SYMHC Classics: Theda Bara

Summary

Summary of "SYMHC Classics: Theda Bara"

Podcast: Stuff You Missed in History Class
Hosts: Holly Fry & Tracy V. Wilson
Episode: SYMHC Classics: Theda Bara
Release Date: April 19, 2025

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Introduction

In the episode titled "SYMHC Classics: Theda Bara," hosts Holly Fry and Tracy V. Wilson delve into the fascinating life and legacy of Theda Bara, often hailed as the first sex symbol of the silver screen. Theda Bara's journey from a stage enthusiast to a meticulously crafted Hollywood icon exemplifies early 20th-century star-making techniques and the profound impact of public relations in shaping celebrity personas.

Early Life and Ambitions

Theda Bara was born Theodosia Goodman on July 29, 1885, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents, Bernard Goodman and Pauline Louise Francoise de Coppet, provided her with a comfortable upbringing. Theodosia, affectionately known as Theo among friends, was an ambitious child who loved reading and performing. Her penchant for elaborate dress-ups and staging parlor tableaux in her childhood foreshadowed her future in acting.

Theda Bara: “Her childhood... she was not a quiet, bookish child because she could also be a handful.”
(03:08)

Despite her early interest in acting, Theodosia pursued a more conventional path initially, attending Walnut Hills High School and later the University of Cincinnati. However, her yearning for theatrical expression led her to New York City in 1905, where she began her journey on the stage, participating in various touring companies and striving for recognition in the performing arts.

Transition to Film

By late 1914, with her stage career not yielding the success she desired and facing age-related casting challenges, Theodosia was approached by Frank Powell, a director from Fox Film Company. Powell saw potential in her for the burgeoning film industry, despite Theodosia's initial reluctance to abandon her theatrical aspirations.

Tracy V. Wilson: “She was also 30, so she was starting to hit the point where she was seen as too old for most of the lead roles that she wanted.”
(11:12)

Opting to take the risk, Theodosia signed a five-year contract with Fox, marking her official entry into the film world. Her debut project, "A Fool There Was," introduced her to the silver screen, but it was the strategic crafting of her public persona that truly catapulted her to stardom.

Crafting the Theda Bara Persona

Fox Film Studio recognized the potential gamble in promoting an unknown actress alongside established stars like Edward Jose. To mitigate this, the studio embarked on an extensive public relations campaign to create an alluring and mysterious persona for Theda Bara, transforming her from Theodosia de Coppet into "Theda Bara."

Name Transformation

The name "Theda Bara" was meticulously chosen to evoke exoticism and intrigue. Various iterations were tested before settling on a name that would resonate with audiences and fit the vamp archetype the studio envisioned.

Theda Bara: “And her name had been the first to go... But they landed at another nickname, Theta, and decided that was the one.”
(13:53)

Press Conference and Backstory Fabrication

In January 1915, Fox orchestrated a grand press conference in Chicago, transforming a hotel meeting room into an Egyptian fantasy to introduce Theda Bara to the public. Theda's fabricated backstory narrated her origins in the shadow of the pyramids, with imaginary parents from France and Italy, and a childhood spent near the Sphinx. This extravagant narrative was designed to enchant the press and audience alike.

Theda Bara: “This velvet curtain was opened, and there sat the enthralling Theda Barra making her debut to the world.”
(24:10)

Theda's revealing attire and mystique were intentional choices to align her image with her vamp role, ensuring that her on-screen presence left a lasting impression.

The Vamp Archetype

Theda Bara became synonymous with the "vamp"—a femme fatale who enticed men to their downfall. This persona was a strategic move to differentiate her from other actresses and create a niche that appealed to early 20th-century audiences fascinated by themes of seduction and danger.

Theda Bara: “She did not die in 1922, but in 1919, her contract with Fox ended... She was very good at doing her public Persona.”
(38:32)

"A Fool There Was" and Public Reception

"Theda Bara's" debut film, "A Fool There Was," based on Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Vampire," showcased her captivating performance as a manipulative woman who drains men of their vitality. The film was a commercial success, earning millions and solidifying Theda Bara's status as a major star.

Tracy V. Wilson: “...the studio had been working on ways to turn Theta into a sensation, but now all the eggs had to be in one basket.”
(19:39)

Critics lauded her performance, with reviews highlighting her ability to portray complex emotions and her striking screen presence.

Tracy V. Wilson: “The film was called Bold and Relentless by the New York Dramatic Mirror.”
(36:45)

However, not all feedback was positive. Some audience members struggled to separate her on-screen persona from her real-life character, leading to misconceptions about her personal morals and actions.

Theda Bara's Legacy and Later Career

Theda Bara starred in over 40 films in a span of four years, defining the vamp role and embedding it into cinematic lore. Her performances in films like "Salome," "Cleopatra," and "Sin, the Serpent, and Destruction" further cemented her image as a symbol of seductive power. The term "vamp" itself entered the lexicon, largely thanks to her portrayal.

Tracy V. Wilson: “The first known use of a noun describing such a woman was in 1918... she was really not an outlier in the least.”
(28:27)

Despite her significant impact on early cinema, Theda Bara's theatrical aspirations remained unfulfilled. Her attempt to return to the stage with "The Blue Flame" in 1920 received harsh criticism, which, coupled with the decline of her vamp persona's popularity, led to a gradual withdrawal from acting.

In 1921, Theda Bara married director Charles Braben, choosing a more private and stable personal life away from the relentless spotlight of Hollywood. Their marriage remained largely out of the public eye, in stark contrast to her tumultuous ascent to fame.

Retirement and Death

After retiring from acting, Theda Bara lived a relatively quiet life, traveling and spending time with her family. She passed away on April 7, 1955, from stomach cancer, leaving behind a legacy as one of cinema's earliest and most enigmatic stars.

Tracy V. Wilson: “She was financially stable her entire life after her fame sort of tapered out. She seemed to love her husband and they seemed genuinely pretty happy together.”
(44:16)

Conclusion

Theda Bara's story is a testament to the power of image crafting and the early influence of public relations in shaping celebrity culture. While much of her enduring fame stems from the artificial persona created by Fox Film Studio, it is undeniable that her talent and charisma played pivotal roles in her lasting legacy. Theda Bara not only captivated audiences of her time but also set the standard for the archetypal Hollywood vamp, influencing generations of actresses and the portrayal of women in cinema.

Tracy V. Wilson: “She intrigued them. She scared them. She enthralled them... She's a fun one.”
(45:20)

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Notable Quotes:

• Tracy V. Wilson: “She was actually pretty tame... so today I thought it would be interesting to look at how this early film celebrity was basically created through careful planning by a PR team.”
  (03:35)

• Theda Bara: “I feel like my true self with you. Does that sound crazy?”
  (02:01)

• Theda Bara: “The vampire that I play is the vengeance of my sex upon its exploiters. You see, I have the face of the vampire, but the heart of a feminist.”
  (37:06)

• Tracy V. Wilson: “Theda starred in 40 films over the next four years, which is incredible to me.”
  (38:32)

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Final Thoughts:
Theda Bara's blend of genuine talent and strategic image management made her a pioneering figure in Hollywood's golden age. Her ability to embody the vamp persona while maintaining a private and stable personal life underscores the complexities of early celebrity culture. Theda Bara remains a compelling study of how image and reality intertwine in the making of a star.

Transcript

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[Theda Bara]

I've never felt like this before.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

It's like you just get me. I feel like my true self with you. Does that sound crazy?

[Theda Bara]

And it doesn't hurt that you're gorgeous. Okay, that's it. I'm taking you home with me.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

I mean you can't find shoes this good just anywhere.

[Theda Bara]

Find a shoe for every you from.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Brands you love like Birkenstock Nike, Adidas and more at your DSW store or dsw. Happy Saturday. On Unearthed this week, we talked about some graffiti that might be a depiction of Theda Berra. If you thought while listening to Unearthed. Who's that? And what does the word vamp have to do with it? Today's Saturday classic will solve that mystery.

[Theda Bara]

This Originally came out May 4, 2022. Enjoy. Welcome to Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And I'm Tracy V. Wilson.

[Theda Bara]

Today we are going to talk about someone I love in history, which is Theda Bara, who is often referenced as the first sex symbol or the first celebrity to have an entire Persona crafted by a PR team. Photos of her are pretty synonymous with the word vamp. I know Tracy mentioned to me that she didn't have instant name recognition, but the second she saw a picture, she's like, oh, that person.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Oh, that person. Yep.

[Theda Bara]

And a hundred years later, pictures of her still have a certain mysterious appeal. But she was a very different person, I think, than most people might know. And it always cracks me up a little when people kind of model their look after her and I'm like, yeah, but, you know, she was actually pretty tame. So today I thought it would be interesting to look at how this early film celebrity was basically created through careful planning by a PR team and how the real woman was a whole lot different from that faux Persona that they made up.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, to start with, totally different name. She was born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July 29, 1885. Her parents were Bernard Goodman and Pauline Louise Francoise de Coppet. Bernard was originally from Horsela, Poland, and worked as a tailor. Pauline's father was French. Her mother was German. Although she had been born and grew up in Switzerland and worked as a wig maker. Bernard and Pauline got married in 1882, and Theodosia was their first child. Then in 1888, they had a son named Mark. And then in 1897, Bernard and Pauline had another daughter named Esther, who would eventually go by Laurie. Theodosia was named after Aaron Burr's daughter, who we have an episode on.

[Theda Bara]

Yeah, she's some versions of her name. You'll see Burr as a middle name, and I never was able to verify whether that was true or maybe a little confused when people noted that she was named for Theodosia Burr.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Auto completed that middle name.

[Theda Bara]

Right. Her childhood, though, was a pretty comfortable one. The Goodmans lived in an affluent neighborhood, and Theodosia Mark and Laurie were all quite close. They had two women who worked for them as house staff named Anna Tusenig and Ida de Berth. And Theodosia loved to read, and she would often opt to do that over any other activity. But she was not a quiet, bookish child because she could also be a handful. She frequently pilfered her mother's closet to create elaborate dress up ensembles. And she was prone to getting all dressed up in those and then running away from home. She was so likely to run off when she was still quite small that her parents had to have a new tall fence specially installed around their yard.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

As she grew up, Theodosia's love for dress up evolved into a desire to stage tableau that was a popular parlor entertainment at the time. She would recreate scene after scene and perform recitations to go with these scenes. It was no surprise this led her to want to get involved in acting. Soon she was staging her own productions in a neighbor's barn. She continued to act as she grew into her teenage years. She read everything she could about the actors of the day. She was really focused on this. I find this very charming as somebody who put on plays in the basement of the family home.

[Theda Bara]

Oh, yeah. Oh, I conned teachers into letting me do full blown, like multi act puppet shows in elementary school. So it's interesting because she was obsessed with the idea of actors and acting at a time when like stage actors were really the thing. But there was some transition going on to film. And she apparently read like every article she could about everything they did in their day to day lives. Like, she was that kid that was like, could tell you everything that like any given actor of the day liked to eat, liked to wear, like, oh, wow. Yeah, she was that kid. Theodosia, who was known to her friends largely as Theo, attended Walnut Hills High school starting in 1899, worked on the school paper, and she joined the drama club. And she was known always for her ambition to go into acting as a career. After graduating high school in 1903, she attended University of Cincinnati for two years. But at that point she was starting to feel frustrated. Glee Club, which she was a part of, did not offer her the theatrical outlet that she really longed for. And she frankly wanted more than she felt like Cincinnati had to offer. So in 1905, at the age of 20, Theo decided to pursue a career on the stage. In that effort, she moved to New York City. And her father was reportedly not pleased with any of this.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Once she got to New York, Theodosia changed her last Name from Goodman to her mother's maiden name of decoupe. She would later riff off of this name. She would change out the vowels, try out different variations. We know that she lived in Greenwich Village in an apartment just off Washington Square, but beyond that we don't know a whole lot in terms of the specifics of her first couple of years of New York. The first play she's documented as having been cast in was a 1908 summer production of the Devil. She was a minor character in that one. After that, there's another gap. And then she was part of the second string touring company for a musical called the Quaker Girl. She was paid $25 a week initially, although after some pretty bad reviews, her salary was reduced to $18 a week. And then she left the troupe.

[Theda Bara]

Those reviews were quite scathing things about how really abysmal her French accent was and how even like a 5 year old wouldn't be confused or convinced they were mean. Theo continued to pursue acting and she kept taking parts in touring companies, but that was not at all to her liking. Life on the road, the tight quarters shared with other performers and the decidedly non luxurious accommodations were things that she would later describe as, quote, unpleasant associations. This was just not the acting career she had envisioned. She left a touring company that was running a farce called Just like John in 1912, and at that point she went back to New York. Her mother, Pauline, and her teenage sister Lori soon joined her there. And just as she was feeling her most frustrated and dejected over what seemed like a career that would never happen, another bad thing happened, which is that the apartment she shared with her mother and sister had a fire. And it basically was unlivable. It burned out. They were able to get by thanks to insurance money. But there was this very real concern kind of looming over the whole thing that Theodosia's dreams were just not going to work out.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In late 1914, Theo was approached by a man who asked her if she might want to try being in movies. The man who approached her was Frank Powell. Powell hailed from Ontario, Canada, and had become an actor himself before transitioning into the director's chair. He had worked for Pathe Pictures before Fox lured him away from them. And it was just before he started at Fox that he saw Theo and saw something in her that he thought might be great for film. There's no record of the specific place where the two of them had this first conversation.

[Theda Bara]

This was of course, a time when the movie industry was in its infancy, but it already had some established Stars like Mary Pickford. A career in film was not really something Theodosia had been pursuing. According to her later accounts of being discovered, she saw herself as a stage actress. She wanted Broadway and she was not particularly interested in jumping into the still fairly new medium of moving pictures. But at the same time, she had to acknowledge that her theater career was not exactly going gangbusters.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She was also 30, so she was starting to hit the point where she was seen as too old for most of the lead roles that she wanted. Additionally, she was curvy and that figure had fallen out of favor. People were looking more for longer, leaner physique. So she gambled and she took Fred Powell at his word on this.

[Theda Bara]

Yes, I want to talk about her as a curvy person in our behind the scenes. Yeah, because I really think she looks quite thin in most of her pictures. But the first project that Frank Powell put Theo in was actually a film called the Stain, which he made while he was still finishing up his contract at Pathe. Theodosia was cast in just a tiny role. This was really her screen test. Powell made sure that she was positioned near the camera so that he could see how she played on screen and he was very pleased. After that, William Fox, the head of the studio, also reviewed the footage and liked it and so sat down with Theo for an interview. Both men thought that she was right for a very unusual and difficult to cast role they were working on. And they offered her a five year contract at the studio at a rate of $100 per week. Theo negotiated that up to $150 per week before she signed. And that is how an unknown landed a leading role in the upcoming project called A Fool There was for Fox Film Company.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The studio though, also knew this was a gamble. Theodosia's co star in the picture was Edward Jose, who was a famous Broadway actor at the time. So casting this complete newcomer to film that William Fox, who was the head of Fox Films, was concerned about. So the solution was to construct this really alluring Persona for her.

[Theda Bara]

And her name had been the first to go. She was going by Theodosia de Coppey or Decopitt, or as we said, many other variations she tried out. None of them were really zinging. So after considering her nicknames of Theo and Teddy, which her family members also sometimes called her, they landed at another nickname, Theta, and decided that was the one. And then for the last name, they wanted something far easier than any of the variations on Decoupet or Decap. And her maternal grandfather had been named Francois Beranger and that last name was shortened to Barra. As a quick aside, you'll see different versions of how this played out, how much of it was her idea versus the studios, which studio executives get credit for which pieces, which. But I'm calling it a group effort because there are so many different versions.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So once her name was figured out and rendered on that Fox contract, it was time to get to work. And we will talk about that after a quick Sponsor Breaking News T Mobile.

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[Theda Bara]

Autumn of 1914, with the contract for Theda Berra in place, filming for A Fool There Was could finally get underway. The picture was shot in part on location on the Florida coast at St. Augustine, and right out of the gate there were some interesting problems. The cast and crew for the film were sent down to the location along the Atlantic coast on a steamer that was a German steamer, it was called the Essen. And because World War I was freshly underway, this raised some concern. They also were not flying a US flag, which apparently was part of the problem. The British Navy stopped them and things got more tricky because Theta's co star Edward Joseph, answered questions that had been posed to him in German by also speaking German. He was fluent and that was just the natural way to do it. But this made the British utterly convinced that they had trapped a boat full perhaps of spies or other operatives. And it took a lot of frantic explaining and finally a cable from the studio to get things smoothed over just so they could get to the shooting.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Location even once they were on location and filming started. None of this project was the glamorous scenario that Theda had envisioned. There was a huge crowd of onlookers that had come to see a movie being made at the pier where she shot her first scene. The early makeup for film was not something that looked good in real life. So she felt like she was being gawked at while also not feeling pretty at all. The whole thing was harrowing. Barra later said of the moment, quote, the whole world seemed to have turned into human eyes. I trembled, I shook. I all but died right there on the dock. She also had to wear a bathing suit in the film. And she was so mortified by that that she almost quit. She didn't need to be worried, though. Even though she wore this bathing suit for the shot, there were objections from the censors and that led to that scene being cut out.

[Theda Bara]

Yeah, that was a time where there were places you could still get arrested for wearing a bathing suit because it was seen as obscene. The entire transition into film acting was really incredibly stressful for Theda. She did not get to rehear. And a lot of the earliest scenes she shot are kind of extra pantomime y because, of course, these are all silent. You can watch the film online easily enough and see for yourself.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Even after filming, there was more work and more than Theda Bara had expected. As the film was being edited, Edward Jose got in a contract dispute with Fox and he left the studio and refused to do any promotion. For A Fool, there was so suddenly this total newcomer was the only person they had to promote the film as one of its leads. The studio had already been working on ways to turn Theta into a sensation, but now all the eggs had to be in one basket.

[Theda Bara]

So the studio created a whole biography of her. They had actually been working on it while filming was going on, and the story they ended up with was a doozy. And it was completely captivating to kinda everyone, but for various reasons. But they also didn't know if this was gonna work at first was such an outlandish tale, and it was so overboard in so many ways, as you are going to see, because we'll walk you through it, that there was concern that no one would buy it. It was just too sensational. So the PR department put together a press conference that was really a big stunt.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So the framing of this bogus event was that it was for the first run of press before the premiere of A Fool, there was. The studio was going to have an event in Chicago and invite a select group of reporters. The team turned a hotel meeting room into an Egyptian fantasy just to set the stage for the introduction of Theda Bara to the world. Al Selig and John Goldfrap worked for the studio as its public relations team and While mingling with the assembled reporters, they talked about how Bara was the toast of Paris and what a find she was and how excited they were to be debuting her talent in the US Again.

[Theda Bara]

She had never even been to Paris. According to their story, which was presented to members of the press before the introduction of Fox's new thrilling talent, her mother was a French actress named Theta Delise, and her father, Giuseppe Barra, was a sculptor from Italy. To give Theodosia's new Persona an entirely new level of exoticism, she was born, quote, in the shadow of the pyramids. This happened after her mother had met her father while touring in Egypt. Even the fake parent meet cute was sort of needlessly, in my opinion, dramatic. According to it, Delis had found the sculptor wandering and lost in the sands of Egypt, disoriented and having abandoned everything he had as he wandered the desert, Giuseppe was saved by Delis and they fell in love. And they lived in a tent near the Sphinx.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

So if this sounds ridiculous, brace yourselves, because this story went even further. There was a foolish account of Theda's early life in the desert with dialogue written as though it had been captured by the actor wistfully remembering her childhood, describing their tent home as, quote, like the Garden of Eden, she described how her mother had taught her about acting while her father had educated her in art. And after describing this early, totally fictional homeschooling, she would end with, quote, and through the instruction of both, I learned the symphony of the soul. When Theda was still a child, according to the story, her parents moved from Egypt to Paris.

[Theda Bara]

And just for clarity, this is not her saying these things. These are press people claiming these quotes were from her. It was all very ridiculous. According to the studio story, Barra performed with all of the noteworthy theatrical companies of Paris, including with actor Jane Hodding at the Grand Guignol, which we have an entire episode on the Gymnase and the theatre. Antoine Selig and Goldfrapp just gushed to the attending members of the press that Theda had this massive following in Paris and that she had been discovered there by Frank Powell.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Since this press event took place In January of 1915, it offered the Fox PR team an opportunity to use the events of World War I to further elaborate on Barra's arrival in the United States when Germany had declared war on Russia, France and Belgium in August of 1914. Powell had quickly moved to escape Paris, and he took this newly discovered talent.

[Theda Bara]

With him after all of this incredibly thrilling exposition to explain to reporters just who exactly they were about to meet. This velvet curtain was opened, and there sat the enthralling Theda Barra making her debut to the world. She was seated on a chaise lounge that was covered in tiger skins, and her incredibly pale skin and jet black hair made her look like she came from another country or culture, but also a little bit otherworldly in a more mystical sense, Right in line with this vampiric character she was playing. In A fool, there was.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Although this was a presser, there was no Q A session. Theda Barra gave a series of statements for reporters to quote. And these statements were very, very well worded, more than one might anticipate from an actor who had only just moved to the United States and supposedly didn't grow up speaking English. That did not seem to trouble the attendees, though. Theta said things like, quote, I hope I have succeeded in depicting the complex emotions of this woman as vividly as they have appealed to me.

[Theda Bara]

Ah, but there was this whole double angle being played by Selig and Goldfrap in all of this. Once Theta had given all of these statements, the press conference ended and the room was cleared. However, one carefully selected reporter was allowed to stay, like, just under the guise of like, they didn't rush her out. And that was Louella Parsons, who, of course, would go on to become a very famous Hollywood gossip columnist. But that day, when she was still a cub reporter, they kind of picked her because she was green, and she got to witness Theda Bara whipping off all of the heavy velvets and furs and veils that she had been wearing as part of this act and running to a window to throw it open and dropping the accent she had been using throughout the presser as she groaned, give me air.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

This is a genius move on the part of fox's PR team. Selig and Goldfrap knew that a lot of the old school reporters in the room would never buy this whole yarn they had spun regarding Bara's backstory. Some reporters even recognized her as Theodosia de Coppet from her days in the theater, but simultaneously ensuring that world would get out that this was all an act. They kept Theta's name in the papers. Some papers ran straight stories that relayed the outlandish details they'd been told that day as though they were fact, While others mocked the papers that did that. And yet others wrote pieces pondering what the truth really was. So she became a celebrity before anyone even saw her film.

[Theda Bara]

So smart, so manipulative, but so smart. As an aside, this type of revising and rewriting of a person's life to create essentially a new character that they played as their public Persona was actually pretty common. It was a very successful way to drum up public interest in stars and consequently to drive box office numbers up. But it was also done, obviously with zero consideration or awareness of things like cultural appropriation. We mentioned earlier that this was really a play on, like this penchant for exoticism that people had where they really were not thinking about cultures as anything, but kind of things they could pick and choose from as points of interest. And just as Theda Barra was allegedly a blend of French and Arab characteristics as plucked not from reality but from the imaginations of studio executives, a lot of other actors had that same transformation. For example, Josephine M. Workman, a young woman from California, was rechristened as Princess Mona Darkfeather by Bison Motion Pictures, while Workman's paternal grandmother was Taos Pueblo. It does not appear that any real cultural connection was ever integrated into that fictional Persona of Darkfeather, although Workman became the go to choice when a film needed to fill Native American roles for women. This is just one example, but there are so many similar stories in early film history. So while Theda Barra was one of the biggest stars to have such a transformation, she was really not an outlier in the least.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The title card for Barra's debut film reads, William Fox presents A Fool There was a psychological drama by Porter Emerson Brown. And then the next card features a poem that reads, A fool there was, and he made his prayer even as you and I To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair. We called her the woman who did not care, but the fool he called her his lady fair Even as you and I.

[Theda Bara]

So though the author is not mentioned, that poem is the opening of a piece also called the Vampire, which was written by Rudyard Kipling. It was quite famous at the time. And that poem was written to accompany a painting that had been made by Kipling's cousin, Philip Burne Jones, which was also called the Vampire. The painting, which was inspired by Bram Stoker's Dracula, shows a dark haired woman sitting on the edge of a bed, leaning over a man who appears unconscious with his limbs splayed out. And that painting led to the poem and then led to a play and a book by Porter Emerson Brown, and then to the screenplay.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

And the cast is introduced one by one in the opening credits at a pace that most modern viewers would find almost confusingly slow. I know I've Watched a couple of very old films lately where I've been like, man, this is taking so long.

[Theda Bara]

Yes. It's like they introduce the fool and Jose's character, and then it's like a full minute and a half of his character on a boat waving. And it seems a little pokey by our usual editing today.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah. So Ms. Theda Barra is introduced as the vampire in her first shot, the one that was so challenging for her to film. She's wearing a striking outfit consisting of a black blouse and a dramatic striped skirt and an angled hat. She's paler than anyone else in the film.

[Theda Bara]

But though her character is called the vampire, and based on that description that Tracy just gave, it might seem that she was being portrayed as an actual vampire. And though her victim goes just as mad as Renfield, this is not an actual vampire tale. Rather, it is the story of a woman who is so powerfully attractive and so void of compassion or morality that she drains men dry before moving on to the next. To illustrate just how cold her character is. In one scene, a former lover she has recently left shows up where she is and dies by suicide in front of her. That actual death is not shown on screen. The film cuts abruptly, and then it's followed by a scene where two men are discussing how the woman laughed demonically when this young man took his life.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

The main plot of the film features a character who's a lawyer and a diplomat who is known both as the fool and by his character's name, John Schuyler, who's a good family man until he's lured away by the vampire who steals him from his family. In a calculated scheme, Skyler is chosen to be envoy to Great Britain, and his wife was set to go with him until her sister became ill in an accident. So this successful man was now traveling alone. When the vampire reads of this important trip being undertaken by an important man, she arranges to sail on the same ship. And that's where she draws him in. So the audience doesn't actually see anything especially sexual here. Although for a time there's some flirting that was probably borderline scandalous at the time. Instead, after the two of them meet, the film jumps forward two months in time to see them living as a couple in Europe.

[Theda Bara]

And the plot plays out from there, with Skyler's dutiful wife learning of this affair and Skyler very visibly losing his vitality and losing everything in his life, his job, his family, etc. Unable to tear himself away from the vampire, he is shown drinking more and more heavily until he is barely recognizable as the man from the beginning of the 65 minute picture. Theda is cool and glamorous throughout the picture, even as she does progressively uglier and uglier things, and her large eyes were rimmed with a halo of coal and this was a look that became her trademark throughout her career. And for all of this, she was dressed exquisitely.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

We'll talk about the public and critical reception to the film and Theda after we hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed in history class going.

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[Theda Bara]

This episode brought to you by T. Rowe Price It's a quickly changing world, and when it comes to investing, every day brings new questions. The way to truly confident investing? Well, that road is paved with curiosity. That's why at T. Rowe Price, relentlessly curious they don't settle for fast answers, especially when it comes to your retirement. Because yesterday's answers may not be the ones you need today to secure a successful retirement tomorrow. So how much is enough? What if you don't want to stop working or even switch gears and take on Chapter two? These questions just scratch the surface. The possibilities and the unexpected of what your future could hold are endless. Find out more on their podcast Confident Conversations on Retirement, where they dig deep with questions that will get you to the answers you're looking for so you can feel confident investing in your future. T. Rowe Price Confident Conversations on Retirement Podcast. Find it on your favorite podcast platform or visit t roweprice.com podcast when a Fool There Was was released Least audiences loved Theda Barra. She intrigued them. She scared them. She enthralled them, it seems, just as her character the vampire had enthralled John Schuyler. And critics were also very enthusiastic about this newcomer. The film was called Bold and Relentless by the New York Dramatic Mirror, and the New York Morning Telegraph wrote of Theda Barra that she had created, quote, the most revolting but fascinating character that has appeared upon the screen for some time. Another paper touted ahead of its run of the film, quote, it is said that her seductive beauty gives to the role a realism that is powerful to the extreme.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

She already had a degree of celebrity in the weeks leading up to the film's release, but once it was out, she was undeniably famous. The film also saved Fox Film Studio, which went from hosting a debt at the end of fiscal year 1914 to to making several million dollars in 1915 and then clearing the year with more than half a million after expenses.

[Theda Bara]

Not everyone, we should point out, loved this new style of screen star. And there were definitely some complaints to the National Board of Censorship about this powerful woman who was using sexuality as a weapon. There were also complaints about some of her very revealing costumes in subsequent pictures. That's something that seems a little bit funny given how trepidatious she was to wear a bathing suit in her first film. If you go looking for photos of her online, there are some that are incredibly revealing. And then there were also people who just could not really separate film from reality and believed she was actually a professional homewrecker that had just, you know, been using her natural abilities to be caught on film rather than being a very good actress. And after she received a letter to that effect from one viewer, she wrote back that if she were that type of woman, she would not have to work as an actor. She also told the press, quote, the vampire that I play is the vengeance of my sex upon its exploiters. You see, I have the face of the vampire, but the heart of a feminist.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Theda starred in 40 films over the next four years, which is incredible to me. This included Salome, Cleopatra, Sin, the Serpent and Destruction, among many others. Her specialty became the so called vamp role, which was a woman who would lead men to their ruin. That's still how the word is used today. And it was really Theta Bara who gave rise to that use. The first known use of a noun describing such a woman was in 1918. So that just was right in line with Barra's career.

[Theda Bara]

The PR team at Fox continued to feed stories about her to the press. To maintain the mystique of the character of Theda Bara, for example, they planted a story that her name was an anagram for the words Arab death. This kind of sensationalism sometimes clashed with her real life, which was actually quite stable and pretty conventional. As her fortunes had improved, her brother Mark moved to New York to live with Theda, Laurie and their mother Pauline. Their father Bernard stayed behind in Cincinnati to keep the Taylor business going. But the problem here was that the studio couldn't have press do any interviews at Theda's apartment. It was not nearly dramatic enough. No one, they thought, wanted to see the devil woman of the screen surrounded by her loving, close knit family in a tastefully decorated apartment in Los Angeles. Though the studio arrived for her to have a house on West Adams Boulevard which was decorated in a style to match her concocted Persona. She allegedly hated that house and sold it as soon as she could.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Yeah, she was no fool though, and she played the part when she gave interviews. When a reporter visited the set of Carmen during filming, Barra allegedly went full bore in a scene that involved a fight with another actress, causing a nurse to have to attend to the co star. It's not clear if this conflict was staged for the press. The reporter asked questions about Barra's past and the actor replied, quote, I live under the shadow of a tragedy. I want to Forget it. And I want the world I once knew to forget it. That is the reason I wish Theda Barra to be unknown save for her pictures. Having learned every chick in the book from Fox pr, she told the same reporter, quote, it is predicted I shall die in 1922.

[Theda Bara]

She was very good at doing her. Her public Persona. She did not die in 1922, but in 1919, her contract with Fox ended, and amid rumors that negotiations were going quite poorly, the decision was made that it would not be renewed. You will see that reported as her decision or their decision. Probably both. She did take a role in a stage play in 1920 called the Blue Flame, which opened on Broadway in March of that year. But that play was very, very hokey, and it had flopped. Reviews of her performance were brutal. Critic Lewis Reed wrote that her performance was, quote, not really worth 15 minutes of time and said the play was the most terrible play within the memory of the writer. This play was not a comedy. But people started going just to laugh at it, which felt terrible for everyone involved. Theda never managed to have the theatrical career that she had always dreamed of.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

In 1921, Theda married English director Charles Braben. In secret, they did not even publicly acknowledge the marriage. For months, they went to Canada for their honeymoon. They fell in love with Nova Scotia, and later on they bought land there. Theda had been in the middle of a vaudeville tour when the two of them snuck away for the wedding, and then she did not sign up for another one.

[Theda Bara]

Charles and Theta did not always mesh when it came to their careers. Charles did not think that Theta should keep working, and he also hated attending public events with her. But they did seem to have a pretty good understanding of one another, and they respected one another's needs and their established careers. Often they would spend weeks at a time apart as one or the other traveled or worked, and then they would come back together and live quite happily. And that was a system that seemed to work really, really well for their dynamic.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

After the honeymoon, Theda was ready to get back to work. But she had a hard time finding roles without a studio contract. And with the heyday of her vamp Persona having passed in favor of more conventional screen stars, Mara just couldn't get a gig. Finally, after several false starts on other projects, she made the unchastened woman in 1925. But the comedy drama about married life didn't do very well. In 1926, Theda made her last film, which was Madame Mystery. This was a short directed by Richard Wallace and Stan Laurel. Theda Was actually quite good at comedy, it turned out, and producer Hal Roach wanted her for more in a series. But Charles didn't like Theda doing these films and she didn't like it when she saw it, so that was that. With the contract canceled, Theda was officially retired from acting. Although she did a couple of radio plays in the 1930s.

[Theda Bara]

You can still find Madame Mystery to watch online and see for yourself. She's got pretty good comedic timing. It's kind of a pity to me that she didn't like it because I. I can only assume after having done a bunch of dramatic stuff, it just didn't feel right for her to see herself doing silly things. But she's quite good. You can also find a fool There was online easy to watch. However, beyond that, you're going to run into some problems because most of her films are lost. That's due to a fire at the Fox film vault in 1937.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Compared to most celebrities of her time, Theda's private life was pretty uneventful. She never had any affair scandals, never any public mishaps where she drank too much and did something embarrassing. She didn't blow all of her fortune. She was financially stable her entire life after her fame sort of tapered out. She seemed to love her husband and they seemed genuinely pretty happy together, even though others found their periods of separation unconventional. After her retirement, she did as she pleased. She traveled sometimes with Charles, sometimes with her mother and her siblings.

[Theda Bara]

Yeah, there's not a lot of info about her retirement life because she was just kind of chill. And then she passed. On April 7, 1955, she died of stomach cancer. Charles died two years later.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

To sum up the incredibly powerful allure of Theda Barra and nod to how much of it really was just great acting skill, Holly wanted to close with a quote from Louella Parsons, which she wrote in late 1915, when Theda's fame was really cemented.

[Theda Bara]

Her hair is like the serpent's locks of Medusa. Her eyes have the cruel cunning of Lucretia Borgia, till now held up as the world's wickedest woman. Her mouth is the mouth of the sinister, scheming Delilah and her hands are those of the blood bathing Elizabeth Bathory, who slaughtered young girls that she might bathe in their lifeblood and so retain her beauty. Can it be that fate has reincarnated in Theda Bara the souls of these monsters of medieval times? Scientists have questioned this most extraordinary of women to secure fresh evidence to support their half proved laws of transmigration of souls, but the result has only been to prove that though Ms. Barra is greatest delineator of evil types on the stage or screen today, she is in real life, a sweet, wholesome woman who detests the abnormal. I love that quote so much. When I stumbled across it, I was like, there's no way. This isn't how this episode lands. It's a great way to sum up exactly what was going on there, because people did call her the wickedest woman alive and the studio of course wanted to keep all of that going. She's a fun one.

[Tracy V. Wilson]

Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out of the archive, if you heard an email address or a Facebook URL or something similar over the course of the show, that could be obsolete now. Our current email address is historypodcastradio.com you can find us all over social media M and you can subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite show.

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[Theda Bara]

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