Bennie's birth-mother most likely died sometime around the turn of the century leaving his father to wed Clara about 1902.

His father was Russian, as were his mother and step-mother, and supported his family as an owner of a Philadelphia area butcher shop.

"[4] In 1914 Zeidman worked as publicity manager for the Liberty Motion Picture Company,[5] and then for Eaco Films in New York.

[6][7] Over the next several years he would work as publicist for D. W. Griffith, Fine Arts Films, Yorke-Metro Studios, and Douglas Fairbanks.

[8] In 1922 he produced the film Where Is My Wandering Boy Tonight?, and would go on to produce or co-produce some twenty-six films over the following twenty-two years including Prison Train, Grand Central Murder, and the 1936 documentary Beneath the Seas.