Large archive including seven Autograph letters, signed, from Bara to author and journalist T. Everett Harré; manuscript and typed copies of letters from Harré to Bara; a letter from Bara's mother to Harré regarding Theda; telegraphs from Bara to Harré; small archive of typed copies of correspondence from Harré to Bara and Mr. A.H. Woods of the Eltinge Theater, New York, regarding Bara starring in a possible stage production of Harré's novel "Behold a Woman"; over 450 type-written pages of Bara's unpublished autobiographical writings, many with holograph corrections, ghostwritten by Harré, titled "Woman or Vampire". Also included is a promotional booklet from Bara's most famous film appearance as Cleopatra.
Theda Bara was the stage name of Theodosia Burr Goodman (1885-1955), an American silent film actress. Movie executives made promotional claims that her stage name was chosen because it is an anagram for "Arab Death." In reality, "Theda" was a childhood nickname for Theodosia. Bara was one of the most popular screen actresses of her era, and was one of cinema's earliest sex symbols. Her femme fatale roles earned her the nickname "The Vamp" (short for vampire). The term "vamp" soon became a popular slang term for a sexually predatory woman. Theda Bara made more than 40 feature films between 1914 and 1926. Complete prints of only six of these films still exist. Most of Bara's films were produced by William Fox, beginning with A Fool There Was in 1914 and ending with The Lure of Ambition in 1919. The phenomenal success of A Fool There Was gave William Fox the money to found Fox Studios, while the ensuing films helped to make Fox Film Corporation a successful studio. At the height of her fame, Bara was making $4,000 per week for her film performances. She was one of the most famous movie stars, ranking behind only Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in popularity. Bara's best-known and most popular roles were as "vamp" characters, although she attempted to avoid being typecast by playing more wholesome heroines in films such as Under Two Flags and Her Double Life. Between 1915 and 1919, Bara was promoted heavily by Fox, and was the studio's biggest star. When the studio dropped off their support her career suffered. Bara, tired of being typecast as a vamp, allowed her five-year contract with Fox to expire. Her final film for Fox was The Lure of Ambition in 1919. She left Fox and did not make another film until 1925's The Unchastened Woman, for Chadwick Pictures Corporation. Bara retired after making only one more film, the short comedy, Madame Mystery, in 1926.
Bara is often cited as the first sex symbol of that era, and in a number of her films appeared in risqué transparent costumes that left little to the imagination. At the height of Bara's fame, her vamp image was notorious enough to be referred to in popular songs of the day. A line in "Red-Hot Hannah" said "I know things that Theda Bara's just startin' to learn - make my dresses from asbestos, I'm liable to burn...." The song, "Rebecca Came Back From Mecca", contains the lyrics "She's as bold as Theda Bara; Theda's bare but Becky's bare-er". Bara married British-born American film director Charles Brabin (1883-1957) in 1921. Her film career soon began to slow down, finally ending in 1926 with the Hal Roach comedy Madame Mystery. The following year, Bara made a successful but much maligned appearance on Broadway in The Blue Flame. Though she subsequently expressed interest in returning to the stage or screen, her husband did not consider it proper for his wife to have a career. Bara spent the remainder of her life as a hostess in Hollywood and New York, in comfort and relative wealth. Bara died of stomach cancer in 1955. Theda Bara has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and in 1994, she was honored with her image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. In June 1996, two biographies appeared, Ron Genini's Theda Bara: A Biography and Eve Golden's Vamp. In October 2005 TimeLine Films of Culver City premiered a film biography, Theda Bara: The Woman With the Hungry Eyes.