A Fool There Was was a film based on a famous Rudyard Kipling poem called The Vampire. It dealt with a femme fatale who, using her feminine wiles, lured men to their destruction. A huge publicity campaign was drummed up by Fox to promote his new film and star. Theda became „Theda Bara“ (an anagram for „Arab Death“). Stories were circulated by Fox’s press agents, telling of Theda’s exotic past, and a nice girl from Cincinnati soon became a notorious „man-killer.“ This was to be Hollywood’s first ever publicity campaign and Theda Bara became Hollywood’s first studio-manufactured „star.“