“We were about ready to retire,” said Sid Lenger. “I was 69 at the time and we were showing films at Godwin Heights High School when this person came up and said ‘Would you like to go to India?’
“So we retired right into visiting India for the next 24 years.”
Lenger has never missed an opportunity to film. While serving on a landing ship, tank (LST) during World War II, he received permission to have a camera “and I brought a video camera as well,” he said.
The former owner of Lenger Travel has created hundreds of films. At age 99, he is not the globe-trotter he once was, but his travel films remain popular keeping Lenger busy with scheduling various series at Marge’s Donut Den. Starting on Jan. 2, WKTV will be featuring a selection of Lenger’s travel films, which will air at 2:30 p.m. on WKTV 25 and repeat at noon on Fridays.
“What makes his films so unique is that its not just the usual overview of well-known places such as Munich or Berlin, but Sid captures what life is really like,” said WKTV volunteer Tom Sibley, who has worked with Lenger on his series at Marge’s Donut Den. “When he took tour groups, he often would take smaller groups so that they could get up close to the whales or access to places larger groups could not visit.”
Lenger also built a lot of relationships with people because he kept coming back to those smaller communities, Sibley said. Such was the case when Lenger headed to the mountains of Northern Italy and film the history and art of the Anri wood carvers, recording a century-old tradition.
“The narration is clear,” Sibley said. “He doesn’t waste a lot of words and yet you can tell, he has done a lot of research.”
“In ‘America Then’ (the first in the WKTV series), I take each of the presidents on Mt. Rushmore and explain why that president is there and what is going on during their lifetime,” Lenger said, adding the film also discusses the history of the U.S. flag. “A teacher came up to me and said that it is the best history lesson she had ever seen.”
In his partnership with Pastor John Devries, the founder of Mission India and the person who asked Lenger and his wife Beulah if they would be interested in visiting the country, Lenger filmed scenery and life in a country that was not always welcoming to Christians.
Filmmaking always has been a hobby for the World War II veteran. He created many of his travel films and showed them at Godwin Heights High School to help increase interest in some of the tours offered through his agency. Today, it still remains a hobby with Lenger maintaining a studio space in his home where he edits on a regular basis, according to his daughter Lavonne Ritzema. He also has an area for painting as well, she noted.
“I’ve got this Michigan film I’ve put together,” Lenger said. “I need to redo it. This summer, I am going to head over to Frankenmuth and get some footage of the Silent Night Chapel.”
As we all await for the Michigan film, take some time to check out some of Lenger’s earlier travel films on WKTV. Also, Lenger film series is every other Wednesday at 2 p.m. at Marge’s Donut Den, 1751 28th St. SW. The Marge’s Donut Den series will restart on Jan. 10.
