[62], In May, Moore renewed her efforts in The Perfect Flapper, produced by her husband; however, despite good reviews she suddenly withdrew. We want our readers to trust us. [46] In spring she got a part in The Daring Years (1923), where she befriended actress Mary Carr, who taught her how to use make-up. [49], On July 22, 1923, Bow left New York, her father, and her boyfriend behind for Hollywood. Lobbycard of the movie"Children of Divorce" with from left, Esther Ralston and Clara Bow, in 1927. The beautiful Bow was pretty indiscriminate about where she lay her head, and her habits always got her into hot water if her bed-mate was actually, uh, married. Please submit feedback to contribute@factinate.com. "In movie parlance, she 'stole' the picture", For her contributions to the film industry, Bow was awarded a, In 1994, she was honored with an image on a, Bow's mass of tangled red hair was one of her most famous features. "Clara Bow testified today at hearing which freed Robert S. Savage of insanity charges in 'suicide bluff' to win her love. She became socially withdrawn and, although she refused to socialize with her husband, she also refused to let him leave the house alone. Sarah was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again, because this time she might die as well. Tui did complain about Creepy Roberts insatiable appetite in bed, but she put up with it. Clara Bow was the original "It Girl" and was one of Hollywood's biggest stars during the flapper era. Of all of Bows scandalous affairs, her tryst with horror star Bela Lugosi was the most bizarreright from the very beginning. Catherine of Aragon is now infamous as King Henry VIIIs rejected queenbut few people know her even darker history. Instead, she lived by herself in a small bungalow until her devastating end. The picture was released on March 1, 1926. Bows family life gave new meaning to the word dysfunctional. Her father, though intelligent, was aimless andusually absent. Bow knew she was due for her big break, and she was absolutely determined to get it. Clara Bow was a superstar in the 1920s, yet her birth was not even recorded. "[104] The film was released on July 24, 1926,[105] to rave reviews. Abuse, in all its ugly forms, was common. Three children were born to his union - Diane, Tom, Randy - and they farmed, ranched, and milked cows on the family farm until moving to Rapid City, SD, in October 1960. In 1929, Bows life and stardom changed forever. Her mother had a long spell of good health, and changed Bow's appearance, cutting her hair more femininely. Medium. Her reputation started slipping and gossips whispered that Clara has more ID than "It." In 1927, rumor linked not to one lover but the entire lineup of USC football team including John Wayne. [2], Film historian Leonard Maltin said in 1999; "You think of Greta Garbo, Lillian Gish, all these great names, great actresses, Clara Bow was more popular in terms of box-office dollars, in terms of consistently bringing audiences into the theaters, she was right on top. And as confident as she was on a silent movie set, the looming microphones and wires of the sound era terrified her. At 25 her career was essentially over. After reliving all this trauma in the sanatorium, Bow couldnt go back to the way she was. American actress Clara Bow. In previous years, other contest winners had found work in the movies. "[68], By New Year 1924 Bow had defied the possessive Maxine Alton[citation needed] and brought her father to Hollywood. let me know below. When she is off, the same is true. Clara Bow: the hard-partying jazz-baby airbrushed from Hollywood history Her charm and energy made her the ultimate 'flapper' - but despite her success, Bow would forever be snubbed by the. When we do, we depend on our loyal, helpful readers to point out how we can do better. One day on the set of her talkie The Wild Party, she had to endure retake after retake because she couldnt stop nervously glancing at the microphone above her. I knew that she was going to take it badly, but I had no idea about the insane lengths she would go to just to get revenge and mess with my life. In addition to the risky pregnancy, a heat wave besieged New York in July 1905, and temperatures peaked around 100F (38C). What she desires to do she does. Thats right, followers like Edie Sedgwick and Sienna Miller have Clara Bow to thank. The Legacy Of Clara Bow, America's First Sex Symbol. [16] Still, Bow felt deprived of her childhood; "As a kid I took care of my mother, she didn't take care of me". 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. "[28], From first grade, Bow preferred the company of boys, stating, "I could lick any boy my size. Bow came to personify the . [143], In 1949, she checked into The Institute of Living to be treated for her chronic insomnia and diffuse abdominal pains. [22] Sarah worsened gradually, and when she realized her daughter was set for a movie career, Bow's mother told her she "would be much better off dead". Girls shunned me because I was so poorly dressed. Dolores Costello. And lots of time didn't have anything to eat. Story of the lives of the people in a small Quaker community and the adventures of a whaling ship. After 1927's It, a film adapted from a Elinor Glyn novella, Clara Bow became very popular . Bow will always be best remembered for It, a romantic caper adapted from Elinor Glyns novel, its title a euphemism for sexual magnetism. [80] In 1927 Bow appeared in six Paramount releases: It, Children of Divorce, Rough House Rosie, Wings, Hula and Get Your Man. Were always looking for your input! Clara Bow, better known by the Family name Clara Gordon Bow, was a popular Actress, Model, Producer,. 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. Rex Bell (born George Francis Beldam; October 16, 1903 - July 4, 1962) was an American actor and politician. She also studied at Bay Ridge High School for Girls. Bow became a hugely popular actor, and, in tabloid-speak, a notorious wild child. What she wants she gets, if she can. In 1929, Lugosi tied the knot with wealthy socialite Beatrice Weeks. One early morning in May 1931, Hollywood actress Clara Bow woke up screaming. When Sarah was just a teenager, she fell from a second-story window and was never the same again. And it made him very unhappy, for he worshipped her always. My right arm was quite famous. 98. Sadly, while the movie contract took Bow out of Brooklyn, where she had spent her abusive and impoverished childhood, her new home had dangers of its own. Bow was a working class girl who fought her way to the top. Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Bow became a personality of the 1920s. Im a curiosity in Hollywood, she said. [28] B. P. Schulberg tried to replace Bow with his girlfriend Sylvia Sidney, but Paramount went into receivership, lost its position as the biggest studio (to MGM), and fired Schulberg. Clara passed away on month day 2013, at age 74 at death place, Michigan. When Bow found out that her sweetums got sacked, she marched right up to Schulbergs swanky office and tore up her contract right in his facethen threw it in his mug for good measure. I was too young, or too little, or too fat. She has almost immediately been elected for all the recent flapper parts". Painting - Print On Paper. A tabloid called The Coast . The great and the good of Tinseltown resented that. Im a big freak, because Im myself! said Clara Bow. To Bows eternal shame, the director cut down her scenes in the final edit of Beyond the Rainbow. Only when I remember it, it seems to me I can't live. Bow did try to make a comeback a couple years afterbut although audiences and studios were still thirsty for her, her heart wasnt in it. [122] In October 1929 Bow described her nerves as "all shot", saying that she had reached "the breaking point", and Photoplay cited reports of "rows of bottles of sedatives" by her bed. Only this is Clara Bow were talking about, and she didnt have a quitting bone in her. Clara Bow was a great actress. In actuality, Bow was very sharp, its just that her acting was more hands-on than cerebral. We study audience reactions with great care. But there is, at long last, a happy ending for Clara Bowand it comes from a most unusual heroine. Enraptured audiences and critics called her The Brooklyn Bonfire.. She won five medals "at the cinder tracks" and credited her cousin Homer Bakerthe national half-mile (c. 800m) champion (1913 and 1914) and 660-yard (c.600m) world-record holderfor being her trainer. I wasn't sore. Find out where Clara Bow was born, their birthday and details about their professions, education, religion, family and other life details and facts. The time must be given in wrist watch time, as it would have been shown on a normal person's wrist watch at the place of the birth event.All necessary corrections for time zone or daylight saving time are applied by the computer automatically. After this blow, all her inner torment reached a terrifying climax. Shocked and appalled at Bows total disregard for the fame food chain, Moore flexed her power in the cruellest way she knew how. I'm a big freak, because I'm myself! [a][21] From her earliest years, Bow had learned how to care for her mother during the seizures, as well as how to deal with her psychotic and hostile episodes. Bow was born into tragedy. Bow had plenty of charm, but her manners were atrocious. Her birthplace is Brooklyn. She drew on her lipstick in a now-iconic heart-shaped style, and her unique look soon took the public by storm. That year, she went out of her house in hand-painted legs, a phenomenon that soon women all over California were taking up. [55] Director Frank Lloyd was casting for the part of high-society flapper Janet Oglethorpe, and more than 50 women auditioned, most with previous screen experience. Bow won an evening gown and a silver trophy, and the publisher committed to help her "gain a role in films", but nothing happened. I knew I would have done it differently. The biggest misconception about Bow is that her career foundered with the coming of sound because her Brooklyn accent was too ugly. [6] At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929).[7]. [78], I'm almost never satisfied with myself or my work or anything by the time I'm ready to be a great star I'll have been on the screen such a long time that everybody will be tired of seeing me (Tears filled her big round eyes and threatened to fall). Im a curiosity in Hollywood. Bow lived her life to the limit, and became a tabloid staple during the heady years of her fame. Now thats how an Old Hollywood starlet does mean girl. That said, Bow tried to get her revenge. Net Worth: USD $13 Million approx. As her director Frank Tuttle recalled, She could cry on demand, opening the floodgate of tears almost as soon as I asked her to weep. This, however, came with a dark side. It was two years before she moved to Hollywood, and another three before she signed a contract with Paramount. 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. As fellow starlet Louise Brooks put it, Bow became a star with nobodys help.. But sadly, the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown quickly turned sour, and the starlet suffered a downfall that was as tragic as it was legendary. During her lifetime, Bow was the subject of wild rumors regarding her sex life, most of them were untrue. The film proved to be a tremendous box office success that lent Clara Bow the nickname the "It" Girl. Bow confessed that her mothers mental issues often made her mean to her, but as the years passed, Sarahs hostile episodes got worse and worse. She is as refreshingly unaffected as if she had never faced a means to pretend. She would go on to become America's most loved and most controversial sex symbol of the silent film era. Bow was the mystery voice in the show's "Mrs. Hush" contest. For all her successes, Bow was snubbed by the in-crowd, and for years after her heyday she would be nudged out of history. As well see, it only got weirder from there. When Bow found out, "She tore up her contract and threw it in his face and told him he couldn't run her private life." "[56] It was released on January 4, 1924. She swings from one emotion to another, but she gains nothing, stores up nothing for the future. [14] Her mother, Sarah Frances Bow (ne Gordon, 18801923), was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again, for fear the next baby might die as well. Perhaps most poignantly, Bow barely if ever talked about this incident; her biographer, David Stenn, unearthed evidence about the attack. Hollywood Legends. When the hapless victim is scared into speechlessness, she gurgles with naughty delight and tries another. Manager Clara Bow was managed by B.P. As the sassy broad wrote, You brush off Clara Bow for some old nothing like Brooks. Brooks letter actually had the intended effect. Reviews were nothing less than outstanding: The New York Times said that "(Bow)is vivacious and, as Betty Lou, saucy, which perhaps is one of the ingredients of It. [1] Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties[2] and is described as its leading sex symbol. Clara Bow is Update Soon years old in 2022. The young girl was miraculously able to escape and then disarm her mother before she could hurt her, and she quickly locked Sarah up. Clara Gordon Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in a tenement apartment above a Baptist church at 697 Bergen Street in Brooklyn's Prospect Heights neighborhood.. I'm sorry for a lot of it but not awfully sorry. With her face bandaged up for the foreseeable future, Bow not only lost her close-ups in Painted Peopleshe lost the part entirely. Approximately zero film offers came knocking, and Bow had to resort to going down to the Brewsters magazine office every day and begging for work. When her friend Tui Lorraine faced exile from America and desperately needed a cash injection, Clara generously offeredher own gross father, Robert. It was her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film "It" that brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Clara Bow, (born July 29, 1905, Brooklyn, New York, U.S.died September 27, 1965, Los Angeles, California), American motion-picture actress called the "It" Girl after she played in It (1927), the popular silent-film version of Elinor Glyn 's novel of that name. [141] In 1944, while Bell was running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Bow tried to commit suicide. Hollywood's first sex symbol, the 'It' girl, Clara Bow was born in the slums of Brooklyn in a family plagued with alcoholism and insanity. Her mother, Sarah Gordon, who was mentally ill as well as an epileptic, was noted for her public and frequent affairs with local firemen. Someone to stir every pulse in the nation."A film chronicling the life . All Rights Reserved. [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. When I came into his office a big smile came over his face and he looked just tickled to death. She settled down with her hunky Cowboy co-star Rex Bell, moving into his ranch outside of Hollywood and marrying him in December, 1931. Clara Bow Birth Name: Clara Gordon Bow Occupation: Movie Actress Place Of Birth: Brooklyn Date Of Birth: July 29, 1905 Date Of Death: September 27, 1965 Cause Of Death: N/A Ethnicity: White Nationality: American Clara Bow was born on the 29th of July, 1905. She knew what it meant to be a jazz baby and it wasnt always a party. RM EC7YYR - Clara Bow, the IT Girl, epitome of razz-ma-tazz, everybody's dreamboat from 1925 to 1930. This did not please her studio executive B.P. Bow suffered from chronic sinus problems, and decided to get them fixed. On screen she epitomised the joie de vivre and permissiveness of the jazz age, and for many people she remains the ultimate flapper, the It girl, with charm and sex appeal to spare. Its just that they hid it, and Clara didnt. Bow knew the truth. It was her own naked portrait. That very year, Bow resorted to desperate measures. "[148] In 1999 the American Film Institute excluded Bow from its finalized "100 Years100 Stars" list,[149] although she was on the list of nominees. Clara Bow was unwanted and unloved by her parents. Bow agreed to the script, but eventually rejected the offer since Irving Thalberg required her to sign a long-term contract. "[16] Lloyd told the press, "Bow is the personification of the ideal aristocratic flapper, mischievous, pretty, aggressive, quick-tempered and deeply sentimental. Usually I was too fat. Need I remind you that she was 16 years old at the time? Though she was her mothers third daughter, Sarah had lost her two eldest children when they were babies, and doctors begged her not to get pregnant again or have another child for fear that this infant would perish too. Unfortunately, Clara's mental condition did not improve away from the glare of Hollywood. Her acting artistry and high spirits made her the premier flapper and the film It (1927) made her world famous. [8][9][10] Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933. [137] On April 28, 1932, Bow signed a two-picture deal with Fox Film Corporation, for Call Her Savage (1932) and Hoop-La (1933). When Clara was born, New York was in the middle of a ravaging heat wave, with temperatures rising over a punishing 100 degrees. 1,468 Sq. She was known for being a Movie Actress. "Miss Bow will undoubtedly gain fame as a screen comedienne". 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). Both films were produced by First National Pictures, and while Black Oxen was still being edited and Flaming Youth not yet released, Bow was requested to co-star with Moore as her kid sister in Painted People (The Swamp Angel). Yet as always with Bow, darker days were just around the corner. She told Bow she would be better off dead than a Hollywood star, then made good on that disturbing promise. [19] "I do not think my mother ever loved my father", she said. You see, as it turned out, mental problems ran in Bows family, and her breakdowns and crises traced directly back to her mentally-ill mother Sarah. When she was just 16 years old, she entered the annual Fame and Fortune Brewster magazine contest, which pitted hopefuls against each other in a series of screen tests and promised film work in the winners future. [81] On October 21, 1925, Schulberg filed Preferred Pictures for bankruptcy, with debts at $820,774 and assets $1,420. TIMES STAFF WRITER. If there is an aspect of silent cinema you would like to see featured in Silent but deadly! "[118] MGM executive Paul Bern said Bow was "the greatest emotional actress on the screen", "sentimental, simple, childish and sweet," and considered her "hard-boiled attitude" a "defense mechanism". [91] Throughout the 1920s, Bow played with gender conventions and sexuality in her public image. Bows father Robert was one unsavory dude. SOLD FEB 15, 2023. Never that emotionally stable, the stressors of talkies pushed her over the limit. Clara later arranged a double date for herself and best friend Tui Lorraine with. His last appearance was in The Misfits (1961). 9, and P.S. [71] In a scene described as "original", Bow adds "devices" to "the modern flapper": she fights a villain using her fists, and significantly, does not "shrink back in fear". Up nothing for the U.S. house of Representatives, Bow played with gender and... Superstar in the nation. & quot ; a film chronicling the life baby it. 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