Many posts ago I showed a scene from an unknown Theda Bara movie. Since then I got no closer to knowing which movie it was from until I learned about movie still "codes."

You probably have seen them, usually a white number or numbers and letters in the right bottom corner of a still from a movie.

Believe it or not there is some logic to these numbers.

After seeing a number of stills which have these (by the way, a lot of publicity photos which went to newspapers did not have the numbers), I have narrowed down the movie to one which just fits this description of When Men Desire which debuted March 9, 1919:

American Marie Lohr is visiting her German uncle in Strassburg when the United States enters World War I. Major von Rohn, her German suitor, endeavors to keep her apart from her boyfriend, American aviator Robert Stedman. An American bomb wounds von Rohn and kills a German spy whose identity Marie assumes in an attempt to escape across the border. Marie is stopped by lecherous German officers, but manages to get word to Robert who tries to rescue her but must hide when von Rohn returns. When von Rohn discovers someone is hiding in the closet, Marie stabs and kills him. Robert dons the German's uniform, and after a chase, flies with Marie safely over the border.

I believe this is a scene from the room which was just hit by that American bomb. Marie is possibly looking at a document which came from the dead German spy.



So, the plot and the picture could be in sync.

What led me to this, though, was a process of elimination by looking at the codes. The code on the picture looks like E-31-26. Anyway it is clear the first part starts with E-31 which is the part of the code which tells you the movie the still came from. The last digits indicate the number of the still in that movie. Often the digits are in sequence from the movie, although that is not for sure. Numeric sequences where each number is one more than the previous number can often be scenes that can show movement!

As you can see from this table, the codes that do match movies I know about fall right in line...and the missing movie falls right in place.

When A Woman Sins	Sept. 28, 1918	27-1,27-46
The She-Devil	Nov. 10, 1918	28-37
The Light	Jan. 12, 1919	E-30-15, E-30-29
When Men Desire	March 9, 1919	??? E-31-26 ???
The Siren's Song	May 4, 1919	29-26
A Woman There Was	June 1, 1919	E-32-27, E-32-37
Kathleen Malvourneen	August 19, 1919	B-4-23,52,28,35
La Belle Russe	Sept. 21, 1919	B-3-56,18

On June 21, 1984, the New York branch of the Screen Actors Guild celebrated the 50th year of SAG with the Moving Picture Ball held at the new Criterion Center in Times Square.

Twelve 9-foot tall, 7-foot wide acrylic paintings on canvas with gold "sprocket hole" frames were created and back lit along one wall of the ballroom for the gala event.

Most of the paintings were of silent movie stars and one of them was Theda Bara.

Scenic design artist Edward C. Garzero, veteran of more than 40 movies or television shows through the 1990s, coordinated the painting of the images of Theda Bara, Greta Garbo, Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Clara Bow, William S. Hart, Rudolph Valentino, Lilian Gish and Ethel Waters.

Here is the painting of Theda Bara in the original frame:



You may recognize the image, also interpreted as a painting used to grace the cover of Picture Play Magazine on February 13, 1916:


...and as the original publicity photograph as seen on the cover of Movie Weekly on June 2, 1923:


Edward Garzero apparently is now 84 but ill. His last work as a scenic artist was in 1993.

His son, Joseph P. Garzero, was one of the artists who helped him complete the 12 large canvases.

I don't know if Edward Garzero picked who was to be in the paintings. Probably not. The designer who donated his services to the SAG for the Ball was John Robert Lloyd. Most likely it was he or even the Ball Committee which picked the actors to be celebrated. But maybe Garzero picked the images. Certainly he and his crew were the ones who made it happen. Thanks!

My hope is that the Theda Bara image gets out there to silent movie festivals and other venues instead of hiding away as it has pretty much for the last 27 years. The canvas sits rolled up in our house now... awaiting a new frame and the ability to help celebrate again silent movies in general and Theda Bara movies in particular!

The last film Theda Bara appeared in was a Hal Roach film, Madame Mystery.

About the same time, Harry Langdon was filmed in Tygh Valley, Oregon in 1925 for Hal Roach Studios production of The Fighting Parson.

With that tenuous connection I bring this question to this blog: were the photographs here from The Fighting Parson?

Let us first start with a list of silent films made in Oregon as seen in Wikipedia:
The Fisherman's Bride 1908 Astoria
Where Cowboy is King 1915 Pendleton
Grace's Visit to the Rogue Valley 1915 Jackson County
The Stolen Pie 1916 Medford
Martyrs of Yesterday 1919 Oregon City, Portland
The Golden Trail 1920 Portland
Headed North 1920 Troutdale
Barriers of Folly 1922 Unknown
Bulldog Courage 1922 Unknown
His Last Assignment 1922 Unknown
The Death Message 1922 Portland, Beaverton
The Mine Looters 1922 Unknown
The Range Patrol 1922 Unknown
Underground Trail 1922 Unknown
Covered Wagon 1923 Unknown
Crashing Courage 1923 Unknown
Flames of Passion 1923 Unknown
Scars of Hate 1923 Unknown
The Flash 1923 Portland, Beaverton
The Frame Up 1923 Portland, Beaverton
The Power Divine 1923 Portland, Beaverton
The Vow of Vengeance 1923 Portland, Beaverton
Way of the Transgressor 1923 Portland, Beaverton
Beaten 1924 Portland, Beaverton
Driftwood 1924 Unknown
Harbor Patrol 1924 Portland, Beaverton
Passing on the West 1924 Pendleton
Shackles of Fear 1924 Unknown
Trail of Vengeance 1924 Unknown
Under the Rouge 1924 Portland
Hills Aflame 1925 Unknown
Peggy of the Secret Service 1925 Unknown
Phantom Shadows 1925 Unknown
Scarlet and Gold 1925 Unknown
The Fighting Chance 1925 Unknown
The Fighting Parson 1925 Tygh Valley, Oregon
The Fighting Romeo 1925 Unknown
Vanishing Horse 1925 Unknown
Winds of Chance 1925 Wallowa County
Youth's Highway 1925 Portland, Beaverton
Flames 1926 Portland
The Ice Flood 1926 Klamath Falls
The General 1927 Cottage Grove
Forbidden Traffic 1927 Unknown
Mystery House 1927 Mount Hood
The Reporter 1927 Medford
Our Daily Bread 1928 Pendleton
The Reporter 1928 Medford

Okay, knowing that, and considering that the following photographs were taken in Oregon (only confirmation is that other pictures in the album were taken in Oregon), what movie was being filmed here?










You would think it would be the 1915 Where Cowboy is King, but that is a documentary and this looks more like they are filming a story.

It might be The Fighting Parson from 1925 because there were several photos in this album from Tygh Valley. The guy who looks like a director bears a striking resemblence to Fred Guiol, seen here from the 1926 film he did with Stan Laurel: Get 'Em Young.



Definitely it is not from the only Oregon silent film I had heard anything about, The General, Buster Keaton's great 1927 picture filmed in and around Cottage Grove, Oregon.

The Tacoma Times on January 16, 1916 (wow, 96 years and 2 days ago!) shows a scene from Theda Bara's latest film at the time, The Galley Slave.



This is what the American Film Institute says is the entire film's plot:

Francesca Brabaut (Theda Bara), who married an artist against her father's advice, regrets her decision when her husband Antoine (Stuart Holmes), in debt, sends her to his misanthropic uncle (Baron Le Bois played by Hardee Kirkland ???) to plead for money. After Francesca refuses the uncle's offer to change his will if she will have sex with him, the uncle, declaring that he has misjudged women, decides to leave money to provide for Francesca and her child (Dolores, played by Jane Lee) but dies of heart failure first.

Antoine inherits a castle and title and deserts Francesca. Later, while posing in Florence for an American artist (A. H. Van Buren?), Francesca meets the artist's sweetheart, American heiress Cecily Blaine (Clair Whitney), whose mother (Mrs. Blaine, played by Lillian Lawrence) wants her to marry someone with a title. The father, Mr. Blaine, is played by Ben Hendricks, Sr.

When Francesca learns that Antoine plans to marry Cecily, Francesca threatens to expose him as her estranged husband. However, Antoine convinces Cecily that Francesca and the American artist are married. Cecily then consents to marry Antoine.

After Francesca and the American artist are sent to the galleys unjustly for theft, Antoine is exposed. When Antoine tries to kidnap Dolores, Francesca shoots him, whereupon Cecily marries the American artist.

Whew, what a plot! You need a score card to keep track.

My money is that this scene shows Antoine with Francesca in the middle, but hard to say what else is going on. Is that Mr. and Mrs. Blaine on the sidelines? That would make some sense but it doesn't quite fit the plot.

This has to be one of the best scenes from a lost Theda Bara film and Theda is no where to be found in it! Raoul Walsh directed Carmen in 1915 and this scene was shown in the Philadelphia Evening Ledger on October 30, 1915.

Back then it was some kind of record, but I would bet it stands today.

The character of Don Jose commits suicide by riding his horse over a cliff. Walsh did not fake this scene and had the stuntman (well, at least it ought to be a stuntman) ride the horse over an 83-foot cliff! No dummy for either horse or man!



This was filmed in the Adirondacks, not the Palisades in New Jersey where the rest of the film was shot, but between Ausable Chasm and Port Kent, New York (upstate New York, right across the border from Vermont).

The horse and man did two loops before reaching the bottom.

The man (probably not Einar Linden who played Don Jose in the movie's safer scenes) broke one leg against the rocks in the water. The horse escaped without injury.

Alas, we will never get to see this on film. No wonder this version of Carmen is considered by many as one of the top 50 lost films of all time.

No other version of Carmen, including the other two from that year (Charlie Chaplin's Burlesque on Carmen and Cecil B. DeMille's Carmen, had Don Jose committing suicide by horse leap. Oh, that Raoul Walsh!

The Library of Congress Chronicling America website is a great place to go to find articles about Theda Bara!

We've known that Theodosia (Theda's birth name) performed on the stage in Portland, Oregon but that is about all we knew.

Now we know at least one performance she was in and have a mention of her in the review!

Picture, if you will, a theater building less then two years old in Portland's thriving theater district. The Helig was built and opened in 1910 at 7th (Broadway) Avenue and Taylor Street.




It was the major theater in town and dress shops advertised apparel for women appropriate for a night at The Helig. It was the place to go for an evening's fine entertainment, to see and be seen!





No wonder the women lined up around the block to attend the many plays, operettas and concerts held there.

This is the venue for Theodosia da Cappet in her role as Diana, one of the lesser but still notable cast members in a Christmas performance of The Quaker Girl in 1912 at The Helig.

The reviewer in The Morning Oregonian, page 9, the next day says that Theodosia de Cappet as Diana "adds a little spice to our Quaker girl's debut in Paris. Miss Capper [sic], in a stunning gown and her almost painfully real character depictions of a French type in all its tempermental say, is not only good to look upon, but is finished in her work."

Theda Bara said she was in Portland in a stock company doing new performances every week between September and June of some year, but I could find no evidence of this under her first name of Theodosia (regardless of last name) besides this one performance. The Quaker Girl was supposed to be a touring performance and Portland was just one stop on the circuit.

By the way, The Heilig building lasted until 1997 when it was torn down. When it was converted as a movie theater it became known as The Mayfair, The Rialto, Music Box, and finally Fox Theater.

What movie is this from?



Theda Bara is sitting down. The director is just outside camera range. You can see the camera to the right with the camera operator.

My guess is that this is a scene from Kathleen Malvoureen. Looks like Kathleen is being grilled by someone from Scotland Yard.

This picture is actually an inset of a larger image which depicted the glassed-in stage which let more natural light onto the set. I hope that explains why it is a bit blurry: it is the best I could do with the resolution of the inset. The original picture was only about 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches.

There is an exhibit in New York City open through February 25th which has a number of promotional pieces from Theda Bara movies according to this article.



The location of the exhibit is the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in the Lincoln Center gallery. This apparently is at Lincoln Center according to the library itself. If you follow the links you can find a neat u-tubby, but you can also get there from here.

Beggars can't be choosers. When films of Theda Bara are gone any scrap of information about any of the lost films is helpful. I am finding more and more newspaper archives on-line, some with fairly good scans of scenes from her movies which I have not seen before.

Found fairly good scenes from Carmen (2), Cleopatra (both of which I have seen, but the one with the little children has more detail in some respects), The Clemenceau Case, When Men Desire, The Devil's Daughter and others.





The above scene is from Lady Audley's Secret and probably the best of what I found in terms of contrast and resolution.

All of these, of course, were originally from Fox sent in publicity packets to the movie theatres and possibly directly to newspapers. I would really like to get the originals instead of the newspaper reproduced, microfilmed and then digitally scanned versions! However, at least I get some additional visual information I did not have before.



I couldn't believe they included this fairly large picture (a scene from Cleopatra) in one Ontario, Oregon newspaper. The lack of detail makes it look like Theda Bara is not wearing any costume at all over her upper torso! However, the actual costume, while scanty, was more substantial that the poor resolution and contrast indicate here!