Salisbury Salutes Sidney

Gretchen Beilfuss Witt
October 21, 2012
In recognition of a long and illustrious career in the arts, Rowan Public Library will celebrate the life and work of Salisbury native Sidney Blackmer. Born July 13, 1895, Sidney began his career on the Broadway stage, which was interrupted by his service to the country during World War I. After the war he returned to Broadway, successfully made the trek to Hollywood, participated in early radio and finally crossed over into television. With a career spanning over 50 years, he worked with other greats of stage and screen – Shirley Booth, Paul Newman, Alfred Hitchcock, and Elia Kazan.

The Rowan Public Library has over the years collected items concerning Sidney Blackmer’s career. However recently, due to the generosity of Jonathan Blackmer, Sidney’s son, the library has access to many more photographs, movie advertisements, and other interesting artifacts. Beginning in the month of November and for the remainder of the year, several areas of the library will house displays of the Blackmer Collection. In conjunction with these displays a film festival will commence on November 18th. Each Sunday for three successive Sundays at 3:00 pm the library will screen some of Blackmer’s many films. November 18 after kicking off the celebration with a reception and presentation by Mike Cline about Blackmer’s career, the afternoon will conclude with showing “Teddy, the Rough Rider,” a short in which Sidney portrays President Teddy Roosevelt. Following this short will be the feature film “Panther’s Claw,” based on Oursler’s stories about Police Commissioner Thatcher Colt whom Sidney plays.

Our second installment on Sunday November 25 (perhaps as an amusement for visiting Thanksgiving guests) will include one short and two feature films. The short, “Disorder in the Court”, will be familiar to Three Stooges fans and features Suzanne Kaaren Blackmer, Sidney’s wife. The two full-length films will be “The Count of Monte Cristo” with Blackmer as Mondego and “Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo.”

The third afternoon of the festival will again begin with a short featuring Suzanne as well as a television episode from Boris Karloff’s Thriller series entitled “The Premature Burial.” Our festival will conclude with the showing of Blackmer’s most remembered role - Roman Castevet in “Rosemary’s Baby.” A quintessential psychological horror film, it is listed in the top ten of American Film Institute’s Thrillers.

Make plans to come see the displays and enjoy the movies as Salisbury Salutes Sidney.