The Warner Brothers Story

Tonight, Radio 2 goes to the BBC Proms and a chance to hear the John Wilson Orchestra and a fabulous musical history of one of the classic film studios – Warner Brothers. Four brothers – Sam, Jack, Harry and Albert Warner. They kicked off their movie careers when they clubbed together and bought a film projector and started showing films around the mining towns of Pennsylvania and Ohio. By 1918 they had opened their first studio on Sunset Boulevard. Always at the front of new ways –in 1927 they made “The Jazz Singer” starring Al Jolson – the “talkies” had arrived and the silent era quietly ended. Batman, Superman, Blazing Saddles, The Exorcist, A Clockwork Orange, 42nd Street – all were products of the Warner Brothers stable. Adventure, fantasy, horror, comedy ,romance and, of course, the movie musicals – My Fair Lady, Camelot, The Desert Song, Gypsy and The Music Man. Animation was also a big part of their output – Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig being some of the studio’s biggest stars. But there’s always one that got away. In 1936 Harry Warner’s daughter tried to persuade her father to buy the rights to a new novel by Margaret Mitchell called “Gone With The Wind” – but Harry didn’t believe in the idea and rejected it!

Settle back in your seats. John Wilson and his orchestra are joined by guests – Mikaela Bennett, Louise Dearman, Kate Lindsey, Matthew Ford and the Maida Vale Singers. The evening’s selection of movie themes includes – “The Seahawk”(Erich Korngold) - a swashbuckling adventure made in 1940 with Errol Flynn, “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”(Max Steiner) from 1948 with Humphrey Bogart, Dimitri Tiomkin’s Oscar winning score for “The Old Man and The Sea” – the 1958 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novella which starred Spencer Tracy, “Now Voyager”(Max Steiner) that brought us the on screen charisma of Bette Davis and Paul Henreid and Alex North’s score for “A Street Car Named Desire” with Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando. And as an encore we end with Harry’s Wondrous World (John Williams) from the Harry Potter film series.

BBC Radio 2’s Ken Bruce is on hand to usher you to your seat and buy the popcorn!

Prom first broadcast on 9th August from Royal Albert Hall, London.