Cincinnati audience fills Mariemont for screening of three surviving Bara films

The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati is sold out for Saturday evening, as the venue prepares to screen the only three surviving films of Theda Bara, one of the city’s earliest movie stars. The event marks a rare opportunity to see works from a career that was largely erased by a 1937 fire at Fox Studios, which destroyed the majority of her output.

Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in Avondale in 1885, spent roughly five years as a major silent screen figure. Studio publicists marketed her as an Arab princess and the original screen vamp, claiming her name was an anagram for Arab Death. In reality, she was the daughter of a Jewish tailor and a Swiss mother. She described herself simply as a nice Jewish girl from Cincinnati before moving to New York to pursue acting.

Between 1914 and 1919, she appeared in 40 films, including Cleopatra and The Serpent. Nadya Ellerhorst, a producer for public television, calls Bara a fascinating Cincinnati figure. Ellerhorst also produced and directed an eight-minute documentary titled Theda Bara’s Memoirs, which will be shown before the feature film A Fool There Was.

The program includes a panel discussion with Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor and Bara historian at the University of Cincinnati, and Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library. With Halloween approaching next week, the evening also features a costume contest for attendees.

The documentary has gained traction online, drawing 50,000 views on YouTube since May 2025. It includes clips from A Fool There Was, East Lynne, The Unchastened Woman, and Cleopatra. The film also details a 450-page unpublished biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library.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 returned to the screen in 1925 for The Unchastened Woman and in 1926 for Madame Mystery. She married film director Charles Brabin in 1921. Xavier University acquired her former home on Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive in 1979 and used it as the Villa for its Honors College before demolishing the Spanish-style house in 2011.

Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69. Those who missed the sold-out screening can still access the eight-minute documentary online after its broadcast on local channels.