Theda Bara

Theda Bara PDF Author: Ronald Genini
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786491612
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Despite being a mediocre actress with less than classic beauty, Theda Bara was one of Hollywood's leading performers in the early years of cinema. Her success was mostly due to Fox Studio's publicity: they made her a screen vamp and used her to titillate the public. And Theda Bara, ambitious and nearing 30 when she made her first film, enthusiastically played the role. In real life, Theodosia Goodman bore little resemblance to the vampish Theda Bara character. But the studio-created persona, with the invented name, evil personality and fictional history, was a major star. Though her films were often trite, poorly acted, extravagant and crude, the public packed movie houses. But her film career ended once the public tired of the persona. Through contemporary newspaper accounts, film reviews, interviews and other sources, this is a comprehensive account of the life and times of one of Hollywood's first female stars.

Theda Bara

Theda Bara PDF Author: Ronald Genini
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786491612
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
Despite being a mediocre actress with less than classic beauty, Theda Bara was one of Hollywood's leading performers in the early years of cinema. Her success was mostly due to Fox Studio's publicity: they made her a screen vamp and used her to titillate the public. And Theda Bara, ambitious and nearing 30 when she made her first film, enthusiastically played the role. In real life, Theodosia Goodman bore little resemblance to the vampish Theda Bara character. But the studio-created persona, with the invented name, evil personality and fictional history, was a major star. Though her films were often trite, poorly acted, extravagant and crude, the public packed movie houses. But her film career ended once the public tired of the persona. Through contemporary newspaper accounts, film reviews, interviews and other sources, this is a comprehensive account of the life and times of one of Hollywood's first female stars.

Vamp

Vamp PDF Author: Eve Golden
Publisher: Vestal Press
ISBN: 1461730775
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Theda Bars's remarkable life as told by Eve Golden's heartfelt account is short of discovering a means of traveling through time and as close as we are ever likely to get to meeting the screen's great Vamp!

Theda Bara, My Mentor

Theda Bara, My Mentor PDF Author: Joan Craig
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476662835
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
As movie patrons sat in darkened theaters in January 1914, they were mesmerized by an alluring temptress with long sable hair and kohl-rimmed eyes. Theda Bara--"the vamp," as she would come to be known--would soon be one of the highest paid film stars of the 1910s, earning an unheard of $4,000 per week, before retiring from the screen in 1926. In 1946, at age five, the author met Bara--then 61--at her Beverly Hills home and the actress became her mentor. This memoir is the story of their friendship.

Theda Bara

Theda Bara PDF Author: Roy Liebman
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476687250
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Although a major star in the 1910s, Theda Bara--known as "The Vamp"--was largely neglected until the 1990s, when her fame began to resurface. Since then, there have been biographies, documentaries and other works that have brought the silent film actress back into the spotlight, including a painstaking stills reconstruction of her lost epic Cleopatra. This is a complete examination of Bara's more than 40 films, as well as her theater and radio appearances, down to the smallest detail. With the vast majority of Bara's films considered lost, it is a particularly valuable resource for fans and scholars, and includes information about each film's genesis, director, plot, censorship problems, and critical and public reactions. Also included is a biographical overview, with many illuminating anecdotes.

Theda Bara Paper Dolls

Theda Bara Paper Dolls PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781942490388
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 16

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Book Description
Theda Bara was the vamp of the silent movies and such a popular star that she became an early celebrity fashion icon. Her dark and dramatic cinematic image was admired and widely copied by fans. This paper doll tribute features two dolls and 15 authentic vintage fashions that include costumes from Cleopatra, her most famous role. Beautifully illustrated by Brenda Sneathen Mattox, this paper doll tribute includes fashion notes and essay by Randy Bryan Bigham.

Heritage Auctions Music and Entertainment Auction Catalog #696

Heritage Auctions Music and Entertainment Auction Catalog #696 PDF Author: Jim Steele
Publisher: Heritage Capital Corporation
ISBN: 9781599672885
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description


The Man Who Made the Movies

The Man Who Made the Movies PDF Author: Vanda Krefft
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062680676
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 1501

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Book Description
A riveting story of ambition, greed, and genius unfolding at the dawn of modern America. This landmark biography brings into focus a fascinating brilliant entrepreneur—like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney, a true American visionary—who risked everything to realize his bold dream of a Hollywood empire. Although a major Hollywood studio still bears William Fox’s name, the man himself has mostly been forgotten by history, even written off as a failure. Now, in this fascinating biography, Vanda Krefft corrects the record, explaining why Fox’s legacy is central to the history of Hollywood. At the heart of William Fox’s life was the myth of the American Dream. His story intertwines the fate of the nineteenth-century immigrants who flooded into New York, the city’s vibrant and ruthless gilded age history, and the birth of America’s movie industry amid the dawn of the modern era. Drawing on a decade of original research, The Man Who Made the Movies offers a rich, compelling look at a complex man emblematic of his time, one of the most fascinating and formative eras in American history. Growing up in Lower East Side tenements, the eldest son of impoverished Hungarian immigrants, Fox began selling candy on the street. That entrepreneurial ambition eventually grew one small Brooklyn theater into a $300 million empire of deluxe studios and theaters that rivaled those of Adolph Zukor, Marcus Loew, and the Warner brothers, and launched stars such as Theda Bara. Amid the euphoric roaring twenties, the early movie moguls waged a fierce battle for control of their industry. A fearless risk-taker, Fox won and was hailed as a genius—until a confluence of circumstances, culminating with the 1929 stock market crash, led to his ruin.

Dark Lady of the Silents; My Life in Early Hollywood

Dark Lady of the Silents; My Life in Early Hollywood PDF Author: Miriam Cooper
Publisher: Bobbs-Merrill Company
ISBN:
Category : Hollywood (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description


Flickers of Desire

Flickers of Desire PDF Author: Jennifer M. Bean
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813550726
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Today, we are so accustomed to consuming the amplified lives of film stars that the origins of the phenomenon may seem inevitable in retrospect. But the conjunction of the terms "movie" and "star" was inconceivable prior to the 1910s. Flickers of Desire explores the emergence of this mass cultural phenomenon, asking how and why a cinema that did not even run screen credits developed so quickly into a venue in which performers became the American film industry's most lucrative mode of product individuation. Contributors chart the rise of American cinema's first galaxy of stars through a variety of archival sources--newspaper columns, popular journals, fan magazines, cartoons, dolls, postcards, scrapbooks, personal letters, limericks, and dances. The iconic status of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp, Mary Pickford's golden curls, Pearl White's daring stunts, or Sessue Hayakawa's expressionless mask reflect the wild diversity of a public's desired ideals, while Theda Bara's seductive turn as the embodiment of feminine evil, George Beban's performance as a sympathetic Italian immigrant, or G. M. Anderson's creation of the heroic cowboy/outlaw character transformed the fantasies that shaped American filmmaking and its vital role in society.

Silent Stars Speak

Silent Stars Speak PDF Author: Tony Villecco
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786408146
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
The pioneers of the motion picture industry were a group of uncommonly talented men, women, and children. Many of their films have now vanished or disintegrated, and the only evidence of them is in the memories of their creators. The twelve men and women featured in this collection of interviews share their memories of the early days of filmmaking, from the technicalities of lighting and production, to celebrities they encountered. The interviewees include Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Virginia Cherrill, child star "Baby Peggy," director Andrew Stone, and original "Our Gang" member Jean Darling. Their stories of what it was like to make a movie in the silent era are illuminating glimpses into an era that fades with every passing year. Each interview is accompanied by a comprehensive filmography, and dozens of photographs of these celebrities and their associates are also included.