Poverty Row Royalty: The Films of Producer Sigmund Neufeld and His Brother, Director Sam Newfield

[Thomas Reeder]

My newest book, POVERTY ROW ROYALTY: THE FILMS OF PRODUCER SIGMUND NEUFELD AND HIS BROTHER, DIRECTOR SAM NEWFIELD, is now available at Amazon in both hard- and soft-cover editions.

They were exceptions to the rule: independent filmmakers who thrived.

They were the Neufeld brothers, Sig and Sam, filmdom’s most prolific producer-director team of the Twentieth Century, flourishing from the earliest days of the industry in New York until the B-film’s ubiquitousness came to a flickering end in the late 1950s.

Producer Sigmund Neufeld and his brother, director Sam Newfield, were permanent denizens of Hollywood’s cinematic underbelly, unflattering known as Poverty Row. While they dabbled in most genres, it was the Western genre they both thrived in and are most remembered for, featuring the likes of such sagebrush heroes as Tim McCoy, Bob Steele, Buster Crabbe, and Johnnie Mack Brown.

Collectively responsible for more than 300 films over their lengthy careers, the brothers produced a seemingly endless stream of surprisingly entertaining and reliably affordable fare. Their films were the lifeblood of the tens of thousands of small neighborhood and rural theaters independent of the major studios’ chains. A presence in the industry for nearly a half century, the brothers’ longevity and productivity bears mute testimony to their place in the world of low budget cinema, and to their importance to unaffiliated theater owners nationwide.

POVERTY ROW ROYALTY provides a detailed and frank look at the lives and careers of two of Hollywood’s minor (but nonetheless important) contributors, filmmakers who have been unfairly dismissed over the intervening years, now finally receiving the attention and reassessment they most rightly deserve.

A peek inside the book and its opening chapters can be viewed here at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Poverty-Row-Royalty-Producer-Director/dp/196438401X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1GXRDRDX964UM&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qHxMAI1B-7cT2QnvBT3nhLvsqAJ0dK-u2UDWtsF8e1w.b1JwJ_nLL-Wiv2rzoQ5p8nTTVlzma9vGg08mUZlYPVI&dib_tag=se&keywords=poverty%20row%20royalty&qid=1719917518&s=books&sprefix=poverty%20row%20royalty%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-1&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0u1F2BIIloP8GlCqqE_wigOBPNGzNAGm_QI9AaM5gi0kPelsdpGsuUIQc_aem_ZsqAU4r0US-BrALq1zQAIg