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

The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati fills its seats on Saturday, Oct. 24, to present the only three existing films by silent-era actress Theda Bara.

Bara produced 40 feature-length pictures between 1914 and 1919. A blaze at Fox Studios in 1937 destroyed 37 of those prints, leaving just three titles in existence. The event includes the short documentary Theda Bara's Memoirs and the 1922 feature A Fool There Was. These are the only remaining works from the period that defined her career.

Born Theodosia Goodman on July 29, 1885, in Avondale, Bara was the daughter of a Jewish tailor and a Swiss mother. She attended Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York City to act. Studio publicists crafted a fictional origin story, describing her as an Arab princess raised near the Sphinx. Bara later described her own background in a direct quote as "a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati."

Nadya Ellerhorst, the producer of the local public television series The Art Show, directs Theda Bara's Memoirs. She calls the actress "truly a fascinating Cincinnati figure." The evening program features a panel discussion with Ellerhorst, Dr. Jennifer Glaser of the University of Cincinnati, and Brian Powers of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. The event also holds a costume contest one week before Halloween.

Those unable to attend in person can access Theda Bara's Memoirs online. The eight-minute film has recorded 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. It contains excerpts from four of Bara's surviving or partially surviving works, including East Lynne and Cleopatra. The documentary also examines a 450-page typed biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara married director Charles Brabin in 1921. Her career paused after 1919 until she returned for two features in 1925 and 1926. In 1955, she died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles at age 69. Xavier University acquired her former Spanish-style home in 1979 and demolished the structure in 2011.