Theda Bara: Only 3 Films Survive

Only three of the 40 films Theda Bara made between 1914 and 1919 still exist. The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati will screen those three surviving titles on Saturday, October 24, for a sold-out audience.

Bara was born Theodosia Goodman on July 29, 1885, at 823 Hutchins Avenue in Avondale. She was the daughter of a Jewish tailor and a Swiss mother. After graduating from Walnut Hills High School and spending two years at the University of Cincinnati, she moved to New York City to pursue acting. Studio publicists later crafted a fictional backstory, billing her as an Arab princess raised near the Sphinx. They claimed her name was an anagram for "Arab Death." In her own account, she described herself simply as "a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati."

Her career as a major star lasted about five years. She appeared in titles such as The Stain, A Fool There Was, The Devil's Daughter, and Cleopatra. Nadya Ellerhorst, producer of The Art Show series on WCET-TV and WPTD-TV, called Bara "a truly fascinating Cincinnati figure." Ellerhorst also produced an eight-minute documentary titled Theda Bara's Memoirs. That film will open Saturday's program.

A panel discussion will follow the screenings. The group includes Dr. Jennifer Glaser, a Bara historian and associate professor at the University of Cincinnati, and Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Ellerhorst will also participate. The evening includes a costume contest, timed to coincide with Halloween one week later.

The loss of Bara's film output traces to a fire at Fox Studios in 1937. That disaster destroyed the majority of her work. Her primary film career ended in 1919, before she turned 35. She returned to the screen later, appearing in The Unchastened Woman in 1925 and Madame Mystery in 1926.

Those without tickets can watch Theda Bara's Memoirs online. The documentary has drawn 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. It includes excerpts from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. The film also details a 450-page typed biography 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 of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69.