Clara Bow
The Original "It-Girl"
Early Hollywood Wild Woman
wild enough to enjoy herself
smart enough to get out before it destroyed her
In 1968, silent film legend Louise Brooks wrote a scathing
letter to historian Kevin Brownlow, who had just published his seminal work on
silent film, The Parade's Gone By. In typical outspoken Brooksian fashion, Lulu
railed at Brownlow for focusing on "some old fucks and not even mentioning Clara
Bow's name."
Unfortunately, Brownlow's oversight, whether intentional or not, was not
atypical. The "It" Girl, one of Hollywood's first sex symbols, whose combination
of spunk and seduction paved the way for the likes of Jean Harlow, Marilyn
Monroe and all succeeding generations of dream girls, had outlived the gaudy era
that made her a star. By the time Brownlow's book came out, she was mostly
forgotten - a tattered John Held Jr. flapper caricature, a shopworn Kewpie doll
relegated to the remnants bin of film history.
But from the middle 1920s to the early '30s, Clara Bow was a force to be
reckoned with - a natural force, like a hurricane or tidal wave. She made 57
films in eleven years, forging a definitive flapper persona that generated
millions of dollars for Paramount. By 1928, the she had received more than
33,000 fan letters, some simply marked "It Girl, Hollywood, U.S.A." Along the
way, she influenced a generation of young women who related to her style, sass
and liberated sexuality; she appealed to men for pretty much the same reasons.
With an irresistible combination of earthiness, humor and sensuality, Clara Bow
singlehandedly changed the way America looked at sex.
But Clara's frantic flapper act, both on and offscreen, was
fueled by tragedy and a life whose melodrama rivaled any fiction. Her love
affairs were legion - from Gary Cooper and Victor Fleming to Bela Lugosi and,
apocryphally, the entire USC Trojans football squad. Most ended unhappily. B.P.
Schulberg, head of Paramount who she looked up to as a mentor, exploited her
financially and emotionally, paying her a paltry $2,800 a week in 1928, compared
with Pola Negri's $6,000 per week, and Colleen Moore's $125,000 per picture. Her
constant parade of broken engagements, extramarital affairs and lawsuits made
headlines, further enhancing the "It" girl mythos. If Clara Bow hadn't existed,
'20s Hollywood would have had to invent her.
But underneath the fun and games, Clara carried the emotional scars of a
squalid, dysfunctional childhood that rivaled anything ever doled out by Charles
Dickens. They were scars she would carry for the rest of her life.
Born in a Brooklyn tenement in 1905 to a schizophrenic mother and an absent
father, Clara's only escape was going to the movies. In classic fashion, she
escaped to Hollywood at age 16 after winning a "Fame and Fortune" contest. As a
contract player for Preferred Pictures, she ground out dozens of low-budget
potboilers, some cranked out in as little as two weeks. But it wasn't until
1926, when Paramount paid literary doyenne Elinor Glyn $50,000 to christen her
the "It" girl to coincide with the release of It in 1927, that the real
roller-coaster ride began.
It launched what would become a long line of Clara Bow formula films. With
titles like Rough House Rosie (1927), Red Hair (1928), and Dangerous Curves
(1929), the common elements of all these pictures was a feeble plot, a
nondescript leading man, and Clara endlessly reprising her spunky flapper role.
But in spite of the interchangeability of these elements, Clara always managed
to transcend her material. Coming to film totally untrained in the theatrical
arts, Clara proved to be a natural match for the new technology of motion
pictures. She was irrepressible, bounding around the sets, able to laugh and cry
at the drop of a hat. Her lovely, expressive face could convey everything from
mischief to sorrow with the arch of a tweezed eyebrow, the curl of a rouged lip.
And Clara was no prima donna. Tough, hardworking and
big-hearted, she indiscriminately mingled with everyone, but was especially
comfortable with the cameramen, technicians and grips, who considered her "one
of the boys." Unlike many other silent stars, Clara managed to successfully make
the transition to sound. Critical and financial hits like Call Her Savage (1932)
and Hoopla (1933), both made for Fox at a lucrative deal for her, proved her
broad Brooklyn accent to be perfectly suited for the tough-girl roles she
played. With Clara branching out into more dramatic roles, the potential was
there for the rebirth of her career, this time as a serious actress in the new
talkie medium.
But Clara was exhausted. She married cowboy star Rex Bell in 1933, retired to a
secluded ranch in Nevada, and had two sons, who she doted on. After years of
frantic living, she was ready to lead a tranquil life as a wife and mother -- or
so she hoped. Instead, Clara was wracked with insomnia, hypochondria, suicide
attempts, and frequent institutionalization. She was diagnosed as schizophrenic
in 1949, and underwent intensive psychotherapy, even shock treatments, in an
attempt to root out the mental illness that had claimed her mother and aunts.
She grew estranged from her husband and sons and eventually moved back to Los
Angeles alone.
In her later years she found a semblance of the peace that had evaded her
throughout her life - painting, reading voraciously, swimming. Re-release of her
talkies to television in the late '50s - with Paramount typically denying her
royalties - resulted in a flush of recognition for the former "It" girl, who
avoided the spotlight as assiduously as she'd sought it in the '20s.
She died peacefully in 1965 at age 60 while watching a telecast of The Virginian
-- starring Gary Cooper and directed by Victor Fleming, which must have made her
smile.
Clara Bow Filmography
Hoopla (1933) .... Lou
Call Her Savage (1932) .... Nasa 'Dynamite' Springer
Kick In (1931) .... Molly Hewes
No Limit (1931) .... Helen 'Bunny' O'Day
Her Wedding Night (1930) .... Norma Martin
Love Among the Millionaires (1930) .... Pepper Whipple
True to the Navy (1930) .... Ruby Nolan
Saturday Night Kid, The (1929) .... Mayme
Dangerous Curves (1929) .... Pat Delaney
Wild Party, The (1929) .... Stella Ames
Three Weekends (1928) .... Gladys O'Brien
Fleet's In, The (1928) .... Trixie Deane
Ladies of the Mob (1928) .... Yvonne
Red Hair (1928) .... Bubbles McCoy
Get Your Man (1927) .... Nancy Worthington
Hula (1927) .... Hula Calhoun
Wings (1927) .... Mary Preston
Rough House Rosie (1927) .... Rosie O'Reilly
Children of Divorce (1927) .... Kitty Flanders
It (1927) .... Betty Lou Spence
Dance Madness (1926)
Kid Boots (1926) .... Clara McCoy
Mantrap (1926) .... Alverna
Runaway, The (1926) .... Cynthia Meade
Fascinating Youth (1926) .... Guest
Dancing Mothers (1926) .... Kittens Westcourt
Two Can Play (1926) .... Dorothy Hammis
Shadow of the Law (1926) .... Mary Brophy
My Lady of Whims (1925) .... Prudence Severn
Ancient Mariner, The (1925) .... Doris
Plastic Age, The (1925) .... Cynthia Day
Best Bad Man, The (1925) .... Peggy Swain
Free to Love (1925) .... Marie Anthony
Primrose Path, The (1925) .... Marilyn Merrill
Keeper of the Bees, The (1925) .... Lolly Cameron
Kiss Me Again (1925) .... Grizette
Parisian Love (1925) .... Marie
My Lady's Lips (1925) .... Lola Lombard
Scarlet West, The (1925) .... Miriam
Lawful Cheaters (1925) .... Molly Burns
Eve's Lover (1925) .... Rena DArcy
Adventurous Sex, The (1925) .... The Girl
Capital Punishment (1925) .... Delia Tate
Black (1924)
Black Oxen (1924) .... Janet Ogelthorpe
Black Lightning (1924) .... Martha Larned
This Woman (1924) .... Aline Sturdevant
Helen's Babies (1924) .... Alice Mayton
Empty Hearts (1924) .... Rosalie
Wine (1924) .... Angela Warriner
Daughters of Pleasure (1924) .... Lila Millas
Poisoned Paradise (1924) .... Margot LeBlanc
Grit (1924) .... Orchid McGonigle
Maytime (1923) .... Alice Tremaine
Daring Years, The (1923) .... Mary
Enemies of Women (1923) .... Girl dancing on table
Down to the Sea in Ships (1922) .... 'Dot' Morgan
Beyond the Rainbow (1922) .... Virginia Gardener
