studio that occurred after a massive fire that broke out in the studio around the end of 1934, and destroyed twenty years' worth of early Warner Bros. films. The following year, Hearst's film adaption of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream would fail at the box office and the studio's net loss increased. During this time, Warner was also indicted, along with six other Hollywood studio figures who owned movie theaters, of conspiracy to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, through an attempt to gain a monopoly over theaters in the St. Louis area. In 1935, Warner, along with executives at RKO and Paramount, were put on trial for this charge. After a mistrial occurred, Warner sold the company's movie theaters, at least for a short time, and the case was never reopened. One problem that remained for Warner, however, was the studio's projectionist labor union, which was now controlled by the Mafia. In 1935, the studio's revived musicals would also suffer a major blow after director Busby Berkeley was arrested after killing three people while driving drunk one night. During the studio's union crisis, Warner received a threatening phone call from a union member, stating that he would seize Warner's daughter Betty and adopted daughter Lita within a forty-eight-hour period. Warner then agreed to accept the union's demands, and the kidnapping threat ended. However, 1935 also saw some relief for Harry as the studio rebounded with a year-end net profit of $674,158.00. Around this time, a depressed Warner—seeing that the newly rebounded Warner studio no longer needed loans to pay off debts—decided to move to California, and acquired of ranch land just northwest of Hollywood in Calabasas, California. He later moved into a 1,100-acre ranch in the San Fernando Valley. During 1936, the studio's film The Story of Louis Pasteur was a success at the box office. In addition to the film's box office success, Paul Muni won the Oscar for Best Actor in March 1937 for his performance as the title role. The studio's film The Life of Emile Zola (1937) gave the studio its first Oscar for Best Picture. World War II Warner occupied a central place in the Hollywood-Washington wartime propaganda effort during the Second World War, and by the end of 1942, served as a frequent, anti-Axis spokesman for the movie industry. Despite his conservative viewpoint and longtime affiliation with the Republican Party, Warner was also