Cincinnati audience fills Mariemont for Theda Bara retrospective

Only three films remain from the 40 made by Theda Bara between 1914 and 1919. The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati sold out for a screening on Saturday, Oct. 24, dedicated to the actress. The event marks the life of a local figure who became a global star during the silent film era.

Bara was born Theodosia Goodman on July 29, 1885, at 823 Hutchins Ave. 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 created a fictional background for her, presenting her as an Arab princess and an anagram for Arab Death. Bara described herself as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati.

Her film 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. A fire at Fox Studios in 1937 destroyed most of her surviving prints. The remaining works include A Fool There Was, which will be shown at the Mariemont Theatre.

Nadya Ellerhorst, a producer for The Art Show series on WCET-TV and WPTD-TV, directed an eight-minute film titled Theda Bara's Memoirs. That film will open the program. A panel discussion will follow, featuring Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati, and Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Ellerhorst will also participate in the discussion. The evening includes a costume contest to match the Halloween theme.

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

Bara married film director Charles Brabin in 1921. Xavier University acquired her former home at 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.