Date

8-20-2026

Department

College of Arts and Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)

Chair

Luci Vaden

Keywords

silent era theaters, women theater owners, film exhibition, Oregon, women business owners, women entrepreneurs

Disciplines

Film and Media Studies | History

Abstract

Inspired by the quadrupling of women theater owners in Census reports between 1910 and 1920, this dissertation focuses on women theater owners in the state of Oregon and brings their experiences of theater ownership to the forefront for historical inquiry. The 1920 Census reported nineteen women theater owners for Oregon, yet the research here only found eighteen. Of the eighteen found, only two women’s Census records indicate them as theater owners – meaning this dissertation’s study found more than the Census accounted for. However at the same time, many have yet to be located. Scholarship claims women’s work as happening on the “periphery,” and women theater owners did this work in the peripheral business of the early motion picture industry. Further, women theater owners, operators, and managers of this era have yet to be considered businesswomen and entrepreneurs. These same women faced complexities and challenges not experienced by their male counterparts in the age of moving images on film before sound. Their contributions to the motion picture industry have gone largely unnoticed, occurred in the age of women’s transition from private to public, and under the caveat of gender-based “respectability.” As a result, this dissertation situates these women in their rightful historical context as some of the first businesswomen and entrepreneurs of Progressive Era America – and as key players in beginnings of what continues to be a multi-billion-dollar industry today.

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