One hundred years ago, movie goers could easily identify stars of the silent screen. Rudolph Valentino was the “The Latin Lover,” Clara Bow was “The It Girl,” Charlie Chaplin was “The Little Tramp,” and Theda Bara was “The Vamp.” The latter lady (whose name is an anagram for “Arab Death”) embodied the femme fatale. Marketed as an exotic sexpot who was “born in the shadow of the Sphinx,” the Cincinnati native changed her light hair to black while seeking a career on the stage in New York. This led to film work, but stardom didn’t shine until she was cast as a vampire in A Fool There Was (1915). Theda proceeded to play dangerous dames in The Devil’s Daughter (1915), Sin (1915), Siren of Hell (1915), The Serpent (1916), The Eternal Sappho (1916), The Tiger Woman (1917), The She Devil (1918), and Salome (1918). In fact, the busy babe starred in more than 40 flicks from 1915 to 1919. Ms. Bara was one of the earliest film stars to use her bare-ish breasts to boost box office sales. Even though she was never completely naked onscreen, the skintastic actress donned a lot of jeweled pasties and barely-there brassieres in films like Cleopatra (1917) that made the most of her magnificent mams. In other words, her alluring get-ups were designed to get fans off! But as movies became more mainstream, wholesome starlets began emerging. Sadly, many of Theda’s films were destroyed in a fire. Yet that makes sense since she was so hot!
