After a recent documentary
shown on the Beeb (which spoke as if no-one born after 1932 had ever heard of
her), I was compelled to write about Clara Bow, the frivolous ingénue of the silent screen. As she is such an interesting, and somewhat
tragic character, I thought it right to redress the balance and write about the
girl who was the personification of 'It'.
The first film of Clara's
that I saw was her defining role in 'It'
(1927) in which she plays a shop girl out to snare her employer. Apart from it being an important piece of film
history, I also found it really funny (it's definitely worth seeking out). Clara perfectly depicts the girl-next-door who
aspires for a better life and is determined to get it - but without having to
give up her principles (she's not quite the floozy her boss thinks she is). The concept of 'It' was defined by Elinor
Glyn (said to have coined the term) as 'a strange magnetism which attracts both sexes', but can be more easily
described as good old-fashioned sex appeal!
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| Clara with Madame Glyn |
The film crystallised a new
type of woman emerging both in film and society - the flapper. These were newly emancipated young women,
with the right to vote, money they'd earned themselves and trying to break free
from the strict, corseted life previously laid out for them.
But Bow's carefree image
onscreen belied a turbulent (to put it lightly) home life. Born into poverty in a Brooklyn tenement to Sarah
and Robert Bow in 1905, her childhood was marked by an absentee father and a
mother with serious mental health problems.
One night when Clara was 16, she woke to find her mother standing with a
butcher's knife to her throat, which led to Sarah being committed to a hospital
where she died in 1923.
Clara's first break was
winning an acting competition in 1921, after she astounded the judges with her
ability to express such a range of emotions, even at the age of just 16. A few minor film roles followed, and she soon
began to steal any scene she was in. Her
first co-starring role came in 1923 in 'Black
Oxen' which quickly led to starring roles, often as some variation of a flapper.
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| With Fredric March in 'The Wild Party' (1929) |
Clara Bow was the epitome of
the 'jazz-baby' that filmmakers were clamouring to put in their pictures and
audiences couldn't wait to rush out to be immersed in her world of
local-girl-done-good (after being a little bit bad of course). She was phenomenally popular in her heyday,
with reports of her receiving up to 45,000 letters from her 'fan-friends' in just
one month in 1929. A film star that
ordinary women could identify with, her red hair (dyed with henna) was copied
by many hoping to emulate the look of their favourite star.
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| From the lost film 'Red Hair'(1928) |
It
is often reported that Clara sank from stardom at the advent of the 'talkies'
due to her thick Brooklyn accent, but she actually had some very successful
speaking roles (such as 1929's 'The Wild
Party'). Her accent in no way
hampered her popularity, it actually endeared audiences to her as she was
always seen as 'one of them'. When the talkies arrived,
Clara took on more mature roles including 'Call
her Savage' (1932) and 'Hoopla'
(1933).
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| 'Call Her Savage'(1932) |
However, the tide was turning
in regards to her popularity, fuelled by numerous scandals relating to her sex
life, spending and drug-taking. This, combined with the fact that she really disliked rehearsing and learning
her lines - she said they 'sapped her pep', really started to undermine her
place at the top of Hollywood. Her
family history of mental and emotional problems, as well as chronic insomnia,
were also beginning to take their toll. Tellingly,
she once said 'Being a sex symbol is a heavy load to carry, especially when one
is tired, hurt and bewildered'.
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| From 'Hoopla'(1933) |
The
final blow to her image was the seemingly endless bad press she received (much
of it wildly exaggerated if not completely fabricated). What had been seen as fun and exciting in the
1920s was seen as disgusting and wasteful during the depression of the
1930s. Nobody wanted to see a flapper
going to endless parties and running up a $14,000 debt at a casino (which Clara
reportedly did in 1931) when they could hardly afford food. A highly scandalous court case between Clara
and her former secretary, Daisy de Voe (Clara sued de Voe for embezzlement)
ended with Bow's reputation in tatters, after large amounts of evidence of her
predilection for drink, drugs and gigolos came to light. Her popularity declined rapidly and she was
subsequently dropped from her contract with Paramount in 1931.
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| With Monroe Owsley in 'Call Her Savage' (1932) |
Despite
numerous offers of multi-picture contracts (including one from Howard Hughes), Bow
retired to a Nevada ranch with her husband Rex Bell in 1933. Their marriage started off very happily, but
over the next decade she withdrew more from public life. Her psychological wellbeing was also
declining and this led to her attempted suicide in 1944, as she said couldn't
cope with the thought of living in the public eye as a result of her husband's
political aspirations. The couple grew
apart and in 1965 she died of a heart attack in Los Angeles.
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| From 'Call Her Savage' (1932) |
In just 12 years she made an
incredible impact on the film industry, and I imagine on the lives of young
women on the 1920s as well. Many of her films are thought to be lost, but a few have turned up in recent years (her most famous film 'It' was only unearthed during the 1960s). Hopefully, all of her films will eventually be restored and more people will come to be entranced by 'the hottest jazz baby in films'.
I love this quote from Carl
Sandberg and think it is a fitting ending to this post: "there are
only about five actresses who give me a real thrill on the screen — and Clara
is nearly five of them".
