Warner bros

In 1954, Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. premiered their movie, His Majesty O'Keefe, in Savannah, Georgia. The movie is based on the life of Daniel Dean O'Keefe (1832-1901). Born in Middletown, Ireland, O'Keefe moved to Savannah in 1856. In 1869, he married Catherine M. Masters (d. ca. 1928). He left Savannah in 1872 as a mate on a ship bound for China. The ship was wrecked in a typhoon, but O'Keefe survived, washing ashore Yap Island in Micronesia. He established himself as a business man on the island, becoming the primary trader of "copra" (the dried meat of a coconut) in exchange for "rai," large stone wheels cut from limestone on the island of Palau. While on the island, O'Keefe purportedly married the king's daughter and became known as "His Majesty O'Keefe." He was lost at sea during a typhoon in 1901 while on a return trip from Hong Kong. He was survived by his Yapese wife and children, as well as his wife and daughter in Savannah. In 1950, a fictionalized biography, His majesty O'Keefe, by Lawrence Klingman and Gerald Green, was published by Charles Scribner's Sons. The subsequent movie starred Burt Lancaster and Joan Rice.

From the description of His Majesty O'Keefe records, 1954. (Georgia Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 123765576

Warner Bros. is an American motion-picture studio that began in 1923.

From the guide to the Warner Bros. Screenplays, 1928-1969, (Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections)

Vardis Fisher, novelist, essayist, and short story writer, was born on March 31, 1895, in Annis, Idaho. He was raised in the Antelope Hills of eastern Idaho, graduated from Rigby High School, and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah in 1920. He received a master's and doctorate from the University of Chicago. After teaching at the University of Utah and New York University, he returned to Idaho in 1931 to devote full time to writing. During the Depression Fisher served as the director of the Federal Writers Project in Idaho. Under his editorship, the project produced the acclaimed Idaho guide and other works. In 1940 Fisher married Opal Laurel Holmes, his third wife. They built a home in the Hagerman valley of southern Idaho and lived there until Vardis Fisher's death in 1968. A fuller biographical sketch of Vardis Fisher can be found in the finding aid to the Library's Clore collection (MSS 2).

Opal Fisher was born in Laurens, Iowa, on October l4, 1913. Raised by her grandparents, she met Vardis Fisher in 1936 when she went to work for the Federal Writers Project in Boise. After Fisher's death in 1968 she moved back to Boise to devote her life to protecting Fisher's literary reputation and reprinting his novels under her own imprint, Opal Laurel Holmes (her maiden name). Vivacious and strong-willed, Mrs. Fisher was not loath to castigate publicly scholars whose interpretation of Fisher's life and work did not coincide with her own. Nor did she shrink from doing battle with publishers in her efforts to recover publication rights to her husband's works. In December 1972 she presided over the Boise premiere of the motion picture Jeremiah Johnson, a movie based in part on Fisher's novel Mountain Man . The premiere was attended by both director Sydney Pollack and its star, Robert Redford. Between 1972 and 1977, Mrs. Fisher reprinted several of Fisher's books but did not have much success in distributing them. Tim Woodward, author of a biography of Vardis Fisher, interviewed her several times in 1985, but she was little heard from publicly after that. Opal Fisher lived the last years of her life as a recluse in her home in the Boise Foothills. She died at home in 1994, surrounded by thousands of copies of Vardis Fisher's books.

From the guide to the Vardis and Opal Fisher Papers, 1934-1996, (Boise State University Library)

Warner Brothers Pictures was incorporated in 1923 by the four Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack. The company had begun its movie making career earlier however, when it produced its first film in 1918. In 1925 Warner Bros. acquired the Vitagraph Company, in Brooklyn, New York, expanding its holdings from the East to the West coast. Warner Bros. pioneered sound motion pictures with Don Juan (1926) and The Jazz Singer (1927). Additional purchases in the twenties included First National Pictures and Fox West Coast Theatres. During the thirties and forties, Warner Bros. entertained the American public with such classic films as The Public Enemy (1931), The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), The Adventues of Robin Hood (1938), Dark Victory (1939), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1943), Mildred Pierce (1945), Johnny Belinda (1948) and White Heat (1949).

Warner Bros. entered the age of television in the fifties. Financial difficulties in the sixties, however, resulted in a takeover by Seven Arts Productions, Ltd. In 1969, the company was acquired by Kinney National Services, Inc. and the newly formed Warner Communications, Inc. became the entertainment arm of Kinney's corporation which produced financially successful films such as Gremlins, Lethal Weapon and Batman . In 1989 Warner Bros. was bought by Time, Inc. The new corporation is now known as Time-Warner.

From the guide to the Warner Bros. production slides [graphic], 1979-1991, (The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.)