Edwin Silverman
Edwin Silverman was an American businessman who co-founded the Essaness Theatres chain and founded WSNS-TV.Biography
Silverman was born to a Jewish family in Chicago. He worked as a poster clerk at the First National Pictures Corp. where he eventually became general sales manager of Warner Bros. after it took control of First National Pictures. In 1929, he co-founded the Essaness Theatres Corporation in Chicago with Sidney M. Spiegel Jr., grandson of Joseph Spiegel, founder of the Speigel catalog. The name is a play on the founder's last names Silverman & Spiegel with S&S becoming ESS-AN-ESS. The company eventually owned 33 theaters in the Chicago area. He was also the founder of WSNS-TV channel 44 in Chicago. He retired to Palm Springs where he was a supporter of the Desert Hospital. He had one daughter, Susan, and two sons, Jack and Alan, both executives of Essaness. He was buried at the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
By 1984, the chain operated 86 movie screens in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.
