Warner Bros. Pictures/Summary

Logo descriptions by Jason Jones and Matt Williams

Logo captures by Eric S., Hoa, V of Doom, Logophile, Mr.Logo, naxo-ole and StephenCezar15

Editions by Bob Fish, Shadeed A. Kelly, Logophile, Curiousgeorge60, Chowchillah, and Yoshidude987

Background
Warner Bros. Pictures was originally founded in 1918 by the Warner brothers Harry (1881-1958), Albert (1883-1967), Sam (1887-1927), and Jack L. (1892-1978), Polish-Jewish brothers who emigrated from Belarus to Ontario, Canada, as the third-oldest American movie studio in continuous operation, after Paramount Pictures was founded on May 8, 1912 as "Famous Players Film Corporation", and Universal Studios founded on June 8, 1912. However, Warner Bros. Pictures officially opened its doors on April 4, 1923. In 1967, Warner Bros. Pictures merged with Seven Arts Productions, who renamed it to "Warner Bros.-Seven Arts". In 1969, it was purchased by Kinney National Co., which was later reincorporated as Warner Communications in 1972 when it spun-off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations. Since 1989, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, formed as a merger between the conglomerates Time, Inc. and Warner Communications. In 1992, Time Warner formed "Time Warner Entertainment" by merging all of its entertainment operations for the first time. Internet giant AOL merged with Time Warner in January 2001, renaming the company as AOL Time Warner, but in summer 2003, the conglomerate name was reverted back to Time Warner (often with no space in between the words) due to lawsuits and a $99 million loss. Today, with the exceptions of some films WB merely distributed, such as Sayonara (currently owned by the estate of the producer), Moby Dick (currently owned by MGM), Rope (currently owned by Universal Studios) and Hondo (owned by Batjac Productions), the pre-1950 catalog is held by Turner Entertainment Co., but the WB films owned by Turner are distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. after Time Warner's acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System in October 1996.

1st Logo (September 23, 1923-August 30, 1929)
Nicknames: "Brain Shield", "Studio Shield", "WB Shield", "Brain WB Shield"

Logo: On a black background, a large, bizarrely shaped shield is seen, with a very wide top. The top part of the shield shows a picture of the Warner studio in Burbank CA, the bottom having a squashed, stylized "WB". "A WARNER BROTHERS" is above the shield (with "WARNER BROTHERS" in an arc around the shield, ala the first Columbia logo), with "CLASSIC of the SCREEN" below. Starting in 1926 or so, it changed to "PRODUCTION".

Closing Titles: There are two closing titles for this WB era:
 * 1st Closing Title: We see the words "THE END" all in capitals on both sides of the WB shield, with "THE" on the left and "END" on the right. The "T" on "THE" and the "E" on "END" are bigger than the other letters. Below the shield, we see "A WARNER BROTHERS CLASSIC OF THE SCREEN" in big capital letters. But on some movies, the WB shield was omitted. For example, Beau Brummel (1924) had a BG with some books and two candles on both sides of the screen. Above the books, we see the "The End" in a small, fancy white script arched above a small "A WARNER BROTHERS "CLASSIC of the SCREEN"" text.

FX/SFX: None.
 * 2nd Closing Title: The second variant is the one you are seeing on the 3rd photo from left to right. On The Jazz Singer (1927), it was superimposed on a marble-like BG.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Extremely rare. This logo was thought to have been extinct for years. Evidence of it was seen on a Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary trailer on 1998 Warner videos. However, it has appeared at the start of the film The Jazz Singer, and was kept intact on the 75th Anniversary DVD as well as on the 1981 Magnetic Video release, where it's preceded by a United Artists "Transamerica T" logo. This is retained on all extant silent-era Warner Bros. films shown on TCM such as The Better 'Ole. The logo premiered at the beginning of The Gold Diggers and made its final appearance on Gold Diggers of Broadway.

Scare Factor: Minimal, due to the strange design of the logo.