Mariemont Theatre sells out for Theda Bara tribute
Only three of the actress's 40 films remain after a 1937 fire, making Saturday's screening a rare look at her surviving work.
By Hugo Khalil ·
The Mariemont Theatre in Cincinnati is fully booked for a special program on October 24 that honors silent-film actress Theda Bara. The event will screen two of the only three surviving prints from her career, a collection reduced by a 1937 fire at Fox Studios that destroyed the majority of her work.
Bara, born Theodosia Goodman in 1885 in the Avondale neighborhood, rose to fame between 1914 and 1919. During that five-year span, she produced 40 films, including The Stain and A Fool There Was. Studios marketed her as a seductive "vamp" with a fictional backstory as an Arab princess, but Bara described herself as a Jewish girl from Cincinnati. She attended Walnut Hills High School and the University of Cincinnati before moving to New York.
Nadya Ellerhorst, the producer of the event, called Bara a fascinating local figure. Ellerhorst also directed Theda Bara's Memoirs, an eight-minute documentary that will open the evening. The film draws on a 450-page unpublished biography held in the University of Cincinnati Archives and Rare Book Library. Since debuting in May 2025, the documentary has garnered 50,000 views on YouTube.
The program will also feature a live panel discussion. Participants include Dr. Jennifer Glaser, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati; Brian Powers, a historian with the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library; and Ellerhorst. The event includes a costume contest, timed one week before Halloween.
Bara's film career largely ended in 1919 before her 35th birthday, though she returned for two roles in 1925 and 1926. She married director Charles Brabin in 1921. Xavier University later acquired her former home at Victory Parkway and Ledgewood Drive in 1979, using it for its Honors College until demolishing the Spanish-style structure in 2011.
Bara died of abdominal cancer in Los Angeles in 1955 at age 69. Those who missed the sold-out screening can watch Theda Bara's Memoirs online following its broadcast on local public television channels.
Source: WVXU Cincinnati Public Radio
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