Cincinnati Audience Fills Mariemont for Final Surviving Theda Bara Prints

Cinematheque enthusiasts in Cincinnati will gather at the Mariemont Theatre on Saturday, Oct. 24, for a sold-out tribute to local silent-film icon Theda Bara. The event marks a rare opportunity for audiences to view the actress on screen, as only three of the 40 films she produced between 1914 and 1919 remain in existence.

Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in Avondale in 1885, became one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood during the silent era. Studio publicists crafted a fictional persona for her, presenting her as an Arab princess named after the anagram for "Arab Death." In reality, she was the daughter of a Jewish tailor and a Swiss mother who attended Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York to act.

The program begins with Theda Bara's Memoirs, an eight-minute documentary produced and directed by Nadya Ellerhorst. Ellerhorst, a producer for the public television series The Art Show, described Bara as "a truly fascinating Cincinnati figure." The screening also includes A Fool There Was, one of the three surviving titles. Other lost works include The Stain, Cleopatra, and The Siren's Song.

A panel discussion will follow the films, featuring 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; and Ellerhorst. The evening concludes with a costume contest, timed for the week before Halloween.

The loss of Bara's filmography was caused by a 1937 fire at Fox Studios. Her active career in the silent era ended in 1919 before her 35th birthday, though she returned to film for two projects in the mid-1920s. Theda Bara's Memoirs, which premiered on Channels 48 and 16, has accumulated 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. The documentary references a 450-page unpublished biography located in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara married film director Charles Brabin in 1921. Her former residence at Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive was acquired by Xavier University in 1979 from a different owner. The university used the Spanish-style house as the "Villa" for its Honors College before demolishing it in 2011. Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69.