A Brief Look At Theda Bara

In the 1910s, Theda Bara became the first Hollywood sex symbol in the silent film era, both a product of her on screen roles and the printed press. She revolutionized sexual film content through her character’s persona and attitude. Although she is a significant film star and made more than 40 silent films, she is forgotten because about 90% of her films were destroyed in a fire. While few of her films survive today, her public image and career as playing as a vampire and Cleopatra helped to develop the celebrity image and culture that stands a century later. As Ronald Genini’s Theda Bara: a Biography of the Silent Screen Vamp, with a Filmography and Eve Golden’s Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara serves as a biography with unknown secrets
Like other actors and actresses, she moved from Cincinnati to New York at the age of twenty to pursue her theatrical ambitions. Though at first Theodosia’s career only consisted of minor roles, she eventually gained lead roles that consisted of playing the femme fatale. While being an actress and entering Hollywood, she changed her physical appearance: dying her hair black and painting her face. Many films and productions were inspired from many stories, plays, and poems. In 1909, the famous poem, “The Vampire” by Rudyard Kipiling was circulating the United States. A painting of a pale, dark-eyed, magnetic woman who possessed a male victim inspired this poem. Both the painting and poem created a new type of vampire, the female vampire: worthless but irresistible creature that sucks the love and life out of a man. As Fox was leading the filmmaking revolution, he wanted to create films contrast to “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford so he decided to project vampires on the screen. Later director Frank Powell introduced Fox to Theodosia, the evil seductress, and there she gained the lead “vampire” role in A Fool There Was (1915). To enforce the role of leading villainess, Theodosia’s history and image had to be reconstructed. By signing a five-year contract with Fox, she not only had to play the part, but to be the
Fox created a campaign to promote his new film, A Fool There Was (1915), and the leading star, Theda Bara, life had changed drastically. Ronald Genini further explored Fox’s publicity techniques and mentioned how Fox’s publicity department noticed how there was every type of woman on screen except an Arabian so they created the image that Theodosia was born in Arabia (32). They took “Arab” spelled it backwards and made “Bara” and changed her first name “Theodosia” to “Theda” and thus the name “Theda Bara.” When she officially changed her name, it was on Los Angeles Time’s headline, “THEDA BABA HER RIGHT NAME NOW,” acknowledging and broadcasting her new legal name that would be known by millions. Theda’s first interview for newspapers was set up with props and an Arabian atmosphere to portray a distinct actress. From this interview, the newspapermen left and said the Fox Film Corporation had discovered the greatest living actress in the world, according to Ronald Genini (34). A Fool There Was (1915) was a smash hit screening Theda Bara as a vampire, appearing in one-third of the frames. English language gained “vamp” as a new word from this film. According to Merriam Webster Online Dictionary, the verb, established in 1915 meant, “to practice seductive wiles on.” Theda Bara was advertised as a reincarnation of the most evil woman of the past. There were so many false implementations of her that it made it