Clara Bow: The It Girl

She danced even when her feet were not moving. -Adolph Zukor on Clara Bow**

On July 29, 1905, Clara Bow was born in the tenements of Brooklyn, New York. Her mentally ill mother, Sara Bow, had already suffered two miscarriages, she had hoped to die from her third pregnancy. She was unhappily married to Robert Bow, a busboy who had been her only escape from an even bleaker family life.

Robert often disappeared throughout Clara's childhood. Whenever he returned home, he was verbally and physically abusive to both wife and daughter. When he left them, Sara was forced to turn tricks for food money. She would lock Clara in a closet whenever a customer was in the apartment.

The neighborhood girls laughed at Clara's shabby clothes, so she befriended the boys. She would often escape her troubled life by immersing herself in movie magazines. She also went to the movies whenever she could, and after the show, she would practice the actress' moves in front of her mirror.

Sara told Clara acting was for whores. She had taken to sneaking up behind her and saying she would kill her because she would be better off dead. For this reason, Clara did not tell her mother that she had decided to enter the Motion Picture Magazine 1921 "Fame and Fortune" contest.

The "Fame and Fortune" contest winner would appear on the cover of Motion Picture Magazine and win a part in a movie. Clara needed two photographs in order to enter the contest. She begged her father for the money and he took her to a cheap studio. She hated the results, but the contest judges were impressed.

After numerous screen tests, Clara was selected the winner. She won a part in Beyond the Rainbow (1922), but to her humiliation and disappointment, her scenes were cut from the final print. Clara also had her mother to deal with. One night, she awoke to find her holding a butcher knife to her throat. She lay still until her mother collapsed to the floor in a seizure. As a result of the episode, she suffered insomnia for the rest of her life.

Though life was still rough at home, Clara's movie career began to take off. A director saw her picture in Motion Picture Magazine and cast her in Down to the Sea in Ships (1922). Though the critics hated the movie, they liked Clara.

Now Clara began appearing in small movie roles. All the while, she suffered guilty feelings over her mother's disapproval. In 1923, she was on the set when she learned that her mother had died. Clara was devastated, she felt that her acting was somehow responsible for her death.

Clara got her big break when an officer of Preferred Pictures approached her on the set. He offered her free train fare to go make a screen test in Hollywood. She agreed to make the trip. The first time Preferred Pictures head B.P. Schulberg saw disheveled Clara Bow in her one ragged dress, he was dismayed. He was reluctant to even let her make a screen test, but when she finally did, the results astounded him. She was already adept at pantomime and she could cry on command.

Starting with Maytime (1923), Schulberg cast her in a series of small roles. She nearly always stole her scenes. However, instead of creating projects for her, he loaned her out to other studios for easy money.

Now that Clara was making money, she brought her father to live with her in Hollywood. For the next few years, she funded numerous failed business ventures for him, including a restaurant and a dry cleaners. 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.

Despite her unwanted relative, Clara was adored on her sets. Throughout her career, crew members always fell in love with her. She was friendly, generous, and so grateful for her success that she always remained humble.

In 1925, Schulberg cast Clara in The Plastic Age. The movie was a huge hit, and Clara was suddenly the studio's most popular star. She also began to date her co-star Gilbert Roland. He would be the first of many engagements for flirtatious Clara.

Clara followed her first big success with Mantrap (1926), directed by Victor Fleming. Though he was twice her age, Clara quickly fell in love with her director. She began seeing both Roland and Fleming at the same time. She also found time to play the girl-next-door in Wings (1927), the first movie to win the Academy Award for best picture.

In 1927, Clara reached the heights of her popularity with It. Based on a novel by Elinor Glynn (the Jackie Collins of the day), "It" was supposedly a meant to be sex appeal. Now Clara would always be known as the "It" girl.

The "It" girl may have been the most famous movie star, but she did not live like one. Her one extravagance was her red roadster, which she would drive at top speed down dusty Los Angeles back roads, buying off traffic cops with autographed pictures. Her house was a small bungalow, filthy from neglect by a lazy maid. Both her house staff and her family were also bleeding her finances dry. Clara was never home anyway; she now made four movies a year.

Coming up in Part Two: scandal, marriage, and a triumphant return

*from Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild, By David Stenn

**from The Book of Hollywood Quotes, Compiled by Gary Herman