B. F. Zeidman was a Hollywood producer whose long film career began while he was still in his teens during the era of silent film

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

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Early Life

He was born Benjamin “Bennie” Zeidman at Philadelphia, the middle of five children raised by Joseph and Clara Zeidman. Bennie’s birth-mother most likely died sometime around the turn of the century leaving his father to wed Clara about 1902. His father was Russian, as were his mother and step-mother, and supported his family as an owner of a Philadelphia area butcher shop.

Career

As early as 1914 Bennie was working as script editor for Echo Studios in New York and the following year as a publicist for Lubin Studios

Lubin Studios

The Lubin Manufacturing Company, was an American motion picture production company that produced silent films from 1902 to 1916. Lubin films were distributed with a Liberty Bell trademark.-History:...

. Over the next several years he would work in a similar capacity for D. W. Griffith

D. W. Griffith

David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...

, Fine Arts Films

Fine Arts Films

Fine Arts Films is a production studio based in Northern England and Hollywood. It was founded in 1955 by animator John David Wilson as a means to preserve the notion of animation as an art form.-History:...

, Yorke-Metro Studios and Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....

. In 1922 Bennie produced the film “Where's My Wandering Boy Tonight?”, and would go on to produce or co-produce some twenty-six films over the following twenty-two years including Prison Train

Prison Train

- Cast :*Fred Keating as Frankie Terris*Dorothy Comingore as Louise Terris*Clarence Muse as Train Steward / Sam*Faith Bacon as Maxine*Alexander Leftwich as Manny Robbins*James Blakeley as Joe Robbins*Sam Bernard as George*John Pearson as Red...

 , Grand Central Murder

Grand Central Murder

Grand Central Murder is a comedy/mystery film released in 1942. It was based on Sue MacVeigh's 1939 novel of the same name, and stars Van Heflin as a private investigator who is one of the suspects in a murder on a private train car in Grand Central Terminal. The film was directed by S...

 and the 1936 documentary, “Beneath the Seas". His last two productions were the Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy

Laurel and Hardy were one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema...

 films Air Raid Wardens

Air Raid Wardens

Air Raid Wardens is a 1943 Laurel and Hardy comedy film. This was the first of their films made at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-Synopsis:Set during World War II, Stan and Ollie try their hand at various business ventures...

 and Nothing But Trouble

Nothing But Trouble (1944 film)

Nothing But Trouble is a late Laurel and Hardy feature. The plot involves the team as a chef and a butler wrecking a dinner party - the bit where they cook a rubber steak and try to carve it at the table is particularly humorous...

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At 101 pounds and just under five feet, Zeidman was once described as the "smallest press agent in captivity".