We Remember You, Theda
I recently watched the X horror film series for the first time, and in the second installment, Pearl, released in 2022, we see the main character Pearl going to see a movie. Pearl takes place in 1917, so all of the movies she sees are silent films, some of the first movies ever made. On the walls of the theater is a poster for a movie I had heard of before but did not know much about — Cleopatra, released in 1917. The movie stars the most popular actress of the time, Theda Bara, in the role of Cleopatra. The thing about this movie that had piqued my interest is that it is lost. What was once the biggest movie of the year is now nothing more than a few short recovered clips online. Theda’s acting, all the work she put into this movie, is lost. I thought that was incredibly sad, but then I found out something even sadder. Out of the over 40 movies she made across her career, only three of them survive in full and are available to the public. There are bits and fragments of the others, but nothing complete. That struck me as heartbreaking. Theda Bara defined what an actress could be, and now she is mostly forgotten except among a few film nerds. Today, I would like to talk about her life and her impact.
Theda Before Bara
Theodosia Burr Goodman was born on July 26th, in what was probably 1885 (she kept her true age a secret). Her parents named her after Theodosia Burr, daughter of founding father and Broadway villain Aaron Burr. She was born to a Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio. Growing up, she always dreamed of being a stage actress. While in high school, she partook in her senior class’s play Our American Cousin. She spent two years studying at the University of Cincinnati, where she studied logic. She was a very studious person, being one of the only silent film actresses to actually have a college education. Eventually, they moved to New York City, where the bulk of American films were made at the time. She acted in numerous stage plays, beginning with The Devil in 1908. However, she never found much success on stage. Her first film was 1914’s The Stain, where she played an extra and was credited under her real name.
The Vamp
In 1915, Theda signed a contract with William Fox (whose company, Fox Film Corporation, would later grow into 20th Century Fox). As was custom at the time, Theda was given an elaborate, exotic backstory. She was no longer Theodosia Goodman from Cincinnati. Now she was Theda Bara, the mysterious woman born from the union of an Arab sheikh and a French actress. Some versions replace the Arab sheikh with an Italian man instead. Supposedly born in the shadow of the great Sphinx, Theda’s exotic backstory would come full circle in 1917’s Cleopatra as mentioned above.
But her first hit with Fox was A Fool There Was. In it, she plays a new kind of character, the Vampire. Unlike a Count Dracula kind of vampire, the Theda Bara kind is a trope that eventually grew into the Femme Fatale character. She plays a woman who seduces and lures a rich diplomat named John Schuyler to his doom. “Kiss me, my fool,” as her famous line from the movie goes. John kisses her and is thus unable to escape her grasp. (I should point out that when the Vamp says "Kiss me, my fool" she is not talking to John Schuyler. That is a common misconception that I myself fell for when writing this!)". The movie was a huge hit, and Theda from that point forward would be known as “the Vamp.” While the vamp character was meant to be a cautionary tale, warning men of the dangers of promiscuous women, Theda’s on-screen presence captured the attention of audiences nationwide, far more than the supposed moral of the story did. In some ways, she became a feminist icon — a symbol of a new kind of woman free from societal norms. A Fool There Was is one of only three Theda movies to survive in full to the present day. I will link it along with the other two surviving movies below with my sources.
Theda’s newfound fame brought her tons of fans. Every day, she would get letters from fans containing marriage proposals and from wives accusing her of “ruining my marriage.” She was a star, and women all across the country were trying to imitate the Vamp.
In addition to being a movie star, she was also a suffragette. In 1917, in a statement to the press, Theda said, “But the ballot box will put Delilahs out of the charmed circle. Education, political and economic freedom, have given woman a new key to triumph. She need no longer depend on a man’s strength.” She was an archetype for modern women. Vamp fever was sweeping the nation, and Fox was happy to deliver. For the next few years, Theda starred in dozens of vampish films such as Carmen, where she plays a passionate seducer who ends up getting slain in a jealous rage, or Sin, where she plays an Italian woman who ditches her fiancé for a mobster from New York City. Both of those were released in 1915 and both are sadly considered lost in full, with only stills and promo photos remaining.
1916 would see her star in eight films, including playing Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and East Lynne, an adaptation of an English novel where she plays a woman named Isabel who fakes her death in order to get away from her husband, whom she presumes is cheating on her with another woman. Eventually, she ends up disguising herself so she can work as a governess for her kids, sort of like Mrs. Doubtfire actually. East Lynne is one of the three movies we still have of her.
In 1919, she started in Kathleen Mavourneen. In it, she plays an Irish peasant girl named Kathleen, as it is based on an old Irish folk song. Theda grew very fond of Kathleen and even said once that she felt as if she had adopted her. She was very happy to be playing a non-vamp role as she at this point was wanting to expand to newer things. The film was a success, but many Irish viewers were outraged that Theda, a Jewish woman, was playing a traditional Irish character. People threw stink bombs in theaters playing it, and there were boycotts of the movie organized. Theda deserved better than that. Sadly, antisemitism is rife within society even today, it is a problem we all need to do more about. Kathleen Mavourneen is unfortunately among the lost films :(.
Cleopatra
1917 would be a very big year for Theda. Cleopatra was her biggest film yet. It was an extravagant production based on the life of the Egyptian queen of old. For this film, Theda had to move from NYC to Los Angeles as Fox had built a new film studio there. Theda, ever the student, would spend hours at the Met in NYC studying in the Egyptology section for the role. Cleopatra solidified Theda’s role as the first sex symbol in Hollywood. The sight of her in her scantily clad outfits led to the nickname Theda Bare-a. It was groundbreaking for an era where a woman showing a bit of ankle was considered scandalous. While many people loved it, censorship boards did not, and censors tried to block it. Yet it remained a success and was shown in theaters well into the 1920s. Theda was reportedly an easy actress to work with; she didn’t get angry easily and she was friendly to the cast and crew, no matter their race, in a time of profound racism.
Cleopatra was another vamp film, with the queen herself being seen as the original vamp character. The set was lavish and extravagant, and it was hyped up for months by Fox. This included a supposed ancient Egyptian prophecy that the Vamp would play Cleopatra. It was around this time that Fox realized that Theda Bara could be an anagram for "Arab Death," her Egyptian screen identity coming into focus. Cleopatra was loved by audiences and praised by critics. It was an iconic film of the era, which makes it all the more surprising and sad that it, along with most of her other films, ended up the way they did. Theda was so successful at this point that the entire Goodman family had their family name legally changed to Bara.
On July 9th, 1937, Cleopatra, along with the vast majority of Theda’s movies and a majority of Fox’s silent movies in general, were destroyed in a fire at the facility where the original negatives were stored. Since the advent of sound films (or “talkies”), many did not take silent film preservation seriously. To put that into comparison, imagine if every copy of James Cameron’s Titanic was lost. That is how massive this film was for the time. So much of the work that this woman put her heart and soul into is gone now. Theda had kept copies of her movies for safekeeping, including Cleopatra, but these sadly deteriorated to unwatchability, leaving Theda profoundly upset at the loss of her work.
Retirement
After 45 Minutes from Hollywood in 1926, Theda Bara retired from acting. She pursued other projects, including her own studio called Theda Bara productions but nothing came of them. She never appeared in any talkies (sound films). The only recordings of her voice come from interviews on the radio that she did in the 1930s (YouTube links below).
In 1920, she returned to stage acting in The Blue Flame. The play was a commercial success due in part to Theda’s appearance, but the critics were very harsh to her acting in it. In 1921, she married film director Charles Brabin, and by the 1940s, they were living in Beverly Hills. According to people who knew them, they were a very happy couple and Theda was a very pleasant woman. She loved cooking and was known as "a gourmet cook." Unlike a stereotypical Hollywood celebrity, she was very considerate and not obsessed with herself, although she did keep many props from her movies. Looking back at her legacy, Theda was very proud of the impact of her work. She thought that the psychological insight of the previously under-reported personalities shown in her films was beneficial to society. She was such a good actress that even in the 1940s, she was still shunned by some because they still believed she was an actual vamp who would destroy their marriage.
Theda was not the character she so often portrayed, however. Towards the end of her career, she tried to take roles that would distance herself from the Vamp. However, Fox knew what they had was gold and they would intentionally schedule her non Vamp roles to be released in the studios “dry season”. She was a brilliant, kind, woman who had more to offer then just what Fox cast her as.
While she would always be saddened by the loss of most of her films, the fire could not replace the impact she had. She was fortunate enough to enjoy the last decades of her life in peace with a loving husband, content with her career and her legacy. Theda sadly passed away from stomach cancer on this day in 1955. She was around 68 years old.
Conclusion
So why did I write this? Well, I always had an interest in lost media, and after watching Pearl, I was intrigued by Cleopatra. I found it very somber and sad that she was one of the most well-known women of her time and that the vast majority of her work is now lost. I also found it incredibly sad that most silent films in general are lost. Silent film preservation was not taken seriously back then; reels were reused and stored in very flammable locations, not to mention the material they were made of was incredibly flammable on its own. Another thing that struck me was just how unknown she probably is nowadays. Did you know who Theda Bara was before reading this? Maybe you did, and hopefully, more people know about her than I thought. But I think she deserves to be remembered for her contributions to not just the American movie industry but the role of women in American life.
She was a trailblazer who helped change what it meant to an American woman. She was an eccentric intellectual who was big into spiritualism and psychology and loved the insight her films provided. She had a pet bear cub that she named Theda Bear-a, not joking by the way. She was a mysterious figure who captured the minds and hearts of the nation. She was a wonderful actress who broke new ground for cinema. Her contributions to this country’s history and culture deserve to be celebrated. I find her to be very inspiring and after researching this she has come to be one of my favorite historical figures. Rest in Peace, Theda. We remember you.
Sheppard, Oliver. “Theda Bara: The Centenary of an American Vampire an Interview with Bara Biographer Joan Craig.” CVLT Nation, January 31, 2017. https://cvltnation.com/theda_bara/
The Woman With The Hungry Eyes. Film, 2006. https://youtu.be/3odoLWpmIUQ?si=PXQ8AkpfHHQGJ98i
Wasserman, Suzanne. “Theda Bara.” Jewish Women’s Archive, February 27, 2009. https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/bara-theda.
Pitman, Robert. “MaXXXine: Theda Bara’s Walk Of Fame Star Explained & How It Calls Back To Pearl.” MSN, October 22, 2024. https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/maxxxine-theda-baras-walk-of-fame-star-explained-how-it-calls-back-to-pearl/ar-AA1sKVYf.
SCREEN star, 68; ’ siren’ of silent films was top box-office attraction during the twenties denounced in churches ’ cleopatra/ “the vampire,” “Salome” and “madame du barry” among her hits screen “vampire.” (1955, April 8). The New York Times, pp. 21–21.
Ankerich, M. G. (2016, April 9). Author Joan Craig shares her memories of Theda Bara in New book. Closeups and Canvases. https://michaelgankerich.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/author-joan-craig-shares-her-memories-of-theda-bara-in-new-book/
Tucan, E. (2013, May 30). Sex, shadows, and sin on celluloid: The femme fatale and silent vamp as threats to the Social Order. Sex, Shadows, and Sin on Celluloid: The Femme Fatale and Silent Vamp as Threats to the Social Order. https://onemovieblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/sex-shadows-and-sin-on-celluloid-femme.html?m=1
Theda's surviving movies
https://archive.org/details/east-lynne-fox-film-corporation-1916
https://archive.org/details/AFoolThereWas1915
https://archive.org/details/silent-the-unchastened-woman
Theda's radio interviews
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVBLHr4iwVM&pp=ygUUdGhlZGEgYmFyYSBpbnRlcnZpZXc%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0OoReGsjBc&pp=ygUUdGhlZGEgYmFyYSBpbnRlcnZpZXfSBwkJfgkBhyohjO8%3D