George Santos, Theda Bara and Other Fabulists
A note to you, my beloved readers: I had been intending for this end-of-the-year essay to be a wrap-up of the 1-6 Committee’s mammoth 945-page final report. Try as I might, I simply could not finish reading it in its entirety before my personal deadline. It is both a work of historic importance and a world-class page-turner. It reads like a finely composed novel . . . and yet is both meticulously-well researched and filled with more verifiable footnotes than the Babylonian Talmud. I promise you that in the next several weeks, I will post an essay that gathers my thoughts, and attempts to put this singular work into its proper historic context . . . In the meantime, let’s spend a little time with Representative-Elect George Santos . . . and such long-forgotten silent movie superstars as Theda Bara, Olga Petrova and Jetta Goudal . . . all of whom have something in common . . . KFS)
Next to politicians and their campaign handlers, there have likely never been more successful fabulists (liars, that is) on the face of the earth than Golden-Age Hollywood P.R. Directors and the stars they created. Like all you, I have been reading about all the lies Rep.-Elect George Santo ran on this past election season. He managed to mislead voters about his work and educational history, his family’s heritage, his past philanthropic efforts and his business dealings. He claimed he was Jewish and that his maternal grandparents were European “Holocaust refugees.” (They actually were from Brazil, and he actually is Catholic.) He claimed to have graduated from Baruch College in 2010 and to have attended New York University. He repeatedly claimed that his mother Fatimah Devolder, who died of cancer in 2016, was a 9/11 survivor who was “in her office in the South Tower on September 11, 2001,” and “passed away a few years later when she lost her battle to cancer.” He claimed to have lost four employees in the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., in 2016, and that he worked for Citigroup and for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street. None of that appears true — and that is only a partial list.
As the Biblical Kohelet (King Solomon, writing under a pseudonym) famously claimed, “There is nothing new under the sun.” When it comes to both the famous and infamous of my hometown, Hollywood, California, this is triply true. Oh so many of our neighbors were known to the public by names (and biographies) fabricated by studio press agents rather than given by their parents. (Constant readers may recall a piece I posted nearly 3 1/2 years ago on my “Tales From Hollywood and Vine” blog entitled What’s In a Name? which introduced readers to the real (e.g. birth) names of tens of dozens of Hollywood stars, directors and screenwriters. In our house, Mom (a.k.a. “Madam”) was a master; she knew virtually everyone’s real name, where they were born, and who they really were before becoming famous.
A couple of famous examples:
Although not the first silent movie vamp, Theda Bara (at left) was certainly the most popular and successful. According to information released by her studio (Wm. Fox), this slightly zoftig seductress who, with one sultry glance could drive any man over the edge, was sold to the public as "the daughter of an Arab sheik and a French woman, born in the Sahara" (Other press releases had her mother being the daughter of an Italian nobleman and baby Theda’s birthplace being in “the shadow of the Sphinx). And her name, fans were told, was an anagram for “Arab Death.” In truth, she was born Theodosia Goodman in the Avondale section of Cincinnati in late July 1885, the daughter of a prosperous Jewish tailor from Poland named Bernard Goodman. Bernie and his wife, Pauline, named their daughter Theodosia, after a daughter of the late U.S. Vice President, Aaron Burr. And so, Theodosia (nicknamed “Teddy” from her youth), would, by age 29, become the highest-paid movie star in the world, playing Cleopatra and other assorted man-devouring vamps. At her height, she made $4,000 a week (more than $60,000 in 2023 dollars . . . and without having to pay income tax), was able to retire by age 35, and spend the rest of her life as a wealthy matron in Beverly Hills.
Muriel Harding, born and raised in the distinctly non-glamorous English port town of Hull, somehow, despite her lower-class upbringing and distinctive Yorkshire accent, would be one day become Olga Petrova, one of early filmdom’s most exotic feminists. Built up as a daughter of Russian royalty, in the early teens, she was a widely popular actress, starring in more than 30 full-length motion pictures for Solax, the first studio owned and run by a woman, the producer/director Alice Guy. Always billed as “Madame Petrova,” she starred on Broadway, wrote numerous plays, a fascinating (though utterly untruthful) autobiography Butter With My Bread, and spent her retirement in Clearwater, Florida, passing away at age 93 on the last day of November, 1977.
Last but not least, let’s not forget the ultimate filmland diva, Jetta Goudal (1891-1985). In her heyday, the darkly exotic Ms. Goudal (her name being pronounced Zah-hettah Goo-doll) was a star who rivaled Gloria Swanson, starring in such classic films as Salome of the Tenements and D.W. Griffith’s Lady of the Pavements. Arriving in the United States at the close of World War I (after a career on the European stage), she presented herself as “Jetta Goudal, Parisienne-born in Versailles in 1901 and the daughter of a prominent lawyer.” In matter of fact, she was Julie Henriette Goudeket, born in Amsterdam ten years earlier (1891) to Wolf Mozes Goudeket, a wealthy Orthodox Jewish diamond cutter. Coming to the United States wound up saving her life; virtually her entire family died in Nazi death camps. Following her film career, she and her longtime (1930-1985) husband, Harold Grieve, became two of the most popular interior decorators in the community. No one - save native Hollywoodites - knew of her family background or history. (n,b.: imperious to the end (she lived to 94) Jetta actually sued Volkswagen over “Copyright Infringement” for calling one of the new line of autos the “Jetta.” The case died a quick death.)
Few, if any would ever think of holding made-up names and family histories against actors, dancers, directors and studio p.r. staffs. That Jonas Sternberg would start calling himself Josef von Sternberg, Jacob Krantz Ricardo Cortez, Spangler Arlington Brugh Robert Taylor, or Texas-born Tula Ellice Finklea Cyd Charisse (and occasionally Maria Istomina, Felia Sidorova and Natacha Tulaelis) is pretty much de rigueur in art forms based on the creation of fictional characters. But politics? That’s a whole other slab of cheese. During the current George Santos imbroglio, one occasionally hears Republicans gleefully reminding their followers of the lies of President Joseph R. Biden and Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal . . . and once in a blue moon, a Democrat will bring up Ronald Reagan’s conflated record in WWII. (Nearly all of Reagan’s wartime stories and recollections took place at the old Hal Roach Studios (lovingly referred to as “Fort Roach”) where he made training films. The studio was located at 8822 Washington Boulevard in Culver City.
So far as Biden and Blumenthal, they both have been caught in telling tales. In his closing remarks at a 1987 Democratic presidential debate, Biden lifted passages from one of British Labour Party Leader’s Neil Kinnock’s most moving speeches without attribution. Biden’s boo-boo was discovered, he both admitted and apologized for his error; it likely cost him the nomination. Interestingly, in 2020, Kinnock, by now a Labour Peer, interviewed about the 1987 plagiarism ‘scandal’ said that he had always considered it “an innocent mistake.” “Joe’s an honest guy. If Trump had done it, I would know that he was lying.”
Then there was Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal. During the September 2018 hearings on Brett Kavanaugh for a acant seat on the U.S. Supreme Court, there was much back-and-forth on Kavanaugh’s credibility . . . especially in the area of taking unwanted liberties with women. At one point, Senator Blumenthal told MSNBC that proceeding with Kavanaugh's nomination would "forever stain the Supreme Court.” That quickly brought back the issue of Blumenthal’s successful 2010 campaign for the United States Senate during which the then long-serving Connecticut A.G. said that he had "misspoken" about his military service during the Vietnam War after the New York Times obtained his Selective Service Record, which showed he received five separate draft deferments while a college student and then, when those deferments ran out, secured a spot in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves (serving stateside, not in Vietnam). The issue quickly died down and he went on to win. But to this day, Republicans use it against him as proof that he is no more honest than Donald Trump . . . or George Santos.
Ah but there is a huge difference here: both Biden and Blumenthal have nearly 85 years in elected office between them; their fables have been far and few between; they have a lengthy, lengthy record of positive service which more than outweighs their past errors. Such is not the case with George Santos; without even having taken the oath of office (which could occur tomorrow, January 3), he has yet to be truthful about anything.
A couple of questions emerge at this time:
1. How could such a pathological liar ever get elected in the first place
2. What should be done about him?
As to the first question, it would be easy to blame the Democrats for falling down in their opposition research and the Republicans for turning a blind eye and keeping their mouths shut. In point of face, there was quite a bit of information available on the man many Republicans in New York’s 3rd District were already referring to as “George Scam-tos.” The Long Island North Shore Leader revealed quite a bit about him months before the election: “In a list of complaints about the candidate, the paper called out Santos’ policy stances on abortion and Ukraine. It also pointed out that his claim to real estate ownership was false “He brags about his ‘wealth’ and his ‘mansions’ in the Hamptons – but he really lives in a row house in Queens,” the paper wrote. They said he was involved in a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme shut down by the SEC, questioned the use of money raised for his campaign, and his net-worth. “Santos had no visible campaign until a few weeks ago - no offices, no signs, no mailings, no significant ‘voter contact,’” the paper reported. The failure is on both sides of the aisle. Opposition research (and conversely, the investigation of one’s own candidate, the idea being “If we can find out the dirt about our candidate, so can they”) is cheap, readily accomplished and absolutely essential. I remember doing research on one our our guys back in the early ‘70s . . . and this was long before Google, Lexus-Nexus and the like. It was pretty easy . . .
As to the second question, Santos, I firmly believe, is about to become the Republican’s eternal 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, and the Democrat’s oh-so-easy chip-shot . . . to put things into pre-Super Bowl terms. Come tomorrow, Kevin McCarthy is going to need Santos’ vote in order to become Speaker of the House. He (or whomsoever ultimately wins) will either refuse to give George Santos committee assignments or merely seat him on such duds as The Joint Committee on Printing or the Joint Committee on the Library, on neither of which can he do any harm or gain any press coverage. Then too, he could resign (possible),be expelled (highly unlikely) or be arrested (there are, after-all, already federal finance cases in the works). The chances of his ever being reelected are about a million-to-one. The changes of a Democrat replacing him are pretty good.
No one but true movie buffs and real Hollywood Brats remember Theda Bara, Olga Petrova or Jetta Goudal. They all had their day in the sun, scaled the heights, made their fortunes and wound up living long lives of abundance, far away from the kleig lights of yesteryear. I don’t predict such idyllic circumstances for George Santos. He neither deserves nor or is worth it.
May you reign as the butt of late-night talk show jokes. You’ve certainly earned it.
Wishing one and all a yom slyvester samayach - “A happy Sylvester Day!” which is the Israeli greeting for the secular new year. May 2023 be filled with good health, the ebbing of hatred and increasing santiy.
Copyright©2023 Kurt F. Stone