[1] In 1919, while attending Harvard, he saved the lives of a young woman and another man after they nearly drowned in the ocean at York Beach, Maine.

At this stage of his career his youthful good looks led to him supporting or co-starring with many of filmdoms well-known and beautiful female stars of the time, i.e., Marie Prevost, Clara Bow, Mildred Harris, Marjorie Daw, Viola Dana, Louise Fazenda and Virginia Brown Faire.

He also appeared in low budget pictures with lesser known female stars, i.e., Gladys Hulette, Ruth Dwyer, Carmelita Geraghty, Ethel Shannon and Alice Calhoun.

Indeed, many of Howes's silent pictures are 'racing car-romance' movies, the kind Wallace Reid made popular before his untimely death in 1923.

[citation needed] The studios Howes worked for in the silent era were FBO, Warner Brothers, Fox, Paramount and Universal.