VAMP: The Theda Bara Tarot from Jook Art

[katrinka]

I haven't purchased a Tarot deck in quite some time (I should, rather, be thinking in terms of decluttering!) but I had to have this one. It's different from everything else out there, in a good way. And I'm an old movie buff.

It's not, as it may appear at first glance, simply a collection of Theda photos. There is a method to this deck. Swords, Wands, Coins, and Cups are Fear, Jealousy, Hope, and Love, respectively. The text on the Minors is taken from the 15th century tarot poetry of Count Matteo Boiardo. The Majors also feature text, taken from ‘The Symbolism of the Tarot’ by PD Ouspensky published in 1913. I reviewed it in more detail at my blog. https://fennario.wordpress.com/2019/04/ ... -jook-art/

It's available here https://www.etsy.com/listing/694810115/ ... ve_1&crt=1

[Charlie Brown]

Nice. We have a lot of indie decks featured here, but I don't think I've seen this one on the site. I'm usually not a big fan of photo decks but this one does seem like it has a certain something. Do you think you need to be familiar with the actress to read with it or does it communicate on its own?

[Joan Marie]

I actually backed this deck when it had it's kickstarter but it didn't get funded. I seem to recall getting a message that it was being released anyway. Great to see!

from an earlier post in the Crowdfunding section:

I like this one because there is a lot behind it besides the Theda Bara theme (which was not bad at all). Bara was an avid occultist besides offering so many gorgeous and strange images.
The hand done text on each card is not only beautiful, it adds a really interesting dimension. From the Kickstarter page:

For the major arcana, the text is taken from ‘The Symbolism of the Tarot’ by PD Ouspensky published in 1913. This book consists of pen pictures describing a journey through the 22 cards of the majors.

For the minor arcana, the text is taken from the 15th century tarot poetry of Count Matteo Boiardo. He proposed a 78 card tarot deck with the minors being split into suits based on the Four Passions of Fear, Jealousy, Hope and Love. The VAMP tarot deck uses these minors which are well suited to the themes of Theda’s films dealing with such passions and emotions.

Boiardo wrote a three-line poem for each card, and these are shown in their entirety on each minor card in the deck. As with the majors, all text is handwritten by myself using pen and ink, and in a chancery cursive style that was developed in Italy in the 15th century as well.

I'm disappointed and wish I'd learned of it sooner so we could have promoted it more here. She was SO close to success.

Your review is fantastic katrinka. Sounds like Theda Bara imprinted on you at a young age. Lucky you!

I love that you've included the video clips from her films.

A few years ago I saw Madam du Barry at the film museum here in Frankfurt accompanied by a live piano player, old-school silent movie style. It was just brilliant.

[katrinka]

Nice. We have a lot of indie decks featured here, but I don't think I've seen this one on the site. I'm usually not a big fan of photo decks but this one does seem like it has a certain something. Do you think you need to be familiar with the actress to read with it or does it communicate on its own?

Hi Charlie!

You don't need to know anything about her to read with it. The photos are taken from movies and promotional photos, rather than anything candid or private. She's playing parts and communicating very effectively, without words. Perfect for this medium!

[katrinka]

I actually backed this deck when it had it's kickstarter but it didn't get funded. I seem to recall getting a message that it was being released anyway. Great to see!

A fellow backer! *fistbump* For kickstarter backers, there's a discount code to purchase at Etsy.

from an earlier post in the Crowdfunding section:

I like this one because there is a lot behind it besides the Theda Bara theme (which was not bad at all). Bara was an avid occultist besides offering so many gorgeous and strange images.
The hand done text on each card is not only beautiful, it adds a really interesting dimension. From the Kickstarter page:

For the major arcana, the text is taken from ‘The Symbolism of the Tarot’ by PD Ouspensky published in 1913. This book consists of pen pictures describing a journey through the 22 cards of the majors.

For the minor arcana, the text is taken from the 15th century tarot poetry of Count Matteo Boiardo. He proposed a 78 card tarot deck with the minors being split into suits based on the Four Passions of Fear, Jealousy, Hope and Love. The VAMP tarot deck uses these minors which are well suited to the themes of Theda’s films dealing with such passions and emotions.

Boiardo wrote a three-line poem for each card, and these are shown in their entirety on each minor card in the deck. As with the majors, all text is handwritten by myself using pen and ink, and in a chancery cursive style that was developed in Italy in the 15th century as well.

I'm disappointed and wish I'd learned of it sooner so we could have promoted it more here. She was SO close to success.

Your review is fantastic katrinka. Sounds like Theda Bara imprinted on you at a young age. Lucky you!

I love that you've included the video clips from her films.

Thank you!
You may be pleasantly surprised that those are the full movies.

A few years ago I saw Madam du Barry at the film museum here in Frankfurt accompanied by a live piano player, old-school silent movie style. It was just brilliant.

The one with Pola Negri and Emil Jannings? It must have been sublime to see it that way!
I can watch these old films on DVD or the laptop and be completely enthralled. I hope to someday see some on the big screen, the way they were meant to be seen! Tod Browning's works (especially with Lon Chaney Sr.), any of the great German Expressionist films, Louise Brooks, either of Theda's surviving films restored...there's so many.

People who haven't gotten into them have this idea that silents are kind of cornball. But a lot of them are art. Even the sets have a certain composition, like a great painting.

[Joan Marie]

The one with Pola Negri and Emil Jannings?

Okay, now you got me. There are two madame Du Barry films, one from 1917 with Theda Bara and one from 1919 with Pola Negri, and now that you mention it, I think I saw the Pola Negri one.

I am a huge fan of silent film. I could start a whole blog on them.

[katrinka]

Yes, it would have to be the Pola Negri one - all of Theda's films are lost but the two I linked on my blog!
Pola was incredible, though.

If you ever start that blog, let us know! I love reading that stuff.

[katrinka]

I like the card backs, too. They're taken from the elevator doors in the Chrysler Building. https://www.6sqft.com/going-up-uncoveri ... interiors/

[Tag Jorrit]

I like the card backs, too. They're taken from the elevator doors in the Chrysler Building. https://www.6sqft.com/going-up-uncoveri ... interiors/

Oh! Those doors are divine!

[katrinka]

Deco was an utterly divine period.
It was a rough time - WWI and, towards the end, the Depression - but whatever people were going through, they made a certain effort not to LOOK like they were being dragged through the gates of hell. All those lovely buildings, plus finger waves and bias cut dresses and men in suits. The old, gritty people - I admire them so! These days nobody tries anymore - just twist that hair into a messy bun and go, even if they're going to the red carpet.

I totally get why - everybody in the household needs at least ONE job these days, and there's no time - but if grandma could look polished in a housedress and a little lipstick, well...

[chiscotheque]

i like the deco era, and i find the 20s and 30s a fascinating time, but i never understood the allure of theda bara. i'm gonna catch hell for this, i'm sure, but what's all the fuss? is it her, the actress, or the vamp character?

[katrinka]

i like the deco era, and i find the 20s and 30s a fascinating time, but i never understood the allure of theda bara. i'm gonna catch hell for this, i'm sure, but what's all the fuss? is it her, the actress, or the vamp character?

No hell from this quarter.

A quote from my own blog post: https://fennario.wordpress.com/2019/04/ ... -jook-art/ "I remember the first time I stumbled across a photo from Cleopatra – I think it was in Encyclopedia Britannica – the intense, heavily made-up eyes, the snake bra…this was not the wholesome, cute, boring little thing that we were expected to like and try to emulate, no Gidget or That Girl."

There's something subversive about the characters she played, in a good way. If you've ever let a man buy you dinner or drinks and then just disappeared - instead of giving him what he thought he was going to get for the price of dinner or drinks - ugh! - you've vamped a little. The Vamp is womens' power. It's the ace up our sleeve. It's female privilege - and yes, in spite of all the ways women get run over, female privilege exists.

Theda herself was nothing like her characters. She worked, married once and stayed married. No real life scandals, ever! And we, for the most part, are not 100% vamps. We're nice girls. But don't cross us. We all have hip pocket Vamp skills.

Theda was also the first goth. Seriously. https://www.messynessychic.com/2016/12/ ... irst-goth/

Theda was the anti-Mary Pickford. The Not-Goody-Two-Shoes.

Besides, if it wasn't for Theda's heavily-lined eyes, what would Joan Jett do?


I've got to love Theda. Us bad non-blondes need icons, too!

[katrinka]

PS - Your avatar is SUBLIME.

[chiscotheque]

thanks for the reply, K. i've never actually seen a Theda film, so i should sit down and shut up with a silent. i guess i've always found her image somewhat contrived - the whole death/theda thing - especially given the fact she was a fairly middle-class woman. seen from a different mindset, of course, that dichotomy can be part of the appeal. what about some other female actors of the era, such as Clara Bow or Louise Brooks? Bow is obviously a good-time girl, playing on the jazz-era flapper persona, while Brooks is almost somewhere in between Bow and Bara. hmm, 3 Bs... it's not that i'm exactly antagonistic to contrivance, per se - this is hollywood after all, where everything is contrived - it's more that the film industry has always been controlled by men who pervade a male view, hence women are objects of that view rather than something approaching a real person. that said, the men and children and even the animals (rin tin tin, trigger) were one-dimensional objects. this may be why i more often prefer the oddities of the silent era - and perhaps all eras - rather than the epitomes or touchstones of an era. not that Bara is - or isn't - a touchstone, being unfamiliar fundamentally as i am with her i can't properly say.
which is the best Bara film or 2 to start with? Bara must be an anagram of arab, eh? the mysterious east... a kind of inversion of Valentino?

what's Outside The Law like? that is: is it worth seeing?

[katrinka]

thanks for the reply, K. i've never actually seen a Theda film, so i should sit down and shut up with a silent. i guess i've always found her image somewhat contrived - the whole death/theda thing - especially given the fact she was a fairly middle-class woman. seen from a different mindset, of course, that dichotomy can be part of the appeal. what about some other female actors of the era, such as Clara Bow or Louise Brooks? Bow is obviously a good-time girl, playing on the jazz-era flapper persona, while Brooks is almost somewhere in between Bow and Bara.

Bow was supremely, naturally talented, and not too stable. She came from a horrible background: slums, grinding poverty, and you probably know that her mother tried to kill her, her father raped her, and she watched a friend, a young boy, burn to death. When she finally made it to Hollywood, they worked her half to death and didn't pay her anywhere close to what she should have been getting. And she was a pariah out there - never invited to the Pickfair parties, very few friends. Brooksie was her friend, though. Probably her only real one. Brooks' films are great, too. She managed to get much better scripts that Clara did - what's good about a Bow film is always just Clara herself, never the story.

hmm, 3 Bs... it's not that i'm exactly antagonistic to contrivance, per se - this is hollywood after all, where everything is contrived - it's more that the film industry has always been controlled by men who pervade a male view, hence women are objects of that view rather than something approaching a real person. that said, the men and children and even the animals (rin tin tin, trigger) were one-dimensional objects. this may be why i more often prefer the oddities of the silent era - and perhaps all eras - rather than the epitomes or touchstones of an era. not that Bara is - or isn't - a touchstone, being unfamiliar fundamentally as i am with her i can't properly say.

Yes, Hollywood - virtually everything was contrived. The studios cooked up fake bios for most of the stars. Image, image, image.
Some of the old films are surprisingly not male-centric, though. Particularly the Pre Codes. There were the obligatory lingerie shots, yes, but a lot of those female leads were kicking butt and taking names. Joan Blondell's Blondie Johnson comes to mind. Harlow, Stanwyck - these ladies played toughies. The character might get victimized at some point in the film, but she wasn't a victim. There's a difference.

I see Theda's films as scenarios where every weapon available to women has been taken away - except one. And she uses it effectively.

which is the best Bara film or 2 to start with? Bara must be an anagram of arab, eh? the mysterious east... a kind of inversion of Valentino?

An anagram of "Arab Death" to be exact.
Only three films survive. The two at my blog, and one called East Lynne. I haven't found a place to stream that one, though.
So those two, no particular order.

what's Outside The Law like? that is: is it worth seeing?

All Chaney Sr. films are worth seeing. The Unknown is my favorite, though. That crackup scene is incredible. Some other great ones are He Who Gets Slapped, The Blackbird, West of Zanzibar, Laugh Clown Laugh, and the ubiquitous Phantom and Hunchback.

[Joan Marie]

what's good about a Bow film is always just Clara herself, never the story.

Her film "It" which became her moniker, the It Girl, is a really heavy film. It takes on the topics of unwanted pregnancy (Clara helps support a freind who is saddled with a baby that the father won't claim or help pay for), the unfair and unjust shaming of women for men's behaviours, and a few other things like workplace sexual harassment. It's a surprisingly great film with a really engaging story. And she of course she is brilliant in it. She was so much more than cute (though she surely was that.) Her performance had real depth as did her co-stars. And it was an excellent script.

Regarding Louise Brooks, I can really recommend her autobiography, Lulu in Hollywood. She was a very gifted writer and extremely sharp witted. It's an account not just of her life, but also a picture of the film industry in Hollywood and Germany in those days.

[katrinka]

what's good about a Bow film is always just Clara herself, never the story.

Her film "It" which became her moniker, the It Girl, is a really heavy film. It takes on the topics of unwanted pregnancy (Clara helps support a freind who is saddled with a baby that the father won't claim or help pay for), the unfair and unjust shaming of women for men's behaviours, and a few other things like workplace sexual harassment. It's a surprisingly great film with a really engaging story. And she of course she is brilliant in it. She was so much more than cute (though she surely was that.) Her performance had real depth as did her co-stars. And it was an excellent script.

It's a thoroughly enjoyable film, and yes, it takes on topics. Anyone who has seen CPS do more harm than good will also be able to relate! The intertitles are entertaining and clever, and of course Clara was brilliant in it!

What I meant by my dig at the plot is the Cinderella "poor girl meets boy, loses boy, wins him back" formula - the story is loosely based on an Elinor Glyn novella. Glyn was a kind of lightweight trash romance popular fiction writer. And B.P. Schulberg worked Clara like a slave and didn't care about getting good parts for her - he saw the films as disposable, cheap entertainment and he was going for quantity rather than quality. Actresses often had to fight tooth and nail for good parts (Bette Davis style) and Clara, spunky though she was, was ill-equipped for fighting the studio.

Imagine any other actress from that era in Clara's part - Norma Shearer, Mary Pickford, Olive Borden, Marion Davies, etc. - all competent actresses, but the film would be largely forgotten, I think. Even with the powerhouse ladies like Garbo, Theda, or Gloria Swanson, it would be a completely different film: good, but heavier, darker. Clara sparkled. Enough to make us believe, for a little over an hour at least, that rich men marry slum girls. She's inconstant motion, fidgeting, playing with her hair, running around the set. Her face is the most expressive on film. When she's in a scene, you're looking at her. A lot of what she does in It is her own ad lib, things she threw in herself - the writers and director can't take credit.

That sparkle is a rare thing. Harlow had it (and later, once she got her acting chops, she could have made a great Betty Lou Spence in a talkie version - imagine Gable in the male lead.) Monroe had it, too - how many actresses from the 1950's are still instantly recognizable to literally everyone? Just last night at work, I heard a very young girl refer to a dermal on the lower cheek as "a Monroe". Even Loren and Taylor don't have that level of recognition.

All of this goes beyond sex appeal, "it", etc. There's something indefinable, almost magical at play. That's what makes It a great film. Take it out of the equation and the film falls flat.

Regarding Louise Brooks, I can really recommend her autobiography, Lulu in Hollywood. She was a very gifted writer and extremely sharp witted. It's an account not just of her life, but also a picture of the film industry in Hollywood and Germany in those days.

Yes!
And for Clara, David Stenn's Runnin' Wild. He wrote the definitive Harlow biography, too. There's a longish interview with him here, in six parts. It mainly focuses on Jean, but there's mentions of Clara, too:
https://www.classicmoviefavorites.com/a ... vid-stenn/

There was talk of a Bow biopic a few years ago. I hope it gets done. I trust Stenn to get it right. https://variety.com/2016/film/news/clar ... 201808572/

Stenn also funded the preservation of Maytime. Clara only has a supporting role in that one, but, of course, she totally steals the movie. https://www.filmpreservation.org/preser ... ytime-1923