WANTON WOMAN

 

 My latest video - - which should enchant and enthrall you......and help you forget my previous post.

 

Theda Bara (1885 - 1955)

Hollywood's first official sex symbol. Vamp. Femme fatale. Seductress. Wanton woman.

The publicity department at Fox Studios went overboard to promote Theda's forbidden allure and devious intent. They claimed she was born in the Sahara - the daughter of an Arab Sheik and a French actress. She was raised in the shadow of a pyramid and her name was an anagram for Arab Death. She was known as the Serpent of the Nile.

There were unusual restrictions in her movie contract, intended to increase her aura of mystery: she could only go out after dark. Her face had to be veiled. She must perpetuate an interest in mysticism and the occult.  

The truth was much less intoxicating than the myth. Theda Bara was in fact Theodosia Goodman, a Jewish girl from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her parents were of Polish and Swiss descent. 

During her career, Theda Bara made over forty films. She became Fox Studio's biggest star and at the height of her popularity (between 1915 - 1919) earned over $4,000 a week.

Her first films, starting in 1914, were made on the east coast at Fox Studios in Ft. Lee, New Jersey. She moved to California in 1917, when Fox decided to feature her in the epic Hollywood film Cleopatra.

Unfortunately, Theda Bara's acting ability and on-screen allure can never be fully critiqued or appreciated, because almost all of her films are lost. They were destroyed in a 1937 fire at the Fox film archives in New Jersey. To date, only six of her films have survived (none of which were her most popular).

The titles of some of her best films are an indication of the delectably devious  characters she portrayed:
Destruction (1915), Sin (1915), The Devil's Daughter (1915), The Serpent (1916), The Rose of Blood (1917), The She-Devil (1918).

Tired of being typecast as a vamp, and never really comfortable with her sexually-charged fabricated image, Theda left Fox in 1919. She only made a few more films before retiring in 1926. 

Perhaps the biggest secret about Theda Bara is that, in her personal life, she was a virtuous woman - a genuine Miss Goody Two Shoes. There were never any scandals connected with her, and she was never a part of the seedy Hollywood scene.

She married film director Charles Brabin in 1921 and, after her retirement, they moved out of California and lived a quiet life. Theda Bara never had any children. She died of cancer at age 69 in 1955. 

 

video best viewed full-screen 

Note:
I wanted the music to be hauntingly bizarre,  so I chose a composition by Erik Satie.

WRITING ABOUT HOLLYWOOD (and Frances Farmer)

 Frances Farmer

(1913-1970)

This post is dedicated to Dylan

I began writing about movie stars and Hollywood history when I was in my early 20's and lived in Hollywood.

At that time my fledgling (and mediocre) literary "talents" left a lot to be desired. Also, it was long before I ever had a computer or access to the Internet. All of my research was painstakingly done at the library and/or with occasional interviews. Not an easy task.
Times have sure changed.

Miraculously, dozens of my articles were published in all kinds of movie magazines - some with legitimate reputations and others that published bubble gum fluff.


My main objective at that time was to write about obscure, long-forgotten movie stars, in a humble attempt to renew interest in them - and introduce them to those who might never have heard of them. Many of my articles were about stars from the silent era such as Ramon Novarro, Theda Bara, Barbara LaMarr, Mary Miles Minter.

One of the stars who particularly fascinated me was Frances Farmer - whose meteoric rise to fame and rapid descent into hell is astounding.

Farmer's film career began in the 1930's and lasted until the early 40's, when a culmination of tragic events in her personal and public life eventually came to a boil and exploded. It began with a DWI arrest and - essentially - ended when her vicious and vindictive mother unfairly had Frances committed to a mental institution.

It's no secret that Frances Farmer was a rebel from the onset. She hated Hollywood and the hypocrisy and shallowness of the film industry - and never concealed her contempt. She quickly made enemies in high places. Her eventual dependence on alcohol and drugs accelerated her reputation for being "difficult".

 Frances Farmer

Hollywood perfect (left)

and after her infamous arrest (right)

Frances Farmer being dragged from her room at the Knickerbocker Hotel on a second arrest warrant in 1943 - for not paying a fine, and also for dislocating the jaw of a Hollywood studio hairdresser.

(I was very familiar with the Knickerbocker Hotel when I lived in Hollywood)

I had never heard of Frances Farmer until I was twenty years old. I happened to find her autobiography, Will There Really Be a Morning?, in a bookstore on Hollywood Boulevard and bought it out of curiosity.

Around that time they began showing some of her films on the late-late show (on a local L.A. TV station). I was immediately mesmerized by her talent and beauty and did my best to find out more about her (which at the time, was extremely difficult to do).

Poet and fellow blogger  Dylan shares my enthusiasm for Frances Farmer and was interested in seeing my old (ancient) article about her.

So, I crawled into the cobwebs and dust of the Jon Archives and managed to extract the magazine.
It's the December, 1990 issue of Hollywood:Then and Now
(Meryl Streep is on the cover)
 

 

My article
(they misspelled my name on the byline)
It's probably impossible to read here, but I figured I'd post it anyway.