Cincinnati screens Theda Bara's rare prints

The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati is fully booked for a Saturday, Oct. 24, tribute to silent-film actress Theda Bara. The event screens the only three surviving films from her 40-picture career. Nadya Ellerhorst, producer of the accompanying eight-minute documentary, called Bara a fascinating local figure.

Studio publicists once billed Bara as an Arab princess with a name that was an anagram for 'Arab Death.' In reality, she was Theodosia Goodman, born on July 29, 1885, at 823 Hutchins Ave. in Avondale. Her father was a Jewish tailor, and her mother was Swiss. Bara described herself simply as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati. She attended Walnut Hills High School and later spent two years at the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York City to act.

Between 1914 and 1919, Bara appeared in 40 movies. These included titles such as The Stain, A Fool There Was, and Cleopatra. A 1937 fire at Fox Studios destroyed most of these prints. Only three films remain. The Mariemont program will show A Fool There Was and Ellerhorst's documentary, Theda Bara's Memoirs. A panel discussion will follow, featuring historian Dr. Jennifer Glaser, library historian Brian Powers, and Ellerhorst. The evening also includes a costume contest.

Those without tickets can access Theda Bara's Memoirs online. The film has garnered 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. It includes clips from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. The documentary also references a 450-page typed biography found in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara's initial career ended in 1919, before her 35th birthday. She returned to the screen in 1925 for The Unchastened Woman and in 1926 for Madame Mystery. She 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.