A Polish shoemaker brought his family to America in 1889 escaping the Russian control of their homeland. They change their names to remove ethnicity. From Baltimore they moved to Canada. They tried their hand in a general store bartering tin wares with trappers in exchange for furs.
In 1896 they moved to Youngstown Ohio. First repairing shoes, then opened a meat counter and grocery store. They also tried running a bowling alley. One brother started a job in the steel mill. In the first two days on the job he witnesses a fatal accident, and someone lose a limb. They tried running vaudeville and photo-plays at an Opera House but failed after the one summer.
In 1899, Harry opened a bicycle shop in Youngstown with brother Albert.
Fifteen-year-old Sam worked as a projectionist at a local amusement park and at Cedar Point Pleasure Resort in Sandusky. After seeing Thomas Edison’s, “The Great Train Robbery” Sam saw an opportunity. Pawning his father’s gold watch and the family horse to be able to buy a Kinetoscope. Sam and brother Albert would show the movie “The Great Train Robbery” in a tent in their backyard, then at carnivals in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In 1905 Harry sold his Youngstown bicycle shop to purchase a building in New Castle, Pennsylvania. This became the Cascade Movie Palace. This quickly grew into fifteen theaters. They then got into film distribution in 1907. When the Edison Trust started charging distributors exorbitant fees,
The Warner Brothers moved into film production.
