Foss story tugs at imagination

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Meet Thea Foss, the real ‘Tugboat Annie.’

Sometimes truth is a whole lot better than fiction.

In 1933, Hollywood released a film called “Tugboat Annie,” starring box office queen Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Robert Young and Maureen O’Sullivan.

The first film version of the stories written by Norman Reilly Raine and published in the Saturday Evening Post told the funny yet touching tale of “the old sea cow” who piloted the Narcissus around Puget Sound and dealt with her drunken husband and son.

Annie was based upon the life of Thea Foss, who never piloted a boat but did parlay a rowboat rental business into the largest tugboat company on the West Coast.

Filmmaker Lucy Ostrander of Bainbridge Island collaborated with Tacoma filmmaker Nancy Bourne Haley on a 25-minute documentary about Foss. Although her name graces a waterway in downtown Tacoma and other entities in the region, few people know who she was as a person or as a player in maritime history.

Lynwood Theatre will screen their film, “Finding Thea,” and “Tugboat Annie” on Sept. 19, as part of the Port Townsend Film Festival’s “A Moveable Fest.”

“Nancy was an old friend from film school…and she contacted me,” Ostrander said. Tacoma’s Working Waterfront Maritime Museum was excited about the project, but the partners had to raise the money.

Two years later, bankrolled by individuals, corporations and foundations, the filmmakers were ready to roll. The result “is no company” film,” Ostrander said.

Using archival footage, photographs and conversations with people as far away as Norway and even clips from the “Tugboat Annie” movie, Ostrander, her husband, Don Sellers, the cinematographer/editor, and Haley unfold the story of an ambitious, successful, family-oriented woman.

“She had maritime history, women’s history, Norwegian history,” Ostrander said. “But she wasn’t a tugboat captain.”

Ostrander and Sellers, graduates of Stanford University’s film school, have a number of distinguished achievements to their credit. Among them are films Ostrander produced for IslandWood and programs Sellers worked on for PBS’ Frontline series.

Their meticulous approach enriches “Finding Thea,” from the storyline to the facts. Via internet searches, they found photos in Norway and spoke to family members, including two grandchildren in their 70s and 80s, who had scrap albums from their grandmother.

Ostrander obtained black-and-white snapshots from libraries and museums. A major coup was finding footage from 1916 Ford Motor Co. travelogues.

With so much information, how do filmmakers chart their course?

“You have to find the story within the story. You gather pieces,” Sellers said. “Archival footage, photographs. Then you have to find the story. You put together what you think makes sense.”

A documentary needs “an arc of a story to it,” he added. “It needs to engage the audience and lead them to a journey that compels them.”

Thea Foss’ story more than meets those criteria.Born in Norway in 1857, Thea Christiansen married And­rew Foss in Minneapolis. In 1889, from their houseboat in Tacoma, Thea bought a boat for $5 from an unsuccessful fisherman. She sold the boat for $15, bought two more and began renting them for 50 cents a day. When Andrew realized she made more money than he did building sheds, he began constructing rowboats.

Thea grew their business into the Foss Launch and Tug Company, which eventually became the Seattle-based Foss Marine Company. The Foss sons – Arthur, Weddell, and Henry – worked in the family business. All the Foss boats were, and still are, named for family members.

The company became “the largest, most modern fleet of tugs on the West Coast,” providing a full range of marine transportation services, according to Washing­ton State History data. Henry also was a civic leader in Tacoma.

“It’s an immigrant’s story,” Ostrander said.

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The real Thea

Lynwood Theatre will screen “Finding Thea” and the 1933 Hollywood film “Tugboat Annie” at 7:15 p.m. Sept. 19. See www.lynwoodtheatre.com for details on “A Movable Fest” weekend, which features five films from the Port Townsend Film Festival.