Sold-Out Mariemont Screening Revives Cincinnati's Lost Movie Star

The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati is fully booked for a Saturday evening event dedicated to Theda Bara, a local native who became a major star of the silent film era. The screening takes place on October 24 and will feature the only three surviving prints of her work, a rare occurrence due to the loss of the rest of her filmography in a 1937 fire at Fox Studios.

Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in the Avondale neighborhood, appeared in 40 films between 1914 and 1919. Her career was defined by the "vamp" role, a persona crafted by studio publicists who billed her as an Arab princess and noted that her name was an anagram for "Arab Death." In reality, she described herself as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati. She was the daughter of a Jewish tailor and a Swiss mother, born at 823 Hutchins Avenue in 1885.

After graduating from Walnut Hills High School and spending two years at the University of Cincinnati, she moved to New York City to pursue acting. Her filmography includes titles such as The Stain, A Fool There Was, and Cleopatra. Nadya Ellerhorst, a producer for The Art Show series, calls Bara a fascinating Cincinnati figure. Ellerhorst also directed Theda Bara's Memoirs, an eight-minute documentary that will be shown alongside A Fool There Was during the event.

The program includes a panel discussion with Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati and Bara historian, and Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. Ellerhorst will also participate. The evening features a costume contest, timed one week before Halloween.

Those who missed the tickets can watch Theda Bara's Memoirs online. The documentary has received 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025 and includes excerpts from four of her films. It also details a 450-page unpublished biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.

Bara's career effectively ended in 1919 before her 35th birthday, though she made two more films in the mid-1920s. She married director Charles Brabin in 1921. Xavier University acquired her former home on Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive in 1979 and demolished the Spanish-style house in 2011.

Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at the age of 69.