Her impact can be seen everywhere in modern pop culture, but people donʻt realize theyʻre referencing her. This article is one step toward raising her memory from the ghosts of Hollywoodʻs past.
Right? Can you imagine if we could host Theda Bara marathons at our local movie houses? I would be there for every minute of it, despite my disability!
I'd be happy to just get a chance to see the animated short where Mutt & Jeff "met" her. I scrounged around for more info on that, I get the sense that the cartoon characters never actually shared the frame with her, like in the Disney Alice silent shorts. But I can't find any info...
Fascinating read through. Thank you for providing all the old articles - old newspapers and magazines had so much style to them, and the stories are interesting as well.
When researching a different actor who also skyrocketed to fame around that time, I came across a newspaper article from June 10, 1916, including an interview by Miss Bara about her thoughts on the Vampire and her look. I thought you'd find it interesting, so I'll link it here.
And additionally, this blurb from the Daily Telegram, West Virginia, June 8, 1916, for her film Sapho (causing so much interest that the local theater extended the showing to TWO days):
The attraction again today at the Robinson Grand will be Theda Bara in the late William Fox release, “Sapho.” The theater has held some very large crowds since it started pictures, but never in the history of the house has the crowd been quite so large as the one which attended last night; in fact the police were called upon to aid the management to hold the enormous crowd back.
Thanks so much! I aim to keep updating and reposting these deep dives, and will definitely work this Wash Times piece in the next rev! Old newspapers are such an amazing rabbit hole to disappear down...
She was the first true Hollywood sex goddess, and should not be forgotten.
Her impact can be seen everywhere in modern pop culture, but people donʻt realize theyʻre referencing her. This article is one step toward raising her memory from the ghosts of Hollywoodʻs past.
If only her films had survived...
Right? Can you imagine if we could host Theda Bara marathons at our local movie houses? I would be there for every minute of it, despite my disability!
Disney would own her films now (seeing as she was a Fox star), and I’m not sure what they would make of the association…
I'd be happy to just get a chance to see the animated short where Mutt & Jeff "met" her. I scrounged around for more info on that, I get the sense that the cartoon characters never actually shared the frame with her, like in the Disney Alice silent shorts. But I can't find any info...
Fascinating read through. Thank you for providing all the old articles - old newspapers and magazines had so much style to them, and the stories are interesting as well.
When researching a different actor who also skyrocketed to fame around that time, I came across a newspaper article from June 10, 1916, including an interview by Miss Bara about her thoughts on the Vampire and her look. I thought you'd find it interesting, so I'll link it here.
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ndnp/dlc/batch_dlc_frontier_ver01/data/sn84026749/00280764334/1916061001/0831.pdf
And additionally, this blurb from the Daily Telegram, West Virginia, June 8, 1916, for her film Sapho (causing so much interest that the local theater extended the showing to TWO days):
The attraction again today at the Robinson Grand will be Theda Bara in the late William Fox release, “Sapho.” The theater has held some very large crowds since it started pictures, but never in the history of the house has the crowd been quite so large as the one which attended last night; in fact the police were called upon to aid the management to hold the enormous crowd back.
Thanks so much! I aim to keep updating and reposting these deep dives, and will definitely work this Wash Times piece in the next rev! Old newspapers are such an amazing rabbit hole to disappear down...
OMG!!!!
Great post on Theda Bara, a truly unique character and personality for Hollywood at the time. What an icon!