Biography

Film producer Edward Small1 was born in February 1891 in Brooklyn, New York. He had one of the longest and most prolific careers of any independent producer, his career lasting from the silent era into the 1970s.

In some ways Edward Small's career was the reverse of that of Myron Selznick, who started out as a producer at his father Lewis J. Selznick's film company, and then became a talent agent. Small became a talent agent at the age of 15, when he opened his own agency in New York City, the Edward Small Agency (later the Small Company). The slogan of his agency was "Personality is a Commodity." In 1917 Small moved his agency to Hollywood. He began producing films in 1924, and that soon became his full-time occupation. He eschewed publicity and remained largely unknown to the public.

The first picture produced by Edward Small Productions was the talkie Song of Love (1929). In 1932 he co-founded the independent production company Reliance Pictures with former United Artists chief executive Joseph M. Schenck and Harry M. Goetz. Under his own banner of Edward Small Productions, which like Reliance had a releasing deal with United Artists, Small personally produced many A-list pictures, including I Cover the Waterfront (1933), Palooka (1934), The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), New Faces of 1937 (1937), The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), The Corsican Brothers (1941), Brewster's Millions (1945) and The Fuller Brush Man (1948), among others. After World War II the quality of his output began to decline. He continued making films until 1970, when he produced his last movie, the exploitation picture The Christine Jorgensen Story (1970)

Small was a critic of the management of United Artists, and when the company failed to give in to his demands in 1942, he threatened to organize a sit-down strike against them. Small later served as chairman of the TV distribution company Television Programs of America. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his television activities located at 1501 Vine Street.