Since mid-2023 I’ve been researching the life of Theda Bara for a novel. A lot of information can be found on the Internet even if does require some serious digging, but most of the material I found  came from a documentary on Youtube called The Woman with the Hungry Eyes and two biographies: Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara by Eve Golden and Theda Bara: A Biography of the Silent Screen Vamp by Ronald Genini. I also consulted several other books and articles to fill in the blanks, including an entire book on the making of Cleopatra in1917 starring Theda Bara.

Throughout my research, I kept coming across tantalizing mentions of an unpublished autobiography. But where was this  manuscript? I had no idea where to look. Finally I came across an article in Cincinnati Magazine, stating that “the University of Cincinnati’s archivist, Kevin Grace has a keen interest in the accomplishments of former UC students. So when he found a Beverly Hills rare books dealer offering the manuscript of a never-finished memoir by silent film actress and vamp Theda Bara, he bought it for the school.”

The article added that Grace intended to publish the manuscript, but then I couldn’t find out any more details. I sent an email to him at the library but never got a reply. I simply couldn’t finish this novel without reading the manuscript — even though some of those who had read it said that she wasn’t always truthful, and it wasn’t a reliable source. It didn’t matter. I needed to hear her voice in my head.

Eventually, I called the library and asked to speak to Mr. Grace. The person who answered the call explained that Kevin Grace had retired. I began communicating with Grace’s replacement, a librarian named Alex, who was extremely helpful. He knew about the manuscript and said I was welcome to look at it but I would have to do so in person as it was too fragile to be scanned.

I live in Florida, and I had no guarantees that this novel would be accepted by a publisher. I asked Joe if he wanted to make a little vacation of a trip to Cincinnati. He wasn’t sure he could get off work, and to be honest, we’re trying to tighten our belts a bit in preparation for his retirement. I looked at the airline tickets and they weren’t cheap. I didn’t know what to do. Perhaps hire an  English graduate student to do the research for me? I even emailed the English department but got no reply. Going to a city alone where I didn’t know anyone did not sound fun to me, even though I knew I really needed to do this myself.

Then a writer in my online writing group mentioned she lived in Ohio. Where? I asked. Cincinnati, she answered. I told her I needed to come up for some research and she offered to have me stay with her. We’d never met in person but I love her books and I’d had the chance to interview her for the Historical Novel Review (more on her in a forthcoming post!) I love getting to know and talk to other historical fiction writers, and this was such an incredibly generous offer. It sealed the deal.

So off I went for a 28-hour trip to Cincinnati. Here’s my number one research tip: consult a librarian! They are the most helpful people you will ever meet. They’re actually excited about research. Alex, the archivist at the University of Cincinnati’s Blegen Library, didn’t disappoint.

When I arrived (after getting lost on campus and being helped by an incredibly kind young man), Alex already had a space set up for me to work along with FOUR boxes of material. OMG, I thought. How am I going to get through this material in so little time? There’s a fourth box of related material behind these:

Fortunately, it turned out that most of the pages in boxes two, three and four were duplicates of the material in box one — which contained the actual memoir — or were not relevant for my particular needs.

But, oh, what a treasure it was to read Theda Bara’s recounting of her childhood and her early years in the cinema. I was gratified to realize that in writing about her life so far  I may have not known all the particulars but I had gotten the essential truths of the trail-blazing actress right. She was brilliant, passionate and dedicated in her pursuit of artistic excellence. Reading her words made me admire her even more than I already did. (In the next post I’ll explain how one particular passage gave me goosebumps.)

In the meantime, I’d like to tip my hat to librarians everywhere and in particular to Alex at the University of Cincinnati, who generously  helped me explore the writing of Theda Bara, a former UC student, by the way — as well as offering tips on parking and where to get a great lunch (Good Plates Eatery), and providing a welcoming atmosphere in which to work.