Sid Laverents

Sidney Nicklas Laverents (August 5, 1908 – May 6, 2009) was an American amateur filmmaker, who started making films at home when he was 50. Recognized as one of the industry's most successful hobbyists, his 1970 film Multiple SIDosis is one of the few amateur films to have been selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry. Laverents was born on August 5, 1908, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and moved frequently with his family as his father was a real estate speculator always trying to find the next opportunity, ultimately attending high school in Florida. He learned to play piano from his mother, took drum lessons, and was self-taught on banjo, harmonica and the ukulele. He figured out how to play a woodblock with a string and cymbals with his elbows while playing the banjo or ukulele, and left to become a traveling musician after meeting an act that had performed at a theater his father owned. During the Great Depression, Laverents made a living as a one-man band appearing in vaudeville shows.He was employed as a sheet metal worker at Consolidated Aircraft in San Diego, California, starting in 1941, and with the exception of military service remained with the firm until 1967, by which time it had become part of Convair. During World War II, he was assigned to repair aircraft in Calcutta for the United States Army Air Forces and he later studied engineering at San Diego State College. After leaving Convair, he worked for Hughes Tool Company until his retirement in 1972.