Biography

Daughter of Harry Warner.

At 19 she married Milton Sperling, (b: 07/06/1912; d: 08/24/1988; age 76) at age 27 in 1939. He was a producer and screenwriter who was introduced to Betty by a Warner family member, and he would become the father of her four children: Cass, Mathew, Susan (d:2006) and Karen Sterling. Betty and Milton would be wed for 25 years before divorcing.

All the while married to Stanley K. Sheinbaum, she was a prolific painter and sculptor, working first in oils, watercolors and acrylics before expanding into handcrafts and even creating works with parts of old, junked cars (hence the blowtorch). She always took classes, started a handcrafts gallery that would include work from hundreds of artists and had an exhibit of her own work at the Tag Gallery in Santa Monica (CA) in 2016. Her political beliefs were reflected in her art, in works such as a series on bullfighting that her son Mathew Sperling called "more sympathetic toward the bull," and a series of environmental works made with recycled materials. She also collected modern art, staying ahead of the curve as she purchased pieces on the cheap that would grow in value over the years, often to be sold later to fund various social and political causes she was involved with. She had a keen eye, picking up pieces by Jackson Pollock (I) and Robert Motherwell (I). "A lot of people buy art to have its value go up and to stick it on the wall and stand back from it. My mom bought because she loved a piece and knew the artist," daughter Karen Sperling related. In their house, "there would be a Henry Moore (II) on the floor next to a teddy bear . . . Nothing was precious because of its expense or beauty. It was to live with. That attitude just made it part of our home." At that home there was also activism and with it, social consciousness. Betty and Stanley, who died September 2016, regularly hosted events for dozens or hundreds of people. Walter Mondale, Sen. Ted Kennedy (I), John Kenneth Galbraith or Abbie Hoffman, speaking and often raising money in an art-filled living room that was a launching pad for any number of campaigns and political causes. Those events were also a place people could just meet and mingle. The home was always open to conversation about the arts, music, literature and politics. Betty's whole life was devoted really to encouraging people to speak to each other and to learn what was going on in the world. Although modest, the Sheinbaums were proud Americans--they gave significant support to the presidential campaigns of Eugene McCarthy (III), George McGovern, John Anderson, Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders, and they hosted former president Bill Clinton (I) at their home when he was governor of Arkansas.

She was also a part of the family business, Warner Brothers' Pictures, being the daughter of the company's co-founder, president Harry M. Warner, niece of Jack L. Warner, niece of Sam Warner (I) and niece of Albert Warner. However, her independence from what could have been a predictable Hollywood-royalty story was, according to two of her children, what set her apart. She lived her life at what her son called "the junction of art and politics." Born in New York City in 1920, the girl her father named Betty May moved with her family to Los Angeles as a teen when her dad, the first president of Warner Bros., came in search of better light and sound-talkies for his movie productions. Over the course of her life Betty would live not only in L.A. but in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, with a brief return to her native New York during her second marriage.

At the age of 44 she married activist Stanley K. Sheinbaum, who was described to "The Los Angeles Times" in 1987 by lobbyist Tony Podesta as "sort of the Statue of Liberty for liberal politics". Sheinbaum ran unsuccessfully for Congress on a peace platform, first in 1966 and again in 1968, twice out of Santa Barbara; he was chairman of the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California and he and Betty participated in antiwar efforts and supported the civil rights movement and efforts to bring peace to the Middle East. The couple helped free future Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou when he was held prisoner during a right-wing military coup and was central to Daniel Ellsberg's defense in the Pentagon Papers case. "Stanley's whole history kind of blended with hers," daughter Karen Sperling said, "though before Stanley entered the picture, Betty was quite active in art and politics on her own. Stanley just continued to provide [her] with the next adventure in all of this. Betty was constantly at his side, though she didn't take credit publicly. The two were 'partners'".