Bow remembered their reunion: "I didn't care a rap, for (her), nor B. P. Schulberg, nor my motion picture career, nor Clara Bow, I just threw myself into his arms and kissed and kissed him, and we both cried like a couple of fool kids. Born Clara Gordon BOW American actress Born on July 29, 1905 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA , United States Died on September 27, 1965 in Culver City, California, USA Born on July 29 33 Deceased on September 27 32 Family tree Report an error Bow Elijah 1792 - 1860 ? [147] Her pallbearers were Harry Richman, Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie, Maxie Rosenbloom, Jack Dempsey, and Buddy Rogers. Besides her flaming red hair, Bows lips were also a national sensation. David Stenn captures her legendary rise to stardom and fall from grace, her success marred by studio exploitation and sexual scandals. Her personal appearance is almost enough to carry her to success without the aid of the brains she indubitably possesses. She has almost immediately been elected for all the recent flapper parts". "[68], My life in Hollywood contained plenty of uproar. In 1925, Clara started a scandalous sensation. Build Voluptuous Please join us in Loving, Sharing and Memorializing Clara Bow George on this permanent online memorial. Clara Bow is Update Soon years old in 2022. She has a genuine spark of divine fire. The film gave Bow her nickname, "The 'It' Girl." . Rex Bell (born George Francis Beldam; October 16, 1903 - July 4, 1962) was an American actor and politician. Bow held out for $50 and Clifton agreed, but he could not say whether she would "fit the part". Find out where Clara Bow was born, their birthday and details about their professions, education, religion, family and other life details and facts. I knew I could never go back to being a tomboy. When Bow decided to act, it all came together with frightening easeat least at first. In 1929, Lugosi tied the knot with wealthy socialite Beatrice Weeks. She certainly has that certain 'It'and she just runs away with the film. In September 1965, Bow died of a heart attack at the age of 60. 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. Frightful snobs Im a curiosity in Hollywood. In order to cry on cue, Bow put herself through intense mental anguish. In 1928 a poll named her . Off Market. Even more scandalously, the OG vampire hung it over his bed for the rest of his life, including through his next two marriages. "[73] Loaned out to Universal, Bow top-starred, for the first time, in the prohibition, bootleg drama/comedy Wine, released on August 20, 1924. Yet the new talkie format still took a huge toll on the actress, In truth, Bow never liked talkies, calling them stiff and limiting and complaining that you lose your cuteness. She also never got comfortable with them. She still had to tout herself around the agencies and studios, swallowing rejections as she went. "How I broke into the movies". [86], The Plastic Age was Bow's final effort for Preferred Pictures and her biggest hit up to that time. Well, this backfired horribly. Her parents met as neighbours in a New York State farming neighbourhood. "[69] On September 7, 1924, The Los Angeles Times, in a significant article "A dangerous little devil is Clara, impish, appealing, but oh, how she can act! [51] But first she was lent to First National Pictures to co-star in the adaptation of Gertrude Atherton's 1923 best seller Black Oxen, shot in October, and to co-star with Colleen Moore in Painted People, shot in November. "[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. Its just that they hid it, and Clara didnt. Bow knew the truth. Perhaps because of those misfortunes and the outsider status they brought, she can now be claimed as one of the sharpest commentators on show business, and the studio system. October 21, 1988 CLARA BOW Runnin' Wild By David Stenn Doubleday. I'm a big freak, because I'm myself! [24][25][26] On January 5, 1923, Sarah died at the age of 43 from her epilepsy. Even from the start, this girl didn't have it easy; she was neglected from day one. [35], Grit was released on January 7, 1924. SOLD FEB 15, 2023. As well see, it only got weirder from there. The Legacy Of Clara Bow, America's First Sex Symbol. With her face bandaged up for the foreseeable future, Bow not only lost her close-ups in Painted Peopleshe lost the part entirely. I didn't get indignant. American actress Clara Bow. Bow asked her father, but he told her not to worry. Rate. The biggest misconception about Bow is that her career foundered with the coming of sound because her Brooklyn accent was too ugly. Clara Bow always had a cartoonishly beautiful face and an iconic tuft of red hair. Neighborhood stats provided by third party data sources. When Schulberg learned of this arrangement, he fired Jacobson for potentially getting "his big star" into a scandal. She was one of the most iconic It Girls of her dayin fact, she practically invented the term. When Bow was 16 and alone, Robert attacked her in the bedroom. In front of the judge and jury, DeVoe related a series of stories about Bows fast and loose ways, many of them exaggerated. Bow agreed to the script, but eventually rejected the offer since Irving Thalberg required her to sign a long-term contract. Schulberg, began referring to her as "Crisis-a-day-Clara". #1 On Your Birthday Audiences still loved her, Brooklyn accent or not, and her new films were hit. Some of her most famous flings included the heartthrob actors Gary Cooper and Gilbert Roland. "[112] Carl Sandburg wrote that "'It' is smart, funny and real. Thatll scar you for lifeand it did. Bow came to personify the . [35] Bow later learned that one of Brewsters' subeditors had urged Clifton to give her a chance.[38]. A damaging court trial charging her secretary Daisy DeVoe with financial mismanagement,[124][125] by Paramount-friendly officials: Los Angeles District Attorney Buron Fitts, Assistant District Attorney David Clark, and Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William C. And it made him very unhappy, for he worshipped her always. She had other two sisters who sadly died while they were still infants. I sort of half-sing, half-talk, with hips-and-eye stuff. Clara Bow could be a devoted lover, only she sometimes showed her devotion in strange ways. Bows response? In actuality, Bow was very sharp, its just that her acting was more hands-on than cerebral. [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". "[110] The Film Daily wrote that "Clara Bow gets a real chance and carries it off with honors(and)she is really the whole show",[111] and Variety said "You can't get away from this Clara Bow girl. In it Bow confessed that she preferred eternal slumber to the idea of always being a public figure, and every day seemed unbearable to her. Her costumes in the film were so scarce, one magazine noted they wouldnt weigh two pounds soaking wet. Maybe more scandalously, Bows new husband Rex Bell was less than pleased about her giving away the goods. Nicole and Jamal George and Latoya Jackson. When Bow was still a little girl, unimaginable tragedy struck. 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. We study audience reactions with great care. Dolores Costello. That year, Bow discovered her secretary and confidant Daisy DeVoe had been mismanaging her money, and took her to court. [citation needed], Bow was her parents' third child, but her two older sisters, born in 1903 and 1904, had died in infancy. For a time, Bow tried to return to a normal life. Clara Bow was a Brooklyn girl through and through. Hollywood Divas. Despite the warning, Sarah became pregnant with Clara in late 1904. I wasn't sore. Old Hollywood Stars. [60] Moore essayed the baseball-playing tomboy and Bow, according to Moore, said "I don't like my part, I wanna play yours. 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. She had a miserable home life and few friends, yet films were different. Clara was able to fend off the attack, and locked her mother in her room. He wanted to contract her for a three-month trial, fare paid, and $50 a week. Hollywood saw Bow in much the same way she was the scruffy, lower-class kid whose behaviour jarred with the smart set and who had to work twice as hard as the others for her success. Bow lived her life to the limit, and became a tabloid staple during the heady years of her fame. She is completing her PhD in Toronto, Canada. In late July, Bow entered studio chief B. P. Schulberg's office wearing a simple high-school uniform in which she "had won several gold medals on the cinder track". In the blockbuster Wings, she plays the girl next door fighting for attention in a world full of men. It premiered at the Olympia Theater in New Bedford, on September 25, 1922, and went on general distribution on March 4, 1923. her notorious tell-all memoir in Photoplay. Mother Sarah had schizophrenia and was later institutionalized. My right arm was quite famous.. [16] "I was sick to my stomach", she recalled and thought her mother was right about the movie business. Clara Bow was Hollywood's first sex symbol. [16] "I'd go home and be a one girl circus, taking the parts of everyone I'd seen, living them before the glass. Madame de Pompadour was the alluring chief mistress of King Louis XV, but few people know her dark historyor the chilling secret shared by her and Louis. "[97], Bow appeared in eight releases in 1926: five for Paramount, including the film version of the musical Kid Boots with Eddie Cantor, and three loan-outs that had been filmed in 1925. Bow won an evening gown and a silver trophy, and the publisher committed to help her "gain a role in films", but nothing happened. . After 1927's It, a film adapted from a Elinor Glyn novella, Clara Bow became very popular . When she was trying to make it in movies, the petite and cute Bow said casting directors always turned her downfor one disturbing reason. Well, can you blame her for having a such a maladjusted view of affection? But when she sat down to watch the film, she was utterly devastated. American actress Clara Bow wearing a fur-trimmed robe over a lace-trimmed slip, her hand on her hip, standing in white high-heel shoes in a bedroom,. Down to the Sea in Ships, shot on location in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and produced by independent "The Whaling Film Corporation", documented life, love, and work in the whale-hunter community. "[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. She is endowed with a mentality far beyond her years. She landed a role in 1921s Beyond the Rainbow. When she watched them, she said, For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world., Bow looked pert and cute, but dont be fooled: She could be as arrogant as any other starlet. She found friends more readily among the studio crew than the actors and directors who should have been her peers. 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. Claras Bows final public performance was not on the silver screen, but on the radio. Before the film was finished, Schulberg announced that Bow was given the lead in the studio's biggest seasonal assessment[clarify], Poisoned Paradise. With her tomboy charms and expressive face, Clara Bow took Old Hollywood by storm. John Gilbert was the other. Both her mother and grandmother were mentally ill and her father was disinterested in both marriage and children (he had left Clara's mother shortly before she went into labor). Also Known As: Clara Gordon Bow Died At Age: 60 Family: Spouse/Ex-: Rex Bell father: Robert Bow mother: Sarah Bow children: George Beldam Jr., Rex Bell Jr. Actresses American Women Height: 5'3" (160 cm ), 5'3" Females Died on: September 27, 1965 place of death: Culver City, California, United States City: Brooklyn, New York City [123] "Now they're having me sing. With Paramount on Parade, True to the Navy, Love Among the Millionaires, and Her Wedding Night, Bow was second at the box-office only to Joan Crawford in 1930. By the time the reclusive Clara Bow passed, almost no one remembered her. In an almost cruel twist of fate, Sarah had survived the pregnancy, and the baby, whom they still hoped would die, was named Clara. Clara bow Stock Photos and Images. 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. $18.95 It is one of the ironies of movie stardom that the price it exacts is invariably demanded of those least able to. Although she refused to believe her mothers attack had anything to do with her problems and left the sanatorium in a huff, she didnt return to her young family. The New York Times said, "The flapper, impersonated by a young actress, Clara Bow, had five speaking titles, and every one of them was so entirely in accord with the character and the mood of the scene that it drew a laugh from what, in film circles, is termed a "hard-boiled" audience",[57] while the Los Angeles Times commented that "Clara Bow, the prize vulgarian of the lot was amusing and spirited but didn't belong in the picture",[58] and Variety said that "the horrid little flapper is adorably played". Bow came to personify the "roaring twenties" and is described as its leading sex symbol. Time doesn't exist for her, except that she thinks it will stop tomorrow. Abuse, in all its ugly forms, was common. Bow once quipped, I could lick any boy my size. Clara increased her list of male lovers that included actors John Gilbert, Norman Kerry and Warren Burke. Bow left her family and moved to a small bungalow in Culver City, near the movie studios, living off her savings in total seclusion for the rest of her life. She became an iconic movie star. In 1944, when she was still in her 30s, Clara Bow tried to commit suicide, leaving only a note. She knew what it meant to be a jazz baby and it wasnt always a party. Need I say that Bela was hooked? The only art that was off-limits to her, according to some, was novels. She told Bow she would be better off dead than a Hollywood star, then made good on that disturbing promise. She drew on her lipstick in a now-iconic heart-shaped style, and her unique look soon took the public by storm. Flapper movies such as The Plastic Age or Dancing Mothers were perfect for Bow, who had a stunning ability to move naturally in front of the camera, bobbing and smirking with humour and sexiness. It was two years before she moved to Hollywood, and another three before she signed a contract with Paramount. After this blow, all her inner torment reached a terrifying climax. What a dame. Though school-girls used to tease Bow for her carrot top red hair, her wild locks did earn her another cool nickname when she hit the big time. The interview also revealed that Bow already was cast in Maytime and in great favor of Chinese cuisine. Occupation Actor Family Father - Robert Walter Bow (1874-1959) Mother - Sarah Frances Bow (ne Gordon) (1880-1923) Siblings - Clara had 2 older sisters who died in infancy. In February 1922, Clara Bow awoke to a horrifying sight: Her mother holding a butchers knife to her throat. Description. [82] Three days later it was announced that Schulberg would join with Adolph Zukor to become associate producer of Paramount Pictures, "catapulted into this position because he had Clara Bow under personal contract". She almost never went out of the house and refused to socialize, but she also hated if her husband left her alone. [35] Preferred Pictures was run by Schulberg, who had started as a publicity manager at Famous Players-Lasky, but in the aftermath of the power struggle around the formation of United Artists, ended up on the losing side and lost his job. Want to tell us to write facts on a topic? Appropriately chastised, Brownlow included a whole segment on Bow in his next documentary, sparking renewed interest in the lovely, effervescent, and indescribable Clara Bow. [150], Film historian Kevin Brownlow did not mention Bow in his 1968 book on silent films, The Parade's Gone By. "He knew it. On the silver screen, however, she found consolation; "For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world. 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. The contest earned Bow a trophy and a small film role, but no contract. I made a place for myself on the screen and you can't do that by being Mrs. Alcott's idea of a Little Woman.[68]. Louise Brooks, who received an entire chapter in the book, wrote to Brownlow, "You brush off Clara Bow for some old nothing like Brooks. 98. [83], Adolph Zukor, Paramount Picture CEO, wrote in his memoirs: "All the skill of directors and all the booming of press-agent drums will not make a star. Bow and Rex Bell had two sons, born in 1934 and 1936. Her nerves were all shot, and Photoplay even reported sightings of bottles of sedatives by her bed in one long row. Bow was attracted to Lugosi when he was still doing the stage version of Dracula, and sauntered down to a performance one night wearing only her mink coat and bathing suit. He also appeared in the 1930 movie True to the Navy, starring Clara Bow; Bell and Bow married the following year. She catapulted to fame after winning Motion Picture magazine's 1921 " Fame and Fortune" contest. Despite the warning, Sarah became pregnant with Clara in late 1904. Bow was so worn down, she begged the studio to release her from her contract, and checked herself into a sanatorium. In spite of this Clara was conceived in fall of 1904. Clara Bow enjoyed a swift rise in Hollywood but then, aged just 25, suffered an equally rapid fall Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images As the silent era made its jerking transition. Medium. Shocked and appalled at Bows total disregard for the fame food chain, Moore flexed her power in the cruellest way she knew how. Sarah was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again, because this time she might die as well. [23], According to Bow's biographer, David Stenn, Bow was raped by her father at age sixteen while her mother was institutionalized. $310,000 Last Sold Price. "[16], Bow's interest in sports and her physical abilities led her to plan for a career as an athletics instructor. It closed in 1943. 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. "[80] Bow added that she intended to leave the motion picture business at the expiration of the contract, i.e., in 1931. Clara made three pictures that will never be surpassed: Dancing Mothers, Mantrap, and It. TIMES STAFF WRITER. As the sassy broad wrote, You brush off Clara Bow for some old nothing like Brooks. Brooks letter actually had the intended effect. She has a big heart, a remarkable brain, and the most utter contempt for the world in general. [103] In Victor Fleming's comedy-triangle Mantrap Bow, as Alverna the manicurist, cures lonely hearts Joe Easter (Ernest Torrence) of the great northern, as well as pill-popping New York divorce attorney runaway Ralph Prescott (Percy Marmont). She was dynamite, full of nervous energy and vitality and pitifully eager to please everyone. 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