Cincinnati screens Theda Bara's three surviving films

A sold-out audience will watch the only three remaining films by silent-era actress Theda Bara at the Mariemont Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 24. The screening marks a decade after the destruction of 37 of her 40 titles in a 1937 fire at Fox Studios.

Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in 1885 in Avondale, became a major star between 1914 and 1919. She is often cited as the original screen vamp. Her mother was Swiss and her father was a Jewish tailor. Bara described herself as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati. She attended Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York to act.

Her film career paused after 1919. She returned to the screen in 1925 for The Unchastened Woman and in 1926 for Madame Mystery. The 1937 fire erased most of her earlier work. Today, only three of her films survive. Nadya Ellerhorst, producer of The Art Show on WCET-TV and WPTD-TV, calls Bara a fascinating Cincinnati figure.

The Mariemont program includes an eight-minute documentary titled Theda Bara's Memoirs, produced and directed by Ellerhorst. The documentary includes clips from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. It also discusses a 450-page unpublished biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library. The film has been viewed 50,000 times on YouTube since May 2025.

A panel discussion follows the screenings. The speakers include Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor and Bara historian at the University of Cincinnati. Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, will also speak. Ellerhorst will join the panel. The event also features a costume contest.

Bara married film director Charles Brabin in 1921. Xavier University acquired her former home on Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive in 1979. The university used the Spanish-style house for its Honors College and demolished it in 2011.

Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69.