page_title: William Bowman (director)
section_title: 1916-1930
hierarchical_section_title: William Bowman (director) / Film / 1916-1930
caption_attribution_description: Illustration of an article in The Moving Picture World
context_page_description: William J. Bowman was an American stage and film actor, writer, and director noted for his work in the early 1900s on silent productions for studios in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and in Los Angeles during the first decade of filmmaking in and around Hollywood. His direction of a series of films with matinee idol Francis X. Bushman in 1915 and his direction of the serials The Invisible Hand in 1920 and The Avenging Arrow in 1921 form only a small part of Bowman's extensive filmography.
  William J. Bowman's surname in some silent-era film reviews and news items, as well in some modern references on American film history, is occasionally misidentified or also cited as William J. "Bauman." It is significant that in the extensive "Studio Directory" published by the trade magazine Motion Picture News in January and October 1916 no "William J. Baumen" is mentioned among more than 2,000 "authorized" biographies of actors, actresses, directors, writers, technicians, executives, and "Other Members of the Film Industry." Only William J. Bowman, as a director, is profiled. The lack of any reference to a William J.
context_section_description: Bowman in 1916 went on to direct more Centaur films for Horsley after Terror of the Fold , two of those being much longer five-reelers, The Bait and The Heart of Tara, released during the first quarter of that year. Bowman not only directed The Bait he also wrote the screenplay in collaboration with Theodosia Harris. Following his association with Horsley, Bowman continued directing and on occasion acting. He returned briefly to Universal and Victor Studios in mid-1916 to direct The Golden Boots and From Broadway to a Throne, a film also written by Bowman. In its review of the latter in July that year, Motion Picture News gives the production a tepid or "even" review, finding its fight scenes interesting but the story weak on comedy, noting "The only trouble is, Mr. Bowman has not put enough [humor] in the picture’s five reels."
  Bowman's known filmography becomes rather sparse after his work on From Broadway to a Throne. In its film-industry directory published in October 1916, Motion Picture News identifies him as "now [an] independent producer" in his biographical entry in that reference. The trade magazine also provides Bowman's contact information, citing it as the "Elks' Club, Santa Monica, Cal." Another trade publication, Moving Picture World, announced in December 1916 that "Director William J. Bauman and Director Rice" [A. W. Rice] had been hired to work on and complete The Planter, an ambitious seven-reeler that was being filmed on location in Guatemala by the Nevada Motion Picture Corporation. According to Moving Picture World, that studio was largely funded as "a hobby" by F. M. Manson, a "Nevada mining millionaire"; and he hired "Bauman" and Rice to travel to Guatemala as replacements for "Director John Ince and Assistant Director Joseph Boyle", who had "left the company". Later, in 1919, Bowman apparently resumed acting as well, for that year he is credited with performing as Captain Osborne in Paramount's World War I drama The False Faces. After that film, he is credited for directing the Vitagraph feature The Veiled Mystery, two later shorts, and the serials The Invisible Hand in 1920 and The Avenging Arrow for Pathé in 1921. Some modern film references state that Bowman's screen career had ended by "the very early 1920s"; but nearly a decade after his work on The Avenging Arrow, he still identified himself in the 1930 federal census as being employed as a “Director [of] Moving Pictures”.
caption: Scene in From Broadway to a Throne (1916), "written and produced by William Bowman". Carter De Haven (center) starred in the five-reeler.[18]
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