Clara Bow: Part 2 - Taylor Swift's muse

Welcome back for Part 2 of our Clara Bow series where we unpack how this young girl from Brooklyn became the muse of Taylor Swift, Stevie Nicks and Margot Robbie! Looking at her relationship with the press, struggles with mental health, financial situation and final years, we're going to unpack Clara's impact on both culture and history. Because as it turns out, Hollywood and indeed society haven't really changed how we speak about or view women since Clara Bow! Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for pulling this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/hothistoryclub/?hl=en, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.tiktok.com/@hot.history?lang=en, ⁠Substack⁠ https://substack.com/@hothistoryclub, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@hot.history and of course, right here! 'Til next week, Ainslie x Please take care while listening with the sensitive themes mentioned at the top and should you require assistance please use the below:In Australia, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 0477 131 114 (lifeline) or 1300 22 4636 (Beyond Blue). In the USA, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988 (⁠⁠988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline⁠⁠) or texting HOME to 741741 for the ⁠⁠Crisis Text Line⁠⁠. In the UK, support is available 24/7 by calling NHS 111 (NHS) or ⁠⁠116 123⁠⁠ (Samaritans)

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  This episode of Hot History contains topics that some may find distressing, including, but not limited to, self-harm, infant loss, and more. If you or someone you know is struggling with these, take care, and I've left some resources in the show notes.

• 1:28Speaker 03

  All right, guys. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history you probably should know but don't. I'm your host, Ainslie Harvey, ready to cover part two. So we are back on the life of the original It Girl, Clara Bow. Okay, guys, she is the biggest star Hollywood has ever seen. The muse of one Taylor, Alison Swift, and so many more. And of course, guys, revolutionary in her impact on both history and culture. So let's pick it back up with where we left off. Now, at this point, the year is 1929, okay?

• 2:08Speaker 03

  Clara is well and truly established as the It Girl, with her life, relationships, and mental health struggles being brandished over tabloids as public fodder, setting her on a downward spiral, which she worried would ultimately land her in the same position her grandmother and mother before, left for dead in a sanitarium. But the one thing, guys, that we know about Clara is that no matter how hard it gets, she will battle like hell to make it through. And by 1929, there was one big battle that everyone in Hollywood is facing: the advent of the talkie. So as we covered in part one, right, the majority of the 1920s films were silent.

• 2:53Speaker 03

  But as 1930 approached, so too did the talking pictures, something which knocked many stars off the silver screen with their talent in silent films, which is heavily reliant on facial expressions and physicality not really translating to talkies, which, again, you know, kind of rely on memorizing and delivering dialogue. So this is a really big shift, which transforms the film industry. And despite, guys, tabloids stating that Clara was not cut out for life, like outside of silent films, this is just big, old, fake Hollywood news, largely stemming from Clara's slight stammer and thick Brooklyn accent, which we spoke about in part one, which was

• 3:36Speaker 03

  widely criticized by basically like movie snobs and critics, right, who were saying that it was harsh and jarring. But while that's what they may have thought, and while that's what made the papers, audiences loved Clara in these talkies, with some of them going on to become huge, major financial successes, which writer Heather Babcock says came down to her sultry accent, which perfectly suited the modern and snappy dialogue of talkies, which divas put so many bums in seats, okay, that police were often needed to control the Clara-crazed masses which lined up for her premieres and screenings alike. Soon, headlines such as "It Girl Speaks" and "Clara Bow Talks" began gracing the daily

• 4:18Speaker 03

  papers, as did the very first Academy Awards. That is right, my divas, 1929 is a big year, okay? Not only is it kind of like the advent of the talkie, but it also sees the first Oscars, where Wings, Clara's 1927 film, won the very first Oscar for Best Picture. So come 1930, right, the dawn of this new decade, Clara's adapting. She's bouncing back from the disastrous autobiography incident and seems to be really quite in a good position with her mental health. But not all that glitters is gold. And while Clara made the talkies look effortless, they really weren't, okay?

• 4:59Speaker 03

  She had serious ongoing anxiety about delivering spoken lines, suffering breakdowns during filming, and struggling with having to pare back her expressions and movements for highly sensitive microphones. And while audiences still bought themselves a ticket to see Clara Bow in whatever film she churned out next, the cracks in her passion for the film industry were beginning to form, which is when she meets one Mr. Rex Bell on the set of Paramount's new talkie comedy, True to the Navy. An attractive and kind man, Rex Bell moved west in his youth, working as a cowboy before entering the film industry on Hollywood Westerns, which, again, guys, it's giving like Elsie

• 5:39Speaker 03

  Silver cowboy, smutty, booktok kind of trope, right, which I'm loving for Clara. Now, although he appeared in several films and was incredibly talented by all accounts, he never achieved or enjoyed the level of fame that Clara had, gaining instead a reputation for professionalism rather than celebrity, which, my divas, was exactly what Clara Bow needed, okay? She is struggling at this point, and unlike almost all of the men in her orbit, Rex, he don't give a fuck about her fame or her money, and treated her, by all accounts, as an ordinary person, which, again, this is just the tonic she needed.

• 6:22Speaker 03

  So very much a right person, right place, time here. And they were really well-matched, laughing on set, riding horses after hours, and developing a relationship built on honesty and normality, something totally unthinkable for a star of Clara's size. They also, successfully and surprisingly, managed to keep their courtship under wraps, with Rex helping Clara through her mental health struggles day by day, eventually showing just how committed he was to a life with her, Clara the person, not Clara the star, by proposing. She accepted, with the pair marrying in 1931, a year that would ultimately change Clara Bow's life forever. And I don't mean because she became a missus.

• 7:04Speaker 03

  I am, instead, guys, referring to one of Hollywood's most bitter lawsuits, that of Clara Bow and her former secretary, Daisy DeVoe. Now, trigger warning here, guys, okay? This story will boil your blood, so strap yourself in. Basically, this is a case as old as time. We see in Hollywood, like, era after era, right? Young woman, makes a lot of money, is largely financially illiterate, then goes and gives that money to the wrong person, and chaos ensues. But usually, in this situation, that person is a man. However, in Clara's story, which is super on brand for her, the manager in question

• 7:47Speaker 03

  is a woman, her secretary, Daisy DeVoe, who took over operations for Clara in 1928. At first, this all seemed jolly, right? Everything's all well, in fact, so much so that by 1930, Clara's finances were well and truly on track, she was making a lot of money. But, because there's always a but. On November 10th, that same year, a really disturbing and alarming report made its way into a local paper, claiming that Clara and Daisy had split ways. Initially, both women denied this story, with Daisy commenting, quote, "As far as I know, I'm still her secretary. Ms. Bow has not served notice on me. I guess I'll have to find out all about it." So it seems from the kind of get-go, from the set-off here, right, that this is misreporting

• 8:32Speaker 03

  or misunderstanding, and her and Clara kind of like having a bit of a hee-hee about it, like, "Oh, I'll have to figure out, you know, just read the papers and you'll tell me what's going on." But a few days later, it was revealed that Daisy, in fact, had been fired by Clara after Rex suspected something was wrong with Daisy's accounts, which it turns out was bang on. Not only had Daisy been hiding things from Clara, who like outright trusted her implicitly, but she'd been helping herself to the star's cash and jewelry. Apparently, taking diamonds, a sapphire ring, Clara's insurance papers, and even the cut of a big, fat $20,000 check from Clara's home.

• 9:17Speaker 03

  Now, obviously, right? Clara is horrified, as you would be if someone that was like really close to you would install all this stuff from you. But it was just that stuff, right? Material goods. What really sent Clara Bow spiraling here was that Daisy got her grubby little hands on her personal papers, including letters and love notes, and decided to gear up to file a lawsuit against Clara for thousands of dollars in back pay. So kind of like blackmail, really. Now, this all sounds horrible, right? Terrible, of course, but rest easy, my divas, because before this conniving plan could come to life, Daisy was actually arrested and indicted by a grand jury on 37 counts

• 10:00Speaker 03

  of grand theft after Rex encouraged Clara to present evidence to the authorities, who revealed that Daisy stole an estimated $222,434 US dollars in today's money from Clara. So like a serious chunk of dosh and like I said, all the other stuff. But still, Daisy refuses to admit to any of this. She's like, I know what you're talking about. Instead, posting her $1,000 bond and waiting to go to trial on January 13th, 1931. Now, you'd be thinking, or like to think anyway, this is going to be an easy win for Clara, right? It's obvious Daisy's robbed her, but much to Clara's dismay, Daisy's lawyer took the

• 10:43Speaker 03

  strategy of defense through attack. But not, which may have been relevant here, right? Not of Clara's actions as an employer, but of her character and lifestyle, which, given the time of the Great Depression, was really used to position Clara's wealth as a moral issue. And when it came out that she spent the equivalent of 4.8 million US dollars today on clothes, cars, and going out between February 1929 and October 1930, the court of public opinion turned on the star for taking her secretary to court over an amount so relatively small to her personally. This, of course, to be honest, like is kind of valid. I mean, I know there's like at the moment, even a couple of cases open against Kylie

• 11:28Speaker 03

  Jenner, not for theft of property like in this case, but the idea of this big, rich star kind of going to court over what's a drop in the ocean for her is controversial. I mean, look at Gwyneth's $1, like, I wish you well ski accident case here, right? I personally don't agree with this stance, but I do understand where people come from here. This, however, wasn't even the biggest problem. This isn't the biggest trump card in the defense's kind of arsenal, because amongst the things Daisy stole, like we said, was Clara's personal documents. From telegrams to love letters and contracts to medical records, the details of Clara Bow's life were presented and read aloud for all to hear.

• 12:12Speaker 03

  As you can imagine, the tabloids went fucking ballistic on this shit, right? Printing as much as they could about her personal correspondence, which must have been both excruciating and just flat out humiliating. I mean, I just off the top of my head here, the Johnny Depp Amber Heard, court case comes to mind, how that was kind of blasted everywhere, same with Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, right? And that ends up extending to other people in their orbit, Taylor Swift, as kind of the other person on the other end of the correspondence. So like a really, really nasty, nasty thing to endure here for Clara. And unfortunately, it only got worse.

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• 13:52Speaker 03

  With these sensitive documents, the gossip columns soon filled with over sensationalized, flat out made up stories of drug use, alcoholism, kinks, and lovers, which led Hollywood producer BP Schulberg to refer to the star as crisis a day Clara. And while that is kind of very mean for someone to say, he was really close to her as well, so like especially mean, he wasn't wrong, my divas, because every single morning, it genuinely seemed like some new sort of accusation was made in both the press and the trial, which purported flat out lies and exaggerations, like I said, including that Clara slept with

• 14:33Speaker 03

  anyone who looked at her, had public sex, shared drugs freely, and sickeningly, like I don't even want to say it out loud, but like have to for the purpose of this story, engaged in sex with dogs.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  Like what the fuck is wrong with people? Bestiality? Really? Like it's, it's, it's so disgusting and inhumane and flat out criminal and incorrect, obviously, and all of this went to print. Like it is one thing, right? For this to be thrown around a courtroom or like gossiped about, but to be thrown on a front page is fucking diabolical. Like I genuinely, when I think about this, I just thank God that there was no social media when Clara Bow was alive. Like I cannot imagine this kind of hatred and lies being spewed out online. Although, guys, unfortunately, let's be real, I actually can't imagine this because we

• 15:33Speaker 03

  see it all the time and have done, both in the years before Clara Bow with the likes of Anne Boleyn, who spoke about a few weeks ago, Marie Antoinette as well, and after Clara, right? The most poignant example of which is none other than Britney Spears. I mean, think about it, guys. The similarities here are wild, right? Both women rose to fame at an exceptionally young age. Clara becoming the it girl at barely 20, Britney becoming an international pop sensation at that same time, all of which does largely seem to, it didn't, but it feels like, right? It kind of happened overnight as they're first admired for their youthful fun and, and

• 16:15Speaker 03

  kind of beauty, then their talent, then shortly after that, they're totally transformed again and commodified as big sex symbols, which also just gross considering their young age still. These two women then go on to ultimately become the face of their generations, with Clara embodying the liberated flapper of the twenties, while Britney, the optimism and youth culture of the late nineties and early naughties. And then, as their stars rise, they're hounded by the media, who quickly transform both women from human beings into fantasies, with every romance, every rumor, every hairstyle, every public appearance becoming headline news, which again, yes, this does increase their fame and fortune, right?

• 17:00Speaker 03

  It's how it works, but it also increases the scrutiny. As Clara Bow's personal life was relentlessly dissected by gossip columnists, while Britney endured a constant army of paparazzi following her every move. So while the technology, right, that of phones, the internet, social media, like we said, is different, the effect here is remarkably similar, with the public consuming their private lives, mental health, and human failures as entertainment, all of which resulted in public catastrophic implosion, leading to lifelong incredibly serious mental health crises before the age of 30.

• 17:42Speaker 03

  We are inclined, right, to look at these two women side by side, and as I say, thank God that social media wasn't around when Clara was experiencing this, and obviously, right, right away, feel immense levels of sympathy for Britney, which again, if you're just like a normal decent fucking person, you should feel anyway, this poor woman. But I will say, through social media, Britney did at least have something.

• 18:09Speaker 03

  A right of reply, an ability to contradict and reach millions of people in minutes with her own side of the story. Whereas Clara Bowe never had this, resulting in millions of people worldwide believing the nonsense and the lies. And while, yes, thank God, the editor of the paper who claimed that she had had sex with dogs was put in jail, as he fucking should be, and the jury ultimately found Daisy guilty, the damage to Clara was immense. Firstly, on the legal front, Daisy was only found guilty on one of over thirty counts of grand theft. And while she was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, this was not total victory. In fact, it wasn't even close, let's be so real.

• 18:55Speaker 03

  And secondly, as I said, the damage to Clara's image and career was huge, with both largely left in tatters as she was chewed up and spat out by the fame machine. Something which has a real cyclical irony to it here, guys, right? Because, think about it, magazines and the press literally gave her her first chance in Hollywood with the Fame and Fortune competition, and now it had ruined her. Which, again, the same with Britney, the same with Marilyn, the same with Amanda Bynes, right? All of these women were made famous by the press and then destroyed by them only a

• 19:34Speaker 03

  few years later, which of course is catastrophic to Clara's mental health with any last semblance of fortitude she had crumbling away, leading the star to be admitted to the Glendale Sanatorium to seek treatment. With this time away, Clara was released from her final paramount contract and now watched under the careful eyes of physicians who began intense rest therapy to regulate her sleep, build up her nutrition and strength through exercise, and undertake talk therapy to aid her severe anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks, and emotional exhaustion, which modern historians believe today would likely be diagnosed as complex post-traumatic stress disorder, although

• 20:18Speaker 03

  there was no formal diagnosis made during her time in Glendale, with instead the word on the street being that Clara had a mental breakdown. Again, guys, the resemblance here to like Britney's two thousand and seven mental health crises, hers, of course, being widely publicly photographed and spread around the world in what can only be described as a complete inhumane disregard of human decency. At least during all of this Clara is kind of in, you know, relative private at the sanatorium, where after several weeks of treatment, she'd turned enough of a corner medically to return home. But she did not return to Hollywood. No, my divas.

• 21:02Speaker 03

  You see, having endured more highs and more lows than many humans on God's green earth can ever relate to, Clara needed to get away and as such moved with Rex to a ranch in Nevada to work cattle, walk the land, and heal her body and mind. She deserves it, I'm happy for her here, okay? She's like, again, Elsie Silva, like Chestnut Springs cowboy diva. And she remained here for months and months on end soaking up what it meant to be Clara the person, not Clara the it girl or Clara the film star, just Clara. And after almost a year of solitude, she figured it out.

• 21:44Speaker 03

  She was the flapper as much as she was a rancher, she was from Brooklyn as much as she was from Hollywood, because every step of her journey brought her to where she was now. And with that, she decided to give films another go, not for the fame or fortune, although maybe a little for the fortune, but mainly for the love of it. Right? She was a skilled performer who embodied her characters and loved the craft. Plus, I think, let's be real, it's also probably a big old fashioned like, fuck you to the press and Daisy for bringing her solo, right? She's like, I'm gonna prove all of you divas wrong.

• 22:25Speaker 03

  So now, with a new perspective and her health improved, Clara returned to Hollywood and now in her mid to late twenties, which like is just wild to think she's done all of this by kind of twenty-seven years old, had the power to shape her own career and as such took a two-year film deal with Fox Film Corporation, who reportedly paid her fifty thousand dollars plus a percentage of the profits for each of these productions. The first of which was Call Her Savage, where Clara played NASA dynamite Springer, one of the most complex and emotionally demanding roles of her career. Portraying the fiery Texan heiress who finds out her real father is a Native American

• 23:08Speaker 03

  man, which upends her whole identity, Clara deliberately decided that her comeback debut would be a woman of complex character. Right? Not the carefree flapper or college student with a crush, but a complex, more mature woman, which really allowed her to demonstrate not only her dramatic depth, but pulling her own struggles, resulting in what many historians today regard as one of the finest acting performances of Clara Bowe's career. So she's come back with a bang, right? Which is followed by nineteen thirty-three's Hoopla, where Clara portrayed one of her most sympathetic characters, Lou, a working-class woman trying to make a living on the carnival circuit.

• 23:50Speaker 03

  This in and of itself, guys, was revolutionary for Clara, who rarely played working-class women, which makes Hoopla feel in many ways, right? Like a real nod back to her own upbringing, something that would ultimately become a pretty cyclical real world moment. For this was Clara Bowe's final film. She had been the most famous woman in the world, right? The most dragged actress, certainly in the press, and been both adored and abandoned and loved and hated and worshipped and vilified by audiences. And despite everything stacked against her from almost the moment she drew breath, Clara

• 24:34Speaker 03

  Bowe beat it all, proving to everyone, and proving most importantly here, to herself that she could face anything, including retirement, which kicked off for Clara at age twenty-eight after completing a grand total of fifty-eight films in just thirteen years. Like, wow, this is giving Zendaya in twenty twenty-six a run for her money, okay? So she's had this huge innings, and let me tell you, she deserves the rest. Again, I'm just happy for this diva, like, getting out of Hollywood. Although, I'm not quite sure she got the rest she was intending. Instead, working with Rex on the ranch, raising cattle and raising their family, giving birth

• 25:17Speaker 03

  to Tony in nineteen thirty-four and George in nineteen thirty-eight, which revealed Clara's most important role to date, that of a mother. Determined to give her boys the furthest thing from what she experienced growing up, Clara embraced motherhood, especially in the younger years, with friends recalling that she loved cooking, caring for animals, gardening, and spending time outdoors with her sons, whom she deliberately kept hidden away from the public out of fear for the pressure of the spotlight. In this, she remained totally steadfast, guys, prioritizing her son's mental wellbeing, which biographers claim she constantly worried about, given her own family history, something her sons later remembered their mother fondly for, saying she was warm, playful, and deeply

• 26:02Speaker 03

  devoted. But, as is always the case with Clara, amongst this happiness, there was also loss, namely the stillbirth of her daughter, which she never recovered from, only pushing past wounds closer to the surface until they finally cracked open. And while Rex, who was like all in all an incredible man here, took on much of the responsibility for raising the boys during these bouts of anxiety and depression, it put masses of strain on their relationship, which inevitably came to an end in the mid nineteen forties when he decided to try his hand at politics. Making the jump from acting to Nevada's lieutenant governor, which is giving very much like Arnie Schwarzenegger vibes here, right?

• 26:44Speaker 03

  Clara really struggled with the bright lights and mounting pressure of public life beginning to creep back into her own existence. So the pair decided to amicably split, co-parenting their sons between Nevada and California, where Clara lived alone in a series of apartments, where her mental state declined further. At one point, she was in such despair that she attempted suicide and was subsequently hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and diagnosed with schizophrenia, the same disease her mother and largely historians believe her grandmother also suffered from. Learning this, Clara was determined, right? She had such clarity that she wanted to get better, to seek treatment,

• 27:26Speaker 03

  which included the highly experimental new shock therapy, something which historians now tend to agree was not the right course of action, with Bo likely suffering from depression and possibly even bipolar disorder, rather than a strict kind of schizophrenia, like downline diagnosis. But still, guys, such were the barbarous treatments and the limited knowledge of the time. So now on her own, back in California and kind of, you know, undergoing treatment, regardless of how incorrect or ineffective, what does Clara Bo's life look like? Well, to be honest, it wasn't anything fancy, but it also wasn't nothing either, which is the key thing here, guys, because let me tell you, the amount of silent film stars who earned these massive paychecks

• 28:10Speaker 03

  and rose to kind of astronomical levels of fame in the twenties, only to go on to live as paupers in the golden years of their lives, was astronomical. Okay, but lucky for Clara, she wasn't one of them. So I thought, let's take this little minute, right, to unpack the finances behind 1920 stardom, because it was, as it still is today, a highly lucrative business. So as we said earlier in part one, Clara's very modest upbringing made her more conservative with her funds when she first arrived in Hollywood in those first years, right? But as her star is rising, the purse strings opened, something that made her producer and head of preferred pictures, BP Schulberg, increasingly nervous.

• 28:52Speaker 03

  After all, he'd seen firsthand just how quickly cash could be burned, which, according to biographical accounts, he tried to combat by making sure that every single check he gave her, he insisted she invest half. And while this didn't stop her spending money freely, which she absolutely had the right to do, divas, let's remember, she's basically working six days a week for most of her life. Those investments paid off, ensuring that Clara had long-term financial security, which was, of course, aided by the ludicrous checks she negotiated for her final appearances in Call of the Savage and Hoopla. So she was able to go, you want me to come back? Pay me my money, right? Which we love for her. So she's very comfortable by this point in her life financially, right?

• 29:35Speaker 03

  And as such, takes these funds, or part of them, anyway, and moved into a modest two-bedroom bungalow in Culver City, California, which, for those of you unfamiliar, was a quiet, middle-class neighbourhood outside of the hustle and bustle. There was no Beverly Hills heiresses or Hollywood high flyers here. It was just a regular neighbourhood with regular, middle-class folks going about their regular business, including Estella Smith, Clara's live-in nurse and housekeeper, who kept the former star company, which she needed, because from 1950 onward, my divas, Clara Bo, became a recluse.

• 30:13Speaker 04

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  Avoiding any and all public appearances bar this, like, one kind of key exception, Rex's funeral in 1965, where she stoically went to pay tribute to the man she loved as a husband and as father of her sons, Clara was rarely seen. And to be really honest to you, guys, she was also rarely missed by the public at large. I want to remind you, at this point, Hollywood is a well-churned machine, and the big name right now is Marilyn Monroe, whose fame, fortune, and cultural capital matched Clara's in many ways, as she really became the next kind of iteration of the Hollywood sex symbol, something which suited Clara just fine.

• 31:57Speaker 03

  Because let me tell you, she's actually kind of living her dream life at home around this time, right? In the shadow of the 50s and 60s stars, Clara Bo could live a private life, spending her days with Estella, playing games and chatting, always followed around by her dogs, and her nights, if she needed an adventure, going to the drive-in cinema in disguise. But most of all, Clara Bo was an avid reader of, you guys guessed it, history. That is right, my divas, our gal was a hot historian, okay? With Edward Gibbons, the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, and William Shri, as the rise and fall of the Third Reich, amongst her favourites.

• 32:42Speaker 03

  So basically, Clara Bo is living with her friend, hanging out with her dogs, and reading history books at home in her final years, which, to me, sounds like fucking bliss. And for Clara Bo, a woman burdened with so much trauma and ridicule and pressure throughout her whole life, is exactly what she deserves. She also, thank God, stopped shock treatment and other experimental psychoanalysis, managing her mental illness alongside her physical health, which really began to decline by the 1960s, resulting in her death from a heart attack in 1965, at the ripe old age of 60. In the days that followed, headlines and obituaries flowed,

• 33:27Speaker 03

  and despite being out of Hollywood for more than three decades, there was still a strong reverence for Clara's career, both in front of the camera and her cultural impact behind it. On her passing, The New York Times wrote, quote, "More than any other woman entertainer of her time, Clara Bo perhaps best personified the giddy aspects of an unreal era." Which is really quite lovely, guys, and also bang on here. But the rest of the obituaries were entirely one-dimensional, with The Daily Breeze, for example, here writing, quote, "Silent film and talky star, roaring twenties sex symbol, it girl Clara Bo, dead at 60." Which really does show how her legacy was largely reduced, one, to her sex life, and two, to her physical appearance.

• 34:12Speaker 03

  Something which continued after her death, thanks in part to Kenneth Anger's 1959 book, Hollywood Babylon, which is like the Margot Robbie film we've been talking about, and it's based on this. And let me tell you, this thing was basically the burn book for Hollywood in the roaring twenties, okay? It is full of gossip, it is full of rumour, it is full of scandals and orgies and drug-induced amnesia, which was so explicit that it ended up being banned for almost a decade in the US. Which you may be thinking, one, censorship, and two, like, that's hella dramatic. But this is not entirely unjustified, okay?

• 34:55Speaker 03

  In one part of the book, Anger made a disgusting show of Jane Mansfield's death by greatly exaggerating its kind of gruesomeness in, like, real, defined, disgusting detail. In another, he claimed that actress Lupe Velez committed suicide by drowning herself in her own toilet, which completely fucking false. And then, to top it all off, by a little sprinkle on top, he's just publicly outing queer film stars and celebrities like it's a little kind of tidbit to throw in between death scenes and orgies, right? This shit was fucking awful. So of course, it had to feature Clara Bo. After all, you can hardly write a burn book about the twenties in Hollywood

• 35:37Speaker 03

  without its biggest star, who he claimed slept with the entire USC football team in one evening. This is obviously false and outrageously slanderous, but guess what? It sold copies, adding to this larger-than-life mythology of the it girl, something which Clara, in her final years, didn't really give a shit about. Reportedly saying of her legacy, quote, "I'm just a woman who happened to be in the pictures." Still, this book and the many headlines during her life led to greater sensationalism of Clara's character. It's not really hard to see why, I mean, I don't agree with it, but,

• 36:20Speaker 03

  I mean, you have to admit, going through just what we've spoken about, right? Clara Bo's life feels like something out of a movie she herself would starring. Poor girl, yeah? Wins competition, promising fame and fortune, which she finds, rising to the top only to be struck down, hitting rock bottom, after which she stages a comeback for the ages and a shock early retirement, which ends with her living as a wealthy, uh, you know, scolored kind of society recluse.

• 36:51Speaker 03

  I mean, it writes itself, guys, which is why she's so fascinating. And why she is the muse of one Taylor Swift. Yes, my divas, you have all been waiting so patiently for the Taylor of it all, so let's get into it. Now, the Swifties amongst us will know that Taylor released a song on the tortured poet's department titled Clara Bow, which essentially traces a line through three generations of female stardom, starting with Clara, the original, right? The one who set this whole thing in motion, changing not only kind of her own generation, but every single one after. With the verses moving chronologically, saying a young woman is told she's the next Clara Bow, and another is told she's kind of the next Stevie Nicks,

• 37:34Speaker 03

  and then the one after that being told she's the new Taylor Swift. Now, I shan't even attempt to kind of explain, you know, Taylor's experience writing this. I could not ever do it justice. So instead, I'm just gonna go ahead and let her tell you herself. Have a listen.

• 37:54Speaker 06

  I kind of like being a narrator that's not the person I relate to. So the narrator in Clara Bow is either a studio, like a Hollywood studio person, or a label executive who's sitting in my mind behind a desk and meeting with a brand new starlet who's just come to town. The exec says, "You look like Clara Bow in this light. It's remarkable. You're so special, you're amazing, we're gonna make you just like her." In my mind, that girl was Stevie Nicks, right? So Stevie Nicks sits down, they tell her she looks like Clara Bow, she's got those big moon eyes, and "We're gonna make you just like her. Don't worry, we're gonna put you through this machine and you'll be a god." The second verse says, "You look like Stevie Nicks in this light, the hair and lips."

• 38:36Speaker 06

  So in my mind, that was me that sat down opposite that desk, right? I sit down at a record label and they're like, "You look like Stevie Nicks, we'll make you the next Stevie Nicks." And basically, you learn that like, you're in this machine and they're trying to make you into a woman that they just idealized and then discarded. Like, the entertainment industry love bombs women, right? "We love you, we don't know who you are, why are you even here?" And so in the last verse, in my mind, it's a new artist that sits down across from a record label desk and they say, "You look like Taylor Swift. In this light, we're loving it, you've got edge she never did. The future's bright, dazzling." And because that's also another thing that you get when you're a female in the music or the entertainment industry, movies, whatever.

• 39:21Speaker 06

  It's like, "Oh, you're like, you're like this person that we..." Like, they name a big name and they're like, "Oh, but you're gonna be so much better. It's gonna be so, no, no, no, it's gonna be cooler. You're gonna be, you're so much better." Like, to offset the comparison.

• 39:35Speaker 03

  I love this clip, guys, not in the least, because I'm always just like, "Oh my god, this woman is so fucking smart." But because it really does get to the point I'm trying to make here about Clara Bow, okay? She is really, really is the original celebrity. The blueprint for how a regular girl from a poor background can become rich and famous thanks to her talent and her looks, and ultimately become the face of her generation. Something which she is both commodified and ruined for in the same breath. Again, right, we see Britney here, we see Marilyn. But the point Taylor makes and the reason, guys, Clara Bow is her muse, is because Clara refused to be beaten.

• 40:21Speaker 03

  Pushing through her struggle because she was able to recognize her own self-worth, which is the whole point of that song, right? There will always be people around you in this fame machine who will tell you how great you are, what potential you'll have, and if you do this and if you do that, then you can be the next Clara Bow, or the next Stevie Nicks, or the next Taylor Swift. But it is not from a place of love, or encouragement, or kindness, or as a kind of muse and inspiration. It is because they want to commodify you for themselves. And at the end of the day, just like Clara Bow, and Marilyn Monroe, and Britney Spears, and Stevie Nicks, and Taylor Swift, right?

• 41:01Speaker 03

  Those same people who tell you all those beautiful things, or as Taylor says, love bomb you, will just as quickly try to rip you down. Because when you are a young woman, nothing sells better than, one, sex, and two, your failure. Specifically, a catastrophic public implosion. So the only defense, the only protection, the only armor we have against this is knowing our self-worth, which is why Clara Bow, despite her circumstances, the headlines, or the struggle, managed to carry on. Because she knew deep down in her most fundamental soul, right?

• 41:45Speaker 03

  In her very DNA, that she was a thoroughbred star.

• 41:52Speaker 03

  Born for it, not because of the fame or the fortune, but because of a passion, a longing, a wantedness to share. And in the words of Nellie LaRoy herself, "You're either a star or you ain't, and I am." Which brings us, my divas, to the end of another episode of Hot History. Thank you so much for listening along on this series. I have loved digging into this period of Hollywood history. It's so fascinating and fabulous and tragic and toxic and all of the things. So I wanted to stay in this realm, okay? But we are leaving Hollywood, we are leaving the US. And instead, we are heading back to where we always seem to somehow end up,

• 42:35Speaker 03

  Romanov, Russia, where we meet the most famous ballerina in history, okay? The dying swan herself, Anna Pavlova. Until then, guys, if you are looking for some more hot history, you can follow us on Instagram and Substack at Hot History Club, and on YouTube and TikTok at Hot dot history. It has been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you, and I will see you all shortly. Thanks, guys, love you, bye.

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