starting out as an extra in mack sennett's keystone cops series, lederman worked his way through the ranks of film production, and first made his mark as a second-unit director. he directed several b-western serials in the early 1930s, such as "two-fisted law" and "texas cyclone" both 1932, in which he worked with tim mccoy and a young john wayne. becoming a full feature director in the late 1930s, lederman specialized in action films and especially westerns, continuing to produce films with mccoy at columbia pictures.