Hollywood's First Vamp, Theda Bara, Ties the Knot in Secret Ceremony on July 2, 1921

Theda Bara as Cleopatra in 1917. Photo in public domain.

She took other people’s minds off their troubles... ~The New York Times, 1955

by Angela Magnotti Andrews She was Theda Bara, Hollywood's first femme fatale, Fox Studio's top-billing silent screen star between 1914 and 1919, and one of America's most beloved actors, "ranking behind only Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford" {8}. Taking her cues from the alluring Mata Hari and Sarah Bernhardt, Ms. Bara brought America's favorite bad girl to the big screen--"a sultry, exotic, erotic woman who went through the world leaving broken men in her wake {3}. Audiences could not get enough of her. Even decades later, the New York Times reported, "On the silent screen she appealed to men's most primitive instincts. On the screen she was, indeed, a bad girl, and this was her allure" {4}. Her kohl-lined eyes simmered on screen and off, and her publicists made sure that even those who knew they were being conned believed she was a "deadly...crystal gazing seeress of profoundly occult powers, wicked as fresh red paint and poisonous as dried spiders" {7}. According to Terry Ramsaye, the escalating rumors (all manufactured by Fox's best publicists) of her nefarious background caused little girls to swallow "their gum with excitement," while big movie men to balk at the thought of meeting her in private {7}. There was one man, however, who seemed completely undaunted by the soul-sucking powers of Ms. Theda Bara. He was Charles Brabin, the British-born director, a self-made man who knew the business of acting and directing. She met him on set, where he directed her in several versions of The Vamp on screen for Fox. By April 1921, reporters were jumping the gun, claiming that Theda Bara and Charles Brabin were soon to wed. Instead, she left for a European tour with her sister. The rumors began again when reporters caught the two kissing in New York upon her return. "Can't a chap kiss a young lady when she returns from Europe married?" he asked the press {4}. Love was in the air, though, and friendship swiftly turned into more. On July 2, 1921, a justice of the peace in Greenwich, Connecticut, united the two in marriage. Her love of film and stage receded not. Rather, it expanded to include this new facet--a man with "mental brilliance" {5} and a charisma that livened up the party wherever he went who offered her what would become the greatest role of her life. When she wasn't announcing her latest comeback, Theda Bara threw herself into the role of a 1920s Beverly Hills housewife. According to the Los Angeles Times, her home was tastefully furnished, though author Roberta Courtland describes it as "an old grandma house filled with antiques" {6}. Unfortunately, none of these reporters seemed the least bit interested in discussing her wedding jewelry. To date, this writer has been unable to find any concrete information on Ms. Bara's engagement or wedding rings. It's possible, given the swiftness of their elopement, that there was no engagement ring. Rumor has it that Ms. Bara hated diamonds and wore only two jewels on her finger, an emerald ring reportedly given to her by a blind sheik and a turquoise ring that reportedly served talismanic purposes {1}. Given the report that in 1957, Mr. Brabin sold at auction his wife’s collection of jewels, including "diamonds up to seven carats and delicately designed diamond, emerald, and platinum pieces" {4}, it stands to reason that these rumors emerged out of the heavy publicity surrounding her role as The Vamp. In all likelihood, if she wore a wedding ring at all, it would have been a tasteful Art Deco piece which more closely complemented her efforts to "play the part of a sweet, essentially feminine woman" {6}. While she played this role happily at home, she continued staging a series of comebacks that would take her new part to the screen. Rumors abound that her husband frowned upon her return to the screen. I doubt this is true, though they would offer a more pleasant answer to her failure to return to the screen than that she just couldn’t make it happen. To her credit, she would not allow that unfortunate truth diminish her happiness. "he wages of screen wickedness is domestic bliss," she told a reporter in 1933 {4}. Nearly 20 years later, Hearst Hollywood columnist, Adela Rogers St. Johns, commented that the two were still happily married {4}. Theda Bara died in 1955, leaving the bulk of her estate to her sister, Charles needed none of her money.

Notes

1. Bernstein, Matthew and Gaylyn Studlar. Visions of the East: Orientalism in Film. London: I. B. Tauris and Co. Ltd., 1997.
2. Bonhams. "A Century of Movie Magic at Auction as curated by Turner Classic Movies." November, 2013.
3. DiGrazia, Christopher. "Theda Bara: An essay to accompany the Tambakos Silent Film Series: A Fool There Was (1915)," Kiss Me My Fool website, October 24, 2007.
4. Genini, Ronald. Theda Bara: A Biography of the Silent Screen Vamp, with a Filmography. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1996.
5. IMDb. "Theda Bara, Biography." Accessed August 7, 2014. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000847/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm.
6. Petersen, Anne Helen. "Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Most Wicked Face of Theda Bara," The Hairpin, January 8, 2013.
7. Ramsaye, Terry. A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture. Abingdon, Oxon: Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 2012.
8. Silentmoviequeen. "Theda Bara Biography," YouTube video, published July 11, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ejQVRW0ts.