Theda Bars's remarkable life as told by Eve Golden's heartfelt account is short of discovering a means of traveling through time and as close as we are ever likely to get to meeting the screen's great Vamp!
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
This is the first biography of silent movie sex symbol Theda Bara to appear: it uses Bara's personal scrapbooks and other original materials to present a well-researched study of Bara's life and film achievements. Enjoy a readable and involving survey of her career which reveals details of her personal life. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
Theda Bara became an overnight superstar with her film debut in the scandalous 1915 hit A Fool There Was, and for the rest of that decade stayed at the top of the heap, along with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. Despite her fame and notoriety as the movies' first "sex symbol", no biography of the original Vamp has ever been written, even though Bara threatened to pen her own "because nobody ever wrote a true word about me". Finally, someone has. Bara had one of the most bizarre and colorful careers of the silent era, starring in Cleopatra, Salome, and scores of other hit films before vanishing mysteriously from the screen. Now, read for the first time how a nice Jewish girl from the Midwest became "Satan's Handmaiden", scandalized a nation, and abruptly fell from the heights. --This text refers to the paperback edition.
Description:
Theda Bars's remarkable life as told by Eve Golden's heartfelt account is short of discovering a means of traveling through time and as close as we are ever likely to get to meeting the screen's great Vamp!
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
This is the first biography of silent movie sex symbol Theda Bara to appear: it uses Bara's personal scrapbooks and other original materials to present a well-researched study of Bara's life and film achievements. Enjoy a readable and involving survey of her career which reveals details of her personal life. -- Midwest Book Review --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Back Cover
Theda Bara became an overnight superstar with her film debut in the scandalous 1915 hit A Fool There Was, and for the rest of that decade stayed at the top of the heap, along with Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin. Despite her fame and notoriety as the movies' first "sex symbol", no biography of the original Vamp has ever been written, even though Bara threatened to pen her own "because nobody ever wrote a true word about me". Finally, someone has. Bara had one of the most bizarre and colorful careers of the silent era, starring in Cleopatra, Salome, and scores of other hit films before vanishing mysteriously from the screen. Now, read for the first time how a nice Jewish girl from the Midwest became "Satan's Handmaiden", scandalized a nation, and abruptly fell from the heights. --This text refers to the paperback edition.