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Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. On Unearthed.

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Speaker 2: This week we talked about some graffiti that might be

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Speaker 2: a depiction of Theta Barra if you thought while listening

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Speaker 2: to Unearthed, who's that and what does the word vamp

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Speaker 2: have to do with it? Today's Saturday Classic, we'll solve

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Speaker 2: that mystery. This originally came out May fourth, twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 2: Enjoy Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a

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Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 2: Holly Fryne and I'm Tracy V.

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Speaker 1: Wilson.

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Speaker 2: Today we are going to talk about someone I love

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Speaker 2: in history, which is Theda Bara, who is often referenced

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Speaker 2: as the first sex symbol or the first celebrity to

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Speaker 2: have an entire persona crafted by a PR team. Photos

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Speaker 2: of her are pretty synonymous with the word vamp. I know.

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Speaker 2: Tracy mentioned to me that she didn't have any name recognition,

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Speaker 2: but the second she saw a picture, she's like, oh that's.

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Speaker 1: Oh that person yep.

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Speaker 2: And one hundred years later, pictures of her still have

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Speaker 2: a certain mysterious appeal. But she was a very different person,

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Speaker 2: I think than most people might know. And it always

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Speaker 2: cracks me up a little when people kind of model

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Speaker 2: their look after her, and I'm like, yeah, but you know,

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Speaker 2: she was actually pretty tame. So today I thought it

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Speaker 2: would be interesting to look at how this early film

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Speaker 2: celebrity was basically created through careful planning by a PR team,

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Speaker 2: and how the real woman was a whole lot different

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Speaker 2: from that faux persona that they made up. Yeah, to

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Speaker 2: start with totally different name. She was born Theodosia Goodman

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Speaker 2: in Cincinnati, Ohio, on July twenty ninth, eighteen eighty five.

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Speaker 2: Her parents were Bernard Goodman and Pauline Louis friends was

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Speaker 2: Dick Cope. Bernard was originally from Jorsela, Poland and worked

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Speaker 2: as a tailor. Pauline's father was French. Her mother was German,

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Speaker 2: although she had been born and grew up in Switzerland

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Speaker 2: and worked as a wig maker. Bernard and Pauline got

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Speaker 2: married in eighteen eighty two, and Theodosia was their first child.

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Speaker 2: Then in eighteen eighty eight they had a son named Mark,

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Speaker 2: and then in eighteen ninety seven, Bernard and Pauline had

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Speaker 2: another daughter named Esther, who would eventually go by Laurie.

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Speaker 2: Theodosia was named after Aaron Burr's daughter, who we have

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Speaker 2: an episode on. Yeah, she's some versions of her name.

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Speaker 2: You'll see Burr as a middle name, and I never

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Speaker 2: was able to verify whether that was true or maybe

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Speaker 2: a little confused when people noted that she was named

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Speaker 2: for Theodosia, br Auto completed that middle name right. Her childhood, though,

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Speaker 2: was a pretty comfortable one. The good Men's lived in

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Speaker 2: an affluent neighborhood, and Theodosia, Mark, and Laurie were all

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Speaker 2: quite close. They had two women who worked for them

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Speaker 2: as house staff named Anna Tusenig and Ida day Birth

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Speaker 2: and Theodosia loved to read, and she would often opt

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Speaker 2: to do that over any other activity. But she was

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Speaker 2: not a quiet, bookish child, because she could also be

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Speaker 2: a handful. She frequently pilfered her mother's closet to create

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Speaker 2: elaborate dress up ensembles, and she was prone to getting

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Speaker 2: all dressed up in those and then running away from home.

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Speaker 2: She was so likely to run off when she was

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Speaker 2: still quite small that her parents had to have a

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Speaker 2: new tall fence specially installed around their yard. As she

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Speaker 2: grew up, Theodosia's love for dress up evolved into a

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Speaker 2: desire to stage tableau and that was a popular parlor

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Speaker 2: entertainment at the time. She would recreate scene after scene

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Speaker 2: and perform recitations to go with these scenes there with

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Speaker 2: no surprise. This led her to want to get involved

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Speaker 2: in acting. Soon she was staging her own productions in

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Speaker 2: a neighbor's barn. She continued to act as she grew

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Speaker 2: into her teenage years. She read everything she could about

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Speaker 2: the actors of the day. She was really focused on this.

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Speaker 2: I find this very charming as somebody who put on

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Speaker 2: plays in the basement of the family home. Oh yeah,

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Speaker 2: oh icnned teachers into letting me do full blown, like

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Speaker 2: multi act puppet shows in elementary school. So it's interesting

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Speaker 2: because she was obsessed with the idea of actors and

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Speaker 2: acting at a time when, like stage actors were really

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Speaker 2: the thing, but there was some transition going on to film,

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Speaker 2: and she apparently read like every article she could about

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Speaker 2: everything they did in their day to day lives. Like

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Speaker 2: she was that kid that was like could tell you

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Speaker 2: everything that like any given actor of the day, like

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Speaker 2: to eat, like to wear.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, Yeah, she was that kid.

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Speaker 2: Theodosia, who was known to her friends largely as Theo,

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Speaker 2: attended Walnut Hills high school. Starting in eighteen ninety nine,

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Speaker 2: she worked on the school paper, and she joined the

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Speaker 2: drama club, and she was known always for her ambition

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Speaker 2: to go into acting as a career. After graduating high

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Speaker 2: school in nineteen oh three, she attended University of Cincinnati

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Speaker 2: for two years, but at that point she was starting

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Speaker 2: to feel frustrated glee club, which she was a part of,

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Speaker 2: did not offer her the theatrical outlet that she really

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Speaker 2: longed for. She frankly wanted more than she felt like

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Speaker 2: Cincinnati had to offer, So in nineteen oh five, the

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Speaker 2: age of twenty, Theo decided to pursue a career on

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Speaker 2: the stage. In that effort, she moved to New York City,

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Speaker 2: and her father was reportedly not pleased with any of this.

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Speaker 2: Once she got to New York, Theodosa changed her last

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Speaker 2: name from Goodman to her mother's maiden name of de Coppet.

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Speaker 2: She would later riff off of this name. She would

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Speaker 2: change out the vowels, try out different variations. We know

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Speaker 2: that she lived in Greenwich Village in an apartment just

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Speaker 2: off Washington Square, but beyond that we don't know a

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Speaker 2: whole lot in terms of the specifics of her first

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Speaker 2: couple of years of New York. The first play she's

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Speaker 2: documented as having been cast in was the nineteen oh

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Speaker 2: eight summer production of The Devil. She was a minor

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Speaker 2: character in that one. After that, There's another Gap, and

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Speaker 2: then she was part of the second string touring company

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Speaker 2: for a musical called The Quaker Girl. She was paid

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Speaker 2: twenty five dollars a week initially, although after some pretty

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Speaker 2: bad reviews her salary was reduced to eighteen dollars a week,

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Speaker 2: and then she left the troop. Those reviews were quite scathing,

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Speaker 2: things about how really abysmal her French accent was, and

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Speaker 2: how even like a five year old wouldn't be confused

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Speaker 2: or convinced they were mean. Theo continued to pursue acting,

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Speaker 2: and she kept taking parts in touring companies, but that

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Speaker 2: was not at all to her liking life on the road.

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Speaker 2: The tight quarters shared with other performers and the decidedly

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Speaker 2: non luxurious accommodations were things that she would later describe

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Speaker 2: as quote unpleasant associations. This was just not the acting

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Speaker 2: career she had envisioned. She left a touring company that

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Speaker 2: was running a farce called Us Like John in nineteen

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Speaker 2: twelve and At that point, she went back to New York.

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Speaker 2: Her mother, Pauline, and her teenage sister Laurie soon joined

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Speaker 2: her there. And just as she was feeling her most

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Speaker 2: frustrated and dejected over what seemed like a career that

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Speaker 2: would never happen, another bad thing happened, which is at

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Speaker 2: the apartment she shared with her mother and sister had

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Speaker 2: a fire and it basically was unlivable. It burned out.

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Speaker 2: They were able to get by thanks to insurance money,

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Speaker 2: but there was this very real concern kind of looming

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Speaker 2: over the whole thing that Theodosia's dreams were just not

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Speaker 2: going to work out. In late nineteen fourteen, Theo was

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Speaker 2: approached by a man who asked her if she might

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Speaker 2: want to try being in movies. The man who approached

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Speaker 2: her was Frank Powell. Powell hailed from Ontario, Canada, and

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Speaker 2: had become an actor himself before transitioning into the director's chair.

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Speaker 2: He had worked for Pathay Pictures before Fox lured him

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Speaker 2: away from them, and it was just before he started

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Speaker 2: at Fox that he saw Theo and saw something in

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Speaker 2: her that he thought might be great for film. There's

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Speaker 2: no record of the specific place where the two of

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Speaker 2: them had this first conversation. This was, of course a

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Speaker 2: time when the movie industry was in its infancy, but

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Speaker 2: it already had some established stars like Mary Pickford. A

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Speaker 2: career in film was not really something Theodosia had been pursuing.

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Speaker 2: According to her later accounts of being discovered, she saw

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Speaker 2: herself as a stage actress. She wanted Broadway, and she

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Speaker 2: was not particularly interested in jumping into the still fairly

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Speaker 2: new medium of moving pictures. But at the same time

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Speaker 2: she had to acknowledge that her theater career was not

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Speaker 2: exactly going gangbusters. She was also thirty, so she was

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Speaker 2: starting to hit the point where she was seen as

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Speaker 2: too old for most of the lead roles that she wanted. Initially,

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Speaker 2: she was curvy, and that figure had fallen out of favor.

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Speaker 2: People were looking more for longer, leaner physique. So she gambled,

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Speaker 2: and she took Fred Powell at his word on this. Yes,

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Speaker 2: I want to talk about her as a curvy person

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Speaker 2: in our behind the scenes. Yeah, because I really think

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Speaker 2: she looks quite thin in most of her pictures.

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Speaker 1: But yeah.

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Speaker 2: The first project that Frank Powell put Theo in was

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Speaker 2: actually a film called The Stain, which he made while

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Speaker 2: he was still finishing up his contract at Patha. Theodosha

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Speaker 2: was cast in just a tiny role. This was really

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Speaker 2: her screen test. Powell made sure that she was positioned

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Speaker 2: near the camera so that he could see how she

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Speaker 2: played on screen, and he was very pleased after that.

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Speaker 2: William Fox, the head of the studio, also reviewed the

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Speaker 2: footage and liked it, and so sat down with THEO

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Speaker 2: for an interview. Both men thought that she was right

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Speaker 2: for a very unusual and difficult to cast role they

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Speaker 2: were working on, and they offered her a five year

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Speaker 2: contract at the studio at a rate of one hundred

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Speaker 2: dollars per week. THEO negotiated that up to one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty dollars per week before she signed, and that

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Speaker 2: is how an unknown landed a leading role in the

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Speaker 2: upcoming project called A Fool There Was for Fox Film Company.

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Speaker 2: The studio, though also knew this was a gamble. Theodosia's

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Speaker 2: co star in the picture was Edward Jose who was

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Speaker 2: a famous Broadway actor at the time, so casting this

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Speaker 2: complete newcomer to film was something that William Fox, who

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Speaker 2: was the head of Fox Films, was concerned about. So

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Speaker 2: the solution was to construct this really alluring persona for her,

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Speaker 2: and her name had been the first to go. She

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Speaker 2: was going by Theodosia de cape or to cop It

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Speaker 2: or as we said, many other variations she tried out.

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Speaker 2: None of them were really zinging, So after considering her

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Speaker 2: nicknames of Theo and Teddy, which her family members also

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Speaker 2: sometimes called her, they landed another nickname, Theta, and decided

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Speaker 2: that was the one. And then for the last name,

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Speaker 2: they wanted something far easier than any of the on

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Speaker 2: Dakopit or Decape, and her maternal grandfather had been named

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Speaker 2: Francois Berngais, and that last name was shortened to Bearra.

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Speaker 2: As a quick aside, you'll see different versions of how

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Speaker 2: this played out, how much of it was her idea

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Speaker 2: versus the studios, which studio executives kept credit for which pieces,

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Speaker 2: But I'm calling it a group effort because there are

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Speaker 2: so many different versions. So once her name was figured

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Speaker 2: out and rendered on that Fox contract, it was time

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Speaker 2: to get to work, and we will talk about that.

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Speaker 2: After a quick sponsor break in the autumn of nineteen fourteen,

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Speaker 2: with the contract for Theta Bea in place, filming for

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Speaker 2: a fool, there was could finally get under way. The

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Speaker 2: picture was shot in part on location on the Florida

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Speaker 2: coast at Saint Augustine, and right out of the gate

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Speaker 2: there were some interesting problems. The cast and crew for

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Speaker 2: the film were sent down to the location along the

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Speaker 2: Atlantic coast on a steamer that was a German steamer.

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Speaker 2: It was called the Essen, and because World War One

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Speaker 2: was freshly underway, this raised some concern. They also were

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Speaker 2: not flying a US flag, which apparently was part of

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Speaker 2: the problem. The British Navy stopped them, and things got

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Speaker 2: more tricky because Theda's co star, Edward jose answered questions

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Speaker 2: that had been posed to him in German by also

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Speaker 2: speaking German. He was fluent and that was just the

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Speaker 2: natural way to do it. But this made the British

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Speaker 2: utterly convinced that they had trapped a boatful, perhaps of

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Speaker 2: spies or other operatives, and it took a lot of

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Speaker 2: frantic explaining and finally a cable from the studio to

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Speaker 2: get things smoothed over just so they could get to

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Speaker 2: the shooting location. Even once they were on location and

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Speaker 2: filming started, none of this project was the glamorous scenario

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Speaker 2: that Theda had envisioned. There was a huge crowd of

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Speaker 2: onlookers that had come to see a movie being made

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Speaker 2: the pier where she shot her first scene. The early

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Speaker 2: makeup for film was not something that looked good in

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Speaker 2: real life, so she felt like she was being gawked

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Speaker 2: at while also not feeling pretty at all. The whole

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Speaker 2: thing was harrowing. Barra later said of the moment, quote,

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Speaker 2: the whole world seemed to have turned into human eyes.

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Speaker 2: I trembled, I shook, I all but died right there

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Speaker 2: on the dock. She also had to wear a bathing

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Speaker 2: suit in the film, and she was so mortified by

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Speaker 2: that that she almost quit.

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Speaker 1: She didn't need to be worried, though.

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Speaker 2: Even though she wore this bathing suit for the shot,

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Speaker 2: there were objections from the censors and that led to

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Speaker 2: that scene being cut out. Yeah, that was a time

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Speaker 2: where there were places you could still get arrested for

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Speaker 2: wearing a bathing suit because it was seen as obscene.

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Speaker 2: The entire transition into film acting was really incredibly stressful

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Speaker 2: for Theda. She did not get to rehearse, and a

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Speaker 2: lot of the earliest scenes she shot are kind of

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Speaker 2: extra pantomimey because of course these are all silent. You

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Speaker 2: can watch the film online easily enough and see for yourself.

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Speaker 2: Even after filming, there was more work and more than

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Speaker 2: Theda Bara had expected. As the film was being edited,

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00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:16,200
Speaker 2: Edward Jose got in a contract dispute with Fox, and

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Speaker 2: he left the studio and refused to do any promotion

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Speaker 2: For a fool there was so suddenly this total newcomer

250
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Speaker 2: was the only person they had to promote the film

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Speaker 2: as one of its leads. The studio had already been

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Speaker 2: working on ways to turn Theda into a sensation, but.

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Speaker 1: Now all the eggs had to be in one.

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Speaker 2: Basket, So the studio created a whole biography of her. Uh.

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Speaker 2: They had actually been working on it while filming was

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Speaker 2: going on, and the story they ended up with was

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00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:52,840
Speaker 2: a doozy and it was completely captivating to kind of

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Speaker 2: everyone but for various reasons. But they also didn't know

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Speaker 2: if this was gonna work. At first. This was such

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Speaker 2: an outlandish tape and it was so overboard in so

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00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:04,440
Speaker 2: many ways as you were going to see because we'll

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00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:06,920
Speaker 2: walk you through it, that there was concern that no

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Speaker 2: one would buy it. It was just too sensational. So

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Speaker 2: the PR department put together a press conference that was

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Speaker 2: really a big stunt. So the framing of this bogus

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Speaker 2: event was that it was for the first run of

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Speaker 2: press before the premiere of a fool there was the

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Speaker 2: studio is going to have an event in Chicago and

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Speaker 2: invite a select group of reporters. The team turned a

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Speaker 2: hotel meeting room into an Egyptian fantasy just to set

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Speaker 2: the stage for the introduction of Theta.

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Speaker 1: Bara to the world.

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Speaker 2: Al Sellig and John Goldfrapp worked for the studio as

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Speaker 2: its public relations team, and while mingling with the assembled reporters,

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Speaker 2: they talked about how Borrow was the toast of Paris

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Speaker 2: and what a fine she was, and how excited they

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Speaker 2: were to be debuting her talent in the US. Again,

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Speaker 2: she had never even been to Paris. According to their story,

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Speaker 2: which was presented to members of the press before the

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Speaker 2: introduction of Fox's new thrilling talent, her mother was a

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Speaker 2: French actress named Theta Delize, and her father, Giuseppe Bara,

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Speaker 2: was a sculptor from Italy. To give Theodosia's new persona

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00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:21,440
Speaker 2: an entirely new level of exoticism, she was born quote

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Speaker 2: in the shadow of the Pyramids, This happened after her

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00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,200
Speaker 2: mother had met her father while touring in Egypt. Even

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00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,440
Speaker 2: the fake parent meet cute was sort of needlessly, in

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00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:36,160
Speaker 2: my opinion, dramatic. According to it, Delize had found the

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00:16:36,200 --> 00:16:40,200
Speaker 2: sculptor wandering and lost in the sands of Egypt, disoriented

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Speaker 2: and having abandoned everything he had as he wandered the desert.

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Speaker 2: Giuseppe was saved by Delze, and they fell in love,

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Speaker 2: and they lived in a tent near the Sphinx.

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Speaker 1: So if this sounds.

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Speaker 2: Ridiculous, brace yourselves, because this story went even further. There

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00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,880
Speaker 2: was a foolish account of Theda's early life in the desert,

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Speaker 2: with dialogue written as though it had been captured by

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00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:10,320
Speaker 2: the actor. Wistfully remembering her childhood, describing their tent home

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Speaker 2: as quote like the garden of Eden, she described how

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Speaker 2: her mother had taught her about acting, while her father

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00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:20,880
Speaker 2: had educated her in art, and after describing this early,

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Speaker 2: totally fictional homeschooling, she would end with quote and through

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Speaker 2: the instruction of both, I learned the symphony of the soul.

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00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:32,960
Speaker 2: When Theda was still a child. According to this story,

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Speaker 2: her parents moved from Egypt to Paris, and just for clarity,

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Speaker 2: This is not her saying these things. These are press

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00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:44,080
Speaker 2: people claiming these quotes were from her. It was all

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00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:48,800
Speaker 2: very ridiculous. According to the studio story, Bara performed with

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00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:53,159
Speaker 2: all of the noteworthy theatrical companies of Paris, including with

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Speaker 2: actor Jane Hadding at the Grand Guignot, which we have

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00:17:56,160 --> 00:18:00,960
Speaker 2: an entire episode on the gymnase and the te Flenttoine

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00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,600
Speaker 2: Cellig and Goldfrap just gushed to the attending members of

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00:18:04,640 --> 00:18:08,280
Speaker 2: the press that Theda had this massive following in Paris

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Speaker 2: and that she had been discovered there by Frank Powell.

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Speaker 2: Since this press event took place in January of nineteen fifteen,

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00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:19,520
Speaker 2: it offered the Fox pr team an opportunity to use

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00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:23,080
Speaker 2: the events of World War One to further elaborate on

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00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:27,520
Speaker 2: Bara's arrival in the United States. When Germany had declared

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00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:31,400
Speaker 2: war on Russia, France, and Belgium in August of nineteen fourteen,

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Speaker 2: Powell had quickly moved to escape Paris, and he took

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Speaker 2: this newly discovered talent with him. After all of this

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Speaker 2: incredibly thrilling exposition to explain to reporters just who exactly

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Speaker 2: they were about to meet this velvet curtain was opened,

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Speaker 2: and there sat the enthralling Theda Bara, making her debut

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Speaker 2: to the world. She was seated on a chaise lounge

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Speaker 2: that was covered in tiger skins, and her incredibly pale

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00:18:59,320 --> 00:19:01,720
Speaker 2: skin and jet black hair made her look like she

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00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:05,399
Speaker 2: came from another country or culture, but also a little

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00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:09,080
Speaker 2: bit otherworldly in a more mystical sense, right in line

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Speaker 2: with this vampiric character she was playing. In a fool

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Speaker 2: there was. Although this was a presser, there was no

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00:19:15,720 --> 00:19:18,480
Speaker 2: Q and a session. Theda Bara gave a series of

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Speaker 2: statements for reporters to quote, and these statements were very,

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Speaker 2: very well worded, more than one might anticipate from an

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Speaker 2: actor who had only just moved to the United States

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00:19:29,880 --> 00:19:33,800
Speaker 2: and supposedly didn't grow up speaking English. That did not

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00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:37,919
Speaker 2: seem to trouble the attendees, though Theda said things like, quote,

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00:19:38,320 --> 00:19:41,480
Speaker 2: I hope I have succeeded in depicting the complex emotions

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00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:44,920
Speaker 2: of this woman as vividly as they have appealed to me.

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Speaker 1: Ah.

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00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:49,080
Speaker 2: But there was this whole double angle being played by

340
00:19:49,160 --> 00:19:52,840
Speaker 2: Sellig and Goldfrap in all of this. Once Theda had

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00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,080
Speaker 2: given all of these statements, the press conference ended and

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00:19:56,119 --> 00:20:00,720
Speaker 2: the room was cleared. However, one carefully selected reporter was

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00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:04,000
Speaker 2: allowed to stay like just under the guise of like,

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00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:06,960
Speaker 2: they didn't rush her out, and that was Luella Parsons, who,

345
00:20:06,960 --> 00:20:09,359
Speaker 2: of course would go on to become a very famous

346
00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:13,120
Speaker 2: Hollywood gossip columnist. But that day, when she was still

347
00:20:13,119 --> 00:20:15,800
Speaker 2: a CUB reporter, they kind of picked her because she

348
00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:19,560
Speaker 2: was green, and she got to witness Theda Bara whipping

349
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Speaker 2: off all of the heavy velvets and furs and veils

350
00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:24,120
Speaker 2: that she had been wearing as part of this act

351
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Speaker 2: and running to a window to throw it open, and

352
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Speaker 2: dropping the accent she had been using throughout the presser

353
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Speaker 2: as she groaned.

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Speaker 1: Give me air.

355
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Speaker 2: This is a genius move on the part of Box's

356
00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:40,240
Speaker 2: pr team. Seleig and Goldfrap knew that a lot of

357
00:20:40,240 --> 00:20:42,879
Speaker 2: the old school reporters in the room would never buy

358
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Speaker 2: this whole yarn they had spun regarding Bara's backstory. Some

359
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:52,200
Speaker 2: reporters even recognized her as Theodosia to cop it from

360
00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 2: her days in the theater. But simultaneously ensuring that world

361
00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:58,959
Speaker 2: would get out that this was all an act, they

362
00:20:59,080 --> 00:21:03,399
Speaker 2: kept Theda's name in the papers. Some papers ran straight

363
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,960
Speaker 2: stories that relayed the outlandish details they'd been told that

364
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:10,080
Speaker 2: day as though they were fact, while others mocked the

365
00:21:10,080 --> 00:21:14,119
Speaker 2: papers that did that, and yet others wrote pieces pondering

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00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:17,320
Speaker 2: what the truth really was. So she became a celebrity

367
00:21:17,359 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 2: before anyone even saw her film. So smart, So manipulative,

368
00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:25,959
Speaker 2: but so smart. As an aside, this type of revising

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00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:29,240
Speaker 2: and rewriting of a person's life to create essentially a

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00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,520
Speaker 2: new character that they played as their public persona was

371
00:21:32,560 --> 00:21:36,159
Speaker 2: actually pretty common. It was a very successful way to

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00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,800
Speaker 2: drum up public interest in stars and consequently to drive

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Speaker 2: box office numbers up. But it was also done obviously

374
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Speaker 2: with zero consideration or awareness of things like cultural appropriation.

375
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:50,879
Speaker 2: We mentioned earlier that this was really a play on

376
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:54,320
Speaker 2: like this penchant for exoticism that people had, where they

377
00:21:54,400 --> 00:21:58,160
Speaker 2: really were not thinking about cultures as anything but kind

378
00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:00,720
Speaker 2: of things they could pick and choose from as of interest.

379
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:04,400
Speaker 2: And just as Theda Bara was allegedly a blend of

380
00:22:04,720 --> 00:22:08,760
Speaker 2: French and Arab characteristics as plucked not from reality but

381
00:22:08,840 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 2: from the imaginations of studio executives, a lot of other

382
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:17,479
Speaker 2: actors had that same transformation. For example, Josephine M. Workman,

383
00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:21,200
Speaker 2: a young woman from California, was re christened as Princess

384
00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:26,280
Speaker 2: Mona Darkfeather by Bison Motion Pictures. While Workman's paternal grandmother

385
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:29,840
Speaker 2: was Taus Pueblo, it does not appear that any real

386
00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:34,000
Speaker 2: cultural connection was ever integrated into that fictional persona of

387
00:22:34,119 --> 00:22:38,000
Speaker 2: Dark Feather, Although Workman became the go to choice when

388
00:22:38,040 --> 00:22:40,760
Speaker 2: a film needed to fill Native American roles for women.

389
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 2: This is just one example, but there are so many

390
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:48,000
Speaker 2: similar stories in early film history. So while Theda Bara

391
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:50,840
Speaker 2: was one of the biggest stars to have such a transformation,

392
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:54,400
Speaker 2: she was really not an outlier in the least. The

393
00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:59,680
Speaker 2: title card for Bara's debut film reads, William Fox presents

394
00:22:59,720 --> 00:23:03,919
Speaker 2: a fo There was a psychological drama by Porter Emerson Brown.

395
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,520
Speaker 2: And then the next card features a poem that reads,

396
00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:11,480
Speaker 2: a fool there was, and he made his prayer even

397
00:23:11,520 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 2: as you and I to a rag and a bone

398
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,760
Speaker 2: and a hank of hair. We called her the woman

399
00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:19,520
Speaker 2: who did not care, but the fool. He called her

400
00:23:19,960 --> 00:23:23,880
Speaker 2: his lady fair, even as you and I. So though

401
00:23:23,880 --> 00:23:26,560
Speaker 2: the author is not mentioned, that poem is the opening

402
00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 2: of a piece also called The Vampire, which was written

403
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:32,240
Speaker 2: by Rudyard Kipling. It was quite famous at the time,

404
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,080
Speaker 2: and that poem was written to a company a painting

405
00:23:35,440 --> 00:23:38,360
Speaker 2: that had been made by Kipling's cousin, Philip Burne Jones,

406
00:23:38,400 --> 00:23:41,879
Speaker 2: which was also called The Vampire. The painting, which was

407
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,560
Speaker 2: inspired by bram Stoker's Dracula, shows a dark haired woman

408
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,239
Speaker 2: sitting on the edge of a bed, leaning over a

409
00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:52,000
Speaker 2: man who appears unconscious with his limbs splayed out, and

410
00:23:52,080 --> 00:23:54,800
Speaker 2: that painting led to the poem, and then led to

411
00:23:54,880 --> 00:23:58,240
Speaker 2: a play and a book by Porter Emerson Brown, and

412
00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:01,840
Speaker 2: then to the screenplay, and the cast is introduced one

413
00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:04,679
Speaker 2: by one in the opening credits at a pace that

414
00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 2: most modern viewers would find almost confusingly slow. I know,

415
00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:14,040
Speaker 2: I've watched a couple of very old films lately where

416
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:18,760
Speaker 2: I've been like, man, this is taking so long. Yes,

417
00:24:18,840 --> 00:24:23,760
Speaker 2: it's like, uh, they introduced the fool in Jose's character,

418
00:24:24,040 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 2: and then it's like a full minute and a half

419
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,280
Speaker 2: of like his character like on a boat waving. Yeah,

420
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:33,199
Speaker 2: seems a little a little pokey by our usual editing today.

421
00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: Yeah.

422
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:38,520
Speaker 2: So miss Theda Bara is introduced as the vampire in

423
00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:41,000
Speaker 2: her first shot, the one that was so challenging for

424
00:24:41,040 --> 00:24:44,359
Speaker 2: her to film. She's wearing a striking outfit consisting of

425
00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:47,400
Speaker 2: a black blouse and a dramatic striped skirt and an

426
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:51,520
Speaker 2: angled hat. She's paler than anyone else in the film.

427
00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 2: But though her character is called the Vampire, and based

428
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:58,720
Speaker 2: on that description that Tracy just gave, it might seem

429
00:24:58,800 --> 00:25:02,120
Speaker 2: that she was being portrayed as an actual vampire. And

430
00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 2: though her victim goes just as mad as Renfield, this

431
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 2: is not an actual vampire tale. Rather, it is the

432
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:13,840
Speaker 2: story of a woman who is so powerfully attractive and

433
00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:18,000
Speaker 2: so void of compassion or morality that she drains men

434
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 2: dry before moving on to the next To illustrate just

435
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,399
Speaker 2: how cold her character is, in one scene, a former

436
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:28,840
Speaker 2: lover she has recently left shows up where she is

437
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:32,280
Speaker 2: and dies by suicide in front of her. That actual

438
00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:35,600
Speaker 2: death is not shown on screen. The film cuts abruptly,

439
00:25:35,720 --> 00:25:39,080
Speaker 2: and then it's followed by a scene where two men

440
00:25:39,119 --> 00:25:42,600
Speaker 2: are discussing how the woman laughed demonically when this young

441
00:25:42,640 --> 00:25:45,600
Speaker 2: man took his life. The main plot of the film

442
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,720
Speaker 2: features a character who's a lawyer and a diplomat who

443
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:51,960
Speaker 2: has known both as the Fool and by his character's

444
00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:55,760
Speaker 2: name John Skuyler, who's a good family man until he's

445
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,800
Speaker 2: lured away by the vampire, who steals him from his

446
00:25:58,920 --> 00:26:03,320
Speaker 2: family in a calculated scheme. Skyler has chosen to be

447
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,760
Speaker 2: envoy to Great Britain, and his wife was set to

448
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 2: go with him until her sister became ill in an accident,

449
00:26:10,680 --> 00:26:14,760
Speaker 2: so this successful man was now traveling alone. When the

450
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,479
Speaker 2: vampire reads at this important trip being undertaken by an

451
00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 2: important man, she arranges to sail on the same ship,

452
00:26:22,200 --> 00:26:25,600
Speaker 2: and that's where she draws him in. So the audience

453
00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:30,000
Speaker 2: doesn't actually see anything especially sexual here, although for a

454
00:26:30,040 --> 00:26:34,399
Speaker 2: time there's some flirting that was probably borderline scandalous at

455
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:37,720
Speaker 2: the time. Instead, after the two of them meet, the

456
00:26:37,760 --> 00:26:40,880
Speaker 2: film jumps forward two months in time to see them

457
00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 2: living as a couple in Europe, and the plot plays

458
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 2: out from there, with Skuyler's dutiful wife learning of this

459
00:26:47,119 --> 00:26:52,400
Speaker 2: affair and Skyler very visibly losing his vitality and losing

460
00:26:52,520 --> 00:26:55,679
Speaker 2: everything in his life, his job, his family, et cetera.

461
00:26:56,320 --> 00:27:00,440
Speaker 2: Unable to tear himself away from the vampire, is shown

462
00:27:00,560 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 2: drinking more and more heavily until he is barely recognizable

463
00:27:04,359 --> 00:27:06,920
Speaker 2: as the man from the beginning of the sixty five

464
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 2: minute picture. Theda is cool and glamorous throughout the picture,

465
00:27:11,680 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 2: even as she does progressively uglier and uglier things. And

466
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:18,800
Speaker 2: her large eyes were rimmed with a halo of coal.

467
00:27:18,880 --> 00:27:21,880
Speaker 2: And this was a look that became her trademarks throughout

468
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:25,680
Speaker 2: her career. And for all of this she was dressed exquisitely.

469
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:28,919
Speaker 2: We'll talk about the public and critical reception to the

470
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:32,080
Speaker 2: film and Theda after we hear from the sponsors that

471
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:43,879
Speaker 2: keeps stuffy missed in history class going when a Fool

472
00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:50,240
Speaker 2: There was was released. Audiences loved Theda Bara. She intrigued them,

473
00:27:50,320 --> 00:27:54,040
Speaker 2: she scared them, She enthralled them. It seems just as

474
00:27:54,080 --> 00:27:58,360
Speaker 2: her character, the vampire had enthralled John Schuyler and critics

475
00:27:58,400 --> 00:28:02,800
Speaker 2: were also very enthusiastic about this newcomer. The film was

476
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 2: called bold and relentless by the New York Dramatic Mirror,

477
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:08,960
Speaker 2: and The New York Morning Telegraph wrote of Theda Bara

478
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,680
Speaker 2: that she had created quote the most revolting but fascinating

479
00:28:12,760 --> 00:28:15,560
Speaker 2: character that has appeared upon the screen for some time.

480
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,320
Speaker 2: Another paper touted, ahead of its run of the film,

481
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:22,600
Speaker 2: quote it is said that her seductive beauty gives to

482
00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:25,720
Speaker 2: the role a realism that is powerful to the extreme.

483
00:28:26,520 --> 00:28:29,399
Speaker 2: She already had a degree of celebrity in the weeks

484
00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 2: leading up to the film's release, but once it was out,

485
00:28:32,160 --> 00:28:37,480
Speaker 2: she was undeniably famous. The film also saved Fox Film Studio,

486
00:28:37,560 --> 00:28:39,880
Speaker 2: which went from hosting a debt at the end of

487
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:43,760
Speaker 2: fiscal year nineteen fourteen to making several million dollars in

488
00:28:43,880 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 2: nineteen fifteen and then clearing the year with more than

489
00:28:47,320 --> 00:28:51,600
Speaker 2: half a million after expenses. Not everyone, we should point out,

490
00:28:51,640 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 2: loved this new style of screen star, and there were

491
00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:57,920
Speaker 2: definitely some complaints to the National Board of Censorship about

492
00:28:57,920 --> 00:29:00,959
Speaker 2: this powerful woman who was using sexual as a weapon.

493
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 2: There were also complaints about some of her very revealing

494
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:08,120
Speaker 2: costumes and subsequent pictures. That's something that seems a little

495
00:29:08,120 --> 00:29:10,920
Speaker 2: bit funny, given how trepidacious she was to wear a

496
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:13,560
Speaker 2: bathing suit in her first film. If you go looking

497
00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,520
Speaker 2: for photos of her online, there are some that are

498
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:20,400
Speaker 2: incredibly revealing. And then there were also people who just

499
00:29:20,480 --> 00:29:24,239
Speaker 2: could not really separate film from reality and believed she

500
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 2: was actually a professional home wrecker that had just been

501
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:31,600
Speaker 2: using her natural abilities to be caught on film, rather

502
00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,440
Speaker 2: than being a very good actress, and after she received

503
00:29:34,440 --> 00:29:37,280
Speaker 2: a letter to that effect from one viewer, she wrote

504
00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:39,400
Speaker 2: back that if she were that type of woman, she

505
00:29:39,440 --> 00:29:42,120
Speaker 2: would not have to work as an actor. She also

506
00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:45,240
Speaker 2: told the press quote, the vampire that I play is

507
00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,840
Speaker 2: the vengeance of my sex upon its exploiters. You see,

508
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 2: I have the face of the vampire, but the heart

509
00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:55,560
Speaker 2: of a feminist. Theta starred in forty films over the

510
00:29:55,600 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 2: next four years, which is incredible to me. This included Salome, Cleopatra, Sin,

511
00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 2: the Serpent, and Destruction, among many others. Her specialty became

512
00:30:09,160 --> 00:30:11,640
Speaker 2: the so called vamp role, which was a woman who

513
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:14,240
Speaker 2: would lead men to their ruin. That's still how the

514
00:30:14,280 --> 00:30:17,520
Speaker 2: word is used today, and it was really Theda Bara

515
00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:21,040
Speaker 2: who gave rise to that use. The first known use

516
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 2: of a noun describing such a woman was in nineteen eighties,

517
00:30:24,040 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 2: so that just was right in line with Barra's career.

518
00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:31,640
Speaker 2: The pr team at Fox continued to feed stories about

519
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 2: her to the press to maintain the mystique of the

520
00:30:34,600 --> 00:30:38,120
Speaker 2: character of Theda Bara. For example, they planted a story

521
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 2: that her name was an anagram for the words Arab death.

522
00:30:42,600 --> 00:30:46,360
Speaker 2: This kind of sensationalism sometimes clashed with her real life,

523
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:50,520
Speaker 2: which was actually quite stable and pretty conventional. As her

524
00:30:50,560 --> 00:30:53,680
Speaker 2: fortunes had improved, her brother Mark moved to New York

525
00:30:53,760 --> 00:30:57,760
Speaker 2: to live with Theda Louri and their mother, Pauline. Their father, Bernard,

526
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,760
Speaker 2: stayed behind in Cincinnati to keep the tailor business going.

527
00:31:01,400 --> 00:31:04,080
Speaker 2: But the problem here was that the studio couldn't have

528
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:06,880
Speaker 2: pressed to any interviews at Theda's apartment. It was not

529
00:31:07,040 --> 00:31:10,440
Speaker 2: nearly dramatic enough. No one, they thought, wanted to see

530
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:13,200
Speaker 2: the devil woman of the screen surrounded by her loving,

531
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 2: close knit family in a tastefully decorated apartment in Los Angeles.

532
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:20,760
Speaker 2: Though the studio arrived for her to have a house

533
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 2: on West Adams Boulevard, which was decorated in a style

534
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,680
Speaker 2: to match her concocted persona. She allegedly hated that house

535
00:31:28,720 --> 00:31:30,960
Speaker 2: and sold it as soon as she could. Yeah, she

536
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:33,920
Speaker 2: was no fool, though, and she played the part when

537
00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,280
Speaker 2: she gave interviews. When a reporter visited the set of

538
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:41,200
Speaker 2: Carmen during filming, Bara allegedly went full bore in a

539
00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:45,000
Speaker 2: scene that involved a fight with another actress, causing a

540
00:31:45,160 --> 00:31:48,360
Speaker 2: nurse to have to attend to the co star it's

541
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:50,960
Speaker 2: not clear if this conflict was staged.

542
00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:51,240
Speaker 1: For the press.

543
00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 2: The reporter asked questions about Barra's past, and the actor replied, quote,

544
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:58,080
Speaker 2: I live under the shadow of a tragedy.

545
00:31:58,280 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: I want to.

546
00:31:58,800 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 2: Forget it, and I want the world I once knew

547
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:04,960
Speaker 2: to forget it. That is the reason I wished Theodebara

548
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:09,600
Speaker 2: to be unknown save for her pictures. Having learned Every

549
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 2: Chicken the Book from Fox pr she told the same reporter, quote,

550
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,520
Speaker 2: it is predicted I shall die in nineteen twenty two.

551
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:22,720
Speaker 2: She's very good at doing her her public persona. She

552
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:25,880
Speaker 2: did not die in nineteen twenty two, but in nineteen

553
00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 2: nineteen her contract with Fox ended, and the mid rumors

554
00:32:29,280 --> 00:32:32,920
Speaker 2: that negotiations were going quite poorly. The decision was made

555
00:32:33,160 --> 00:32:34,840
Speaker 2: that it would not be renewed. You will see that

556
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:39,360
Speaker 2: reported as her decision or their decision, probably both. She

557
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:41,719
Speaker 2: did take a role in a stage play in nineteen

558
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 2: twenty called The Blue Flame, which opened on Broadway in

559
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:47,920
Speaker 2: March of that year, but that play was very, very hokey,

560
00:32:48,160 --> 00:32:52,200
Speaker 2: and it had flopped. Reviews of her performance were brutal.

561
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:55,680
Speaker 2: Critic Lewis Reid wrote that her performance was quote not

562
00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 2: really worth fifteen minutes of time and said the play

563
00:32:59,040 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 2: was quote the most terrible play within the memory of

564
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:05,120
Speaker 2: the writer. This play was not a comedy, but people

565
00:33:05,160 --> 00:33:08,040
Speaker 2: started going just to laugh at it, which felt terrible

566
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 2: for everyone involved. Theda never managed to have the theatrical

567
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,440
Speaker 2: career that she had always dreamed of. In nineteen twenty one,

568
00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:20,520
Speaker 2: Theda married English director Charles Braven in secret. They did

569
00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:24,480
Speaker 2: not even publicly acknowledge the marriage for months. They went

570
00:33:24,520 --> 00:33:27,280
Speaker 2: to Canada for their honeymoon, they fell in love with

571
00:33:27,360 --> 00:33:31,320
Speaker 2: Nova Scotia, and later on they bought land there. Theta

572
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:33,320
Speaker 2: had been in the middle of a vaudeville tour when

573
00:33:33,360 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 2: the two of them snuck away for the wedding, and

574
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,600
Speaker 2: then she did not sign up for another one. Charles

575
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:40,960
Speaker 2: and Theta did not always mesh when it came to

576
00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,840
Speaker 2: their careers. Charles did not think that Theda should keep working,

577
00:33:44,960 --> 00:33:48,600
Speaker 2: and he also hated attending public events with her. But

578
00:33:48,680 --> 00:33:51,080
Speaker 2: they did seem to have a pretty good understanding of

579
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:53,880
Speaker 2: one another, and they respected one another's needs in their

580
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 2: established careers. Often they would spend weeks at a time

581
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 2: apart as one or the other raveled or worked, and

582
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 2: then they would come back together and live quite happily,

583
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 2: and that was a system that seemed to work really,

584
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:09,440
Speaker 2: really well for their dynamic. After the honeymoon, Thedo was

585
00:34:09,480 --> 00:34:11,359
Speaker 2: ready to get back to work, but she had a

586
00:34:11,360 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 2: hard time finding roles without a studio contract, and with

587
00:34:15,480 --> 00:34:18,960
Speaker 2: the heyday of her Vamp persona having passed in favor

588
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:23,640
Speaker 2: of more conventional screen stars, Mara just couldn't get a gig. Finally,

589
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 2: after several false starts on other projects, she made The

590
00:34:27,840 --> 00:34:32,200
Speaker 2: Unchastened Woman in nineteen twenty five, but the comedy drama

591
00:34:32,239 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 2: about married life didn't do very well. In nineteen twenty six,

592
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 2: Thea made her last film, which was Matdam Mystery. This

593
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,920
Speaker 2: was a short directed by Richard Wallace and Stan Laurel.

594
00:34:43,520 --> 00:34:46,479
Speaker 2: Thedo was actually quite good at comedy, it turned out,

595
00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 2: and producer Hal Roach wanted her for more in a series,

596
00:34:50,080 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 2: but Charles didn't like the to doing these films and

597
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:55,600
Speaker 2: she didn't like it when she saw it, So that

598
00:34:55,719 --> 00:34:59,920
Speaker 2: was that. With the contract canceled, Thedo was officially retired

599
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:02,880
Speaker 2: from acting, although she did a couple of radio plays

600
00:35:02,920 --> 00:35:06,960
Speaker 2: in the nineteen thirties. You can still find Madame Mystery

601
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,160
Speaker 2: to watch online and see for yourself. She's got pretty

602
00:35:10,160 --> 00:35:12,840
Speaker 2: good comedic timing. It's kind of a pity to me

603
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,680
Speaker 2: that she didn't like it, because I can only assume

604
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:18,960
Speaker 2: after having done a bunch of dramatic stuff, it just

605
00:35:19,040 --> 00:35:22,560
Speaker 2: didn't feel right for her to see herself doing silly things.

606
00:35:22,600 --> 00:35:23,600
Speaker 1: But she's quite good.

607
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 2: You can also find a fool there was online easy

608
00:35:27,080 --> 00:35:29,879
Speaker 2: to watch. However, beyond that, you're going to run into

609
00:35:29,880 --> 00:35:32,839
Speaker 2: some problems because most of her films are lost. That's

610
00:35:32,920 --> 00:35:34,880
Speaker 2: due to a fire at the Fox Film Vault in

611
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:38,800
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty seven. Compared to most celebrities of her time,

612
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:42,680
Speaker 2: Theda's private life was pretty uneventful. She never had any

613
00:35:42,719 --> 00:35:46,440
Speaker 2: affair scandals, never any public mishaps where she drank too

614
00:35:46,520 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 2: much and did something embarrassing.

615
00:35:48,280 --> 00:35:50,600
Speaker 1: She didn't blow all over fortune.

616
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 2: She was financially stable her entire life after her fame

617
00:35:54,680 --> 00:35:58,000
Speaker 2: sort of tapered out. She seemed to love her husband,

618
00:35:58,080 --> 00:36:01,520
Speaker 2: and they seemed genuinely pretty happy together, even though others

619
00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:06,160
Speaker 2: found their periods of separation unconventional. After her retirement, she

620
00:36:06,239 --> 00:36:09,680
Speaker 2: did as she pleased. She traveled sometimes with Charles, sometimes

621
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,239
Speaker 2: with her mother and her siblings. Yeah, there's not a

622
00:36:12,239 --> 00:36:15,840
Speaker 2: lot of info about her retirement life because she was

623
00:36:15,920 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 2: just kind of chill. And then she passed on April seventh,

624
00:36:20,480 --> 00:36:23,960
Speaker 2: nineteen fifty five. She died of stomach cancer. Charles died

625
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:27,880
Speaker 2: two years later. To sum up the incredibly powerful allure

626
00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 2: of Theda Bara and nod to how much of it

627
00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 2: really was just great acting skill, Holly wanted to close

628
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,640
Speaker 2: with a quote from Luella Parsons, which she wrote in

629
00:36:36,680 --> 00:36:41,279
Speaker 2: late nineteen fifteen, when Theda's fame was really cemented. Her

630
00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:44,920
Speaker 2: hair is like the serpent's locks of Medusa. Her eyes

631
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,040
Speaker 2: have the cruel cunning of Lucrezia Borgia, till now held

632
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:51,359
Speaker 2: up as the world's wickedest woman. Her mouth is the

633
00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:54,880
Speaker 2: mouth of the sinister, scheming Delilah, and her hands are

634
00:36:54,920 --> 00:36:58,600
Speaker 2: those of the blood bathing Elizabeth Bathory, who slaughtered young

635
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:00,960
Speaker 2: girls that she might bathe in them the lifeblood and

636
00:37:01,040 --> 00:37:04,799
Speaker 2: so retain her beauty. Can it be that fate has

637
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:08,320
Speaker 2: reincarnated in Theda Bara the souls of these monsters of

638
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:13,480
Speaker 2: medieval times? Scientists have questioned this most extraordinary of women

639
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:17,440
Speaker 2: to secure fresh evidence to support their half proved laws

640
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:21,799
Speaker 2: of transmigration of souls but the result has only been

641
00:37:21,800 --> 00:37:25,040
Speaker 2: to prove that though Miss Barrah is greatest delineator of

642
00:37:25,120 --> 00:37:28,279
Speaker 2: evil types on the stage or screen today, she is

643
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 2: in real life a sweet, wholesome woman who detests the abnormal.

644
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:36,239
Speaker 2: I love that quote so much. When I stumbled across it,

645
00:37:36,280 --> 00:37:38,239
Speaker 2: I was like, There's no way this isn't how this

646
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:43,040
Speaker 2: episode lands. It's a great way to sum up exactly

647
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:45,879
Speaker 2: what was going on there because people did call her

648
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Speaker 2: the wickedest woman alive, and the studio, of course, wanted

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Speaker 2: to keep all of that going. She's a fun one.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. Since

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Speaker 2: this episode is out of the archive, if you heard

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Speaker 2: an email address or a Facebook RL or something similar

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Speaker 2: over the course of the show, that could be obsolete now.

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Speaker 2: Our current email address is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

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Speaker 2: You can find us all over social media at missed Inhistory,

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Speaker 2: and you can subscribe to our show on Apple podcasts,

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Speaker 2: Google podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and wherever else you listen

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Speaker 2: to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class is a

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Speaker 2: production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the

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Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 2: favorite shows