The first gothic princesses (completed 13/13)

THEDA BARA

THEDA BARA

Theda Bara was the stage name for Theodosia Burr Goodman, born in the United States in 1885.

Of Jewish ancestry, she decided to leave school and become an actress and dyed her blond hair black.

She took part in several small roles but the film that catapulted her to success was the 1915 play: "A fool there was".

This silent film brings us the first influence on Gothic culture: a fatal woman, dressed in black, a man-eater vampire. In fact, with Theda Bara, the term "Vamp" was born, short for Vampire and currently refers to two meanings: Dracula style Vampiresa; Or unscrupulous woman who takes advantage of men and their money.

And it is this last concept that is the focus of the film A fool there was, an image that would accompany the actress for the rest of her career.

Of course, at the time Theodosia Burr Godman didn't have a stage name. It was the film studios that "created it". Theda, is an anagram of the word Death; Bara, is the Arabic word for "death".

And so was born the first pre-Gothic: Thera Bara.

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Curiosities:

The famous and very cinematic phrase "Kiss me, fool" was first used in the history of cinema by Theda Bara.

Although Theda Bara happens to be an anagram for Death and Death in Arabic, Theda is actually short for Theodosia and Bara was her maternal grandmother's middle name.

Contrary to the image of a "vamp" in her films, Theodosia was in fact an extremely shy and quiet woman in her private life.

Of her more than 40 films, only three and a half remain, the others fall into the category of Lost Film; among these lost masterpieces is precisely his most famous film: Cleopatra.

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Quotes:

I have the face of a vampire, but the heart of a feminist.

People blindly believe what they see on the screen. They thinks that we artists are identical to our characters. They have come to tear up posters with my image because of that, even once a woman called the police because her son was talking to me.

I'm doomed to keep playing vampire roles all my life. I think it's because humanity needs to be taught the same lesson of morality over and over again.

CONTINUARÁ...