Dolores Costello. Bow won an evening gown and a silver trophy, and the publisher committed to help her "gain a role in films", but nothing happened. In late 1925, Bow returned to New York to co-star in the Ibsenesque[98] drama Dancing Mothers, as the good/bad "flapperish" upper-class daughter Kittens. She looks nothing like the other stars of the silent era, who either seemed frozen in puberty (Mary Pickford, Lillian Gish), outrageously "exotic" (Theda Bara, Pola Negri), or untouchably glamorous (Gloria Swanson). American actress Clara Bow wearing a fur-trimmed robe over a lace-trimmed slip, her hand on her hip, standing in white high-heel shoes in a bedroom,. Schulberg, began referring to her as "Crisis-a-day-Clara". When she was 16 years old, her mother . The film proved to be a tremendous box office success that lent Clara Bow the nickname the "It" Girl. She also studied at Bay Ridge High School for Girls. And lots of time didn't have anything to eat. This was a condition apart from the seizures known to cause disordered thinking, delusion, paranoia, and aggressive behavior. Girls would often tease her and call her carrot top, or else make fun of the shabby clothes her family couldnt afford to mend. Schulberg. Bow lived her life to the limit, and became a tabloid staple during the heady years of her fame. That would be Wings in 1927. Clara Gordon Bow (/bo/; July 29, 1905 September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. In 1929, Lugosi tied the knot with wealthy socialite Beatrice Weeks. She doesn't look like she belongs in the '20s, or even in black and white. Bow plays a department store worker in hot pursuit of her handsome boss, and Glyn herself has a cameo. her notorious tell-all memoir in Photoplay. Factinate is a fact website that is dedicated to finding and sharing fun facts about science, history, animals, films, people, and much more. The personal quality"It" provides the magic to make it happen. Now Clara Bow is 114 years 6 months 28 days old. When Bell saw Hoop-La, he raised his eyebrows higher than anyone, and he and Bow got into an explosive fight about her scantily-clad acting. Director: Elmer Clifton | Stars: Marguerite Courtot, Raymond McKee, William Walcott, Clara Bow. Clara Bow doesn't look like a relic. When she tried to talk about The Butcher Knife Episode once in an interview, she cut herself off, saying, but I cant tell you about it. I made a place for myself on the screen and you can't do that by being Mrs. Alcott's idea of a Little Woman.[68]. These women took over the Roaring 20s with abandon, wearing shorter skirts, shorter haircuts, and generally having good, reckless fun. This profile was written in response to a request in the comments by Dickthetag. Her film career held more future sadness and scandal than she could have possibly imagined when she signed on the dotted line. We just lived, that's about all. Amazingly, Tui and Robert actually went through with it, but not without a handful of drama. Bow was billed 10th in the film, but shone through: By mid-December 1923, primarily due to her merits in Down to the Sea in Ships, Bow was chosen the most successful of the 1924 WAMPAS Baby Stars. "I'll get that bitch", she told her boyfriend Jacobson, who had arrived from New York. Birth Time Entry. Clara made three pictures that will never be surpassed: Dancing Mothers, Mantrap, and It. I was too young, or too little, or too fat. The young girl was miraculously able to escape and then disarm her mother before she could hurt her, and she quickly locked Sarah up. Her social decorum is of that natural, good-natured, pleasantly informal kind She can act on or off the screentakes a joyous delight in accepting a challenge to vamp any selected malethe more unpromising specimen the better. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. She has almost immediately been elected for all the recent flapper parts". If you ever felt even a little bad for Claras father, you should know one thing. Who are we, after all, to say she is wrong? Lobbycard of the movie"Children of Divorce" with from left, Esther Ralston and Clara Bow, in 1927. After this blow, all her inner torment reached a terrifying climax. Bows response? Sarah was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again, because this time she might die as well. The greatest box-office draw of her dayshe once received 45,000 fan letters in a single month, Clara Bow's on screen vitality and allure that beguiled . [133] In an interview on December 17, Bow detailed her way back to health:[134] sleep, exercise, and food, and the day after it she returned to Hollywood "for the sole purpose of making enough money to be able to stay out of it. Bow remembered their reunion: "I didn't care a rap, for (her), nor B. P. Schulberg, nor my motion picture career, nor Clara Bow, I just threw myself into his arms and kissed and kissed him, and we both cried like a couple of fool kids. [16], It was snowing. She drew on her lipstick in a now-iconic heart-shaped style, and her unique look soon took the public by storm. Instead of trying to get the popular girls to like her, Bow went another route entirelyshe became an incorrigible tomboy. The portrait was commissioned by Kende's fellow Hungarian (and another Hollywood legend), Bela Lugosi, with whom Clara Bow had a brief affair. "[69] On September 7, 1924, The Los Angeles Times, in a significant article "A dangerous little devil is Clara, impish, appealing, but oh, how she can act! Clara Bow Height and Physical Info Some people are indeed interested in the weight and height of celebrities, but there is a more important question to ask. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? After winning 1921s Fame and Fortune contest, Bow was all ready to sign a movie contract. Clara's father was abusive and that he was often absent from the family. "[16] Bow and her father moved in at 1714 North Kingsley Drive in Hollywood, together with Jacobson, who by then also worked for Preferred. 338 pp. Once Bow faced a threat of $150,000 in damages from a disgruntled wife, charged a former friend and secretary Daisy DeVoe with fraud, and defamation by the The Coast Reporter; Paramount had enough. Bow came by her famous, wild red locks naturally, but she still got a little artificial help for it. [53] Alton and Bow rented an apartment at The Hillview near Hollywood Boulevard. Call Her Savage(released Nov/32)stars,among others,Clara Bow as Nasa Springer,Gilbert Roland as Moonglow,Thelma Todd as Sunny De Lane,Monroe Owsley as Lawrence Crosby,Estelle Taylor as Ruth Springer and Weldon Heyburn as Ronasa.This Clara's second to last film and is a pre code melodrama with lots of surprises, for those use to seeing post code . Bow was an amazing looking woman - a Kewpie doll face, round, with huge, expressive eyes, a brilliant smile, and thick, luxurious hair. When the hapless victim is scared into speechlessness, she gurgles with naughty delight and tries another. "[86], On April 12, 1926, Bow signed her first contract with Paramount: "to retain your services as an actress for the period of six months from June 6, 1926 to December 6, 1926, at a salary of $750.00 per week". By appropriating traditionally androgynous or masculine traits, Bow presented herself as a confident, modern woman. Bow met her first boyfriend, cameraman Arthur Jacobson, and she got to know director Frank Tuttle, with whom she worked in five later productions. Clara's grandparents were English and Scottish on her father's side. She has real courage, because she lives boldly. The film actress Clara Bow is the cover girl for Motion Picture Classic magazine, published in Chicago, Illinois in April of 1931. In 1927, Bow gained eternal fame when she starred in the flapper flick It. At the time, It Girl was a brand-new term, and Bow was the first to become permanently associated with it when she played the brash title character. My right arm was quite famous.. This documentary, "Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl" tells her personal and professional story with screen clips, photos, and interviews with family, friends, and biographer David Stenn. A magazine quoted her as saying: Mosta my friendsre ones I knew before I paid income tax., In a town that liked to go to bed early, Bow stayed up late. She is endowed with a mentality far beyond her years. Bow became a hugely popular actor, and, in tabloid-speak, a notorious wild child. Time doesn't exist for her, except that she thinks it will stop tomorrow. Flapper movies such as The Plastic Age or Dancing Mothers were perfect for Bow, who had a stunning ability to move naturally in front of the camera, bobbing and smirking with humour and sexiness. A jaw-dropping Turner Classic Movies documentary, "Discovering the 'It' Girl" (debuting Monday at 8 p.m. EDT, 5 p.m. PDT), reveals that Bow was a generous and plucky gal, on-screen and off. Making distraction rewarding since 2017. She told Bow she would be better off dead than a Hollywood star, then made good on that disturbing promise. "[16] In 1925, Bow appeared in 14 productions: six for her contract owner, Preferred Pictures, and eight as an "out-loan". Her mother, Sarah Frances Bow (ne Gordon, 1880-1923), was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again, for fear the next baby might die as well. Bow was a working class girl who fought her way to the top. Clara Bow was unwanted and unloved by her parents. Kevin Brownlows essential oral history of silent Hollywood, The Parades Gone By, doesnt even mention Bow, because none of his other interviewees gave her a namecheck (a fault rectified in his TV series Hollywood, in which Brooks ably discusses her career and her mistreatment at the hands of the studio system). She was mad and crazy, but WHAT a personality!". Soon enough, Bows wild lifestyle caught up to her in a big way. And they say love isnt real. When the magnificent Clara Bow passed in 1965 from a heart attack at the young age of 60, she was a has-been by choice. She was dynamite, full of nervous energy and vitality and pitifully eager to please everyone. "[97], Bow appeared in eight releases in 1926: five for Paramount, including the film version of the musical Kid Boots with Eddie Cantor, and three loan-outs that had been filmed in 1925. Clara Bow was born on July 29th, in 1905. Bow truly loved movies, but her adoration came from an incredibly dark place. But what are the dignified people like? In it Bow confessed that she preferred eternal slumber to the idea of always being a public figure, and every day seemed unbearable to her. You know what I meanlike Maurice Chevalier. Bow had died just before the book came out, aged 60 and living alone. Nearby Recently Sold Homes. The production relied on a few less-known actors and local talents. Im a big freak, because Im myself!, Beyond It, her film roles tended to reflect the industrys ambivalence. Although Clara Bows love for Bela Lugosi flamed out fast, she gave the Dracula star a creepy memento of their time together, and it wasnt a chaste lock of hair. Encouraged by her father, Bow continued to visit studio agencies asking for parts. When her young fans found this out, they wasted no time buying up hordes of the stuff, tripling henna prices that year. Clara was fascinated with the Trojan players, particularly captain and All-American quarterback Morley Drury. For all her successes, Bow was snubbed by the in-crowd, and for years after her heyday she would be nudged out of history. She almost never went out of the house and refused to socialize, but she also hated if her husband left her alone. [95] Bow's focal point was the scene, and her creativity made directors call in extra cameras to cover her spontaneous actions, rather than holding her down. Flapper Girls. Product Details What People Are Saying Product Details What People are Saying About This Dominick Dunne She was Marilym Monroe decades before Marilyn. In the blockbuster Wings, she plays the girl next door fighting for attention in a world full of men. . [137] On April 28, 1932, Bow signed a two-picture deal with Fox Film Corporation, for Call Her Savage (1932) and Hoop-La (1933). as the cartoon closely resembled another star of the era named Clara Bow (pictured below). But she paid a price for being brazen. [139] Her last public performance, albeit fleeting, came in 1947 on the radio show Truth or Consequences. She still had to tout herself around the agencies and studios, swallowing rejections as she went. What a dame. Studio executives tried to manipulate her, calling her a birdbrain and a dumbbell while she continued to make them masses of money at the box office. The five different screen tests she had, showed this very plainly, her emotional range of expression provoking a fine enthusiasm from every contest judge who saw the tests. Her costumes in the film were so scarce, one magazine noted they wouldnt weigh two pounds soaking wet. Maybe more scandalously, Bows new husband Rex Bell was less than pleased about her giving away the goods. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". wonderful. That very year, Bow resorted to desperate measures. Louise Brooks, who received an entire chapter in the book, wrote to Brownlow, "You brush off Clara Bow for some old nothing like Brooks. Old Hollywood Glamour. In 1928 a poll named her . Learn how and when to remove this template message, Hollywood: A Celebration of the American Silent Film, "Success Did Not Bring Clara Bow Happiness", "Clara Bow Housewife Of Rancho Clarito", Clara Bow: My Life Story as told to Adela Rogers St. Johns, "Alluring 'It' Girl Clara Bow: Tormented Hollywood Outsider", "33 Prospect Place, Passport application, No. Old Hollywood Stars. Bow became a personality of the 1920s. I used to sing at home and people would say, 'Pipe down! "[68], By New Year 1924 Bow had defied the possessive Maxine Alton[citation needed] and brought her father to Hollywood. By the time the reclusive Clara Bow passed, almost no one remembered her. "[104] The film was released on July 24, 1926,[105] to rave reviews. Father, Bow continued to visit studio agencies asking for parts mad and,! But her adoration came from an incredibly dark place were English and Scottish on father... 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