Who is Clara Bow and Why Did Taylor Swift Name a Song After Her?

With each spectacular rise there may be typically a fall, and Bow’s got here shortly.

She had affairs with actors like Gary Cooper (her co-star in 1927’s “Youngsters of Divorce”) and administrators like Victor Fleming, confirmed up at a elaborate resort dinner sporting a washing swimsuit below a fur coat, and gossip magazines began to write down about her.

Her hairdresser-turned-personal secretary went on trial for embezzlement, Los Angeles Journal reported, and B.P. Schulberg — who’d signed her Most popular Photos contract and introduced her to Paramount — began calling her “Disaster-a-Day Clara,” as The Chicago Tribune wrote.

The strain was an excessive amount of to take care of. Bow had been coping with psychological challenges all through her whirlwind profession, Stenn notes, probably brought on by her traumatic childhood.

“The historical past of intercourse symbols within the motion pictures is the historical past of sexually abused ladies,” he says.

There have been additionally actually scandalous and vile accounts being written about her and distributed on road corners, he mentioned. One report mentioned she’d slept together with her canine, that she slept with ladies, and that she stole males’s husbands.

“Right now we would name it slut-shaming,” he says. “This concept of an impartial robust lady nonetheless poses a menace to many individuals in our tradition, particularly when she is presented and has immense expertise.”

In 1931, when she was 25, Bow entered Glendale Sanatorium, L.A. Journal wrote. She married an actor-politician named Rex Bell in 1931, and retired to have two kids with him in Nevada and reside on The Strolling Field Ranch.

However with out her work to maintain her psychological challenges stabilized, she skilled a spiraling.

“She was deeply traumatized earlier than she arrived in Hollywood, however working offered a artistic fulfilling outlet,” says Stenn. “She was very happy with her profession. She referred to as herself a ‘working woman’ and was a self-made individual. She all the time mentioned a profession was extra essential to me than marriage. You were not alleged to say that then.”

She was recognized with schizophrenia, in response to the Nationwide Museum of American Historical past, and tried to kill herself. In 1949 she underwent shock remedy, and moved again to Hollywood in 1950, estranged from Bell. They by no means divorced, and he died in 1962.

She remained very personal whereas residing in California once more, admitting few guests, says Stenn. “It is a means of controlling her life,” he explains. “When she went out she went out in disguise.

A couple of third of her silent movies are misplaced right now, Stenn informed The Kansas Metropolis Star this yr. However she did obtain a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in 1960, and a caricature by Al Hirschfeld was used on a 1994 postage stamp.

In March, an 11-minute comedy wanting Bow’s, “The Capsule Pounder” (1923) surfaced, the Star reported.

The Taylor connection

Addressing Bow in a track isn’t the primary time Swift has dipped into the wealthy historical past of twentieth century ladies. In 2020, her “Folklore” album included a track referred to as “The Final Nice American Dynasty,” concerning the couple who as soon as owned Swift’s Rhode Island mansion, which she purchased in 2013.

As Elle journal defined on the time, that tune informed the story of Rebekah and Invoice Harkness. Because the track explains, he was the inheritor to the Customary Oil fortune. After they married, she turned one of many wealthiest ladies in America.

Swift’s attraction to Bow appears clear, although the singer hasn’t spoken about it but. However there are parallels — a younger lady with a novel expertise, who captured the zeitgeist and was attacked by the tabloid press.

Citing “Clara Bow,” although, may be her warning sign that whereas she’s undoubtedly the “It Woman” of the second — she’s not going to let this second slip by way of her fingers.