Clara Gordon Bow 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.
69 Facts About Clara Bow
2.
Clara Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap, It, and Wings.
3.
Clara Bow was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930.
4.
Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Clara Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada.
5.
In September 1965, Clara Bow died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
6.
Clara Bow was born in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn at 697 Bergen Street, in a "bleak, sparsely furnished room above [a] dilapidated Baptist Church".
7.
In US census records, enumerated April 15,1910, and January 7,1920, Clara Bow's age is stated 4 and 14 years, respectively.
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Clara Bow was her parents' third child, but her two older sisters, born in 1903 and 1904, had died in infancy.
9.
Clara Bow's parents were descended from English and Scots-Irish immigrants who had come to America the generation before.
10.
When Clara Bow's mother was 16, she fell from a second-story window and suffered a severe head injury.
11.
Clara Bow was later diagnosed with "psychosis due to epilepsy".
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From her earliest years, Clara Bow had learned how to care for her mother during the seizures, as well as how to deal with her psychotic and hostile episodes.
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Still, Clara Bow felt deprived of her childhood; "As a kid I took care of my mother, she didn't take care of me".
14.
Sarah worsened gradually, and when she realized her daughter was set for a movie career, Clara Bow's mother told her she "would be much better off dead".
15.
One night in February 1922, Clara Bow awoke to a butcher knife held against her throat by her mother.
16.
Clara Bow was able to fend off the attack, and locked her mother in her room.
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When relatives gathered for the funeral, Clara Bow was so upset that she "went crazy" and tried to jump into the grave to be with her, shouting that they were "hypocrites" and that they hadn't loved or cared for her mother while she was alive.
18.
Clara Bow heard his screams and ran to his aid, rolling him up in carpet to stop the fire, he died in her arms.
19.
In 1919, Clara Bow enrolled in Bay Ridge High School for Girls.
20.
Clara Bow's mother had a long spell of good health, and changed Bow's appearance, cutting her hair more femininely.
21.
Clara Bow did not have any girlfriends, and school was a "heartache" and her home was "miserable".
22.
Against her mother's wishes but with her father's support, Clara Bow competed in Brewster publications' magazine's annual nationwide acting contest, "Fame and Fortune", in fall 1921.
23.
Clara Bow is endowed with a mentality far beyond her years.
24.
Clara Bow won an evening gown and a silver trophy, and the publisher committed to help her "gain a role in films", but nothing happened.
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Clara Bow's father told her to "haunt" Brewster's office until they came up with something.
26.
Clara Bow did five scenes and impressed Cabanne with her ability to produce tears on call, but was cut from the final print.
27.
Clara Bow, who had dropped out of school after she was notified about winning the "Fame and Fortune Contest", possibly in October 1921, got an ordinary office job; however, movie ads and newspaper editorial comments from 1922 to 1923 suggest that Clara Bow was not cut from Beyond the Rainbow.
28.
Clifton said she was too old, but broke into laughter as the stammering Clara Bow made him believe she was the girl in the magazine.
29.
Clara Bow held out for $50 and Clifton agreed, but he could not say whether she would "fit the part".
30.
Clara Bow later learned that one of Brewsters' subeditors had urged Clifton to give her a chance.
31.
Clara Bow was billed 10th in the film, but shone through:.
32.
Three months before Down to the Sea in Ships was released, Clara Bow danced on a table, uncredited in Enemies of Women.
33.
Clara Bow met her first boyfriend, cameraman Arthur Jacobson, and she got to know director Frank Tuttle, with whom she worked in five later productions.
34.
Clara Bow could cry on demand, opening the floodgate of tears almost as soon as I asked her to weep.
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Clara Bow was dynamite, full of nervous energy and vitality and pitifully eager to please everyone.
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Clara Bow wanted to contract her for a three-month trial, fare paid, and $50 a week.
37.
In 1931, when Clara Bow came under tabloid scrutiny, Parsons defended her and stuck to her first opinion on Clara Bow:.
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Clara Bow is as refreshingly unaffected as if she had never faced a means to pretend.
39.
Still, on second thought it might not be safe: Clara Bow uses a dangerous pair of eyes.
40.
On July 22,1923, Clara Bow left New York, her father, and her boyfriend behind for Hollywood.
41.
Alton and Clara Bow rented an apartment at The Hillview near Hollywood Boulevard.
42.
Clara Bow founded Preferred in 1919 as a result, at the age of 27.
43.
Moore was married to the film's producer and Clara Bow's protests were futile.
44.
Clara Bow had sinus problems and decided to have them attended to that very evening.
45.
Clara Bow appeared in eight releases in 1924, two were released the same day.
46.
In Poisoned Paradise, released on February 29,1924, Clara Bow got her first lead; "the clever little newcomer whose work wins fresh recommendations with every new picture in which she appears".
47.
The picture exposes the widespread liquor traffic in the upper classes, and Clara Bow portrays an innocent girl who develops into a wild "red-hot mama".
48.
Clara Bow starred as the good-bad college girl, Cynthia Day, against Donald Keith.
49.
Clara Bow began to date her co-star Gilbert Roland, who became her first fiance.
50.
In June 1925, Clara Bow was credited for being the first to wear hand-painted legs in public, and was reported to have many followers at the Californian beaches.
51.
Clara 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.
52.
Clara Bow negotiated her Paramount contract to not have a morals clause.
53.
In 1927 Clara Bow appeared in six Paramount releases: It, Children of Divorce, Rough House Rosie, Wings, Hula and Get Your Man.
54.
In 1928, Clara Bow appeared in four Paramount releases: Red Hair, Ladies of the Mob, The Fleet's In, and Three Week-Ends, all of which are lost.
55.
Adela Rogers St Johns, a noted screenwriter who had done a number of pictures with Clara Bow, wrote about her:.
56.
Clara Bow has a big heart, a remarkable brain, and the most utter contempt for the world in general.
57.
Mary Pickford stated that Clara Bow "was a very great actress" and wanted her to play her sister in Secrets, Howard Hughes offered her a three-picture deal, and MGM wanted her to star in Red-Headed Woman.
58.
Clara Bow agreed to the script, but eventually rejected the offer since Irving Thalberg required her to sign a long-term contract.
59.
Clara Bow knew darn well I was doing it because we could use a little money these days.
60.
Clara Bow and actor Rex Bell had two sons, Tony Beldam was born on 1934, changed name to Rex Anthony Bell, Jr.
61.
Clara Bow was the mystery voice in the show's "Mrs Hush" contest.
62.
Clara Bow became socially withdrawn and, although she refused to socialize with her husband, she refused to let him leave the house alone.
63.
In 1944, while Bell was running for the US House of Representatives, Clara Bow tried to commit suicide.
64.
Clara Bow's pains were considered delusional and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia; however, she experienced neither auditory nor visual hallucinations.
65.
Analysts tied the onset of the illness, as well as her insomnia, to the "butcher knife episode" back in 1922, but Clara Bow rejected psychological explanations and left the institute.
66.
Clara Bow spent her last years in Culver City, under the constant care of a nurse, Estalla Smith, living off an estate worth about $500,000 at the time of her death.
67.
Clara Bow was interred in the Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Heritage at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
68.
Clara Bow's pallbearers were Harry Richman, Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie, Maxie Rosenbloom, Jack Dempsey, and Buddy Rogers.
69.
Clara Bow made three pictures that will never be surpassed: Dancing Mothers, Mantrap, and It.