Snitz Edwards
Snitz was a petite ole card. He stood at only 5'0 tall and weighed 102 pounds -- isn't that a prize? I mean, Buster was only 5'5 and everyone calls him small, Snitz must be a baby compared to him!
He was known for his rather "homely" features, which left him his own place in the world of film comedy. For those of you who have seen a lot of Buster Keaton pictures, you might have noticed he was a sidekick in three of them: Seven Chances (1925), Battling Butler (1926), and College (1927). He worked with some other famous comedians and actors, but we'll get to that in a minute.
Born Edward Neumann on New Year's Day 1868 in Budapest, Hungary (at the time the Autro-Hungarian Empire), his parents were Polish and Hungarian Jews and immigrated to New York City sometime in the late 1800s. As I've learned, "Snitz" was a diminutive of Schnitzel; his family nickname. His father was a veterinarian and his mother was the daughter of a Rabbi. I had the hardest time researching his family tree. For some reason, all the historical records websites decided to be a crabapple today, so that's the end of that. I just wish I knew when his family immigrated to the U.S. but I wasn't able to, and those damn ancestry websites were no help. Errr!
He reportedly spoke Yiddish, Hungarian, German, and English fluently. Knowing such languages must have come in handy for him in the future, as he became known for popularizing the comic style of German dialect. As a youngster before entering show business, he had jobs selling brooms and taking care of horses and mules for the traction company his father worked. Taking care of horses seemed to have piqued his interest in becoming a jockey, which marked the start of his career as an entertainer. Although, a plunge during a race at age 15 stopped him from continuing. After giving up horseriding, he debuted at the Bowery Theatre in Manhattan after meeting with Sam Bernad, who supposedly shared an interest in clog dancing with him. Eventually, he became a successful baffoon in Fourpaugh's circus with a now obscure performer named Fred Walton as his teammate. I have not found any dates as far as his time before Broadway, which began in 1900 with the musical comedy show, Little Red Riding Hood.
A Motography article from 1915 stated that "he had spent nearly thirty-five years on the stage." Although technically, it would have been only thirty-two years since he was 15 in 1883. Another 1915 magazine article, this time from the Moving Picture World, said, "Snitz Edwards boasts more than thirty years of actual stage experience. In that time, he saw the birth of the musical comedy and aided vastly in adding the mirth thereto." Maybe that was just his pride.
Like most successful stage stars, he moved to motion pictures when it became the new attraction. It turned out to be a success. He made his first film in 1917, starring in The Price She Paid. He had some roles in popular films like Rags to Riches (1922), Rosita (1923), The Theif of Baghdad (1924), The Phantom of The Opera (1925), and The Public Enemy (1931), other than the Keaton titles. He shared the screen with big names like Marion Davies, Clara Kimball Young, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Wallace Reid, James Cagney, and as you know, Buster Keaton. Unfortunately, he suffered from crippling arthritis in the early 1930s which led him into retirement. His final film would be Sit Tight (1931) starring Joe E. Brown.
Snitz married Irish actress Eleanor Taylor in 1906, and they had three daughters who would all become active in the movie industry. Their eldest daughter, Cricket, became a studio executive. The middle child, Evelyn, became a writer and story editor for MGM, and as for the youngest, Marian, she became a playwright and married Irwin Shaw. His marriage to Eleanor lasted till death and in later years, she took care of him when his health was deteriorating.
On May 1, 1937, he passed away from natural causes (most likely due to arthritis) at the age of 69 in Los Angeles. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered by his family.
His granddaughter spoke out about him in an interview kindly.
"Snitz was apparently well-beloved by just about everyone. He was an inveterate gambler, a player of the ponies, and someone who loved to party. He was also a devoted husband and idolized his beautiful wife and all three daughters. Snitz would smuggle salami and sausage sandwiches home from his late-night forays, sneak upstairs and wake my mother and her little sister, and have a secret midnight picnic, in defiance of my grandmother's quite advanced ban on 'junk food.' (no soda pop, no chewing gum, no processed food.)"
"As small children, my brothers and I can remember going to work with our parents, and little old men would come up and pinch our cheeks and say, 'So, you're Snitzie's grandchildren!' Then they would tell us how they still recalled all the times they'd spent with him. He was a tiny man with a huge personality."