Theda Bara is not a name familiar to most in the 21st Century but had you been around in the 1920s her name was inescapable particularly if you were a fan of the movies.
Theda Bara was a movie star in every sense of the word. She was a scandal, a sensation and one of the most bankable stars of the silent era.
Her 1915 starring role in 'A Fool There Was' is regarded as the first Vampire movie which, technically, is true given that it is the first movie to credit a cast member as 'The Vampire'. What is beyond argument is that Theda Bara defined the term 'Vamp' and personified that archetype at least during the silent film era.
Her 1915 starring role in 'A Fool There Was' is regarded as the first Vampire movie which, technically, is true given that it is the first movie to credit a cast member as 'The Vampire'. What is beyond argument is that Theda Bara defined the term 'Vamp' and personified that archetype at least during the silent film era.
Trailblazing she certainly was and smoking hot too.
Add to that the infancy of the movie industry and the pushing of the limits by the movie industry in the years prior to the introduction of the Hayes Code and those Theda Bara films that have survived show why she scandalised middle America and why she was one of the biggest stars of her time second only to Chalie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.
Bara was the original movie sex symbol followed by the press wherever she went and causing near riots when she made personal appearances.
Add to that the infancy of the movie industry and the pushing of the limits by the movie industry in the years prior to the introduction of the Hayes Code and those Theda Bara films that have survived show why she scandalised middle America and why she was one of the biggest stars of her time second only to Chalie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.
Sadly only a handful of her more than 40 movies survive but her legacy lives on in every seductress and femme fatale in movies made subsequently.
Also, is it just me or does the Princess Leia Slave Bikini the subject of so much fandom, pop culture references and cosplay attention bear more than a passing resemblance to Theda Bara's costume in Cleopatra?
The movie industry, women, the men who are inspired by them and movie fans everywhere owe Theda Bara a lasting debt of thanks.
Also, is it just me or does the Princess Leia Slave Bikini the subject of so much fandom, pop culture references and cosplay attention bear more than a passing resemblance to Theda Bara's costume in Cleopatra?
The movie industry, women, the men who are inspired by them and movie fans everywhere owe Theda Bara a lasting debt of thanks.
Theda Bara died of stomach cancer in 1955 aged 69.
Theda Bara, how do we love thee let us count the ways.
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