News Historical Perspective Terre Haute native Edward Roseman motion-picture fixture in 62 films By Mike McCormick/Tribune-Star August 18, 2002 No Terre Haute native has appeared in more motion pictures than Edward Roseman. Independent research and efforts by several cinema anthologists have fixed the number of motion pictures he made at 62. Thats more than other noted Terre Haute natives, such as Richard Skeets Gallagher (60), Scatman Crothers (51), Ross Ford (41), Chubby Johnson (41), Rose Melville (21) or Joe Keaton (15). Even Alvy Moore (55), Burl Ives (36) and Valeska Suratt (11), also identified with the city, cannot match Rosemans total. That number is certain to climb because many silent films are not catalogued. The House of Secrets, released in 1929, was Rosemans last movie and his only talkie. In 1928, Roseman starred on stage in A Free Soul at the Playhouse Theater on West 48th Street in New York, which had at least 100 performances. The next year he headed the cast in The Street Wolf at the Garrick Theater on Broadway. Then he abruptly disappeared from the theatrical landscape. Elizabeth DeDell, of Marcellus, N.Y., offers an explanation: He married my mothers sister, Sophia Anderson, and they had a child, David. Aunt Sophia did not want to live in California, but thats where all the sound movies were being made. Our family lived in upstate New York -- Syracuse -- so Uncle Edward quit the movies in about 1930 and moved to Syracuse. It was a financial sacrifice, but Roseman did not complain. Edward was a wonderful man, DeDell, who will be 90 next month, recalls. He met Sophia at a party in New York. She modeled gloves and shoes. Both of them said it was love at first sight. I lived with Aunt Sophia and Uncle Edward in the early 30s. He worshiped his family. He was tall with beautiful brown eyes, a deep voice and liked to read poetry. He didnt say much about his career but, occasionally, you could get him to talk about some of the people he worked with, a list which included Mae West, Norma Shearer, Mary Pickford, Lionel Barrymore, Theda Bara and W.C Fields. He showed me his make-up kit, she added. I think he did his own make-up. That assertion is confirmed by a feature story about Roseman in the May 1921 issue of Movie Weekly, where he is referred to as The Master of Make-up. In the 1920 Fox horror serial, Fantomas, he played the title role with at least four personas: a woman peddler, a bearded old man, a rough-house crook and arespectable villain. Roseman was called A Man of a Thousand Faces before that label was attached to the immortal Lon Chaney after his back-to-back horror hits, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and Phantom of the Opera (1925). Anyone trying to follow Rosemans career confronts obstacles, however. The oldest child of Henry H. and Mary Lucinda (Wall) Roseman, he was born on May 14, 1875 at the southeast corner of Fifth and Eagle streets. Edward was a stage name. His given name was Ernest Frederick. Henry Roseman was a Terre Haute pharmacist. By 1878, he owned his own drug store at 312 Ohio Street and the family lived at 927 S. Fourth St. Tragically, Henry died of tuberculosis on June 11, 1882, at age 31. Mary Roseman raised Ernest, his sister Jennie May and his brother Henry Dunham, who was called Harry, on South Fourth Street and continued to live there for awhile after she married Hansbrough Weeks on Jan. 25, 1888. Eventually, the Weeks moved to Pimento, where Mary died on Oct. 8, 1921. She was buried next to her first husband at Woodlawn Cemetery. By that time, Roseman had compiled impressive credentials in vaudeville, as a touring stock company actor for playwrights Lincoln J. Carter, Wright Lorimer and others. He made 44 silent films between 1913 and 1921. The Partners, Rosemans first movie released in 1913, was produced by Eclair, a French film company with studios in Fort Lee, N.J. Before he got into theater he worked for a railroad, DeDell offered. But I cant remember its name or where he worked. He was married to an actress before he married Aunt Sophia, but she died in a fire. He didnt talk to me about it, but Sophia told me. Somewhere I have an old newspaper photo of Edward and his first wife when they were in Terre Haute to appear together on stage. Rosemans film credits include The Governors Boss (1915), written by Terre Haute playwright James S. Barcus; The Slave (1917), starring Suratt; and On the Banks of the Wabash (1923), featuring Paul Dressers background music. Roseman did not visit Terre Haute much after his mother died, DeDell asserted. Son David, born March 3, 1923, still resides in Syracuse as does grandson Daniel. Almost invariably, Edward played a heavy in movies such as At the Crossing (1914), Adrift (1914), When Broadway was a Trail (1914), The Pit (1914), The Avalanche (1915), The Labyrinth (1915),The Barrier (1917,The Wasp (1918),The Liar (1918), The Embarrassment of Riches (1918), The American Way (1919), Bride 13 (1919), A Scream in the Night (1919), The Face at Your Window (1920), The Broken Violin (1923), America (1924) and Running Wild (1927). Sophias father, William Anderson, a native of Sweden, managed the bakeries in all A & P grocery stores in Syracuse and Edward accepted a job in maintenance. Within a few years, he was the department manager. Edward Roseman died on Sept. 16, 1957, at age 82, after a years illness, and is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Syracuse. Story created Aug 18, 2002 - 00:00:00 CDT.
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