The Highs and Lows of Being a Small-Town Exhibitor

The picture business could be a tough one for rural exhibitors, many of whom routinely operated on thin margins. Some thrived and became important figures in their community, sometimes for decades, but others did not, getting pinched by economic changes, shifting demographics, or setbacks like a fire. Some exhibitors were fortunate, others were not, and a few experienced both ends of the spectrum.

Herman and Ella Fowler seem to have fallen in that last category. Herman Fowler was born in Missouri in 1887, but his family eventually came west and settled in Lewis County. He met and married his wife Ella in 1906, when he was 19 and she was 17. Fowler appears to have been a laborer by trade, though somewhere along the line he became interested in moving pictures.

By 1908 the couple was living in St. Helens, Oregon, about 30 miles north of Portland, and decided to jump into the picture business. Located on the Columbia River, St. Helens only had about 700 residents at the time, but already had at least one other moving picture theatre, with Fowler’s venue becoming the second. It was a short-lived venture, but for all the right reasons. Although the Fowlers were new to the picture game, he and Ella (the two worked as a team) were youthful, ran a nice, clean show, were hard workers and well-liked by patrons, all of which made their house a success from the get-go. They were so successful, in fact, that their competitor in St. Helens decided he had had enough of the Fowlers after about six weeks. He approached the couple with a buyout offer, looking to secure the market for himself, which included an understanding that the Fowlers would leave town with their proceeds and not open a competing venue.

Herman and Ella Fowler held up that end of the bargain, moving northward, to the other side of the Columbia, where they ended up in Castle Rock. Castle Rock was slightly larger than St. Helens at the time, but their new picture show was hardly an upgrade.  After looking over available sites, they ended up choosing the location of the town’s previous moving picture operation – one that had closed shortly before after a projection room fire partly destroyed the building. (In 1917 Herman Fowler described their Castle Rock location to Moving Picture World as “a half-burned shack…”)  The town’s previous experience with movie exhibition had not been a good one: that business was only open for about two weeks and had no insurance, so when the venue went up in flames the owner gathered up his things and fled, leaving a number of local businesses with unpaid bills.  Things were such that when the Fowlers found an apartment to rent, they overheard their new landlord telling someone that she was watching them very carefully, because no one in town wanted to get stiffed by movie people for the second time.

The sale proceeds from their St. Helens theatre were plowed into rehabilitating the Castle Rock location. And, as before, the venue was an immediate success. The Fowlers took in $45 on opening night, representing about 300 paid admissions, an impressive sum for a city with only about 900 residents. “Mr. Fowler operated [the projector], and Mrs. Fowler sold tickets and sang the songs which were illustrated by colored slides. These slides and two reels motion pictures composed the show. After two weeks [in operation] Mrs. Fowler took pleasure in calling their landlady’s attention to the fact that they were still there.” (“Fowler Operating Three Successful Theatres,” Moving Picture World, 28 July 1917, Page 678.)

Not for long, though. After 10 months in Castle Rock they sold the business and left for Elma, in Grays Harbor County, where they debuted the Gem Theatre on August 13, 1909. The Gem was an existing venue in Elma that sat about 190 people, but the Fowlers came in and remodeled the space so it could accommodate in upwards of 275.  And, like their stints in St. Helens and Castle Rock, it was a hit with local movie fans, who liberally patronized the refurbished venue. Business was so good, in fact, that the Fowlers decided to put down roots in Elma, buying a home and gradually expanding their movie holdings into nearby towns. Within a few years they were operating their house in Elma but also the Gem in Montesano (this may have been the old Iris Theatre, which the couple purchased in 1915), the McCleary Theatre in McCleary, and eventually added a small venue in nearby Malone. Their Montesano location was doing so well, in fact, that in mid-1917 the pair were looking to spend an estimated $12,000 to build a larger and more updated venue. And, on top of their theatre holdings, the couple owned a bill posting company with in upwards of 150 billboard spaces throughout Grays Harbor County. This was not only a boon for their own theatre advertising but allowed them to sell space to other local businesses, bringing in extra cash.

By World War I Herman and Ella Fowler had come a long way from their humble beginnings, working as a team to manage their various businesses.  Any given week found Herman running the bill posting business while shuttling between his various theatre holdings, and every few weeks he and Ella made trips out to Film Row in Seattle to negotiate for new features. Ella did all the bookkeeping while also playing hostess at the Gem in Elma, where she was keen to get patron feedback on how their shows were going over. This was on top of the fact that Ella read not one, but several weekly trade papers cover-to-cover – she kept abreast on upcoming releases and developing trends in the industry, looking for opportunities to enhance their own venues.   

Unfortunately, the Fowlers’ early success as small-town movie exhibitors didn’t last.  In June 1917, Herman, age 29, registered for the draft, as he was required to do, but sought a deferment due to his wife and dependent child. He was denied – in August of that year he was called up for service, deployed stateside for about 16 months before being honorably discharged on December 30, 1918.  Herman’s military service left Ella in charge of their businesses, and although she was certainly capable, she fell ill in the fall of 1917 with an ailment so serious that the couple had to unload their holdings.  In December the Fowlers sold their theatres in Montesano, Elma, McLeary and Malone (and presumably the bill posting business) to William P. Armour, who went on to become the area’s preeminent exhibitor through the 1920s.  (See “Theatrical Business Offered for Sale,” Moving Picture World, 10 November 1917, Page 909; and “Among Theaters of the Northwest,” Moving Picture World, 12 January 1918, Page 271.)

Almost a decade of hard work and good fortune were wiped away by patriotic duty and a sudden illness. Though they had funds from the sale of their theatre holdings, Herman and Ella Fowler were essentially forced to start over. But they don’t seem to have done that in the Northwest, dropping out of sight shortly after Herman’s discharge and moving out of state. By 1930 the Fowlers were living in Los Angeles, though it’s unclear whether they continued working in the motion picture business. There’s no indication of when Ella passed, but Herman was a widower when he died in 1965.