Topic Page: Bara, Theda, 1885-1955
Theodosia Burr Goodman (1885-1955), U.S. stage, movie actress. Goodman was the daughter of Bernard Goodman, a Polish Jew, and Pauline Louise de Coppet, a French immigrant. In 1917, Goodman's parents legally changed their name to Bara, after de Coppet's Swiss father, Francis Bara de Coppet. Goodman thus first came on stage under the name Theodosia de Coppet. Then in 1914 she was cast as the vampire in the movie A Fool There Was (1915), directed by Frank Powell, who renamed her Theda Bara for the part. For publicity purposes, as the first “vamp,” Goodman was said to be the love child of a French artist and his Egyptian mistress, her name a near-reversal of “Arab death.” “The anagrammatic connection between Theda Bara and Arab Death so often evoked in awed tones is today like an archaeological find, proving only that we live in a different culture” [Thomson 2003, p. 50].
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Full text Article Bara, Theda (1885 Cincinnati, OH-1955 Los Angeles, CA)
Born Theodosia Goodman, the daughter of a tailor, Theda Bara went on to become a “female fiend incarnate” who heartlessly lured...
Full text Article 1915
Subject: cinema and film The film A Fool There Was, directed by Frank Powell, is released in the USA, starring Theda Bara.