Madame Du Barry (Fox Film, 1917; presumed lost) Theda Bara 10" x 8" Original Custom Studio Photograph by Albert Witzel...

Description

Madame Du Barry (Fox Film, 1917; presumed lost) Theda Bara 10" x 8" Original Custom Studio Photograph by Albert Witzel. PSA/DNA Type 1. Vintage gelatin silver matte double-weight 10" x 8" custom portrait studio photograph of Theda Bara in Madame Du Barry by Albert Walter Witzel, signed "Witzel / L.A." in white ink on the recto. Hand-printed at Witzel Studios in Los Angeles. Theda Bara - 'Serpent of the Nile' and 'Siren supreme of the screen' - was not the offspring of an Arab sheik and a French woman nor of Egyptian of royal lineage as Fox publicists claimed, but born Theodosia Goodman in Cincinnati, Ohio. Bara was generally typecast by William Fox after A Fool There Was (1915) as "the Vampire," the destructive siren who devoured men in her rapacious frenzy. Modest of person, quiet, studious, and thoughtful off-screen, her fictional character was a seductive lure during her heyday, 1915-1919, commanding the public's constant gaze. Though all but six of her 44 films are now lost, she was the dramatic actress prototype, a direct antecedent of the modern Diva.

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