Cinema with a Splash sidebar: new book on Tugboat Annie’s creator

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In “Tugboat Annie” (1933), the first feature film made in Seattle, Marie Dressler as the title character and Wallace Beery as her husband, Terry, face off in one of their many arguments. The warm-hearted movie was set in renamed “Secoma” (a combination of Seattle and Tacoma), and much of it took place aboard the Narcissus tug (really the Arthur Foss) along the Seattle waterfront and in Lake Union. (J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs / University of Washington Special Collections)

Cover-story package published in Seattle Times online on July 12, 2025
and in Pacific NW Magazine of the printed Times on July 13, 2025

New book profiles writer and heroine of first Seattle-made movie
By Clay Eals

The heroine of the first Seattle-made feature film, “Tugboat Annie” (1933), might be fictional, but she’s cloned from real-life women, including the boisterous star who played her in the movie.

Cover of “The Legendary Tugboat Captain Annie Brennan of Puget Sound” (2025, BearManor Media)

That’s one of countless details to be drawn from a new book about the film and her portrayal in 67 magazine stories, three movie sequels and 39 Canadian TV episodes.

The 312-page book is “The Legendary Tugboat Captain Annie Brennan of Puget Sound” (2025, BearManor Media) by Bernard A. Drew, of Great Barrington, Mass.

A dual biography of the character of Annie and the writer who created her, it bears an encyclopedic scope, conveyed by the subtitle: “The Irascible Skipper of Deep-Sea Towing and Salvage’s Narcissus Featured in Stories Related by Norman Reilly Raine in the Saturday Evening Post.” The footnotes alone total 590.

Thea Foss (1858-1927), said to be one of the inspirations for the character of Tugboat Annie, was a Norwegian immigrant who founded Foss Maritime in Tacoma. The company became the largest tug and towing operation on the West Coast. (The Seattle Times library)

Among Drew’s nuggets: Annie derived from boating entrepreneurs Catherine Brown Sutton of Providence, R.I., and Thea Foss of Tacoma, as well as popular Marie Dressler, whose older age and plus-sized frame stood in stark contrast to moviedom’s glamorous young stars.

“I made Tugboat Annie Marie Dressler, or, if you prefer, Marie Dressler Tugboat Annie,” Raine told the Los Angeles Times in 1932.

A prolific short-story writer and briefly a University of Washington teacher, Raine not only penned Annie stories for the Post from 1931 to 1961 but also created the 1933 film’s screenplay. He later snagged an Oscar for writing “The Life of Emile Zola” (1937), but his passion seemed strongest for Annie’s saga. He died in 1971.

Seattle details flood his Annie stories, though the city is dubbed “Secoma,” a blend with Tacoma, and the vessel named “Narcissus” instead of its actual moniker, “Arthur Foss.” (Today, the Foss is on display at the Northwest Seaport dock at South Lake Union.)

July 28, 1933, Seattle Times, p15.

The book details the original film’s making (including a solicitation of 5,000 extras to welcome an ocean liner at Bell Street dock downtown) and its world premiere July 28, 1933, at The 5th Avenue Theatre.

Dressler, who died a year after the film’s release at age 65, expressed a prescient take on Annie’s persona:

“I love any role which shows that if you aren’t afraid of life, life can’t hurt you,” she told the Washington Evening Star. “That’s what Tugboat Annie does. She licks fate because she can look it in the eye and not be afraid. I always love a role in which I can get that idea over to the audience, because I think that’s the kind of stimulant that we need in American life right now.”

Another depiction of Annie (Marie Dressler) and Terry (Wallace Beery) arguing in “Tugboat Annie” (1933), the first feature film made in Seattle. (J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs / University of Washington Special Collections)
July 30, 1933, Seattle Times, p19.
July 19, 1931, Seattle Times, p19.
July 24, 1933, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p3.
July 30, 1933, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p57.
July 30, 1934, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, p3.
June 14, 1970, Seattle Times, p124.
Aug. 12, 1933, Washington Times. (Courtesy Bernard A. Drew)
Thousands of extras — including Mayor John Dore —  fill a waterfront dock to welcome a fancy ship carrying Annie’s and Terry’s son (Robert Young) and his fiance (Maureen O’Sullivan) in this screen shot from “Tugboat Annie” (1933).
In Elliott Bay, the tugboat Narcissus (left) heads toward a Mosquito fleet ferry …
… while tugboat skipper Terry (Wallace Beery) tries to avoid a collision …
… but it’s too late. The tug T-bones the ferry, in these screen shots from “Tugboat Annie” (1933).

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