Edward Small Circa ~ 1960s

Portrait of Edward Small learning supporting his head with wrist smilling

" You Don't Have to Be Crazy to Be

in Show Business, But It Helps! "

From streets of Savannah to the bright lights of Vaudeville—Eddie had big plans.
He ran away at 11 and never stopped chasing the spotlight.
He discovered stars, battled moguls, and rewrote the rules of Hollywood.
His story? Grit, charm, and the wild magic of American showbiz.
At the end, he left almost all of his vast fortune to charity.

A Vivid Tapestry: Edward Small & 20th Century Entertainment

More than 45 years after Edward Small passed away, his unpublished autobiography became an item of interest to members of his extended family. His life-long show business career spanned over 70 years, from vaudeville to television. His story is a vivid tapestry woven from the wild energy of American entertainment across the 20th century. Born in 1891 in Brooklyn and raised in the voodoo-and-violin-filled poverty of Savannah, Georgia’s Yamacraw district, Small first escapes reality through imagination and the legend of a local native Indian chief, Tomochichi. His first dramatic battle isn’t on stage—it’s against his father, who demands he follow the family trade as a tinsmith and roofer. Young Eddie has other plans.

With raw talent and boundless rebellion, he dives headfirst into the Savannah Theatre, skipping school and enduring verbal and physical abuse from his father to chase the call of the stage. At age seven, his well-rehearsed song and dance routine in a local vaudeville show lands him a spot in a traveling minstrel show, returning a year later.

After continuous battles with his father, at age eleven, Eddie saves his nickels and dimes and runs away from home to New York City and survives using his wits and lots of luck, He hustles to survive, avoiding con artists, and evading the ever-present “hook” of amateur night failures. — sleeping in flop houses, earning his way into the theatre elite by sheer guts and charm.

Black and white Portrait image of Edward Smalls under biography

Circa ~ 1930s

As a teenage hotel pageboy at the Astor Hotel, he brushes shoulders with Barrymore, Bernhardt, Belasco and so many more. By his late teens, he’s booking vaudeville acts, scouting talent. By his twenties he's managing up-and-comers like George Burns and Mae West before they’re famous. Eventually, he starts the very first talent agency for film actors and directors in the world. He then adds movie producer to his résumé, shaping early Hollywood and championing a model of independent film production that defied the major studio monopolies. His film, The Count of Monte Cristo, becomes a surprise hit, linking back to his childhood love for theatre posters and rope-swinging heroes. He eventually produces hundreds of films and television shows including the hit "Lassie".

Throughout his life, Small remains the consummate showman: driven, optimistic, and mischievously self-aware. Whether dealing with Hollywood moguls, movie stars, or midtown grifters, he clings to a belief in the transformative magic of performance. His story, as rollicking and heartfelt as the best of vaudeville, is a monument to resilience, reinvention, and the enduring power of entertainment to lift spirits and change lives.