Jim Mattingly works on the Elsinore Theatre in 1984, completing artwork that is roughly six stories tall and is an iconic feature in downtown Salem. Mattingly died in 1986. (Ron Cooper/Friends of the Mattingly Mural)
Theda Bara, who’s been hanging around downtown Salem for nearly 40 years, is about to get a makeover – with a little help from the people of Salem.
Bara is the sultry silent film actress who gazes down on the city as part of a mural on the back side of the Elsinore Theatre.
Bara has been ageless since she came to life on the wall in 1984, but the mural itself is showing its age.
Now, a Salem group that has tended to the mural all these years is seeking $12,500 from the community by early July to pay for a complete restoration of the artwork. The group is named after the late Jim Mattingly, the art professor who painted the mural. The group Friends of the Mattingly Mural is affiliated with the Elsinore.
The mural was restored in 2013 under the care of muralist Dan Cohen.
Now the mural group wants to repaint the entire mural, seal it, and repair parts of the wall.
Eileen Cotter Howell, one of the mural group volunteers, said an anonymous donor has already put in $10,000 and group so far has $24,500. The last $12,500 will get the entire job done.
“We don’t want to wait another 20 years until it becomes an eyesore, instead of the attraction it is. Great community art needs maintenance,” Cotter Howell said.
She said the work is scheduled to start Aug. 1 and, depending on weather, would be finished about mid-August.
The mural, called Theatrical Heartscape, honors the origins of the Elsinore as a playhouse for silent movies.
And few were bigger in those movies than Bara.
According to silentfilms.com, Bara made 40 feature films between 1914 and 1926, developing a screen image as a vamp. A 1937 fire in a storage vault destroyed nearly all the films and only three remain intact, according to the website.
A more demure Marlene Dietrich sits atop a feature just in front of Bara, and Charlie Chaplin holds a dog in another element. The most quirky part of the mural is the presence of W.C. Fields – his head on the far right of the mural, his torso on the left and lower.
Donors can mail checks to FOMM c/o Elsinore Theatre, 170 High St. S.E., Salem 97301 or online.
“We are hoping that the community will once again step up to care for this Salem landmark,” Cotter Howell said.
The mural “Theatrical Heartscape” graces the back wall of the Elsinore Theatre in downtown Salem and a fund drive is underway to restore it. (Willamette University)
–Les Zaitz
