Arab Death

thedabara04
Originally uploaded by donkeykonguk.

Theda Bara -- one of the most successful and glamorous stars of the 1910s -- is also the most inaccessible and mysterious today. She stood behind only Mary Pickford and Charles Chaplin in popularity, yet today it's nearly impossible to view her work. Of the more than 40 films she made from late 1914 through 1926, only three and a half remain. The facts of her life were so jumbled by studio publicity that even her birth date and place have been obscured. Yet her image remains lodged in the public's mind some 70 years after her retirement, and she is one of the few stars responsible for a word -- "vamp" -- being placed both on the dictionary and in everyday use.