and economics. However within a year, he was "hand-picking talent for 40 two-a-day vaudeville houses all over Europe." Saltzman claimed that he had worked as an assistant for French film director René Clair, who came to the United States in 1940 to make the film The Flame of New Orleans.

In 1942, Saltzman signed a booking contract with Fanchon & Marco Enterprises. Saltzman went to the West Coast to sign big picture names. Saltzman sought the Ritz Brothers,