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< back THEME: THEDA BARA Born Theodesia Goodman, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1885-1955 Theda Bara burst upon the scene as the implacable seductress — or "vamp" — in the 1915 Fox production, A Fool There Was. Publicists invented Bara's exotic background as well as her name. |
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"Always I have been a Charlatan," she wrote in 1919. "For years, my emotional display has been accredited to my Arab blood. Dark hair and eyes have been interpreted as positive proof that I was nursed on camel's milk in a chief's tent." In fact, Bara was the daughter of a Polish Jew who immigrated to Cincinnati and became a small-scale clothing manufacturer. As an actress she embodied the foreign, "oriental," sybaritic aspect of early motion pictures; some of these films suggest her persona was specifically Semitic. Literary scholar Bram Dijkstra called her character "the American male's fondest nightmare: a sexual woman whose motives for seduction were not strictly economic, but 'organic' as well." Bara retired from the movies in 1926; nine years later, she described herself in a newspaper interview as "just a nice Jewish girl." "Since Sarah Saw Theda Bara" was published at the height of the Theda Bara craze, during a year in which she made nine features. |
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The lyrics describe the star's impact on one ghetto girl: "Since Sarah Saw Theda Bara" (1916) Words by Alex Gerber, music by Harry Jentes Ev'ry night Sarah Cohn would go to a moving picture show And there she saw up on the screen, Miss Theda Bara, the "Vampire Queen. "She saw men fall for her dev'lish smile. They loved her, but she fooled them all the while. Then Sarah said "It's an easy game, I think I can do just the same." Since Sarah saw Theda Bara, she became a holy terror. Oi, how she rolls her eyes. Oi, she can hypnotize. With a wink she'll fascinate, and she wiggles like a snake. She'll take you and try to break you. Then like a Vampire she'll "vamp" away. The fellers all fall at her feet, and her smile is as false as her teeth. Since Sara saw Theda Bara, she's a wera wera dangerous girl. |
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