Cahoon's film career began at Universal Studios with his work on the 1929 William Wyler melodrama, The Shakedown.
[1] It was one of five films he would work on that year, including the comedy, The Cohens and Kellys in Atlantic City,[2] In 1930, Cahoon became engaged to Margaret Pickstone.
[3] In the 1930s, some of the notable films on which he worked include: the Technicolor film Mamba (1930), starring Jean Hersholt;[4] the World War I drama, The Mad Parade (1931), with a cast consisting entirely of women;[5] the 1931 B film drama, Men in Her Life;[6] Air Hostess, a 1933 melodrama directed by Albert Rogell;[7] the 1934 drama Whirlpool, starring Jack Holt and Jean Arthur;[8] two 1934 features starring Fay Wray, Black Moon and Once to Every Woman;[9][10] the 1935 aviation drama, Air Hawks, which featured Wiley Post in his only screen performance;[11] the 1935 adaptation of the Russian classic of the same name, Crime and Punishment, directed by Josef von Sternberg;[12] and The Mysterious Avenger (1936), a B-film directed by David Selman and starring Charles Starrett.
After editing the Maureen O'Hara and Anthony Quinn film, The Magnificent Matador in 1955, he began working in the medium for which he achieved his greatest success: television.
That same year he would edit the premiere episode of the short-lived television series, Luke and the Tenderfoot, titled "The Boston Kid".