Clara Bow: Death of the “it” Girl

The Jazz Age always conjures up all sorts of thoughts for me. The flapper, prohibition, gangsters, silent movies, and stardust dreams. There are several silent movie stars I think of, Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson, Louise Brooks, but one stands out to me, and that is Clara Bow. The only thing you ever hear about Bow, is her inability to transition from silent to talkies. Her story is always told with some sense of sadness. And I guess when you read about her life, it is a sad story, not a unique one, but sad nonetheless.

Clara was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1905.  She was born to an unstable woman, and a drunken father. She didn’t have a chance. When she was born, her mother thought she was born dead, as the baby didn’t make a sound. Her grandmother spent several minutes shaking the baby until they realized she was alive. Clara’s childhood was miserable, her father was never gainfully employed, drank, and played the disappearing act, on and off. But of the two parents, Clara cherished her dad most. Her mother was a deeply disturbed woman who suffered from epilepsy and psychotic fits, reportedly due to a fall which injured her head. It was also reported that Clara’s mother was a prostitute and a small Clara was exposed to things, no child her age should be. Throughout her life, her parents made it perfectly clear that she was a mistake, and an unwanted child. In fact, they never even bothered to file a birth certificate as if to wish her away.

Growing up in Brooklyn’s poor area, and run down tenements was filled with trauma, abuse, and poverty. She was teased by the girls about her “plain,” “unattractive” looks, and her carrot top hair. She resorted to being a tomboy, playing all the “boy” games and being “one of the boys.” To escape her miserable existence, she’d go to the movies. She’d do whatever she needed to do to scrape the money to go to the movies. She loved stars like Wallace Reid and Mary Pickford, and she wanted to be like them. She wanted it so bad, she could taste it. Anything was better than what she was living. The screen would be her protection from the world.

During this time many young women submitted photos of themselves to the Motion Picture Magazine. Each year the magazine would have a contest, designed to discover new actors. It was much like “American Idol” is today. Almost every star-struck girl in America dreamed of winning this contest and of being transported to the magical land of Hollywood. Clara borrowed the money from her father and submitted her photo in 1921 and she won.

Her first break was in a movie titled, “Beyond the Rainbow.” (1922) which disappointed her because her sequences were cut. In fact , one review of the movie in “Variety,” didn’t even mention Bow as one of the “beauties.” But Clara kept at it and eventually got a small role in “Down to the Sea in Ships (1922) which paid her $50 bucks a week, “more money than I knew there was in the world,” Bow said in a Photoplay article. Although she had done, “Beyond the Rainbow,” this film was her first on screen appearance. Clara’s professional life was at an up swing, but her home life was falling apart. Her mother’s mental state got worse, and she didn’t like that her daughter was now an actress. Her mother would rather see her dead, and she attempted to kill Clara. Clara escaped, and her mother was institutionalized. Her mother died shortly after her admission.

Although the death of her mother haunted Clara, she managed to garner strength and determination to pursue her acting career. She landed a few more small roles in 1923, and bigger roles in 1924, eventually gaining more recognition and popularity due to her wild and vivacious personality. Her real breakthrough came in 1925, when she appeared in “The Plastic Age.” In this movie she played the “easy” girl at an ivy-league college. The studio promoted Clara as “the hottest jazz baby in films.” But when 1927 rolled around she got a role in a movie titled, “It.” Clara is forever immortalized as the “it” girl. Thus she is known as the quintessential “flapper.” The girl of the jazz age. The “it” girl  represented, unrestrained sexuality, vivacious personality, and an exuberant love of life. This movie makes Clara the biggest star in Hollywood.

Hollywood life was good, but again, her personal life was falling apart. Her emotional state became fragile much to the concern of her producers and directors. They coined her, “Crisis-a-day Clara.” The media  had a field day with Clara, complicating her professional life. Stories of her many love affairs, orgies, etc, were front page news. Hollywood began to see her as a “disgrace,” and “lowlife.” But despite this, Clara continued on the road to fame. She was granted a more serious role in Academy Award winning, “Wings,” in 1927, unfortunately, this would turn out to be her last great picture. Then came the talkies and Clara worried she wouldn’t be good. She made only a few talkies, and many think her Brooklyn accent was the problem. I’ve heard her, and I still don’t understand what the fuss was about.

The pressures of Hollywood got the best of Clara and she decided to leave it for good in 1933. It became clear to her that her career ended when the Jazz age ended. She settled down and married actor Rex Bell and had two children. They lived in a remote ranch in Nevada, but even this didn’t keep the scandals from coming. In 1949 her mental state continued to decline and she was diagnosed with Schizophrenia. She never appeared in the limelight again. She died at age 60, alone, in her home in Los Angeles on September 27, 1965. And although, we see her laughing and dancing on the screen today, remember what she once said, “ All the time the flapper is laughin’ and dancin’, there’s a feelin’of tragedy underneath..”