The film vaulted him from fourth place to first in the studio's roster, finally exceeding James Cagney, and more than doubling his salary to over $ 460, 000 per year by 1946, making him the highest paid actor in the world.

The studio's 1937 film The Life of Emile Zola gave the studio its first Best Picture Oscar.

In 1936, Avery directed a string of cartoons, starring Porky Pig, which established the character as the studio's first bona fide star.

In 1952, Warner Bros. made their first film ( Carson City ) in " Warnercolor ", the studio's name for Eastmancolor.

One of the studio's first CinemaScope films, The High and the Mighty ( now owned by John Wayne's company Batjac ), enabled the studio to show a profit.

In each of the first three years of the 1960s, the studio's net profit was a little over $ 7 million.

Donated in 1977 to USC's School of Cinema-Television by Warner Communications, the WBA houses departmental records that detail Warner Bros. activities from the studio's first major feature, My Four Years in Germany ( 1918 ), to its sale to Seven Arts in 1968.

In June 1955 he was the last remaining star of the studio's heyday, but with his contract up for renewal — Tracy opted to go independent for the first time in his movie career.

Crawford wanted to play the title role in Mildred Pierce ( 1945 ), but Bette Davis was the studio's first choice.

The studio's first original scores were written by Curtin for a short-lived theatrical cartoon series, Loopy De Loop, distributed by Columbia Pictures.

By the time Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was formed in 1924 and she was cast in the studio's first official production, He Who Gets Slapped, she had become one of MGM's biggest box-office attractions.

Paramount, the industry leader, put out its first talkie in late September, Beggars of Life ; though it had just a few lines of dialogue, it demonstrated the studio's recognition of the new medium's power.

Before Maytime was finished, Schulberg announced that Bow was given the lead in the studio's biggest seasonal assessment, Poisoned Paradise, but first she was lent to First National Pictures to co-star in the adaptation of Gertrude Atherton's 1923 bestseller Black Oxen, shot in October, and to co-star with Colleen Moore in Painted People, shot in November.

Poppins, in particular, won five Academy Awards ( and received with the studio's first Best Picture nomination ) and topped the 1964 box office charts while launching the film career of its star, Julie Andrews, who won an Oscar.

This was the studio's first motion picture to be filmed in Cinemascope.

When Thalberg returned to work in 1933, it was as one of the studio's unit producers, albeit one who had first choice on projects and MGM resources, including its stars, due to his closeness to Nicholas Schenck, who was then president of MGM corporate parent Loew's Inc. Schenck, who was the true power and ultimate arbiter at the studio, usually backed up Thalberg.

Released on New Year's Day in 2000, Fantasia 2000 was the studio's first IMAX release and the first theatrical feature to to be presented in IMAX theaters.

Betty was the first featured female character in American animation, and she reflected the distinctive adult urban orientation of the studio's product.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians was the tenth highest grossing film of 1961, accruing $ 6, 400, 000 in distributors ' domestic ( U. S. and Canada ) rentals during its first year of release, and one of the studio's most popular films of the decade.

The young animator became Schlesinger's top director, and he introduced the studio's first true post-Bosko star, Porky Pig, in the 1935 film I Haven't Got a Hat.

The first documented use of surround sound was in 1940, for the Disney studio's animated film Fantasia.

The pixilation technique was also used for the opening of Claymation, Will Vinton's 1978, 17-minute documentary about his animation studio's production techniques, the first time the famous trademarked Claymation term was used, now a term synonymous with all clay animation.

The studio's first big break came in 1988 when James L. Brooks of Gracie Films hired the studio to produce the title sequence for a new comedy series called The Tracey Ullman Show.

The studio's next gangster film, The Public Enemy, made James Cagney arguably the studio's new top star, and Warner Bros. was now convinced to make more gangster films.

In addition to Cagney and Robinson, Muni was also given a big push as one the studio's top gangster stars after appearing in the successful film, which got audiences to question the legal system in the United States.

" The studio's first gangster film Little Caesar was a great success at the box office.

The studio's second gangster film, The Public Enemy, would also make James Cagney arguably the studio's new top star, and the Warners were now further convinced to make more gangster films as well.

According to Coppola, the studio's objection stemmed from the belief that audiences would be reluctant to see a film with such a title, as the audience would supposedly believe that, having already seen The Godfather, there was little reason to see an addition to the original story.

The studio's founder, Walter Montague, was nonetheless impressed by Capra and offered him $ 75 to direct a one-reel silent film.

He also acquiesced to her refusal to participate in block-booking, the widespread practice of forcing an exhibitor to show a bad film of the studio's choosing in order to also show a Pickford film.

Eisenstein proposed a biography of munitions tycoon Sir Basil Zaharoff and a film version of Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw, and more fully developed plans for a film of Sutter's Gold by Jack London, but on all accounts failed to impress the studio's producers.

He would return to Disney in 1940 and go on to pioneer a number of film processes and specialized animation technologies in the studio's research and development department.

Lubitsch's film The Marriage Circle was the studio's most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for the year.

After the success of the studio's 1929 First National film Noah's Ark, Harry agreed to make Michael Curtiz a major director at the Burbank studio.

The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream ( 1935 ) failed at the box office and the studio's net loss increased.

During 1936, the studio's film The Story of Louis Pasteur proved a box office success and Paul Muni, the film's star, won the Oscar for Best Actor in March 1937.

Following Raft's departure, the studio gave Bogart the role of Roy Earl in the 1941 film High Sierra, which helped establish him as one of the studio's top stars ; following High Sierra, Bogart was also given a role in John Huston's successful 1941 remake of the studio's 1931 failure, The Maltese Falcon.

In 1948, Bette Davis, still the studio's top actress and now fed up with Jack Warner, was a big problem for Harry after she and a number of her colleagues left the studio after completing the film Beyond the Forest.

In the wake of United Artists successful 3D film Bwana Devil, he decided to expand into 3D films with the studio's 1953 film House of Wax.

Berle's outrageous behaviour on the set and the film's massive failure proving Jack Warner right led to Jack Warner forbidding television sets appearing in the studio's film sets.

Today, Paramount ( through Republic, which the studio's parent company, Viacom, acquired in 1999 ), in a twist of irony, now owns the original elements to its 1927 – September 1950 output they themselves originally released ( in addition to the April 1962 – 1967 non-Comic King shorts ( except Frog's Legs, starring Little Lulu, which Paramount still owns ) they have retained the rights to and the 1961 Noveltoon, Alvin's Solo Flight, also starring Little Lulu ).

The studio's productions included three series started by the Fleischers — Popeye the Sailor, Superman, and Screen Songs — as well as Little Audrey, Little Lulu, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Honey Halfwitch, Herman and Katnip, Baby Huey, and the anthology Noveltoons series.

* The Charles Mintz studio adapted " The Little Match Girl ", including its grim ending, into a 1937 Color Rhapsodies animated short film, considered among the studio's best films.

Both Curley and Who Killed Doc Robbin, performed poorly at the box office ( as a result, Roach discontinued theatrical film production, turning his studio's efforts towards television ), and when Roach bought back the rights to the 1927-1938 Our Gang shorts in 1949, he had to re-christen the series as The Little Rascals.

Announcer Bob Sievers, Farm Director, commentator and folk-philosopher Jay Gould, News Director Dugan Fry, meteorologist Earl Finckle, the " In a Little Red Barn ( on a farm down in Indiana )" de facto theme song of WOWO, the Penny Pitch charity fund raisers, sports director Bob Chase's Komet Hockey broadcasts, the weather reports from WOWO's personnel taking a smoking break out on its studio's " world-famous fire escape ", and husband-wife hosts of The Little Red Barn Show, music director Sam DeVincent and wife Nancy of " Nancy Lee and the Hilltoppers ", all were listened to by a total of millions of people from the Great Lakes to the United States ' East Coast over the years from the 1940s to the 1990s.