Mariemont Theatre screens last three surviving Theda Bara films in sold-out event

The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati is holding a sold-out screening on Saturday, Oct. 24, to honor Theda Bara, a silent film actress born in the city's Avondale neighborhood. The event features a new eight-minute film titled Theda Bara's Memoirs, produced by Nadya Ellerhorst, alongside the 1915 feature A Fool There Was. Bara was known in the 1910s as the original screen vamp, a character type defined by her seductive and dangerous nature toward men.

Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in 1885, worked in the film industry from 1914 to 1919. During that five-year span, she appeared in 40 pictures. Studio publicists crafted a fictional persona for her, describing her as an Arab princess with a name that was an anagram for Arab Death. In contrast, Bara described herself simply as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati. She was the daughter of a Jewish tailor and a Swiss mother, attending Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York to act.

The loss of her work is largely due to a 1937 fire at Fox Studios. That blaze destroyed 37 of the 40 films she made. Only three titles remain, and these constitute the entire surviving body of her silent career. Her primary film career ended in 1919, when she was 34. She returned to the screen in 1925 for The Unchastened Woman and in 1926 for Madame Mystery, but did not make further films.

The Saturday program includes a panel discussion with Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and Bara historian. Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, will also speak. Ellerhorst, who produces The Art Show series on local public television, will join them. The evening also features a costume contest for attendees.

Theda Bara's Memoirs is available online for those who did not secure tickets. The documentary has recorded 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. It also aired on local channels 48 and 16. The film includes excerpts from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. It further examines a 450-page typed biography that remains unpublished and is held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara married film director Charles Brabin in 1921. Xavier University acquired her former home at Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive in 1979. The university used the Spanish-style house for its Honors College before demolishing it in 2011. Bara died in Los Angeles in 1955 from abdominal cancer at the age of 69.