Vamp: The Rise And Fall of Theda Bara [Hardcover]

Eve Golden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1997

A much-needed full-length work...Recommended for general collections.-- Library Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Veteran biographer Golden (Platinum Girl: The Life and Legends of Jean Harlow, LJ 10/1/91) here chronicles the career of silent siren Theda Bara, the quintessential "vamp," who played Carmen, Salome, and Cleopatra, among other notorious female roles. Like many film biographies, it succumbs to familiar pitfalls: obligatory but cursory nods to film history and an uneven narrative, where the subject's "rise" inevitably is more compelling than her "fall." Laden with familiar apocrypha on Bara, Vamp isn't groundbreaking, but it is a much-needed full-length work that shows how Bara's precedent-setting career has contemporary resonance in mass-mediated images. With a critical eye for her primary sources, the fanzines, the author deconstructs Hollywood stardom without over-intellectualizing the star. Although Bara's films are dated, Golden gives due consideration to the icon Bara created-and to the life behind it. Recommended for general collections.
Jayne Kate Plymale-Jackson, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This is the first book-length study of the early silent film actress perhaps now most memorable for the coiled-snake bra she wore as Cleopatra. Despite her status as the first media superstar, there is a dearth of good contemporary material on her. Theda Bara was the first product of the star system, and her real biography was intentionally obfuscated during her lifetime. Although she had a comfortable, middle-class upbringing in Cincinnati, Bara (whose real name was Theodosia Goodman) was promoted as the daughter of a French actress and an Italian sculptor, born under the stony gaze of the Sphinx. Her personal appearances were choreographed to enhance an exotic image, and her film roles played on the public perception of her as a temptress, a "vamp." Golden argues that her career was the prototype for those of Harlow, Monroe, and Madonna. As with those later sex symbols, controversy over Bara revolves around whether she was a creation of studio publicity or "a decent actress, trapped in scores of bad films." Although Bara's best movies survive only in fragments, Golden believes she was the latter. Mike Tribby

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Vestal Press; First Edition edition (January 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887322000
• ISBN-13: 978-1887322003
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,658,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Movie Star Vamp: Available for Dinner Parties and Scrabble, June 13, 2001

By 

julip510 (Louisville, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara (Paperback)

My exposure to Theda Bara and her career in silent films was very minimal when I decided to pick up this book. Basically, I knew she was the original "Vamp", that Theda Bara was not her birth name and that her name was an anagram for Arab Death. My knowledge, for lack of a better word, was encyclopedic. All I knew was that she had dark haunting eyes, reeked of glamour and was so, so Silent Film-ish. I had to know more. Thankfully, the first book I picked up on this underappreciated film legend was "VAMP: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara" by Eve Golden. Ms. Golden's well-researched material is nicely presented through a gauzy veil of wit, aptly aimed sarcasm and insight. She presents the new film industry as it was at that time-assembly line production of films mixed with bizarre PR schemes, a now far outdated style of acting, tedium and excitement. Theda Bara may have been one of the first actresses to be treated like a true movie star but off-screen she was no "vampire"; on the contrary, she was college-educated bookworm Theodosia Goodman from Cincinnati, OH. Off screen, Theda Bara much preferred a good book or a small dinner gathering to "vamping" it up. (In contemporary Colleen Moore's autobiography "Silent Star", Ms. Moore praised Ms. Bara for her delectable wit and lack of pretentiousness. With her interest in entertaining, Ms. Bara ended up being one of the most sought after hostesses in Hollywood, as mentioned in Anita Loos' "The Talmadge Girls".)

Eve Golden does a praiseworthy job of combining the "otherness" of the film industry with the surprising pragmatism of its first star-Theda Bara. The inspired, sometimes sarcastic writing of Ms. Golden seems only appropriate when one thinks of how Ms. Bara was known by her contemporaries for her snappy witticisms. So many books written on the Silent Era take on the tone of a college lecture and I commend Ms. Golden for giving the subject matter a life and vibrancy due the often under-appreciated Theda Bara. And lest I forget, a comment about the included photos: they are simply stunning. A myriad of Hollywood movie stills and personal photos, the included pictures bring a realness to the era and to Theodosia Goodman/Theda Bara that is often overlooked. These shots become even more of a treasure when one learns that only 4 of Theda's many films are still in existence-and none still exists from her most lavish and sensational performances, like Cleopatra, Salome, and Kathleen Mavoureen.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a Gem, July 31, 2000

By 

W. D LaRue (New York, New York United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara (Paperback)

I thoroghly enjoyed this book. I also enjoyed Ms. Goldens' biographies of Anna Held and Jean Harlow. In the case of Anna Held and Theda Bara, Ms Golden has rescued from obscurity two fascinating women who deserve to be remembered. IO agree that the reader from Tenn. seems a bit severe in their criticism. Personally, I like Eve Golden's method of writing. I enjoy the asides and her dry sense of humor (which actually, in some way, seems to reflect the women she is writing about). Who said biography must be dry and boring? I think Eve Golden does a great service in writing these fascinating biographies. By all means, read about Anna Held. Very highly recommended. I look forward to the next book.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars All hail the Queen of the Vamps!, October 3, 2005

By 

Anyechka (Rensselaer, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara (Paperback)

This is a fascinating quick read on one of the earliest real moviestars, the screen's first sex symbol, and a truly legendary star. Ms. Golden writes with a balanced style, neither an unapologetic sycophant nor a hard-to-please critic. She's an admirer of Theda's life, interested in both her acting career and in her life off of the screen, although she isn't afraid to call a spade a spade and discuss a critical turkey that Theda was cast in. However, as lively and informative a read as this may be, it can only go into so much depth about Theda's life and acting career, given what a private person she was and how a lot of details about her early life and her life after retiring from the screen may never be fully known. And, of course, since only a handful of her films survive, none of them representative of her true talents, the discussion about her films can also only go so far and deep. We get plenty of information about the storylines, critical response to them, the filming experiences, Theda's feelings at acting in them (she was quite unhappy at how most of her roles were Vamping roles instead of getting more chances to play sympathetic characters), but without having a chance to actually see these films, we can't really have a full valid analysis of them. Reviewers of the time either loved or hated her, and it really does seem like she were a fine screen actor (her stage acting is another matter), but minus the visual evidence, even a good biography such as this one can only go by what people of the time said and what is evident about her talents even in her handful of surviving mediocre vehicles. Unless more of her films are found, like 'Salome,' 'Cleopatra,' or 'Under Two Flags,' there's no way one can convincingly prove her full worth as an actor, how many of her films would have held up over time, if time might have given some of them their revenge. But what we do know for certain are the facts reported in this book, that Theodosia Goodman was a pampered child from Ohio, an intellectual snob and insatiable bookworm her entire life, interested in mysticism and things many people today would term Goth (although the stories cooked up about her by the press are another story; she was never that much of a mystic!), devoted to her husband, a very talented actor who was trapped in a role she didn't entirely feel comfortable in, a stunningly beautiful woman when photographed correctly or seen in motion (all of the photos in the book are wonderful!). I also liked the information on why most of her films were lost; it's well-known that at least 75% of all silents have been lost, but I didn't know the specifics as to why so many of Theda's in particular were lost apart from the fire at Fox Studios in 1937. Many silents were lost within their own lifetimes, not just by the Thirties and Forties. It's also explained why she went out of vogue; besides the fact that there were new Vamps on the scene, and that the public preferred flapper movies now, Theda's style of acting had majorly gone out of vogue by the mid-Twenties, when the method of acting that was taught and praised in the Teens had long since been replaced by a more natural acting style.