Birth Time Entry. Clara Gordon Bow (/ b o /; 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.Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Now we can watch It and Wings, and many other of Bows movies on DVD, but there was a time when her name had slipped through the cracks of film history. The union only lasted an infamous three days. "I wore sweaters and old skirts didn't want to be treated like a girl". [147] Her pallbearers were Harry Richman, Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie, Maxie Rosenbloom, Jack Dempsey, and Buddy Rogers. Clara's mother hoped that the heat would kill both her and her child and didn't bother with a birth certificate. After winning 1921s Fame and Fortune contest, Bow was all ready to sign a movie contract. Bow remembered: "All this time I was 'running wild', I guess, in the sense of trying to have a good time maybe this was a good thing, because I suppose a lot of that excitement, that joy of life, got onto the screen. "[16] Bow felt "Mrs Smith" (the pseudonym Alton used) had misused her trust: "She wanted to keep a hold on me so she made me think I wasn't getting over and that nothing but her clever management kept me going. I got a lot of credit from the gang for that. The only art that was off-limits to her, according to some, was novels. Director: Elmer Clifton | Stars: Marguerite Courtot, Raymond McKee, William Walcott, Clara Bow. Your suggestions can be as general or specific as you like, from Life to Compact Cars and Trucks to A Subspecies of Capybara Called Hydrochoerus Isthmius. Well get our writers on it because we want to create articles on the topics youre interested in. ", her father is titled "business manager" and Jacobson referred to as her brother.[70]. Down to the Sea in Ships (1922) Unrated | 83 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance. Lobbycard of the movie"Children of Divorce" with from left, Esther Ralston and Clara Bow, in 1927. He committed an unforgivable act. I once directed Clara Bow (Wings). She was one of the most iconic It Girls of her dayin fact, she practically invented the term. Clara Bow was a Brooklyn native. [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. Votes: 379. "[112] Carl Sandburg wrote that "'It' is smart, funny and real. 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. Eva Hendrian. They lived in a dirty and rotting tenement in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. This did not end well. [53] Alton and Bow rented an apartment at The Hillview near Hollywood Boulevard. Bow's IQ was measured "bright normal", while others claimed she was unable to reason, had poor judgment and displayed inappropriate or even bizarre behavior. 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. Her parents met as neighbours in a New York State farming neighbourhood. The next morning, the older woman couldnt even remember the incident. American actress Clara Bow. Clara passed away on month day 2013, at age 74 at death place, Michigan. As fellow starlet Louise Brooks put it, Bow became a star with nobodys help.. [16] "Why can't I stay in New York and make movies?" Her social presence was taboo, and it was rather silly, because God knows Marion Davies and Mary Pickford had plenty to hide. It almost worked: They had two children together and lived happily at first. The interview also revealed that Bow already was cast in Maytime and in great favor of Chinese cuisine. On the silver screen, however, she found consolation; "For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world. Here's what the troubled young star taught us about slut-shaming, sex ,and . Bow had plenty of charm, but her manners were atrocious. 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. In 1931, as "Clara had become more than she was worth," (Stenn, 232) the actress and Paramount came to a mutual settlement to terminate her . She had no problem carousing late into the night and then rolling into the film set in the early hours of the morning, taking whatever lover she pleased along the way. Bows response? "[122] 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. Schulberg fired Jacobson for leading his starlet into scandaland Bows unhinged reaction was one for the ages. Clara Bow Career. Bow commented: "(Alverna] was bad in the book, butdarn it!of course, they couldn't make her that way in the picture. She is endowed with a mentality far beyond her years. She doesn't look like she belongs in the '20s, or even in black and white. 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. [45] Three months before Down to the Sea in Ships was released, Bow danced on a table, uncredited in Enemies of Women (1923). As the sassy broad wrote, You brush off Clara Bow for some old nothing like Brooks. Brooks letter actually had the intended effect. For all that she hated talkies, she made a cameo as the mystery voice in the 1947 radio show Truth or Consequences in their Mrs. [35] In the summer, she got a "tomboy" part in Grit, a story that dealt with juvenile crime and was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Either way, no one was surprised when it ended, but they were downright astonished by just how quickly things went south. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. "[104] The film was released on July 24, 1926,[105] to rave reviews. According to Bow herself, when she saw the final print of the film, she felt sick to her stomach and nearly quit acting all together. The Legacy Of Clara Bow, America's First Sex Symbol. Artist: Unknown. Hollywood Legends. So that night my motherbut I can't tell you about it. "[47] While shooting Grit at Pyramid Studios, in Astoria, New York, Bow was approached by Jack Bachman of independent Hollywood studio Preferred Pictures. Clara Bow, the playgirl of Hollywood, Liberty, spring 1975, 1929 retro special, "Sam Carver, manager of 'first run' theater 'Newman' in Kansas City to industrial journal,". We study audience reactions with great care. Our credibility is the turbo-charged engine of our success. "[16] A close friend, a younger boy who lived in her building burned to death, something which haunted her. Who are we, after all, to say she is wrong? Bow was a working class girl who fought her way to the top. I never did anything to hurt anyone else. On July 29, 1905, Sarah gave birth to a third daughter, who was miraculously born alive. Bow was an amazing looking woman - a Kewpie doll face, round, with huge, expressive eyes, a brilliant smile, and thick, luxurious hair. Even from the start, this girl didn't have it easy; she was neglected from day one. Her imagery and electric, sexy performances spoke to the flapper persona of the times. I make the big bucks in this family, and this brought in the paycheck. The director William Wellman described her as mad and crazy, but WHAT a personality!. I wanna play yours. Moores response was swift and brutal. [145][146] She did not return to her family. She screens perfectly. [126][127][128][129], According to the 1930 census, Bow lived at 512 Bedford Drive, together with her secretary and hairdresser, Daisy DeBoe (later DeVoe), in a house valued $25,000 with neighbors titled "Horse-keeper", "Physician", "Builder". She retired from acting in 1933, but two decades later her reputation received an extra blow with Singin in the Rain, which featured Lina Lamont, the talentless flapper with a Noo Yoik twang who cant hack it in the sound era. Well, can you blame her for having a such a maladjusted view of affection? Her personal appearance is almost enough to carry her to success without the aid of the brains she indubitably possesses. Carl Sandburg reviewed it on September 29 saying; "If not taken as information, it is cracking good entertainment,". Bow had died just before the book came out, aged 60 and living alone. Nearby Recently Sold Homes. She has a genuine spark of divine fire. Even more scandalously, the OG vampire hung it over his bed for the rest of his life, including through his next two marriages. The people who are held up as examples for me? [123] "Now they're having me sing. Real nice, 1920s casting directors, real nice. One of her more understanding directors, Victor Fleming, compared her to a Stradivarius violin, saying Touch her, and she responded with genius. Take that. The Variety review said ". [4][5] Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost two-to-one, a "safe return". Clara Gordon Bow, destined to become "The It Girl", was born on July 29, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in poverty and violence. In Poisoned Paradise, released on February 29, 1924, Bow got her first lead; "the clever little newcomer whose work wins fresh recommendations with every new picture in which she appears". "[116] The film went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture. October 21, 1988 CLARA BOW Runnin' Wild By David Stenn Doubleday. She told Bow she would be better off dead than a Hollywood star, then made good on that disturbing promise. Story of the lives of the people in a small Quaker community and the adventures of a whaling ship. I used to sing at home and people would say, 'Pipe down! Bow asked her father, but he told her not to worry. That very year, Bow resorted to desperate measures. Though this is exactly what helped her cry at the drop of a hat, Tuttle also noted that it made Bow full of nervous energy and pitifully eager to please everyone. Soon enough, this tendency would ravage Bow. "[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". #1 On Your Birthday [136] Mary Pickford stated that Bow "was a very great actress" and wanted her to play her sister in Secrets (1933),[133] Howard Hughes offered her a three-picture deal, and MGM wanted her to star in Red-Headed Woman (1932). RM EC8004 - Clara Bow in 'Hula', a 1927 silent . 6465 Clara Bow Ave UNIT 103, Las Vegas, NV 89122. In "Hollywood, the Pioneers", (the Brownlow/Gill mini-series on silent movies), she mentioned Clara Bow as being one of the two "most utterly talented actors' she knew. "[16] In 1925, Bow appeared in 14 productions: six for her contract owner, Preferred Pictures, and eight as an "out-loan". Her birthplace is Brooklyn. [141] In 1944, while Bell was running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Bow tried to commit suicide. Of all of Bows scandalous affairs, her tryst with horror star Bela Lugosi was the most bizarreright from the very beginning. Then I got a little sore. Even when she has the opportunity to woo the audience by displaying her charms in a comedy such a Mantrap (How she vamps with her lamps, praised Variety), her inveterate flirting condemns her to an unhappy ending. Clara Gordon Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in a tenement in Brooklyn, New York, the only surviving child of a family afflicted with mental illness and Dickensian poverty and physical and emotional abuse. Bow truly loved movies, but her adoration came from an incredibly dark place. If youre not tearing up just thinking about that, it goes deeper: Bow claimed the lullaby reminded her of her late, little friend who expired in her arms. It was two years before she moved to Hollywood, and another three before she signed a contract with Paramount. Clara had 10 siblings: William Robert Bow, Verna Julia Kauhn (born Bow) and 8 other siblings. Clara was always a charmer with men, but she was also deeply damaged. Clara was fascinated with the Trojan players, particularly captain and All-American quarterback Morley Drury. She signed a two-picture contract with Fox Film Corporation and admitted she had come back to Hollywood for the sole purpose of making enough money to be able to stay out of it. But the damage was already done. 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. He told her she was too old, and Bow had to spend the rest of the appointment convincing him she was a kid after all. She lives entirely in the present, not even for today, but in the moment. Rex Bell (born George Francis Beldam; October 16, 1903 - July 4, 1962) was an American actor and politician. 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