I just had such a good time–a crew was here filming me today for a Theda Bara documentary (which they hope to sell to TCM and release on DVD with what few of her films are left). Such fun being made a fuss over, lights, a makeup person (I looked gorgeous, must have had three pounds of makeup on). They had this beautiful camera assistant, all of 18 years old (“you can leave him here if you want,” I told them). At one point one of my cats licked my ankle and I looked over and said, “Was that the cat or you, dahling?”
Hope I gave them good quotes; loaned them tons of Bara material (scrapbooks, letters, photos, even recordings from the period so they won’t have “fakey old-timey music,” which I hate). Of course, it took all day: lighting me so Japanese schoolchildren wouldn’t have seizures when they saw me; and every time I managed to get a good quote out w/o tripping over myself, a car or plane would go by . . .
The producer used to be a dancer, so we put “The King of Rags” on the Victrola, and she taught me how to do the Castle Walk around the kitchen! She was Vernon and I was Irene.
Damn. I look so good I don’t wanna wash the makeup off.
They filmed me for an Olive Thomas documentary (they’re doing a series on silent movie stars) last year, which I have rough cut of, and it’s really good–and I have very high standards for documentaries. But last time they shot me in such tight close-up . . . Yikes. This is not a face that lends itself to tight close-ups (“aauughh–the nose! It will destroy us all!!”). I kept telling them, “pull back–farther–no, you’re till in the same building with me!”
They’ve traveled all over the U.S. and to England, Prague and St. Petersburg to interview people and ferret out material, so dis is one high-class outfit.
The producer took some snapshots on her way out which she promises to e-mail me, maybe someone has some web space I could put one up on? Me with Cutie Camera Boy?
Just resize them and save them as PNGs, and then put them up on a free service, like Photobucket.
If you have a gmail account or a similarly large e-mail address, and you aren’t comfortable with that process, you could send 'em over to me (oscillator@gmail.com) and I could convert them and upload them.
With a great sigh of regret, I washed off my Pretty Movie-Star Face before I went to bed last night (with the help of a putty knife and a sandblaster).
Thanks, Gadfly, if the producer ever e’s me the photo, I will in turn e it to you. If it comes out well . . .
I don’t know much about Theda Bara, but I just watched a documentary about the making of the Elizabeth Taylor version of Cleopatra and they showed some footage of Bara in the silent 1917 original.
It made me want to see it, but I’m also very curious about those odd, too-straight eyebrows of Ms. Bara’s. Were those the style back then?
Couldn’t have—not one frame of Theda’s Cleopatra is known to exist. I wonder if they showed Helen Gardner’s earlier version, or just stills from Theda’s?
This won’t be aired for years—they’re doing a series (funded by Hugh Hefner!) of documentaries on silent-film actresses (they interviewed me last year for the Olive Thomas episode). They’re going to try to sell it to TV stations such as TCM or PBS, and they’ll be shown at revival houses and film festivals; if no TV stations bite, they’ll be released on video and DVD with some of the actress’ films.