.

Cass viewed her promise to her grandfather as a responsibility to tell the truth of the Warner family, especially Harry's story. "The purpose was to correct history, honor my grandfather and all of his brothers and carry forward a legacy I am very proud of," she says.

As years went by and many of the "original players" were dying off, Cass was free to investigate without any roadblocks. After 11 years of research, her book Hollywood, Be Thy Name: The Warner Brothers Story was published in 1993. It is now in its eighth printing and has been re-titled the same as The Brothers Warner documentary.

Following the book's publication, it was planned that the Warner family story would be turned into a television mini-series. Cass found that the scripts were "too focused on the dirt and the scandals. They were tawdry. That was not the story I wanted to tell. I realized my family's story would be better served if I did this as a documentary before any fictionalized accounts were put together."

Cass was very inspired by a young filmmaker at a seminar who had purchased a reasonably priced camera and shot his own film. Quoting a Yiddish anecdote Norman Lear mentions during her documentary, she says, "I decided to put my tuchas (ass) on the table and do the film myself."

Determined to tell the family story as she envisioned, she mortgaged her home and started actively fundraizing, which raised a few eyebrows. "People couldn't imagine why I would need to raise money to do this, being a Warner and all," Cass says.

Once she decided to make the film, the challenge was how to streamline key elements of the family tale into a 90-minute documentary.

In that respect, Cass gives a great deal of credit to her editor, Kate Amend, who edited both the Academy Award winning The Long Way Home and Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport. "Kate was invaluable to me, particularly in terms of zeroing in on the brothers' social conscience during the '30s and '40s."

Indeed, one of the strongest and most interesting segments of The Brothers Warner deals with Harry Warner's foresight in predicting the horror of Adolf Hitler.

In 1934, Harry chose to stop doing business with Germany after Hitler was named Chancellor and his first act was to order a boycott of all Jewish owned business. Warner Bros. was the first studio to stop doing business with Nazi Germany, years before any other Hollywood studio followed suit. At the time, Germany was quite a lucrative market and the majority of people thought the Warners were crazy to cut off a major source of revenue.

The Warner brothers also tried to make a film called Concentration Camp that same year. It was prevented from being made due to the Hollywood Production Code and fear that the studio would offend foreign governments or interest groups.

Had they been able to release the film they wanted in 1934, it is reasonable to conclude that the history of the ensuing ten years may have been altered. After all, just a few short years earlier, the brothers produced a film called I'm a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. The film caused such outcry from the American public that prison reforms were put into place.

The Brothers Warner also features insightful commentary from film experts, history professors, and Warner family members, in addition to Hollywood figures like Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., Debbie Reynolds and Dennis Hopper, to name a few. Hopper, in particular, contributes an anecdote involving Jack Warner and James Dean that adds to the reason why Dean is one of the quintessential American icons.

Fifteen years after the initial idea for a dramatized version of the family tale, Cass' book has been optioned and will be made into a big budget feature film. She will co-produce with Oscar-winning producer, Alain Goldman (La Vie en Rose). She adds, "I'm honored to have a very talented writer, Nick Pileggi (Casino and Goodfellas) writing the script. We expect to see the first draft of a script in a few months. It is my dream come true!"

Speaking of dreams coming true, despite all of Cass's research, there was one important element of the Warner family history that had remained elusive.

A serendipitous event is seen towards the end of the documentary. Cass was lucky to capture it on film as she happened to have a camera crew in her office the day it occurred.

"Out of the blue, I got an email from a second or third cousin who had plugged Warner Bros. into the Google search engine and noticed information on my company, Warner Sisters. On a mere hunch, she wondered if I might like to know an important piece of information. It was a mystery I had been trying to solve for over thirty years, so for this to happen was beyond thrilling!"

The information received seems a fitting reward for Cass Warner Sperling and the promise she kept to her grandfather.

See the original article. Click here.

Mar 5, 2009

AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE HONORS "THE BROTHERS WARNER" FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

WHEN/WHERE: Friday, March 13 @ 7:30 p.m.

Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood CA 90028

Q&A; with filmmaker Cass Warner to follow

SYNOPSIS: “The Brothers Warner” is the story of a family who rose from immigrant poverty through personal tragedies persevering to create a major studio with a social conscience. An intensely intimate portrait of the four film pioneers who founded and ran Warner Bros. studios for more than 50 years, presented like a love letter. Written and directed by Cass Warner (Harry Warner’s granddaughter and author of the book by the same name), and produced by Warner Sisters Productions. This epic story includes never before seen footage, and photos from the Warner family archives. Recently, “The Brothers Warner” won the HBO Film Producers Award, and is for those who crave the lore & lure of old Hollywood. CAST: Dennis Hopper, Debbie Reynolds, Norman Lear, Sherry Lansing, Tab Hunter, and many others.

This screening is part of the American Cinematheque two-weekend tribute to the films from Warner Bros. studio through March 21st.

February 25, 2009

I've just arrived and am honored to be an official selection at The Sedona Film Festival. What a gorgeous landscape! Doing these festivals has gifted me with experiencing the beauty of my own country.

Delighted to say, that my son, Cole Hauser's film, LIKE DANDELION DUST that he stars in, is also screening. Yes, I am a proud mama! Click here to see the trailer.

February 25, 2009

What a wonderful reception THE BROTHERS WARNER had at the Santa Barbara Film Festival--both screenings were sold out!

There was lots of great press. I was very pleased to receive the below article by Alex Hentelhoff, Casa Magazine in Santa Barbara :
"The Brothers Warner is as well made movie business doc as I’ve seen. It is more than that. It is a rich family portrait not only of a Hollywood success, but of that special American something that relies on freedom to create, to imagine, to inspire, and be inspired. These four immigrant brothers saw a nickelodeon show when they were kids, pooled their nickels to start their own showings, and went on to create a studio with a social conscience. Harry Warner said, “It’s not the challenge of dollars, it’s the challenge of ideals, and ideas…If the producers see only the dollar, I believe, those production efforts will fail.” Cass Warner, Harry’s granddaughter, has created a multi-layered gift to history and to her family..."

July 28, 2008

What a great movie!

THE STONE ANGEL, opened this weekend.

Please go and enjoy a touching, insightful movie similar to THE NOTEBOOK this weekend.
And look for that handsome guy named "Bram". Proud to say, he's my wonderfully talented son, Cole Hauser, in a romantic role. Ellen Burstyn is poetic.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Cass Warner

A review from the former film critic for the Boston Herald, Nat Segaloff:

"Being familiar with your book and being consistently disappointed by most documentaries about Hollywood, I find yours to be the only one I've seen that captures the human dynamic behind the creation of our industry... What's remarkable about 'The Brothers Warner' is the way you show the soul behind the shield."

OFF TO "OZ"

I'm still humming and singing, "I'm off to see the wizard the wonderful wizard of OZ..." (If only I had the voice of the incredible Judy Garland who was only 16 when she played Dorothy.) Yes, I got the privilege of befriending 5 of the last 6 surviving "Munchkins"--the "little people"-- while celebrating the 70th Anniversary of THE WIZARD OF OZ.
(Pride and proof in the picture below.) That's the talented, funny Lorna Luft, Judy Garland's daughter on the right. "The Lollipop Kid" and I are like family now.