Louis Edelman went from Harvard to the sales and later the writing departments at MGM and Warner Bros. to become one of the more successful television producers of the '50s and '60s. Born in New York City in 1900, he showed a prodigious intellect as a boy, and entered Harvard at age 15 on a full scholarship. With the American entry into the First World War, he enlisted in the United States Navy at age 17 and was commissioned a lieutenant J.G. out of Officers Training School at Annapolis -- he subsequently served in the North Atlantic and earned the Navy Cross for his rescue of his entire crew after his ship was torpedoed. After returning to Harvard, he decided to enter the film business following graduation, and went to work as a salesman for Loewe's Theaters, which became the parent company to the studio eventually known as MGM. By the end of the '20s, Edelman had developed an interest in working on the creative and production end of motion pictures and moved to Hollywood, where he initially took a job as a theater manager. It was in that capacity, at the Loewe's State and Egyptian theaters, that he crossed paths with Irving G. Thalberg, chief of production at MGM, and was hired by the studio.
Edelman worked under Thalberg's wing for several years, gradually moving up and getting experience in the production end of the business. During the mid-'30s, he jumped to Warner Bros., where he served as associate producer (usually in an uncredited capacity) on numerous movies, including The Walking Dead, G-Men, The Marked Woman, Submarine D-1 (which was reportedly based on his wartime exploits), Hotel Berlin, and White Heat. He also did work for Columbia (You Were Never Lovelier) and Fox (A Yank in the R.A.F.) as well, and his involvement with television stemmed from his work on the Danny Thomas version of The Jazz Singer (1953). It was in conjunction with Thomas and his partner Sheldon Leonard that Edelman helped to create Make Room for Daddy, the foundation situation comedy for a television production empire that eventually included The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C., etc. Edelman also had a role in the creation of The Andy Griffith Show, and also such series as The Real McCoys and The Adventures of Jim Bowie, but it was in the field of Westerns that he enjoyed his greatest success, producing or creating The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp and The Big Valley -- the former is generally credited as the first adult Western series, while the latter was the last successful hour-long Western series to make it on the air, at the tail-end of the same cycle. The latter constituted his last major contribution to the entertainment field -- he retired in the early '70s and passed away from a heart condition in 1976.
