Theda Bara & William Fox - Légendes du cinéma

This is the end of the First World War and its millions of deaths. This first industrial war allowed the economy and science to make a prodigious leap forward, a new paradox of humanity. After this conflict, men begin to live better and women to emancipate themselves. A new era arrives and allows a creative explosion. We see the birth of trends and currents whose common point is freedom of expression and the will to leave the beaten paths of traditional art. The school of surrealists, Bauhaus, jazz, Picasso, Modigliani, Mondrian, Satie, Cocteau, Man Ray and Isadora Duncan. Art Deco and its architectural audaces, the Louis Brooks Cup, fashion according to Poiret and the release of Chanel's No. 5. Until 1914, rock was the cradle of cinema, of melies to the German expressionists. The old continent is a real crusade. May 1914-1918 allows the Americans to become, in three years, the first producer of film in the world. The censorship committees and the leagues of virtue helping, the scripts and films are more and more aseptic and conventional in order to preserve the integrity of the family and moral values. Despite the puritanism of some, the films that William Fox produced for Ted Abara met a deep resonance among the women of that time. Their intelligence and their seduction became new weapons in order to acquire their independence. When I look back on my past, a smile full of irony comes to my lips. What a funny path I have traveled. The image of the woman I play in my films fundamentally transformed the mentality and the buzzwords in the 1915s. The Victorian tradition that reigned then put women in a corner of rules and duties more constraining to each other. Until my appearance on the screens of cinema. I play the vampire, the evil creature that takes the energy of men and lives only for his pleasure. I make those who approach me suffer, I defile their honor and destroy their family. I, who am the opposite of these fatal women, I, who am faithful to my husband, I, who love to read, well, I am the symbol of the growing independence of women in this early century. It is thanks to my cinematographic interpretations that women realized that they had their own identity. The little girl of Polish and Swiss origin, I changed the minds of half the population of the United States. What a paradox! My father left Poland in 1871 to emigrate to New York, the promised land. He meets my mother there and marries her in 1882. He becomes a tailor, while my mother makes wigs with real human hair. On July 29, 1885, a little Theodosia Goodman arrives, me, nicknamed Teda by my parents. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1898, my bat mitzvah is celebrated. Although I am not a practitioner, I feel a certain pride in being born Jewish. With a strong personality, I convince my parents to let me study. Do not laugh, few women attended university in 1905, but the theater virus is already flowing in my veins. I spend all my free time there. From Alan Asimova to Sarah Bernard, the great actresses fascinate me. Their independence, their game intelligence, the intensity of their emotions, the love they give to the audience, I feel that I too can embody the spirit of my time and become a great actress. I decide to stop studying. My father doubts my ability to play. He is right. I am not a born actress. In these cases, you have to believe in yourself. I was born with a strong sense of humor and a will to do, which allows me to serenely wait for my 30th anniversary for the doors of glory to open and for men to finally pour pieces of flowers and rivers of diamonds at my feet. All this after my meeting with William Fox, the founder of the studios of the same name on the side of the bank road. So he only admits to me after having me sign my contract. Yes, I was on the verge of bankruptcy, and then, when you want to win big, you have to know how to bet big. I understood this rule very early. When I was born in Hungary in 1880, my parents are poor, very poor, and decide to leave Europe for the new continent. But Eldorado is only a dream, and poverty is still a real one in the low New York infested by rats. Of my 12 brothers and sisters, only 6 will survive. We do not eat every day, and my parents cannot raise us properly. I educate myself alone and work early. Childhood takes place in adolescence. The boy in the race, I become a tailor. I have the sense of business, and little by little I manage to get my family out of this hell. One day, a billboard caught my eye. One of those funny hangars where you can see small films is for sale. We are in 1904. I invested all my savings, nearly $1,600, to buy it from Stuart Blackstone, from Vitagraph. The idea of making this entertainment accessible to everyone seems to me a good way to make money. But Stuart did not explain everything to me, and the boredom begins the next day. In fact, the clients, especially men who go to Nickelodeon, most of them are unemployed, alcoholics, left-behind, in short, all kinds of trafficking happens in the absence of the police's indiscreet eyes. I decide to take a big step forward and offer films for the family first. My intuition is good, and the audience changes with the help of a few viewers to reassure everyone. My little business works so well that in a matter of a few years I own 15 theaters. I make a good living, but I also see that the producers who rent me the films get much bigger profits. The organization, called the Patent Company, led by Joe Kennedy, the future lover of Gloria Swanson, reigns over the film production and imposes exorbitant taxes on the independents. I decide to attack this trust made up of the biggest producers, Edison, Birger, Vitagraph, Ezinne, Melies, and, to my surprise, I win my trial. We are free, and the $300,000 in damages are quickly invested in the purchase of theaters and, above all, in the production of feature films. Dustin Farnham, who starred in Cecil B. DeMille's first film, The Score Man, owns the same bloodline as me, and if I survived a serious traffic accident, it was thanks to him. Out of gratitude, I offer him a life contract. J. Gordon Edwards, the grandfather of Blake Edwards, directs most of my films. The money that goes into FLOW is immediately spent on new productions and in the Movie Tone, a new process that allows the viewer to hear a band of sounds synchronized to the image. This technical feat involves a lot of money, and I soon find myself on the brink of bankruptcy. It was then that Frank Powell introduced me to Theodosia Goodman, a small theater actress. When William Fox meets the one who was going to become Ted Abara, he does not yet know that it is thanks to her that his company will become number one in a few months and bring him more than $250 million. Johnny Goldfrapp, the head of Fox's public relations, has a great idea. No one would have bet a penny on the head of a small actress from Cincinnati, but he decides to create a myth. Little Theodosia Goodman, born in Ohio, becomes Ted Abara, an anagram of Arab Death. Born of a French mother and an exploratory father, under the benevolent gaze of the sphinx disguised in Egypt, the little girl has all the ingredients to make spectators dream. Teda is an intelligent woman and sees the profit she can make by playing the game of the company. Soon, the press runs into this strange actress who plays with snakes, smokes cigars and burns incense in her lodge for thousands of millions. The first prefabricated star is born. From the painting by Philip Byrne Jones and from Vampire, the poem by Rudyard Kipling, Frank Powell writes and directs a film adaptation. We are in 1915 and Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffith leaves its place as number one in Fox's new film A Fool There Was. In a few days, Teda Barra becomes the audience's favorite actress. A single actor will thus pass to the posterity of the next day thanks to a new image of the representation of sexuality, Rodolphe Valentin. In A Fool There Was, I don't play a woman. No, no, I am the vampire. Quite a symbol. My character seduces men, takes advantage of them and destroys their happiness. John Schuller is a happy man. A reputable lawyer, he is in love with his wife and loves his child. Everything works out for him. But fate has decided to complicate things and our hero is offered a position as a diplomat in England. How can he refuse? Unfortunately, his family has to stay in the United States. This is where I come in. Me, the tool of fate that will compromise him. Caught in my nets, there is a web around him that prevents him from leaving me. A scene contrasts with the melodic atmosphere of the film. The interpretation of a crisis of delirium tremens that looks like an epilepsy crisis. As for the lipstick or the cheek light, our way of playing exaggerates the effects. The game of the actors of the time was divided into two schools. The naturalist method of Konstantin Stanislavski, of whom Alan Asimov was the most famous student, and which required actors to rely on their own experience to play a character. The other, that of François Delsarte, of whom Ethel Barrymore, Laduz or Ted Abara practiced the method, and who advocated never to move when another actor speaks or to move when declaring his text. Joy, anger or love are caricatured on the screen. The constraints are numerous and rare are the actors They also have to provide their own jewelry, make-up and costumes. In A Fool There Was, Ted Abara takes 10. All of his cashier passes. But after the success of the film at the box office, the Fox gives in to all her whims and pushes her to play these cursed women that the public is waiting for. Carmen, by Raoul Walsh in 1915. Camille, by G. Gordon Edwards in 1917. Madame du Barry, Salome and above all, Cleopatra. Ted Abara will be the first to play the famous Queen of Egypt. His films are well received and generate huge profits. William Fox becomes rich, very rich. And the New York Times in March 1917 estimates his fortune at 250 million dollars. I now direct two distinct entities. The first, Fox Films, specialized in films with a small budget with atypical stars like Ted Abara and David Warwick Griffith, the most popular cowboy in the United States. And the second, the 20th Century Fox, in collaboration with Darryl Zanuck. I have become the Eagle of the Mughals, the big boss of Hollywood. We all started in the same way, thanks to an actor or actress who has the unique gift of representing his time. David Warwick Griffith, Lance Lillian Gish, who revolutionized the film industry. Jesse Lasky and Adolphe Zuccol from Paramount make a fortune with Mary Pickford, America's little fiancée, and become the first to industrialize the profession. Carl Laemmle, the founder of Studio Universal, makes a fortune thanks to Eric Von Stroheim, who directs and plays in Les Follies de Femmes. Louis B. Meyer and Irvin Talberg found the most prestigious studio in the world with stars like Greta Garbo. I was able to build La Fox with Theda Barra. The thirty films that we made together, not to mention one of the first animated films to meet Theda Barra, helped me realize my dream of having my own studio. My films are not for the intelligentsia. I have never produced for the people of the cities. Simple scenarios, opposing good and evil, often in a Manichaean way, but that pleases everyone. That's my credo. In 1927, I produced L'Aurore, directed by Morneau. The Paramount and MGM are still on my mind. This film is one of my greatest pride. It paints a rural world where passion and love meet. I made John Ford work and his film Le Cheval d'Acier brought him his first success as a director. My films sell well and, unlike my competitors, I also invest in real estate. In 1928, I partnered with Marcus Lowes, owner of more than 2,000 cinemas. I finally believe I have succeeded. But fate is there, in the shadow of my gaze, that I learn the horrible news. If, until then, filming took place near New York, for Salomé, William Fox decided to emigrate to the West Coast in California. In 1919, there were no museums or libraries. I, who read more than five books a week, suddenly find myself without anything to satisfy my curiosity. And women are far from being as emancipated as I am. But I earn more than $4,000 a week and, of course, it's a success. Three years later, the great Alana Zimová releases her modern, very aesthetic version of Oscar Wilde's tale and a dreamlike story far from the version I had shot. A few months later, I meet Charles Brabin, one of Fox's directors. Everyone calls him Lord or Sir. It's love at first sight. But it's not love at first sight. It's love at first sight. I'm far from the image my films convey, and I remain faithful to Charles, who is far from me in Italy, where he directs Benny Hill. Before this hasty return, he will be replaced by Fred Niblo. I shoot in Unchastened Woman, a dramatic comedy about infidelity, a very popular subject. Caroline, my character, discovers with joy that she is expecting a baby. But she learns at the same time that she is wrong. She decides to go to Europe to raise her child alone. Becoming a very popular woman, she returns to her country to take revenge on her husband. But love triumphs. The mistress is banished and the child returns to his father. I no longer correspond to the canon of the time and the studios bore me until the day when the producer Al Roach offered me the role of Max Ennette. He launched the very beautiful Jean Arnault, who will disappear in a flash a few years later. But it is his collaboration with Laurel and Hardy that marks its beginnings. Stan, in fact, directs our first film, Madame Mysterie, where I play alongside Oliver Hardy. I am a spy chased by a gang of thieves. I try to escape by taking a boat During the flight, one of them swallows the bomb, takes the bat and fights on the ship. There is only helium and the explosion turns my thief into a balloon. The film pleases the audience, but Charles forbids me to continue. Madame Mysterie will be my last film. In 1926, a new vampire kills the screens and if she has never played Shakespeare, Greta Garbo will leave a deep imprint in the great book of cinema. In 1949, Billy Wilder offers him a role alongside Montgomery Clift in a film about old Hollywood. It is finally Gloria Swanson and William Holden who will play in Sunset Boulevard. In the early 1950s, Charles and Teda settled in Beverly Hills and their neighbor never knew that the nice old lady who took such good care of her rosaries had embodied the first vampire for the Fox story. The newspapers of October 28, 1929 all have the same cover, Krak at Wall Street. The shares that I had bought $120 two months before are worth 50 cents today. I am broke. My associates push me to sell my shares to save the Fox. And in March 1930, I am no longer the boss of my own company. I recover $18 million, but in 1932, the new bosses of the Fox put me in jail for 10 years. What a shame! I, the creator of the Fox studios, I see myself condemned to pay millions in damages. The tax also claims several million dollars while my lawyers end up swallowing what I have left. My fall is dizzying. I am sentenced to six months in prison at the penitentiary in Leavisburg. I am annihilated. Forgotten by all, William Fox may have fallen because he always wanted to ride alone. Even the lords of Hollywood obey the rules. They are merciless to those who do not follow them. During his last trip to Los Angeles, William Fox is accompanied by Loretta Young, the heroine of the crime staged by Orson Welles. Flashlights flash around the star when a passenger approaches a photographer and tells him that William Fox is also present in the city. Journalists look at each other and then ask him, does the builder of the cathedral still remain in the world? William Fox, the little Hungarian Jew who discovered Theda Bara, died alone in 1952 in New York. Theda died of liver cancer on April 7, 1955. She came out of a temporary glory. Faithful to her husband, balanced and full of spirit, she lived a serenely extraordinary existence. Her only regret Years later, her style still pleases and she has to smile when she sees her effigy recalling her memory. Theda Bara will remain forever the pioneer of the vamps of the history of cinema and the first star launched thanks to a marketing and advertising campaign. Her collaboration with William Fox allowed the 20th Century to become one of the great studios in the world.