At the age of fifteen, Eddie ran away from home in Sweden, worked his way to America on a four masted schooner, and arrived in New York in 1910.  He worked on cattle ranches in Montana before opening his first saddle shop in Cody, Wyoming.  He met Tom Mix while performing rope tricks at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, who convinced him to stay and produce silver goods in Hollywood. 

The firm prospered and reached its peak in the 1930's through the 1950's, when the Hollywood cowboys were in big demand.  Besides Ed Bohlin, there were up to 35 employees when business was good, which included Charles Sample, Bud Phillips, Philip Fredholm, George Weber, and Alfredo Escobido in the silver shop.

The Bohlin Company's famous clients included six rigs to the King of Saudi Arabia, two rigs to the Emperor of Japan, four rigs to the "gum chewer" Philip K. Wrigley, Tom Mix, William S. Hart, Buck Jones, Hoot Gibson, Will Rogers, the King of Kuwait, Monte Hale, Roy Rogers, Hopalong Cassidy, Zane Gray, W.R. Hearst, Gene Autry, Clayton Moore "The Lone Ranger", Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, along with 90% of the silver parade saddles in the famous Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.  After suffering a severe stroke that left him quite paralyzed, he died May 28, 1980.  The company exists today but is making no more silver parade saddles