A (fairly long) while ago, while on the Silents Majority website (which seems to have fallen off the face of the earth), I found a claim that some footage of Theda Bara’s “Cleopatra” was still in exsistence, stored at the George Eastman House. Would anyone on this board know anything about this?
Eve would. She wrote the only biography of Bara that I’ve ever seen published.
I’d go fetch my copy and answer your question for you, but I wouldn’t deprive her of the pleasure.
Though there is actually another bio of Theda, by a very nice man named Ronald Genini. The mysterious Eastman House footage is elusive. Some claim to have seen a few frames, some as much as half a reel–but Eastman House is being cagey and refuses to confirm or deny (or grant access).
Her best roles and films–Cleopatra, Salome, Madame Du Barry, Romeo and Juliet, Under Two Flags–are probably gone. The only films of hers known to exist are A Fool There Was (1915), East Lynne (1916), The Unchastened Woman (1925) and the one-reel short comedy Madame Mystery (1926).
Having found an item about this on another website, I find the footage listed as being “a few feet” (which is remarkably vague), and it also lists a donor- Anthony Slide, a film preservation expert whose books are (according to Amazon) often purchased in association with some chump named Golden.
Is Slide still with us? Maybe he has the answer.
(Looking at the site I found some more, I find that the last surviving print of “London After Midnight” wasn’t lost until 1967. The Governor is peeved that no preservationist from the '50’s or '60’s bothered to make a spare print.)
Tony Slide–an excellent writer–is very much still with us, but he hates my insides, so I can’t ask 'im. I think he resents any other “girls who work his corner” by writing about silent films.
(hijack)
Speaking of which, Gov, did you see the Halloween reconstruction of Long After Midnight ? A very nifty kind of thing.
(As a Chaney fan, I found myself very upset that they bumped He Who Gets Slapped for some Hepburn. I know, I know, the Great Kate. But Chaney makes me feel all custard-y inside. )
More of this stuff should be on DVD.
(/hijack)
AL
argh. Preview is my friend- Londonafter MIdnight.
For no reason in particular, I would just like to add that an anagram of Theda Bara is Death Arab.
Which, as it turned out, was a sheer coincidence pounced upon by some clever clock at Fox. Theda’s real name was Theodosia Goodman, and she picked “Theda Bara” as a stage name because Theda was a childhood nickname, and Bara was short for Barranger, a name on her mother’s side of the family.
I reall that Theda wore a most amazingly-designed bra for her performance of CLEOPATRA. Is this bra stillextant? It must have been quite shocking in its day!
I have no idea if Theda’s famous snake-bra still exists, but here is a photo of it (second row of photos, second from right). . .
Sorry for my redundancy from another thread, but speaking as someone who’s recently read it, I highly recommend Eve’s Bara biography Vamp. I read it out of SDMB curiosity, as much as my cinema obsession, and was pleasantly surprised at what an entertaining read it was.
That’s the kind of redundancy I love to pardon!
So, do any of us have the guts to contact either Tony Slide or the George Eastman House?
Anyone?
Well, if you contact Slide, do NOT mention my name!
For several reasons, I’m afraid that Mr. Slide won’t take me seriously.
Well, what a group we have here! I’m on the outs (a bit) with the main cataloguer at GEH, otherwise I’d ask PDQ.
Speaking as a film archivist, I can attest that some institutions can be a little particular or protective about the states of their collections. I’ll do a little burrowing around (friend-of-a-friend, colleague-of-a-colleague), and see if I can unearth anything.
However, this won’t be anytime soon. If everybody doesn’t mind letting this thread fade a bit, I promise to post back in a few months to report if I discover anything new or relevant. K?
Hell, it’s waited 86 years, I think another month or two is OK.
I had a reverse experience – it was some time after discovering Vamp that I realized that our Eve was THE Eve Golden who wrote the book. I was so impressed that I’ve never gotten over it, and I have often mentioned to people that I post on the same message board as the author.
The photo of Theda Bara with the skeleton (top row, third from left in Eve’s photo link above) is one I use for Windows wallpaper. I tinted it blue, and it looks pretty darn cool.