Three Prints Left of Silent Star

The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati is full for a Saturday night event dedicated to Theda Bara.

Bara, born in the Avondale neighborhood, spent five years as a leading silent film actress. Studios marketed her as the original screen vamp, claiming she was an Arab princess named after an anagram for Arab Death. She was actually Theodosia Goodman, born on July 29, 1885, at 823 Hutchins Avenue. Her father was a Jewish tailor and her mother was Swiss. She attended Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York City to act.

From 1914 to 1919, Bara appeared in 40 films. The cast list includes The Stain, A Fool There Was, and Cleopatra. Nadya Ellerhorst, a producer for The Art Show series, calls Bara a fascinating local figure. Ellerhorst produced an eight-minute documentary titled Theda Bara's Memoirs. That film will screen alongside A Fool There Was at the sold-out Mariemont event.

Only three of Bara's 40 films remain. A fire at Fox Studios in 1937 destroyed the rest of her body of work. Her main acting career ended in 1919, but she returned to the screen in 1925 for The Unchastened Woman and in 1926 for Madame Mystery.

The evening program includes a panel discussion. Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and a historian of Bara, will speak. Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, will also participate. Ellerhorst will join them on the panel. A costume contest for Bara fans is scheduled for the night, one week before Halloween.

Those who missed the ticket sale can watch the documentary online. It has received 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. The film includes clips from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. It also discusses an unpublished, 450-page typed biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara married director Charles Brabin in 1921. She lived in a Spanish-style house at Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive. Xavier University bought that property from a different owner in 1979 and used it as the Villa for its Honors College. The university tore down the house in 2011. Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69.