Clara Bow
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Clara Bow | |
|---|---|
 in Wings (Template:Fy) | |
| Born | Clara Gordon Bow |
| Spouse | |
Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. Her acting artistry and high spirits made her the premier flapper and the film It (1927) made her world famous. Bow came to personify the “roaring twenties”[1] and is described as its leading sex symbol.[2]
Early life
Bow was born in a tenement in Brooklyn slum, New York. She was the third child; the first two, also daughters, died in infancy.[3] In July 1905 New York was besieged by a massive heatwave[4] and the infant mortality was estimated at 80%.[3] Bow's mother, Sarah (1880-1923), “...was almost mad with apprehension and fear”,[5] but a week before the delivery, the heatwave broke[6] and Bow was born, with the assistance of her grandmother. She was severely exhausted, though, and it took hours for her to stabilize.[5]
At sixteen, Sarah fell from second floor and hit her head severely [7] and became epileptic, although it took several years before the symptoms manifested, which is common.[8] Sarah was diagnosed with "psychosis due to epilepsy", [9] which apart from the seizures are known to cause disordered thoughts, delusional ideas, paranoia and even aggressive behavior. [10]
From her earliest years, Bow learned how to keep her mother's airways open during her choking spells, and how to put up with her when she was psychotic and hostile. She has described that her mother could be mean to her but "I know she didn't mean to be and that it was because she couldn't help it". [11].Still, Bow felt deprived of her childhood, "As a kid I took care of my mother, she didn't take care of me". [12] Sarah Bow worsened gradually and When she realized her daughter was set for a movie career, she felt it so disgraceful she must end her daughter's life. One night Clara awoke with a butcher knife against her throat but managed to fend off her deranged mother and lock her up. In the morning, Sarah had no recollection of the episode and was eventually committed [13].
Bow says her father Robert (1874-1959) possessed a quick, keen mind and all the natural qualifications to make something of himself, but didn't. He seldom managed to hold on to an employment and the family income varied drastically [11]. Between 1905 and 1923, the Bows lived at at least 14 different addresses.[14] Aside from being a weak provider, Robert was often gone, leaving his family without means to survive, making his desperate wife a prostitute. Young Bow knew no trauma from this however, a visiting "Uncle" meant food on the table. [15]
"It was snowing. My mother and I were cold and hungry. We had been cold and hungry for days. We lay in each others arms and cried and tried to keep warm. It grew worse and worse. So that night my mother - but I can´t tell you about it. Only when I remember it, it seems to me I can´t live." [16]
When Sarah died from her illness in January 1923, and relatives gathered for the funeral, Bow made a big scene and accused the attendants for not being supportive when it counted. She was so mad she even tried to jump after her mother down the grave. [13]
Bow never had a doll in her life, but treasured her roller skates. [17] As she grew up she felt shy among other girls who teased her for her worn-out clothes and “carrot-top” hair. But she had no use for their company, ”sissy” attitudes or games, instead, from first grade, she enjoyed the society of boys and their sports, stunts and fighting. "I could lick any boy my size. My right was quite famous. My right arm was developed from pitching so much." "Once I hopped a ride on behind a big fire engine. I got a lot of credit from the gang for that." [13].
Bow was a true tomboy, and had her first big break in the movies playing a “boy” in Down to the Sea in Ships [18]. Soon she took on the emancipated Flapper girl character and her quest for “male” or “boyish” freedoms.
Fame & Fortune
Bow dreamed of being a movie star from an early age. Since she was ignored at home, she spent much of her free time at the movies. In 1921, she entered Motion Picture magazine's "Fame and Fortune" contest, the grand prize being a part in a film. According to the articles in February, March, and April 1928 in Motion Picture Classic, in which she told her life story, she asked her father for one dollar to have some pictures taken for the contest's judges. He took her to a cheap Coney Island photographer, who took two pictures which she said "were terrible". She then delivered the pictures in person, and the secretary who accepted them from her wrote on her entry form "Called in person. Very pretty."[19] After numerous screen tests, Bow was selected the winner, and she debuted in Beyond the Rainbow (1922).
Early career
Bow's second part was in Down to the Sea in Ships (1922). It took twelve weeks to record on location in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The film was popular with audiences and, although critics loathed it, Bow was singled out for praise. She began to go from studio to studio, looking for work, and picked up bit parts. She got her big break when an officer from Preferred Pictures approached her on a movie set, offering her trainfare to Hollywood and a 3 month trial contract at $50 per week. When Preferred Pictures head B. P. Schulberg saw the bedraggled teenager, he was reluctant even to give her a screen test, but he relented, and the results left him flabbergasted. Bow was extremely photogenic, and she could cry on command.[20]
Starting with Maytime (1923), Schulberg cast Bow in a series of small roles. However, instead of creating projects for her, he loaned her out to other studios. Nevertheless, Bow started to make a name for herself through these many small roles and was selected as one of the WAMPAS Baby Stars in 1924.
As soon as Bow started to make money, she brought her father to live with her in Hollywood. For the next few years, she funded numerous business ventures for him, including a restaurant and a dry cleaners, all of which failed. He soon became a drunken nuisance on her sets, where he would try to pick up young girls by telling them his daughter was Clara Bow.
In 1925, Schulberg cast Bow in The Plastic Age. The movie was a huge hit, and Bow was suddenly the studio's most popular star. She also began to date her co-star Gilbert Roland, who would become the first of many fiancés. Bow followed her first big success with Mantrap (1926), directed by Victor Fleming. Though he was twice her age, Bow quickly fell in love with her director. She began seeing both Roland and Fleming at the same time.
The It Girl
In 1927, Bow reached the heights of her popularity with the film It; the film was based on a story written by Elinor Glyn, and upon the film's release, Bow became known as "The It Girl". In Glynn's story, It, a character explains what "It" really is: "It...that strange magnetism which attracts both sexes...entirely unself-conscious...full of self-confidence...indifferent to the effect...she is producing and uninfluenced by others." More commonly, "It" was taken to mean sex appeal. "It, hell," quipped Dorothy Parker, "She had those."[21]
This image was enhanced by various off-screen love affairs publicized by the tabloid press. She was very open (for the era) about her sexual escapades with many famous men of the time. Bela Lugosi, Gary Cooper, Gilbert Roland, John Wayne, director Victor Fleming, and John Gilbert were all reputed to have been among her many lovers. In 1929, Lugosi's wife, Beatrice Weeks, cited Bow as the other party in their divorce.
However, most Hollywood insiders considered her socially undesirable. Bow was not liked by other women in Hollywood, and her presence at social functions was taboo, including her own premieres. Bow's bohemian lifestyle, thick Brooklyn accent and "dreadful" manners were considered reminders of the Hollywood Elite's uneasy position in high society, and they shunned her for it.[22] Budd Schulberg, the producer's son, wrote in his memoir Moving Pictures, "Hollywood was a cultural schizophrene: The anti-movie Old Guard with their chamber music and their religious pageants fighting a losing battle against the more dynamic culture of the Ad Schulbergs who flaunted the bohemianism of Edna St. Vincent Millay and the socialism of Upton Sinclair. But there was one subject on which the staid old Hollywood establishment and the members of the new culture circle would agree: Clara Bow, no matter how great her popularity, was a low life and a disgrace to the community."[23]
However, Bow was praised by critics for her beauty, vitality and enthusiasm — Adolph Zukor, head of Paramount, said that "She danced even when her feet weren't moving. Some part of her was always in motion, if only her great, rolling eyes. It was an elemental magnetism, an animal vitality, that made her the center of attraction in any company."[24] Her roles rarely allowed her to show much range. Bow did not have enough confidence to demand input in the scripts she was given, and the studio businessmen considered her to be stupid and gullible, so she was treated as a commodity instead of a serious actress.
In 1927, Bow starred in Wings, a war picture largely rewritten to accommodate her, as she was Paramount's biggest star at the time. The film went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture. In 1928, Bow wrote the foreword for a novelization of her film The Fleet's In. Between 1927 and 1930, Bow was one of Hollywood's top five box office attractions.[25]
Bow's career continued into the early sound film era. Legend contends that her first talkie, The Wild Party, directed by Dorothy Arzner, was a disaster, but audiences crammed into theatres to see it, and the reviews, though they gave the film itself poor marks, commented that her voice suited her screen image well.[26] However, Bow began experiencing microphone fright on the sets of her sound films. A visibly nervous Bow had to do a number of retakes in The Wild Party because her eyes kept wandering up to the microphone overhead; Arzner took credit for being the first director to hang the microphone from overhead.[27] However, her performances in her sound films improved rapidly, and she continued to be a box office success.
MGM had given their biggest star, Greta Garbo, two years to prepare for her first sound film; Paramount gave Bow two weeks. Paramount began canceling her films, docking her pay, charging her for unreturned costumes, and insisting that she pay for her publicity photographs. As she slipped closer and closer to a major breakdown, her manager B.P. Schulberg began referring to her as "Crisis-A-Day-Clara".[28]
The pressures of fame, public scandals, overwork and a damaging court trial involving former assistant Daisy DeVoe took their toll on Bow's already fragile emotional health. She ended up in a sanatorium in April 1931 with a case of shattered nerves. Paramount released her from her contract a short while later.
Following a brief period away from Hollywood to recover, Bow signed a two-picture deal with Fox Film Corporation and returned to the screen in the early talkie Call Her Savage (1932). Although the film was a success, Bow opted for marriage and motherhood, and ended her film career after the release of Hoop-La the following year.
Later life
Bow and cowboy actor Rex Bell (actually George F. Beldam), later a Lieutenant Governor of Nevada, married in 1932 and had two sons, Tony Beldam (born 1934, changed name to Rex Anthony Bell, Jr.) and George Beldam, Jr. (born 1938). Bow retired from acting in 1933. Her last public exposure, albeit fleeting, was a guest appearance on the radio show Truth or Consequences in 1947; Bow provided the voice of "Mrs. Hush".
In 1944, while Bell was running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Bow tried to commit suicide.[29] In 1949 she checked into The Institute of Living to get treated for her chronic insomnia. Shock treatment was tried and numerous psychological tests performed. Bow's IQ was measured "bright normal" (111-119), while others claimed she was unable to reason, had poor judgment and conducted inappropriate or even bizarre behavior. Bow was diagnosed with schizophrenia, although she was not hallucinatory or psychotic. Her insomnia was attributed to childhood trauma, the analysts said, but Bow rejected psychological explanations for both her sleep disorder and her physical pains.[30][31]
Bow spent her last years in a modest house in Los Angeles under the constant care of a nurse, living off an estate worth about $500,000 at the time of her death.[30] She died on September 27, 1965 of a heart attack while watching a Gary Cooper movie. The autopsy revealed that Bow suffered from atherosclerosis (death certificate), a heart disease established in early adolescence.[32] Bow's heart bore scars from an earlier undiagnosed heart attack.[33] She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Honors
For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Bow was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 1994, she was honored with an image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.
Urban myths
The book Hollywood Babylon spread the contemporary legend that Bow's friendship with members of the 1927 University of Southern California football team included group sex with the entire team. This was finally proved incorrect by her biographer, David Stenn, who interviewed still-living members of that year's team while researching her.[27]
During her lifetime, Bow was the subject of wild rumors regarding her sex life; most of them were untrue. A tabloid called The Coast Reporter published lurid allegations about her in 1931, accusing her of exhibitionism, incest, lesbianism, bestiality, drug addiction, alcoholism, and having contracted venereal disease. The publisher of the tabloid then tried to blackmail Bow, offering to cease printing the stories for $25,000, which led to his arrest by federal agents, and later an eight-year prison sentence.[34]
In popular culture
- The alternative rock band 50 Foot Wave entitled a song "Clara Bow" on their CD Golden Ocean.
- Bow is mentioned in the song "Condition of the Heart" by Prince on his album Around the World in a Day.
- Max Fleischer's cartoon character Betty Boop was modeled after Bow and entertainer Helen Kane (the "boop-boop-a-doop-girl").
- Bow's mass of tangled red hair was one of her most famous features. When fans of the new star found out she put henna in her hair, sales of the dye tripled.[27]
- Bow applied her red lipstick in the shape of a heart. Women who imitated this shape were said to be putting a "Clara Bow" on their mouths.[27]
- Bow was mentioned in the lyrics of the song "Chop Suey" in Rodgers & Hammerstein's musical comedy Flower Drum Song
- She is Effy's idol in the popular E4 show Skins.[35]
- An autographed picture of Bow is offered as a consolation prize of a beauty contest in the 1931 George Gershwin musical Of Thee I Sing.
- In an episode of the Fox TV series, Bones, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan's undercover persona "Roxie," is based on Brennan's memories of watching Bow's films as a child. Her partner mentions that Clara Bow was a silent screen star, to which Brennan replies that she was imitating what she imagined Bow sounded like. Obviously, Brennan had never seen Bow's "talkie" work.
- In the novel Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank, the character Florence Wechek is described as looking like Clara Bow.
- In the 1990 novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon, the character Zoyd Wheeler refers to his daughter watching Pia Zadora in the fictitious movie The Clara Bow Story.
- Two graphic adventure games by Sierra star a heroine named, Laura Bow, who is a clear homage to Clara Bow.
- In the film, The Rules of Attraction directed by Roger Avary and based on the novel of the same name by Bret Easton Ellis, the character Lauren is told by a NYU film school student at a party that she looks like Clara Bow.
- In the song "straight girl of the Universe" by Alternative rock group The Exies Clara Bow is referred to.
- Bow is mentioned in Lady GaGa's music video "Paparazzi" as the "it" girl.
- The British pop/rock band Cleaners From Venus recorded a song about her ("Clara Bow") which was released in 1987 on the album Going to England.
- Bow is mentioned in an episode of M*A*S*H when Hawkeye and Colonel Potter are behind enemy lines. They are drunk and trying to convince American infantrymen that they are 'one of them'. Hawkeye references 'apple pie' and 'Betty Grable'. When Potter references 'Clara Bow', Hawkeye remarks, "Clara Bow? Frank's right, you are old."
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1922 | Beyond the Rainbow | Virginia Gardener | |
| Down to the Sea in Ships | Dot Morgan | ||
| 1923 | Enemies of Women | Girl dancing on table | |
| The Daring Years | Mary | ||
| Maytime | Alice Tremaine | ||
| Black Oxen | Janet Ogelthorpe | ||
| 1924 | Grit | Orchid McGonigle | |
| Poisoned Paradise | Margot LeBlanc | ||
| Daughters of Pleasure | Lila Millas | Alternative title: Beggar on Horseback | |
| Wine | Angela Warriner | ||
| Empty Hearts | Rosalie | ||
| Helen's Babies | Alice Mayton | ||
| This Woman | Aline Sturdevant | ||
| Black Lightning | Martha Larned | ||
| 1925 | Capital Punishment | Delia Tate | |
| The Adventurous Sex | The Girl | ||
| Eve's Lover | Rena D'Arcy | ||
| The Lawful Cheater | Molly Burns | ||
| The Scarlet West | Miriam | ||
| My Lady's Lips | Lola Lombard | ||
| Parisian Love | Marie | ||
| Kiss Me Again | Grizette | ||
| The Keeper of the Bees | Lolly Cameron | ||
| The Primrose Path | Marilyn Merrill | ||
| Free to Love | Marie Anthony | ||
| The Best Bad Man | Peggy Swain | ||
| The Plastic Age | Cynthia Day | ||
| The Ancient Mariner | Doris | ||
| My Lady of Whims | Prudence Severn | ||
| 1926 | Dance Madness | - | |
| Shadow of the Law | Mary Brophy | ||
| Two Can Play | Dorothy Hammis | ||
| Dancing Mothers | Kittens Westcourt | ||
| Fascinating Youth | Clara Bow | ||
| The Runaway | Cynthia Meade | ||
| Mantrap | Alverna | ||
| Kid Boots | Clara McCoy | ||
| 1927 | It | Betty Lou Spence | |
| Children of Divorce | Kitty Flanders | ||
| Rough House Rosie | Rosie O'Reilly | ||
| Wings | Mary Preston | ||
| Hula | Hula Calhoun | ||
| Get Your Man | Nancy Worthington | ||
| 1928 | Red Hair | Bubbles McCoy | |
| Ladies of the Mob | Yvonne | ||
| The Fleet's In | Trixie Deane | ||
| Three Weekends | Gladys O'Brien | ||
| 1929 | The Wild Party | Stella Ames | |
| Dangerous Curves | Pat Delaney | ||
| The Saturday Night Kid | Mayme | Alternative title: Love 'Em and Leave 'Em | |
| 1930 | True to the Navy | Ruby Nolan | |
| Love Among the Millionaires | Pepper Whipple | ||
| Her Wedding Night | Norma Martin | ||
| 1931 | No Limit | Helen "Bunny" O'Day | |
| Kick In | Molly Hewes | ||
| 1932 | Call Her Savage | Nasa Springer | |
| 1933 | Hoop-La | Lou | |
| 1949 | Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner | Clara Bow - Resort Guest | Short subject |
References
- ^ Joseph Morella, Edward Epstein, The IT girl, p.283, 1977, Dell Publ. Co, inc, ISBN 0-440-14068-4
- ^ Kathleen Morgan Drowne, Patrick Huber, The 1920´s, p. 237, 2004, Greenwood Publ. Group
- ^ a b Stenn, David, Clara Bow Runnin' Wild, P. 8, 1988 Penguin Books, a Division of Viking Penguin, New York,
- ^ Waterloo, Iowa July 19, 1905
- ^ a b My life by Clara Bow, told for Adele St Johns, Photo-play Magazine, Feb issue 1928
- ^ Waterloo, Iowa July 21, 1905
- ^ David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild (New York: Penguin Books, 1988), p. 6
- ^ Michael Alsn, Fundamentals of Clinical Neuropsychiatry (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999)
- ^ David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild (New York: Penguin Books, 1988), p. 26
- ^ NYU Langone Medical Center, psychosis and epilepsy
- ^ a b "My Life" by Clara Bow, told to Adela Rogers St. Johns, Photoplay, February 1928
- ^ The It Girl by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein (New York: Dell, 1976) p. 24 ISBN 0-440-14068-4
- ^ a b c My life by Clara Bow, told to Adela Rogers St. John, Photoplay, March 1928
- ^ David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild (New York: Penguin Books, 1988) p. 322
- ^ The It Girl by Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein (New York: Dell, 1976) p. 17 ISBN 0-440-14068-4
- ^ Adela Rogers St. John, "The Salvation of Clara Bow", The New Movie Magazine (December 1930) p. 40
- ^ The It girl by Joe Morella and Edward Z Epstein, p.19, 1976, Dell pub, Co, Inc, ISBN 0-440-14068-4
- ^ Evening Tribune Times, February 10, 1923
- ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild, P. 16, 1988 Penguin Books, a Division of Viking Penguin, New York, New York, originally published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow Runnin' Wild, P. 37-38, 1988 Penguin Books, a Division of Viking Penguin, New York, New York, originially published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ Everson, William K. (1998) [1978]. American Silent Film (1st Da Capo Press ed. ed.). New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. ISBN.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameters:|chapterurl=and|coauthors=(help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow Runnin' Wild, p. 116-117, 1988, Penguin Books, a division of Penuguin Viking, New York, New York, originally published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ Schulberg, Budd, Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince, September 25, 2003, Ivan R. Dee, Publisher
- ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow Runnin' Wild, p. 70, 1988, Penguin Books, a division of Penuguin Viking, New York, New York, originally published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ The Girl Who Had IT - TIME
- ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow Runnin' Wild, pp. 157-162, 1998 Penguin Books, a Division of Penguin Viking, New York, New York, originally published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ a b c d snopes.com: Clara Bow and the USC Football Team at Snopes.com Cite error: The named reference "TCM" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow Runnin' Wild, pp. 231, 1998 Penguin Books, a Division of Penguin Viking, New York, New York, originally published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ Politics '99 | Human Events | Find Articles at BNET.com
- ^ a b Stenn, David. Running Wild, p.263, p.266, Cooper Square Press, New Ed Edition 2000. ISBN
- ^ Joseph Morella, Edward Z Epstein The "It" Girl", p.276, Dell TM 681510 Dell Pub Co, INC, 1977, ISBN 0-440-14068-4
- ^ De Vane, Mattew S, Heart Smart, p.31-32, Edition illustrated, Publ. John Wiley and Sons, 2006
- ^ Stenn, David. Running Wild, p. 281, Cooper Square Press, New Ed Edition 2000. ISBN
- ^ Stenn, David, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild, P. 238, 1988 Penguin Books, a division of Viking Penguin, New York, New York, originally published by Doubleday, New York, New York
- ^ Effy's blog - skins - E4.com
Bibliography
- Basinger, Jeanine. "Flappers: Colleen Moore and Clara Bow". Silent Stars (1ST edition ed.). Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press. ISBN.
{{cite book}}:|edition=has extra text (help) - TCM Film Guide, "Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era", Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California, 2006.
- Ball, Christina (2001). "The Silencing of Clara Bow". Gadfly Online.
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External links
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.
- Clara Bow at the TCM Movie Database
- Template:Amg
- Clara Bow at Find a Grave
- Photographs of Clara Bow
- The Clara Bow Page
- Photographs and bibliography
- Clara Bow My Life Story