Sold-out Mariemont event screens last three surviving Theda Bara films

Cinemark audiences filled every seat at the Mariemont Theatre on Saturday, October 24, to watch the final surviving prints of Theda Bara's work. The event marked a local tribute to an actress whose career peaked during the silent era but left behind a mostly lost filmography.

Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in 1885, became a major star between 1914 and 1919. She appeared in 40 films during that five-year span. Studio publicists marketed her as an Arab princess and a dangerous seductress, a persona that obscured her local origins. In her own words, she was a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati.

The evening featured a screening of A Fool There Was, one of only three surviving films from her silent career. The program also included an eight-minute documentary titled Theda Bara's Memoirs. Nadya Ellerhorst, who produced the documentary for local public television, joined a panel after the films. The panel included Dr. Jennifer Glaser, a Bara historian at the University of Cincinnati, and Brian Powers, a librarian at the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library.

The loss of Bara's work is largely attributed to a fire at Fox Studios in 1937. That blaze destroyed 37 of her 40 films. Her initial run as a movie star ended in 1919, before she turned 35. She returned to the screen briefly in the mid-1920s, appearing in The Unchastened Woman and Madame Mystery.

Bara's connection to Cincinnati extends beyond her early years. She married director Charles Brabin in 1921. The couple lived in a Spanish-style house on Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive. Xavier University acquired the property in 1979 and used it for its Honors College. The university demolished the building in 2011.

The documentary shown on Saturday has also reached a wider audience online. Since its release on YouTube in May 2025, the video has received 50,000 views. The film includes clips from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. It also references a 450-page unpublished biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69. The Mariemont event included a costume contest to coincide with the approaching Halloween holiday.