Richard Widmark: A Princeton legacy

The early silent movies, besides being captivating moving images projected on the screen, were at their best when they had great writers for the titles, and even better with quality musical accompaniment.

David Wark Griffith would have to be considered supreme among directors of the silent era, and C. Gardner Sullivan one of the best writers. D.W. Griffith was devoted to the art of film, had a dynamic means of story-telling and was a great production supervisor. A Griffith film was always recognizable as being one by D.W. Griffith and silent film-goers were addicted.

All of the dialogue for the early films had to be condensed to a few subtitles that told the story with emotion and yet in a few words. C. Gardner Sullivan had few equals. “I reckon God ain’t wantin’ me much, ma’am, but when I look at you, I feel I’ve been ridin’ the wrong trail” from “Hell’s Hinges,” 1916, was the kind of phrasing that helped draw audiences back again and again to the early movies.

Mary (Ogorman) Barr was one of those movie-going fans, and she would awaken this same addictive delight in one of her grandchildren, Richard Widmark. The cost of a silent movie in the early 1900s was five to seven cents, and less than 40 minutes in length, but offered her a little spot of heaven. She is now a regular at the movies and even has favorites, like Tom Mix.

The Olympia Theatre was the first successful movie house in Sioux Falls, S.D., opening in 1909, with the showing of two D.W. Griffith films, “Her First Biscuits,” and “The Faded Lilies.” Otis Adams was the manager and what made his theatre a real success was the five piece orchestra, comprised of his five children — Edna, William, Luella, Mary and Lillian — The Adams Quintet. The theatre had a ventilation system that exchanged the air every two hours to keep the air fresh and cool. The Olympia could initially seat 250 but was expanded to 387 later. It was said of manager Otis Adams: “He will run such a place of amusement that any lady or child will find nothing objectionable in connection with it.”

The Olympia Theatre became The Royal Theatre in 1924. The Egyptian Theatre (originally The Colonial Theatre) and The Strand both opened circa 1915. Mary Barr had her choice of movie houses to escape to. She took her grandson Richard Widmark to his first movie in 1917 when he was nearly 3 years of age. He, too, became addicted to the images on the silver screen and would remain so his entire life. Mary and her grandson were seeing the best the infant film industry had to offer at the this early stage of the cinema. They were getting to watch it grow and expand with each new technical development.

Mary Barr and her grandson went to an array of cinema genres; comedies with Harold Lloyd, westerns with Tom Mix and William S. Hart, and all sorts of melodramas with Douglas Fairbanks Sr. and Jr., Boris Karloff, Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Francis Ford (John’s brother), and Harry Carey Sr. They saw films directed by John Ford, Charlie Chaplin, Cecil B. Demille, and of course, D.W. Griffith. They actually watched the cinema evolve through half of the silent era of the late 1890s to the late 1920s. Two of the last movies they saw together in Sioux Falls were 1923 releases and favorites of Richard Widmark: “Safety Last” with Harold Lloyd and “Stephen Steps Out” with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (his first movie). Mary Barr would never live to see her grandson’s silver screen success, and young Richard Widmark could only dream of it — to be in the movies and interact with some of these same people he had seen on the screen from the age of 3.

Richard Widmark would act in films with Mae Marsh and Harry Carey’s son, Harry Carey Jr. He would star in two movies directed by John Ford, and in 1990 he would receive The D.W. Griffith Career Achievement Award. The bond between this tempered, and enduring Irish-Scotswoman and her grandson was forged through the beginnings of the American cinema. Richard Widmark would have had to come away with something special from his grandmother, that he would only grow to appreciate as he saw his own film career span over four decades.

Mary Barr and her son, Leo, are still living at 821 W. Sixth St. in 1920. They have three Greek boarders living with them who work at the Sioux Falls Candy Co. where Leo works. Leo has been seeing a lady, Ruth Bonacker, and they are married in 1920. They are now living at 520 N. Menlo St. in Sioux Falls. They would have three children, Lorraine, born 1928; Robert, born 1931; and Dale, born 1933. Mary’s daughter, Ethel Mae, and her husband, Carl, now have another son, Donald, born July 25, 1918. They move from Sioux Falls to Henry, Ill., in late 1923 or early 1924, and then to Chillicothe, Mo., in late 1924.

Carl Widmark and a friend from Sioux Falls, a baker, Henry P. Nelson, make a trip to Princeton in 1925, and purchase an established business, Harris Brothers Restaurant and Bakery. It was at 514 S. Main St. Ethel Mae, Richard and Donald Widmark move to Princeton in 1925 and live above the bakery. Mary is now living on her own at 426 N. French Ave., and for the first time in almost 50 years, she is not under the same roof with any of her children. She moves to Princeton and lives with her daughter’s family for a while.

Richard Widmark will be 11 years old in late December of 1925. For the first few years in Princeton, he still sees movies with his grandmother, but soon it is the two brothers who are going to the movies together. Things change as do relationships. Mary is working in the bakery with her daughter, Ethel May, and Henry Nelson, who is the baker. They have two part-time employees.

Carl Widmark works at the bakery but is on the road most of the time as a salesman. Mary Barr leaves Princeton in 1927 and moves back to Sioux Falls, living again with Leo and his family at 1014 1/2 E. Sixth St. Henri’s Bakery, the partnership between Carl Widmark and Henry Nelson, is doing a good business, but in 1928, the business moves to 450 S. Main St., where there will be an unbroken string of bakeries until the fire of 1983. The Widmark family moves many times while living in Princeton. Mary Barr is back in Princeton in 1930. There is continuing friction in the family — religion, money, and personal relationships that become strained to breaking.

Carl and Ethel May separate from their marriage, and Carl heads to California. Henri’s Bakery closes in 1931. Richard Widmark graduates as his senior class president at Princeton High School in 1932 and heads to college. Ethel, Donald and her mother, Mary, leave Princeton and move to the Lake Forest area where Richard is attending college. Mary moves back to Sioux Falls in 1933 and is living with her son, Leo, and his family again at 2ll N. Indiana Ave. Leo is still in the candy business.

Mary moves and is living by herself at 1531 E. Fifth in 1936. She has seen her grandson, Richard, act in college and followed his early radio and theatre career through family conversation. She would never live to see him push an old lady tied to a wheelchair down the stairs in his film debut. Maybe she wouldn’t have liked that, but then maybe she might have smiled also because she knew about movie make believe.

Mary (Ogorman) Barr, age 78, died at home, April 27, 1938, in Sioux Falls, S.D., after an illness of six months. Her funeral was at the Little Flower of Jesus Catholic Church, and she is buried in St. Michaels Cemetery in Sioux Falls, next to her husband, Charles. Three sons, Leo, Charles and James, daughter Ethel Mae Widmark, and grandson’s Richard and Donald Widmark were in attendance. Patience is a virtue and the foundation on which all talents flourish.