Bohlin Company - Edward H Bohlin

Born in Sweden 1895, Edward H. Bohlin ran away from home at age 15 working his way to America on a huge four-mast schooner where he gladly joined the northwestern cattle drives around Montana before opening his first saddle shop in Cody, Wyoming, performing rope tricks in front of his shop to draw business. Ed met the legendary Tom Mix while performing at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood who embraced the young artisan and convinced him to stay and produce stellar silver and leather items in the Los Angeles area for the elite equestrians and Hollywood Cowboys alike.

The Edward H Bohlin Company was without equal among western style silversmiths building a reputation on flawless workmanship that ranged from silver and gold trophy buckles to ornate parade saddles. The company, which operated from the early 1920s through the 1980s, reached its apex in the 1930s when the Hollywood cowboys reigned supreme. Bohlin was a stickler for details and employed the finest silver and leather workers of his era to satisfy discriminating clients including Mae West, Hopalong Cassidy, Monte Hale, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan.


Edward H. Bohlin (1895-1980)

Despite his cowboy credentials, when Ed Bohlin spoke there was an unmistakable residue of a Swedish accent that gave away his origins. He left the country of his birth when he was only 15 years old, arriving in New York in 1910 and immediately heading West, where by 1912 he was punching cattle in Montana. Four years later he was in Cody Wyoming, driving a stagecoach, working at area ranches, and learning to do leatherwork. He soon married and had a daughter, Lillian, but his wife tragically died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, leaving Bohlin alone to provide and care for his daughter.

After some crude attempts at fashioning silver and copper buckles, Bohlin opened his own leather shop in 1920. But after a second marriage failed, Bohlin – who had become proficient with twirling rope and shooting his Colt revolver – abandoned his business and joined a traveling Wild West show headed to the coast. It was just as well. His temper had gotten him in trouble with the law more than once, and it was time for him to move on.
 
Legend has it that during the show’s appearance at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, Bohlin was approached by silent film Cowboy Tom Mix, who wanted to purchase his handcrafted calf-skin jacket. Others soon recognized the flare in Bohlin’s style and he began to appear as an extra in cowboy movies and started making tooled leather gear for stars like Mix, William S. Hart, and others. In 1922 he opened the Hollywood Novelty Leather Shop and scratched out a living by making special pieces for film star Buck Jones and his wife Dell, who did stunt work. Major contracts to make leather outfits and harnesses for decidedly un-western films such as The Ten Commandments (1923) and Ben-Hur (1925) helped him keep solvent.

Bohlin’s firm was formally organized in Hollywood in 1926 as Edward H. Bohlin Inc. The shop moved many times over the next 19 years as the founder skillfully promoted his wares and developed some of the most enduring designs for Western-styled buckles, saddles, and accessories. He became a master of brand promotion, publishing lavish catalogs, turning his shop into a gathering place for real and imagined cowboys, and joining organizations like the exclusive men’s equestrian group, the Rancheros Vistadores, whose members then bought and displayed his products.
 
Bohlin’s ever expanding Hollywood associations included cowboy detective Charlie Siringo and artist Charlie Russell. He collaborated with Al Furstnow’s saddlery company, which was based in Montana but had set up a satellite shop in Hollywood, adding luxurious silver and gold embellishments to a saddle for Col. Tim McCoy, former Wyoming cowboy and first-rank cowboy movie star. Bohlin’s buckles, spurs, scarf slides, and jewelry could be spotted on Jackie Cooper, Clark Gable, John Wayne, Barbara Stanwyck, Clara Bow (the “It Girl” of the day), and scores more.

With the proliferation of low-budget western films, a new flock of performers took on the accessories of the Bohlin shop. Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), the Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore and John Hart), Roy Rogers, Ray “Crash” Corrigan, The Cisco Kid (Duncan Renaldo), Pancho (Leo Carrillo), Ken Maynard, and more adopted Bohlin gear for both performances and personal wear.
 
Even in the middle of the Great Depression, The Bohlin Company flourished, in large part thanks to the still-wealthy customers who rode in Pasadena’s Tournament of Roses Parade. Fancy silver-mounted horse gear had been used to show off finely bred horses and the gentry of California since the 1800s, and well-known Hispanic pioneer families such as the Sepulvedas  and Yorbas continued to use Bohlin gear to display their prized equines well into the next century. Bohlin himself claimed to have ridden in every parade from 1922 until 1973.
 
Around the world, especially with the advent of television, the annual broadcast of the Rose Parade reinforced a clear image of elegant equestrian riders. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Silver Mounted Posse, the Long Beach Mounted Police, and many private horse groups predominantly used Bohlin gear. While the claim that The Bohlin Company made over 12,000 saddles cannot be reliably documented, the business flourished in the 1930’s and ‘40s.
 
A new Bohlin store opened on Highland Avenue in Hollywood in 1945; it was a one-stop shop with a full line of Western clothing, boots, gloves, hats, and anything else needed by a stylishly dressed rider or horse. Complete tack sets and riding outfits went to the Emperor of Japan, South American oil magnates, and European royalty. Bohlin-made prize buckles were awarded at rodeos on California, Colorado, and beyond, and riders from Kansas City horse shows to Indianapolis Shriner parades to Central Park riding clubs all sported Bohlin gear.
 
By the 1960s business began to decline, so Bohlin diversified once again, developing new products ranging from a peculiar iron camping stove to aluminum rifle cases. Inspired by his hero Charlie Russell, he turned his own hand toward bronze sculptures of Western wildlife. But the greatest creative endeavors of his waning years took him back to the beginning, designing some of the most elegant buckles and saddles in the Highland shop’s history for loyal customers, as well as for himself.
 
Bohlin designed solid gold buckles set with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires for Gene Autry an businessman Adolph Weinberg, while featured in the center of the shop, shown off in a
maple-trimmed glass case, was The Big Saddle, Bohlin’s personal rig that reportedly took 14
years to make. Filigree tooled leather is set off with corner plates and conchos made of sterling silver with three-color gold chased figures of rodeo performers and wildlife of the Pacific slope. Scenes of cowboys on bucking horses are taken directly from the art of Charlie Russell, while the cantle, pommel, and nose bands of the bridle are beautifully covered with chased nouveau designs and Indian heads with full-feathered headdresses.
 
The Bohlin Company changed hands many times beginning in 1980. Rumors of its demise revolved around the misguided actions of some owners; meanwhile others valiantly worked to maintain the standards of the firm. Despite (or because of) the uncertainty of the company’s future, prices for vintage Bohlin gear at auctions has escalated. In 1996 the Autry Museum of Western Heritage staged a 5,000 square-foot exhibition of the most famous Bohlin gear and published this writer’s book Saddlemaker to the Stars: The Leather and Silver Art of Edward H. Bohlin. The Big Saddle bought and donated by Gene Autry himself was the star of the show.
 
In March of 2000, Dave Marold, a former promoter of Cartier and Michel Jordi products, purchased The Bohlin Company with a group of investors. Marold is a modest man and a genuine advocate not just for the products of the company but for the young professionals who manage the firm and create its signature designs. While he moved the company from California to Dallas, Texas, he is quick to point out that the firm will always be identified as Bohlin of Hollywood. He is equally quick to note that the spirit of Ed Bohlin is to be found in every new piece, and tradition is important to the line while innovation is a part of everything coming from the shop.
 


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Edward H Bohlin’s premier craftsman and one of the finest silversmiths of the Hollywood Cowboy era, Fredholm was a master tool and dye maker, who is credited with making the top-of-the-line dyes, for Bohlin’s buckles and conchos in the late 1920s and 1930s. Known to have created Bohlin’s famous saddle, which depicted California’s various historical missions in solid silver and hand chased in bold relief. Phillip also worked for the legendary Mike Morales when he moved from Portland to Los Angeles and set up his shop at 2213 Sunset Blvd. After Morales’ death Fredholm opened his own shop where he created some of his finest work, including many prize-winning silver saddles.

Bill Reynolds, who with his father, former CBS Television Network President John Reynolds, reacquired the company in 1996, will serve as vice president of BohlinMedia. He will also remain active in the design of new products from the Bohlin Shop.

In early 1999, the Edward H. Bohlin Co hired David S. Samuels as chief executive officer and president and Joe R. Armstrong as vice president of finance and CFO with both men making sizable personal investments in the company. The company expanded its product lines with the goal to build a world-class company that embraces all of the quality, precision and style that has been the legacy of the Edward H. Bohlin Co.

Bill Reynolds, who with his father, former CBS Television Network President John Reynolds, reacquired the company in 1996, will serve as vice president of BohlinMedia. He will also remain active in the design of new products from the Bohlin Shop.

Michael Proctor, president for the past year, will become the company’s vice president of design, product development and merchandising.

Founded in 1920, Bohlin designs western-themed silver and leather products for Hollywood movies, movie stars and others.

David Samuels: Virtually every item we crafted during my tenure was engraved by Daniel Castenada -an extraordinarily talented gentleman. T
CF is Charlie Feroze. Charlie is Ahmad Khan's (AK) cousin. Charlie worked in our Shop and in his own Shop in Glendale. CF originally apprenticed for AK and later struck out on his own. I thought Charlie was better than Ahmad, who was known to take shortcuts from time to time. Charlie had significant experience crafting spur sets too.

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