In 1539, the Knight Templars of Malta paid tribute to Charles V of Spain by sending him a golden falcon,

encrusted from beak to claw with rarest jewels. But pirates seized the galley carrying this priceless token,

and the fate of the Maltese Falcon remains a mystery to this day.

Prologue appearing after the opening credits in the 1941 film, The Maltese Falcon.

Welcome to the history of the 20th century. The 20th century.

The Episode 3994. The Stuff Dreams are Made of.

I want to continue today with our series on Hollywood Studios.

I told you about the smallest of the five majors, RKO Radio Pictures, last time we were talking about Hollywood.

Today, we move up to number four, Warner Brothers.

I have talked about Warner Brothers before.

It began as a smaller studio that leapt into the category of major studio when it released the first talking picture,

the jazz singer, in 1927. I told you that story in episode 274, where I also talked about the

origins of the studio. Warner Brothers was literally formed by four brothers named Warner, Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack.

They were children of, say it with me, Jewish immigrants from what was then the Russian Empire.

The three elder Warner Brothers were actually born in what is now Poland, and anglicized their Yiddish names in the

United States. The youngest, Jack, was born in Ontario. Here's another familiar story. The brothers

began with a chain of movie theaters and moved into production initially to supply films for their theaters.

The two youngest brothers, Sam and Jack, took over the film production end of the business,

and as you already know, as Sam worked hard on production of the jazz singer, he developed a series

of infections that began with abscesses in his teeth,

and he died the day before the film premiered at the age of 40. The long hours he put into the

production of the film likely contributed to his death, and yes, back in those days, people sometimes

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