The creepy story of Theda Bara, Hollywood’s first ‘vampire’ actress who received 1,000 marriage proposals and even had fans’ kids named after her
Until she was 30, the silent film actress' career was unremarkable - then she suddenly became the mysterious channel between sex and evil.
BEFORE the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s, an altogether darker palate engulfed Tinseltown... mostly thanks to actress Theda Bara.
The sultry star, who was 30 when she first found fame, became the epitome of sex, wickedness and evil - and the public couldn't get enough of the first ever "Vamp".
But she wasn't born that way.
Theodosia Goodman was born in Cincinnati in 1885 and was a struggling actress when she was cast in 1915's Siren of Hell.
Not long after she starred in A Fool There Was, about a single woman with a love of velvet, fur and jewels, who seduces a married man and rinses him for every penny.
Men and women were captivated by this silver screen newcomer, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere to cause havoc among their favourite actors and actresses.
It's not known why Theda was initially cast by Fox in these early films, but it's been claimed she was getting old and had no money, making her willing to work for a pittance.
However, the studio's chance paid off, and between 1915 and 1918, she appeared in 33 films including The Galley Slave, Sin, Destruction, The Serpent, The Tiger Woman, The Rose of Blood, The Forbidden Path and When a Woman Sins.
Sadly only one of these films remains after the 1937 Fox vault fire, that saw most of the studio's silent movies destroyed in a huge blaze at a warehouse in New Jersey.
As she appeared in silent films, it was easy for her to come up with an exotic backstory - and fans lapped it up.
Forgetting her Jewish childhood in Ohio, Theda Bara - an anagram for 'Arab Death' - was born "in the shadows of the Pyramids", was French, and trained in Paris with fellow screen siren Sarah Bernhardt.
In reality she had never been to France, and it was all part of an attempt to elevate her star power.
While promoting 1917 film Cleopatra, her publicists falsely claimed that she was "the daughter of an Arab sheikh and a French woman, born in the Sahara" as they continued to build her image as an exotic "wanton woman".
At other points in her career, she was described as the Egyptian-born daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor to feed American audience's thirst for all things exotic and Middle Eastern.
At Theda's peak she was earning £2,900 a week, which is more than £41,500 in today's money.
She was famed not only for her demonic parts, but also for her skimpy costumes, including nipple pasties, elaborately sequinned nude kaftans, and heavily kohled eyes.
Her risque costumes were actually banned under the 1930 Production Code as bosses tried to regulate films from becoming too racy or inappropriate for mass audiences.
Magazines of the time referred to her as 'The Arch-Torpedo of Domesticity', 'The Queen of Vampires', 'The Wickedest Woman in the World', 'Pugatory’s Ivory Angel', 'The Devil’s Handmaiden' and 'The Priestess of Sin'.
The Guardian claims Theda had "songs written about her, children named after her, a perfume and even a sandwich (minced ham, mayonnaise, sliced pimento and sweet pickles on toast - served warm) created in her honour."
Theda never appeared in a 'talkie', with her career coming to an end in a 1926 short film 45 Minutes from Hollywood.
Thousands of lusty male fans bombarded the studio asking for her hand in marriage, but she had already had her head turned.
She wed British-American director Charles Brabin in 1921, but the couple never had children.
In April 1955, Theda died from stomach cancer, and is now buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
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