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2O2 4 – 2O2 5 GU I D E to Y E L LOW S P R I NG S 57 assisting riding instructor Patsy Kahoe in classes, and at 13, began teaching classes herself. By the time she was 17, having graduated from high school a year early, she was managing the riding school’s barn. “I see something that needs to be done and I do it,” Cow- perthwaite Ruka said. “Carolyn [Bailey, now the director of The Riding Centre] and I were there together and have talked about how we grew up so respon- sible and taking initiative, and part of that is because of The Riding Centre. [Soelberg] could see that in you, and she enabled you to do it, too.” In December of 1971, at age 15, Cowperthwaite Ruka took the initiative to begin working as a cashier in the Little Art’s box office. Her age, she said, was something of an open secret among her fellow employees — but it became public knowledge when, on her second night behind the register, she was robbed at gunpoint during a double- feature of “David Copperfield” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Cowperthwaite Ruka was forced to quit until she turned 16 the following summer. At the time, the Little Art was owned by the Art Theater Guild, a chain of small theaters owned by Louis K. Sher and Ed Shulman, of Columbus, and later operated out of Arizona. Accord- ing to Cowperthwaite Ruka, the long distance between the theater’s owners and its staff equaled a high degree of auton- omy for the theater — which she said she and her fellow staff members appreciated. “[The owners] rarely came to Yellow Springs, and the way the business kept running was people would just pass the baton to someone else,” Cowperthwaite Ruka said. “All we did was send our payroll — it was just amazing.” In 1978, the baton was passed to Cowperthwaite Ruka; Jill Wolcott, an Antioch alumna who had stayed on to manage the Little Art after graduation, thought Cow - perthwaite Ruka would be the perfect replacement. “[Wolcott] loved film, but by her own admission, the details and organization and keep - ing records — that wasn’t her thing, but it was mine,” Cow- perthwaite Ruka said. “When she first told me she thought I should take the job, I said ‘no’ — but she held my hand, and had me start doing more, and eventually I said, ‘OK.’” Cowperthwaite Ruka was just 22 years old in 1978 when she became the manager of Little Art Theatre — a title she would hold for 20 years. During that time, she over - saw a number of changes and transitions borne by shifting cultural and artistic tides. By the ’80s, the Little Art had moved away from using its unique, hand-painted movie posters supplied by local art- ists toward studio-supplied posters, but continued to focus on art films, even as other small theaters in the Art Theater Guild folded. In 1987, the Art Theater Guild decided to close the Little Art — but Antioch College swept in and bought the theater for the reported price of $1. The college instituted a number of upgrades to the theater, including the instal- lation of a concession stand built by local woodworker Paul DeLaVergne. Up until 1987, Cowperthwaite Ruka said, the nearly 60-year-old theater had only served tea and coffee on an honor system, and begin- ning in the 1970s, the locally renowned “Beyer Butter Bars” baked by Scott Beyer. “It was remarkable that the theater survived so long without concessions,” she said. “I don’t think it would be the same if the Little Art hadn’t been in Yellow Springs.” In 1990, former Antioch College professor Jon Saari purchased the theater from the college, with Cowperth- waite Ruka continuing as the manager. By that time, peo- ple’s movie-going habits had changed: the popularization of VHS tapes in the previous decade and the establishment of video rental stores was a stumbling block for movie theaters around the world. “Sometimes it was hard through some of those changes, but [the theater] was like my child — I just couldn’t see leaving it,” Cowperthwaite Ruka said. The Little Art struggled, but held on through the ’90s via the strength of community — and in 1998, Cowperthwaite Ruka became its new owner. It was around the same time that online DVD rental company Netflix formed, and over the next several years, the ease of renting movies without ever leaving home put more of a strain on theaters. By 2007, Netflix began streaming films online, a move that would change the Our Network = Your Net Gain Call us today! 937-381-9799