Cincinnati screens three surviving films by silent star Theda Bara
A sold-out event at Mariemont Theatre features a new documentary and a panel on the actress, whose career ended in 1919 and whose legacy was largely destroyed by a 1937 fire.
By Ayanda Boateng ·
Only three of the 40 films made by silent-era actress Theda Bara survive today. The rest were lost in a 1937 fire at Fox Studios, leaving a vast portion of her work unseen for nearly a century.
Cincinnati will screen the remaining prints on Saturday, Oct. 24, at the Mariemont Theatre. The event is sold out and includes a panel discussion and a costume contest. Nadya Ellerhorst, producer of the public television series The Art Show, is organizing the evening. She describes Bara as a fascinating Cincinnati figure.
Bara was born Theodosia Goodman on July 29, 1885, at 823 Hutchins Ave. in Avondale. Her father was a Jewish tailor and her mother was Swiss. She attended Walnut Hills High School and spent two years at the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York City to act. Studio publicists later created a fictional backstory, billing her as an Arab princess and anagramming her name to suggest "Arab Death." Bara herself referred to herself as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati.
Between 1914 and 1919, Bara appeared in 40 films. Titles included The Stain, A Fool There Was, The Devil's Daughter, The Serpent, East Lynne, Romeo and Juliet, and Cleopatra. Her main career ended in 1919, before she turned 35. She returned to the screen in 1925 for The Unchastened Woman and in 1926 for Madame Mystery.
The Mariemont program will screen A Fool There Was alongside Theda Bara's Memoirs, an eight-minute film directed by Ellerhorst. The documentary includes excerpts from East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. It also details a 450-page typed biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library. The film has drawn 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025 and will air on Channels 48 and 16.
A panel following the screenings will feature Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor and Bara historian at the University of Cincinnati. Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, will also participate. Bara married director Charles Brabin in 1921. She died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69. Xavier University demolished her former home on Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive in 2011 after using it as the Villa for its Honors College.
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