Three Films Left for Bara

Cincinnati screens the only remaining works of a local film icon on Saturday.

The Mariemont Theatre has sold out for a tribute to Theda Bara, marking the final public showing of her three surviving films. Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in Avondale, worked in Hollywood for five years and made 40 movies between 1914 and 1919. Her career ended abruptly, and the 1937 fire at Fox Studios destroyed most of her output. Only three titles remain today. Nadya Ellerhorst, producer of the event, called Bara a fascinating Cincinnati figure.

Ellerhorst also directed an eight-minute documentary called Theda Bara's Memoirs. This film will play alongside A Fool There Was at the Saturday event. A panel discussion will follow the screening. The panel includes Dr. Jennifer Glaser, a Bara historian at the University of Cincinnati; Brian Powers from the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library; and Ellerhorst. A costume contest is also part of the program.

The documentary has gained 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. It aired on local channels 48 and 16. The film uses 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 It also references a 450-page unpublished biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives. That document provides details on her life that are not found in other sources.

Bara’s studio image was constructed by publicists. They billed her as an Arab princess and noted her name was an anagram for Arab Death. In reality, she 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. Her film career paused in 1919, but she returned for two movies in 1925 and 1926.

Bara married director Charles Brabin in 1921. Her former home at Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive was acquired by Xavier University in 1979. The school used the Spanish-style house for its Honors College until demolishing it in 2011. Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69.