I’ve always had crushes on movie stars
Theda Bara was one of the first
A beauty of the silent film era
(Though my mother said she was the worst)
Theda’s characters seduced rich middle-aged men
She was known from the start as “the Vamp”
She led her victims to ruin and death
Nowadays we would say her style’s camp
They claimed she was born in the shadow of the Sphinx
Her mother, a French actress; her father, a sheik
The letters, Theda Bara, spelled “Arab Death”
Occult powers lent to her mystique
In truth, Theda was born in Cincinnati
She grew up in Avondale
Her birth name was Theodosia Goodman
As a child, little Theda was frail
Theda’s father was an immigrant tailor
She finished Walnut Hills in ’03
Drawn to the theater from an early age
She studied two years at U.C.
Then off she went to the New York stage
“The Devil” was her first Broadway part
From Broadway Theda moved to Hollywood
Where she quickly was cast as a “tart”
She did forty films in her first four years
“The Galley Slave,” “Tiger Woman,” “Sin”
Her fans called Theda “The Queen of Vampires”
A vampiress who showed lots of skin
At her peak Theda earned four thousand a week
In the Twenties she wed a director
They moved to a mansion on Victory Parkway
Her life became that of a specter
Theda Bara died in 1955
She is buried in Forest Lawn Park
One of Cincinnati’s most illustrious stars
Theodosia carved out her mark
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