Clara Bow: Part 1 - The original 'it' girl

You've been asking for her, so here we go. Today we're deep diving into the highs and lows of the original 'it' girl, Clara Bow. From her early years in Brooklyn tenements to the fame and fortune contest that changed her life, we're tracking just how the big-eyed Brooklyn beauty made it to the top of the box office AND the pinnacle of cultural influence. Then come back on Monday for part 2 where we look at her relationship with the press, struggles with mental health, financial situation and how Clara Bow became the muse of one Taylor Swift! 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

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  Hi, my divas. Just jumping in here before we get into the history, all right? To tell you a stat that blew my mind the other day. Did you know that men are statistically more likely to subscribe to their favorite podcasts/YouTubers than women? Yes. Something which just, you know, does not sit right with me. It's not good. We will not let the dudes beat us in both subscriber numbers and the historical record. So let us all do our part today to nudge that needle and hit that subscribe or follow button. And if you like this episode of Hot History or our content more broadly, then you can go ahead and leave us a review or share, because every single one of you make these episodes possible.

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  So thank you for all of your support, but enough chatter, right? We are here for the history, so let's roll the whimsical medieval theme.

• 2:05Speaker 03

  Hi, guys, and welcome back to Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. I'm Ainslie Harvey, your hot historian here, ready to chat today, guys, about one of the most highly requested episodes and women in the short but illustrious history of this pod, okay? She is the original it girl. She is the muse of Taylor Swift. She is Miss Clara Bow. And let me tell you, my divas, it is a big one today. We are splitting up into two parts just to cover the basics. Like, that is how impactful and significant Clara Bow is to both culture and history.

• 2:48Speaker 03

  So we are getting straight into it by rewinding all the way back to July 29, 1905, okay? Where we find ourselves in Brooklyn, New York. Now, I want to preface right at the top here, that 1905 Brooklyn is not the lonely boy, Dan Humphrey, coffees, bagels, and art school kind of vibe, okay? It is a place of terrible impoverished conditions made up primarily of working class and immigrant families who lived in overcrowded and dangerous tenement buildings, with author Judith Maccrell saying this was, quote, "the most brutal poverty that was known at the time." Which is exactly the world that Clara Bow finds herself being born into.

• 3:33Speaker 03

  Daughter of Mr. Robert Walter Bow, an aggressive alcoholic who frequented brothels with underage girls, he regarded women, including Clara and her mother Sarah, as objects. Which, guys, like, let's be real, if that didn't give him away as a total fucking loser, which it should, then the fact he was almost constantly out of work and failed to provide much-needed food, clothing, and sanitary conditions for his family should do the trick, but it shouldn't need to, okay? Like, just the fact that he thought women were kind of objects to be used, like, fuck this guy. I hate this guy so much from the get-go. Like, I can't deal. Anyway, this, as you can imagine, obviously put massive strain on his wife, Sarah, whose

• 4:17Speaker 03

  largely untreated schizophrenia saw her endure epileptic seizures that kept her housebound, where she is reported to have entertained men as a sex worker just to try and make ends meet. So her husband's, like, out drinking and, like, at a brothel, and she's got to basically, you know, sell her body to try and, like, keep a roof over her head. So Clara is not coming into a happy world here, all right? In fact, it was actually largely believed she wouldn't come into the world at all. Born, as we said, in July of 1905, this was a really precarious time, because the city was in the middle of a massive heat wave, one that was so severe that it raised the infant mortality rate to 80%.

• 5:00Speaker 03

  I always do think, like, in these kinds of situations, you've got no aircon, like, what do you do when it was a really hot day in the middle of summer? Like, it's crazy. Apparently, you know, raised the infant mortality rate and the mortality rate for mothers as well, where Sarah was told, kind of by doctors before, um, you know, it was really unlikely that she and her child would survive. Something that the big old festering arse wound that is Robert took as a green light to basically run out on his pregnant wife, okay? So he's like, yeah, oh, well, you're kind of gonna die anyway, so I'm just gonna go. Which saw her then have to return back to her parents, whose own life as immigrants had been shrouded in just as much poverty.

• 5:44Speaker 03

  But she was at least being watched over in this really dangerous period of her life by kind eyes, with her mother being present for Clara's birth in a Brooklyn church on July 29th, something which Clara later recounted, saying, quote, "I don't suppose two people ever looked to death in the face more clearly than the morning I was born." And she wasn't wrong here, guys. Clara was born blue and not breathing until her grandmother picked her up and shook her violently, after which the little baby girl let out a scream, much to the surprise of doctors and Robert, who was eventually told the news and he's like, oh, fine, I'll come home.

• 6:23Speaker 03

  And he then kind of returns and moves Sarah and Clara into a Brooklyn tenement, which, I'm not exaggerating for a minute here, guys, reminds me of something out of American Horror Story, but worse, okay? These aren't apartments or flats. Like, I don't even know if you could describe them as, like, shabby rooms. These are sky-high buildings, or, you know, what was kind of considered sky-high at the time, that were packed full of multiple families to a single space, who all then shared overflowing toilets, resulting in widespread infection and death and disease, all of which became

• 7:04Speaker 03

  a really common part of daily life, as did the rats and roaches and rodents who kind of, you know, scurried about the various floors. So not in any way, shape, or form the kind of place you want to live, let alone you want to bring a newborn baby into. But again, this was really the only option for the Bowes. So Sarah, Robert, and Clara moved in, followed shortly after by Sarah's father, after he'd committed his own wife to an asylum, so Clara's grandmother, who'd helped deliver her, to an asylum where she died a year later. Clara spent a lot of the early years of her life away from her parents, whose abuse towards one another often, unfortunately, extended to Clara.

• 7:45Speaker 03

  Later reflecting on this time with her grandfather, Clara said it was one of the great lights of her childhood, as the pair spent their time taking trips to the park, reading stories before bed, and him even making her a homemade swing. All things which made his death when Clara was only three years old all the more painful. Of his passing, Clara remarked, quote, "The first night as he lay in his coffin in the dining room, I crept out of my bed and lay down on the floor beside him, because I had a feeling he might be lonely." What's so sad? "My father found me there in the morning, almost frozen. I said, 'Hush, you mustn't wake grandfather, he's sleeping.' But I knew he was dead, and I missed him very much."

• 8:29Speaker 03

  So almost immediate tragedy and grief for Clara in these early few years of her life, which unfortunately, guys, didn't get any better. The abuse inside the Bow household continued, leaving Clara to search for solace outside the home, which she found in the form of her best friend and fellow neighbor, Johnny. A quiet boy who lived in the same tenement, Clara and Johnny became each other's refuge, spending their days running around the neighborhood with other children and dancing through back alleys. But in their minds, while they were poor in cash, they didn't have to be an imagination. But this happiness as well would also come crumbling down around Clara, who returned

• 9:11Speaker 03

  home one day when she was merely nine years old, to find Johnny's apartments in flame. This is so, so sad, guys. And like, you have to genuinely have a stone heart inside your chest if you do not have immense amounts of empathy for Clara. She's a child, like, a human would barely be able to deal with this level of trauma, but she's fucking nine years old. So she comes home, kind of Johnny's apartment is in flames, and he had reportedly caught his clothing alight standing by the nearby stove or open flame, and had become badly engulfed in kind of, you know, burns. His mother, during all of this, froze in panic, leaving nine-year-old Clara to grab

• 9:54Speaker 03

  a nearby carpet, using both it and herself, literally her bare hands, to put out the flames on the young boy, whose wounds were so extensive that he died in her arms.

• 10:09Speaker 03

  Like I said, absolutely fucking traumatizing, right? For this young girl who really could not seem to catch a break from the series of terrible events that plagued her, which did include unfortunately sexual abuse from her own father, who, you know, I've already said I fucking hate, but I really, really hate this man. He's genuinely like a psychological terrorist, in my opinion. And while yes, Clara did not admit that, you know, kind of any of this happened in her quotes about her father later in life, her biographer, David Sten, pieced together a number of both medical and therapist reports from Clara's archives, which led to the conclusion that she had in fact been raped by her father as a teenager.

• 10:52Speaker 03

  So, an unimaginable amount of trauma and grief, again, for anyone, but for someone so young and a young woman to endure. But Clara wasn't anyone, and in comparison to the world around her in Brooklyn, you just had to carry on or die, something that she flat out refused to do. And as such, found her way to what would become her glimmering temple of hope, right? Her one space of freedom and kind of self-identity, the movie theater. Looking for an escape, and I suppose also maybe just wanting to kind of disappear for a minute, right? A theater with its dim lights and kind of anonymity with this crowd of strangers is a really great way to do that.

• 11:35Speaker 03

  Clara took any chance she had to visit her local theater, picking up film magazines from the street wherever she could. From whodunnits to epic dramas, fanciful comedies and deafening tragedies, Clara lost herself in the world of film, and soon found herself imitating film stars, the most significant of which was Mary Pickford in front of a mirror, imagining just for a moment what it might be like to one day live a different life. A fabulous life, as one of those captivating, talented and rich ladies she watched on screen. And luckily for Clara, and to be honest, perhaps really the only bit of luck in her life so far, she'd get this chance, thanks to Brewsters, a film magazine that Clara picked up secondhand.

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• 13:20Speaker 03

  Turning the inside pages, she found a bold center page column which read, quote here, divas, "Through the portal of the fame and fortune contests, you may enter the kingdom of the screen. First prize, a role in a motion picture plus industry introductions." This was it. Clara felt it in her bones. This was her chance to get out of Brooklyn, to live a life, a real life, not one of poverty, not one of struggle, not one of trauma, but one of passion, of destiny, of fame and of fortune.

• 14:01Speaker 03

  And so, in 1921, at the age of only 16, she persuaded her father to lend her money to have a pair of photographs taken to enter the contest. At first, he was kind of hesitant, before eventually handing over the cash several days later, to which she may be thinking, money? For pics? Like, what do you mean? But remember here, this is the 1920s, and photography had to be done at a proper studio. So, with the coins in her pocket, Clara put on her one nice dress and went to a small family-run shop in Cody Island to get her snaps. However, she wasn't confident she'd have any luck here, not because necessarily of how she looked, but rather how others did.

• 14:44Speaker 03

  Catching a glimpse of some of the other contestants that began being published, she ogled over their expensive jewelry and clothes already, giving the effect of, you know, kind of grown women or movie stars, unlike Clara, whose simple dress and red curly hair made her look like the wild girl next door. But still, she refused to be beaten down and as such, completed the autobiography, attached her new photos and personally delivered her application to the magazine's office, which she later recalled, saying, "I had never had a manicure nor a pair of chiffon stockings in my life. I'd never even been close to the scent of such perfumes as filled that room.

• 15:25Speaker 03

  I wore the one and only thing I owned, a little plain wool dress, a sweater and a woolly red tan." Which, you know, sure, it certainly wasn't fancy, but she did make an impression. With the secretary who received the application writing, "Called in person, very pretty," on the cover letter. So she's done it, right? At 16 years old, Clara felt hopeful and excited, not in the least here, because her idol that we spoke about before, Mary Pickford, had actually judged the competition the year prior, but also because she was finally doing something for herself, right? Not thinking about her mom, not thinking about her dad, not thinking about her grandpa or Johnny or anyone else.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  And while yes, sure, she had no formal training in acting or singing, but she did have something else, the most important thing, right? The spirit of performer, something which excited her beyond all measure. However, that all but evaporated when she stepped back through the door of the family's Brooklyn tenement, where her mother, who'd only just found out about her daughter's contest entry, called her a whore, believing that the film industry would corrupt and destroy Clara, who, quote, "would be much better off dead." So from the get-go here, guys, Sarah, her mum, is deeply and vehemently against Clara's desire for a life on screen, something which only grew more and more when she received

• 16:54Speaker 03

  not one, but five callbacks from the fame and fortune team. So Clara's in with a chance here, you know? And this is really the point, that a pretty face and a personally delivered application doesn't cut the mustard anymore. Clara now had to prove she could, at least in some way, act, or, you know, the very least read a script. Now, lucky for Clara, despite her very short education, she was quite bright, getting good grades at school where she learned to read, but there was one other thing to consider here. She actually had a bit of a stammer, which while not super noticeable, did disrupt the overall flow of her voice, something which probably would have been a deal breaker if

• 17:35Speaker 03

  films at the time were talkies from the get-go, but they were largely silent films, again, at least in the first kind of 10 years. So as long as she could read the script and act, she'd be fine. Coming back then, time after time in her shabby clothes and slightly unkept manner, Clara showed the judges what she could do, with her mix of movement and expression evoking both freedom and passion, which one of the judges remarked was a, quote, "cheekiness that cannot be faked." And he wasn't wrong. I mean, charisma after all, guys, is the kind of thing you either have or you don't. And it turned out that Clara Bow had it in spades. Finally, finding out after months of auditions and screen tests that she, the self-taught

• 18:18Speaker 03

  little girl from Brooklyn, had won. Announced to the world in January 1922, Clara was overjoyed, of course, obviously, right? She's done like all these callbacks for months, leaving school almost immediately to pursue the opportunity, something which would ultimately be the final straw for Sarah, who upon hearing the news reportedly pulled a butcher's knife on her daughter in the middle of the night, threatening to kill her herself because it would be better for her to be dead than become an actress. This, of course, was her mental illness, definitely at play here, which had become so severe and was left so grossly mistreated that the following morning, Robert had to

• 19:00Speaker 03

  commit her to a sanitarium, where she died a year later, something which despite the troubled relationship, really broke Clara's heart, who reportedly jumped into her mother's grave at her funeral. So, at this point, right? The entire Bow household is turned upside down in a period of the highest of highs, the most exciting news, and the lowest of lows. But Clara was still thrilled to pursue this opportunity, which, for my Aussie listeners here, was basically like Miranda Kerr entering the Dolly Mag competition as a teen and then becoming a Victoria's Secret angel, okay? It really is life-changing. So what happens next?

• 19:44Speaker 03

  Well, quick sticks with a small suitcase and her single rumpled dress on, Clara boarded a cross-country train headed straight for Hollywood, where she filmed five scenes for 1922's Beyond the Rainbow as her prize for, you know, winning this competition. She was thrilled, of course, showing up to the studio to film across from Harry T. Maury, who was a big star at the time, appearing in more than 200 films across his career. Now Clara believed she absolutely nailed these scenes, right? She's like, yes, snaps for me. But that apparently wasn't how everyone felt. Dubbing her performance as amateurish, execs and directors made the very painful decision to cut her from the film altogether.

• 20:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, which, like, I would like shrivel up inside and die because she found out when she was watching the final product for the first time. I can't even believe, like, it's soul crushing, right? And while they did put them back in and like re-release the film years later, this was still devastating for Clara, who felt like this competition didn't deliver on either promise of fame or fortune. She was embarrassed, but not, and this is really important, in a humiliated kind of way, guys, alright? But in a fire in the belly, like, I'm gonna show you all what I'm made of, kind of way. And so she got back on the train for New York, showing up day after day, month after month,

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  week after week, for meetings, auditions, callbacks with everyone who was willing to meet with her, until eventually she landed a role in 1922's Down to the Sea in Ships. Playing the character of Dot, Clara's role was small, but unlike Beyond the Rainbow, her impact this time was large. Catching the eye of critics, audiences and filmmakers alike, thanks to her now iconic expressions. Now, if you're listening at home, my divas, and you haven't seen a photo of Clara yet, the key thing to note about her is that she had these huge eyes, alright? They literally looked like saucers, kind of like Emma Stone. And thanks to them, she was able to convey her every thought and feeling,

• 21:54Speaker 03

  which was essential, because remember, like I said, these are all silent films, so expression and good looks are absolutely necessary, which Clara had. But it did also require something else. Again, without dialogue, you really had to show every single emotion, feel every modicum of pain, happiness, suffering and ecstasy to sell to the audience. Which it turns out Clara could do better than the best. From glee to heartbreak, Clara had an emotive rage wider than the Serengeti, wowing actors and producers on set with just how talented she truly was, even guys crying on cue.

• 22:36Speaker 03

  Something that very few actors were able to do at the time, relying heavily on glycerin, which she said she didn't need, because all she had to do was think of home and the tears flew. Now, if you're thinking, hang on, this story sounds kind of familiar, like, I feel like I've seen this before, then chances are you have watched 2022's Babylon by Damien Chazelle, starring Margot Robbie in the role of Nellie Leroy, a young woman from humble origins who propels to fame in 1920's Hollywood by making her way into a party, and then eventually to a film set where she cries on cue, speaks with this, you know, thick kind of Brooklyn accent and carries on rather naughtily on several occasions. She is directly inspired by one Miss Clara Bowe,

• 23:21Speaker 03

  with this scene here perfectly encapsulating how this kind of, you know, scene and moment may have gone down. Have a listen. She can't cry, she's just some random whore from Wallach's house.

• 23:56Speaker 03

  So Clara, guys, is a genuine certified talent, right? Something which led her to several small, but again, highly impressionable roles at East Coast Film Studios between 1922 and 1923, after which she was selected as one of the Wampus Baby Stars, which, yes, does sound like a prequel to Cardi B's WAP, but is in fact not. Yet another competition of sorts, the Western Association of Motion Pictures Advertisers, aka Wampus, ran the Baby Stars Talent Program each year for actresses that they deemed were on, quote, "the threshold of movie stardom", something which does perfectly describe 19-year-old Clara at this point, who was picked alongside 12 other young women in 1924.

• 24:41Speaker 03

  This came with a lot of advantages, right? You had greater access to studios, you had help with screen tests and, of course, coverage in the press. Something which will feature heavily in the life of Clara Bowe. And yes, divas, do not worry, we are going to talk about the Taylor Swift and the Stevie Nicks of it all later on. But for now, as one of these baby stars, Clara stood strong and stood out amongst the other young women in the lineup, who were all wearing these kind of chic hats and blazers with fancy heels and old-school looks, while Clara was fierce, okay? Her hair was loose and wild, blowing in the wind like some kind of untamed flaming red mane.

• 25:25Speaker 03

  Her eyebrows were always slightly raised and those saucer eyes stared directly into every single soul. In many ways, she was almost otherworldly, right? Again, especially in comparison to these other women. And of course, full of that very, very potent cheekiness, which she showed off boldly by blowing a kiss straight down the barrel of the camera. Something that would largely change the history of Hollywood forever. Speaking of which, we should probably do a tiny little moment on, you know, what is Hollywood history up until this point? And it is a good question, to be honest, because Hollywood, right, as we know it, the kind of movie business, was relatively new, only beginning in 1911,

• 26:09Speaker 03

  thanks to the Nestor Motion Picture Company establishing the first permanent movie studio in Los Angeles. There was only one kind of movie star before Clara, alright? They were sophisticated and largely men, with far less actresses becoming household names, but those that did, like Clara's own idol, for example, here, Mary Pickford, were graceful, refined and classic, even earning nicknames like America's Sweetheart, which, as you can imagine, was basically a relentless gig that required not stepping a single toe out of line. But Clara, on the other hand, had no intention of keeping herself in any lines at any point in time.

• 26:51Speaker 03

  She was free and funny, wild and unrelenting, constantly wearing her heart on her sleeve and being open about her struggles and her desires, all of which was topped off by her eccentric style, which represented who she truly was. A real woman, guys. She wasn't polished or primed like the old Hollywood girlies who chose to keep their messy relationships and personality quirks and opinions largely hidden, but a whimsical firecracker of a woman who blew the ideas of early 20th century femininity into another fucking stratosphere here.

• 27:34Speaker 03

  Which one of Clara's fellow actors confirmed, saying her, quote, "social presence was taboo", and it was rather silly, because god knows Marion Davies and Mary Pickford had plenty to hide. It's just that they hid it, and Clara didn't. So when it came... So, when it came to Clara sticking out in this lineup of 13 girls like a sore thumb, she didn't mind. In fact, she was different, so she showed it, which was something that ultimately paid off, leading her to a deal with Preferred Pictures, which is when Clara Bowe the Baby Star becomes Clara Bowe the actual star. Permanently moving to Hollywood in 1924,

• 28:15Speaker 03

  Clara worked with Preferred Pictures to release seven films in that year alone. Yeah, guys, I will say at the top, this diva had some serious work ethic, okay? She was going back to back to back on films. The most significant of which, from these first lot, was Black Oxen, which despite playing a secondary role, was really the film that made Hollywood execs sit up, right? And realize that this woman was gonna be a star. Something which was confirmed with her next film, Wine, which was her first starring role, which is now, guys, very sadly lost, as we don't really know what happened to the original, um, like, roles of films, the physical copies, but is said by all accounts to be an acting masterpiece by the 19-year-old who skyrocketed to the top of the box office.

• 29:00Speaker 03

  From there, it was up and up and up, with Clara slowly transforming from contract actress to a box office name, something which came with more money and more perks. Earning around $10,000 US dollars annually at the time, Clara was making great money, but she wasn't spending like it. In contrast to her fellow actresses in their designer clothes and fancy apartments and, you know, kind of diamond jewelry, Clara wore modest outfits, renting a small apartment where she barely spent any time. After all, to churn out seven to eight movies a year does require six full working days, which Clara never missed a beat on.

• 29:40Speaker 03

  But while she may not have been lapping up these earlier successes and their comforts, someone else was.

• 29:49Speaker 03

  Following Clara from New York to Hollywood in 1924, her father, Robert Bowe, had not only moved in with his daughter, but was identified by a Los Angeles newspaper at the time as Clara's business manager, although he actually just lumped around in her apartment all day and did very little, living off the successes of Clara's talent and her hard work, something which this motherfucker didn't know a single thing about. I hate Robert Bowe, okay, putting it on the record. Speaking of hard work, though, let's look at Clara's films. What did she have lined up from 1925 to 1926, now that she's kind of, you know, a successful name? Well, at first, she did The Plastic Age, one of the first really successful college romance films, like the OG off-campus, right?

• 30:35Speaker 03

  Where she played Cynthia Day, the spirited, modern college girl who audiences the USA over fell in love with, something which helped her to be cast in The Man Trap. This is a big one, my divas, all right? It was directed by Victor Fleming, who later went on to direct Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, so like a serious name here. In this role, Clara played Alverna Prescott, a flirtatious waitress whose charm turns a remote Canadian town upside down, which sounds like one of my smutty, like cowboy Canadian romance books, but this was not that. It was actually one of Paramount's biggest hits of 1926, making Clara Bowe the studio's

• 31:18Speaker 03

  biggest female star, pop-off queen, with Variety describing her as a magnetic screen presence. Now, coming back to Margot Robbie, right? Because we've already talked about her and she's just the perfect example here. This, The Man Trap, was the equivalent of The Wolf of Wall Street. Okay? From this point onwards, Clara Bowe was projected into atmospheric levels of fame. She was stopped on the streets. All right, she was cornered in cars, she was adorned by millions, and was also really highly respected within the industry by both executives and cast and crew, who knew her

• 31:59Speaker 03

  to be this natural, dynamic, incredibly talented actress in front of the camera and a fun and kind person behind it. She was also known during this period, and beyond, to be honest, her whole life, her legacy comes down to this, as having a hell of a good time. And I mean, my divas, why wouldn't she, right? She's young, she's pretty, she's tough, and, you know, after these first years of her career, which did see her be more conservative with her kind of funds and free time more broadly, this next phase of Clara's life was characterized by her personification of the flapper, which is also probably a good time to ask what the hell even is a flapper?

• 32:42Speaker 03

  Which, in the context of Clara Bowe, is a good question to ask, which actually requires us to rewind it back to World War I and before. So prior to the outbreak of the Great War, we have the Victorian, Edwardian, and Belle Époque eras, all of which were still conservative in both dress and values. However, after the devastating realities of humanity's banality and the sheer level of just like death and destruction, right, endured in the First World War, things like propriety and shock overseeing a lady's ankle didn't seem to matter anymore, especially

• 33:23Speaker 03

  after so many women kept the world moving while men were away at war, which was something that rang particularly true for the nurses, who were just, at this point, totally desensitized to both male and female anatomy, having stitched up then kind of grieved over so many maimed bodies. So, there's a real shift here, right? Where from the late 1910s onward, women weren't viewed as kind of entirely ornamental objects anymore, but rather as functioning members of society, something which apparently took the deaths of millions to happen. Good to know, right? It was also this post-war environment that saw a massive change in women's lives politically,

• 34:05Speaker 03

  because the divas were out here smashing both the judicial and literal patriarchy, resulting in women's suffrage being granted in the US from 1920 onwards. So the 1920s, really this kind of new world for women in particular, right? We have the gals fighting for their rights and winning, and we have young women in particular, really, for the first time, leading independent lives, with one quarter to one-third of urban female workers living alone in private apartments or boarding houses by night.

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• 35:37Speaker 03

  1920. So it's a time of great change. It's really exciting. The morals are looser, expectations are broadening, paired with the boom in new industries and the growing economy, which also meant that something else was popping off, all right? It was on the rise. Parties, fun, and freedom, AKA the perfect breeding grounds of the flapper.

• 36:05Speaker 03

  Described by Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as, quote, "A young woman, especially one somewhat daring in conduct, speech, and dress." So the flapper was really a symbol of this kind of liberation of 1920s femininity, and her most important, uh, kind of, you know, attribute was her dress.

• 36:28Speaker 03

  Now, for those of us who have seen Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby or my OG sacred text, Downton Abbey, images of the flapper dress will conjure in your mind in two seconds flat. But for those of you who haven't, no worries, my darlings, we are going to break it down. Now, firstly, and of course, most scandalously here, the flapper dress not only showed foot, right? But it showed ankle. And it not only showed ankle, but it showed full-blown shin, okay? Yes, divas, it is hot and steamy in here. A shin? Never! And genuinely, for the Victorians, Edwardians, and even the French ladies of the Belle Époque,

• 37:10Speaker 03

  this really was fucking wild, because unlike their tightly corseted gowns, the flapper dress was designed for movement, with loose, straight silhouettes, a dropped waist on the hip, and famous just below the knee hemline, all reflecting the age they lived in. It was also, again, which I do think this is probably like more scandalous, um, like sleeveless, right? Or at the, like, very least really short kind of cap sleeves, exposing more skin than polite society had ever really seen. The materials were also important here, often made from lightweight fabrics such as silk, chiffon, satin, or crepe, which were lavishly decorated with beads, sequins, embroidery, and fringe.

• 37:55Speaker 03

  So these dresses, okay, they're fun and embellished, and in many ways very gauche, when considering not five years earlier, the war was still largely at play. But the reality is that it was over, guys, and that in and of itself was a reason to celebrate, to live, to have fun, which is exactly what the flapper embodied. So how then did Clara Bowe bring this to life for herself, right? How does she make a difference? Well, yes, she wore the dresses, many, many of them. In fact, in 1925 in particular, she wore an almost completely sheer dress, which helped, you know, kind of add to her rise to fame and notoriety.

• 38:39Speaker 03

  But the real thing that made Clara Bowe the living embodiment of the flapper was her hair. Yes, my divas, Clara Bowe was the original owner of the fuck-ass Bob. And let me tell you, all right, it was just as revolutionary back in the 1920s as Leslie Bibb's character in The White Lotus, okay? Because pre-Clara, Hollywood was accustomed to the long, elaborate hairstyles that had really defined the Victorian and Edwardian eras, neither of which represented the 20s and certainly didn't represent Clara. So instead, she embraced what she had.

• 39:21Speaker 03

  Curly, wild, flaming red hair, which she kept cut to jaw length and styled into soft finger waves, framing her huge eyes and famous Cupid's bow lips, creating not only the signature flapper look, but a style in and of itself, with women around the globe asking their hairdressers for the Clara. Bob, so she's an influencer, right? She is, in many ways, comparable here to like the Rachel Green in Friends, the hair-wise, just of the 1920s, right? With women even going so far as to change their hair color to match Clara's auburn locks, which randomly, I found this out when researching, and I do not understand why,

• 40:05Speaker 03

  her hair color wasn't described as like red or ginger or auburn, but Titan.

• 40:13Speaker 03

  Uh, like, I don't, I've never heard that before in my whole life. I don't know if it's like a Titanic reference. If anyone knows, let me know in the comments. But regardless, it was just a sensation. Yeah. With Vogue dubbing Clara as having, quote, "the most famous hair in America", something she herself leaned into, commenting later that she and her fellow flappers had, quote, "individuality". "We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted. I used to whiz around Sunset Boulevard in my open kessel with several red Chow dogs to match my hair." So there's this very, very iconic brand, right, that Clara had manufactured for herself.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  But being a flapper wasn't just about the style, at least for Clara in particular. It was really about the lifestyle. And by this point in her career, she was making some serious coin, signing a deal with Paramount in August nineteen twenty six for one thousand seven hundred dollars per week, which is the equivalent to around eighty eight thousand four hundred US dollars per year at the time, which in today's figures is a cool five point nine million US dollars. This, of course, made her both glamorous and financially independent, even, like we said earlier, supporting her father, which is really a large part of this flapper identity,

• 41:38Speaker 03

  with women all over the Western world seeking to emulate this image of success and independence and freedom, something which we see come to life time and time again through pop culture. I know I already mentioned Nellie Leroy, Margot Robbie, right, in Babylon, who does sum this up perfectly here with this line saying, quote, "There was always something. I was too young, or too little, or too fat. Usually, I was too fat", which, guess what, divas, was actually directly a quote from Clara Bowe herself. There's a lot of them in this movie, actually. Like, obviously, it's based off of her, but the direct pulls from kind of interviews and quotes herself is wild. Um, I also already did mention Downton Abbey, and for my Crawley Stans, who've seen the second

• 42:22Speaker 03

  film, you'll also pick up on similarities here with Myrna Daglish. She's the, like, film star from a poor background who comes across kind of inappropriate and brash while still looking gorgeous. And, you know, we'll talk more about her shortly, but the point is here. Yeah? This fun, free, flapper girl lifestyle was the one that Clara actually lived. There was no PR spin. This wasn't just a phase, but a reflection of herself and the other incredible women of the time who forged their own path, which earned Clara an even bigger title, one which would go on to inspire the likes of Josephine Baker,

• 43:04Speaker 03

  Marilyn Monroe, Taylor Swift, and ultimately, the algorithms of women the world over, all right? The It Girl. Now, of course, synonymous with women who possess that certain je ne sais quoi. You know, think Hailey Bieber, Carolyn Berset Kennedy, Kendall Jenner, yeah? Women who, um, have their kind of fingers on the pulse of culture. They know about fashion. They know about art. They know about society and all manage to be cool while also remaining highly commercial. It's this balancing act that feels impossible for us mere mortals to do. After all, guys, I want to be so for real for a second, the thought of wearing, and this is no hate if you do wear these,

• 43:47Speaker 03

  like, I applaud you. I simply could not wear the Mason Marcella tabbies, because it just evokes images of labias to me, okay? Uh, uh, I love that for you. If you're into that, like, pop off diva, but I cannot pull it off. But I'll tell you who could have. Carolyn Berset Kennedy. Yeah, she would have had four pairs and she would have looked, you know, not for a second like she had vaginas on her feet. So all of these gals are iconic, and the countless columns and how-to TikTok guides on replicating the it-ness, you know, all really have to, to bow down and owe it all to Clara and nineteen twenty seven's It.

• 44:31Speaker 03

  That's right, divas. The It Girl title isn't simply an adjective here, but rather a film. Based on the popular novella at the time, It saw Clara Bowe play a poor shopgirl named Betty Lou Spence, who had a crush on her rich employer Cyrus Wollam Jr. Directed by Clarence G. Badger, the film was an instant box office hit, which took Clara from movie star to global phenomenon. Again, if we come back to Margot Robbie here, this It, right, is her Barbie movie, all right? This film changed everything, including our vocabularies, with Clara becoming known as "that girl in the It movie", or for short, "the It Girl",

• 45:14Speaker 03

  a phrase which very soon detached itself from the film and instead attached itself to Clara's own character. Defined as "the quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force", Clara was ascribed this title, yes, of course, for her personality, style and talent, but more so for her impact, right? We get that she was amongst the kind of flapper scene and had, you know, the fuck-ass bob which influenced everyone, but the real reason she was the It Girl was because she had transcended fame, setting a cultural tone for the era more so than anyone else of her time,

• 45:54Speaker 03

  which is so much bigger than aesthetics, guys, because it really came down as well to what she did for women, especially through the characters she played in her films. They were intentionally independent, modern women who challenged social norms by being bold and brash and confident and charismatic. And this is a real hats off to Clara here, guys, who actively made really storied and deliberate choices in how she presented women, right? Once again, challenging the traditional gender roles of that old Hollywood kind of classic vixen, inspiring a new generation of vivacious and strong women who embraced their

• 46:39Speaker 03

  freedom and embraced their sexuality.

• 46:45Speaker 03

  Yes, my divas, you see Clara Bowe, she wasn't just a fun, naive, free-spirited neighborhood flapper. She was, in no uncertain terms, the first modern sex symbol. Now, the original was the Divine Thetabara about ten years earlier, who became famous for playing seductive, dangerous women who lured men to their ruin, AKA, the vamp. But Clara, ten years later, changed this entirely, okay? Gone was the danger, uh, the dark allure, the kind of vampiness, and it was replaced instead by fun, energetic, and most importantly, sexually confident representation, which is important here, guys,

• 47:29Speaker 03

  because Clara was largely reflecting the changed attitude of women during the twenties to sex, this kind of, you know, social change. As we mentioned earlier, between one quarter to one-third of urban female workers lived alone in private apartments or boarding houses by nineteen twenty, which, yes, meant independence and convenience for work, but it also meant the watchful eyes of their parents were no more, resulting in people not only openly talking about, but also having a lot of sex. In fact, as early as nineteen thirteen, The Atlantic Monthly announced that it was, quote, "sex o'clock in America", with surveys suggesting that fourteen percent of women born before nineteen hundred engaged

• 48:12Speaker 03

  in premarital sex by the age of twenty five, while as many as thirty nine percent of women who came of age in the nineteen tens and twenties lost their virginity before marriage. Helped on, as well, of course, here by the distance and the death of the First World War, granting much-needed perspective on conservative values. So Clara, right, through her life, and like we said, through her roles, really embodied this, pioneering the sex symbol archetype which would go on to produce the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, and of course, Pamela Anderson. So It and Clara's role as Betty Lou Spence is really deeply impactful, so much so that in two thousand and one, it was selected for preservation in the US National Film

• 48:57Speaker 03

  Registry by the Library of Congress for its, quote, "cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance". Fun fact here, my divas, which I was like, of course, this is like related to Clara. It was also one of the first examples of a concept film and one of the earliest examples of product placement. Like, you know, when you're watching Off Campus, um, and the Liquid IV powder kept coming up, you can thank It for that, which was actually sponsored by Cosmopolitan Magazine, which appears kind of constantly throughout the film. So a deeply impactful and a deeply, um, you know, influential cinematic masterpiece,

• 49:37Speaker 03

  which really changed and paved the way for a lot of the things that we know about modern cinema today. So let's check back in with Clara at this point. What's going on? Well, by this time, she is one of the most popular actors and people alive, with old movie reviews at the time really illustrating this. One person said, quote, "A silent film viewer's response to Clara Bowe is immediate and emotional. She more than any other performer of the silent era represents raw emotion. There is joy in her presence. She's young, healthy, full of fun, and really, really pretty. She has a magical star quality. Clara makes me happy."

• 50:18Speaker 03

  So it's all going up, but not all that glitters is gold, guys. It never is, all right? Despite her success and her title as the It Girl, Clara's scruffy upbringing in Brooklyn left her outside of the Hollywood in crowd. Her unkept behaviour, i.e. not knowing which spoon to use at a dinner and not speaking twenty-four seven with a transatlantic annoying fucking accent, jarred many Hollywood people and meant she had to work twice as hard as the others for her success. Clara herself admitted this in a magazine, saying, quote, "Most of my friends are ones I knew before I paid income tax", which I fucking love this from her. But it did mean that she was largely excluded from the cool group, if you will.

• 51:02Speaker 03

  You know, kind of like she's in high school, like, it's so, it's so petty, but she didn't mind much. In fact, preferring the company of the studio crew than the actors and directors, who really were more so her peers based on fame as well as her tax bracket. Even at the very pinnacle of Clara's success, she was largely alone in Hollywood, with fellow actor Lena Baskett saying she wasn't well-liked amongst other women in the film colony. "Her social presence was taboo, and it was rather silly, because God knows Marion Davies and Mary Pickford had plenty to hide", I kind of already quoted that before, but I do think it's relevant to bring back up here to kind of reflect Clara's isolation. But when elements within Hollywood tried to reject her, she simply went bigger.

• 51:45Speaker 03

  Guys, she went bolder, she went batter, admitting herself that, quote, "I'm a curiosity in Hollywood because I'm myself. I'm a big freak." And while I certainly wouldn't use that language because I think she's just so fucking iconic, she kinda wasn't wrong here. Okay, she pushed the envelope further and further. For example, here, driving around in her little red sports car with seven chihuahuas in the backseat, and then showing up at one point to a formal dinner, wearing nothing but a bathing suit, so that she could show off her hand-painted legs. Apparently, it was a thing she did, she like would draw and paint on her legs. To Hollywood's inner circle, they of course see this as vulgar, right? She's this Brooklyn low person who simply could not behave in a civilized manner.

• 52:30Speaker 03

  Displayed very, very well by Margot Robbie as Nellie LaRoy in this scene. Have a listen.

• 52:40Speaker 06

  I can't believe you just...

• 52:42Speaker 03

  Why not? Why, haven't you heard what they say about me? I'm a degenerate fucking animal.

• 52:48Speaker 06

  Oh, oh, Nellie, look at them. Oh, who knows what she might do? She's, she's from Jersey, you know?

• 52:55Speaker 03

  This is what a degenerate fucking animal from Jersey does.

• 53:12Speaker 03

  You all can stick your champagne flutes up your roles smelling candy tasting, snow white fucking assholes.

• 53:24Speaker 03

  Which I think that pretty well sums that up. I think we get the point, right? Yep. But not everyone's a champagne flute drinking, caviar snorting snop. And for the truly cool people, i.e. the Taylor Swift's of the world, Clara Bow was brave because she was herself. Living her life on her own terms and paving the way for other women to live authentically under the scrutiny of fame. However, while we look at it as admirable and charming, it was something else for the press. A fucking goldmine. As the it girl, the tabloids began hunting for any and every ounce of information on Clara. As one of the most recognizable women in the world, she really was as famous as Taylor Swift.

• 54:09Speaker 03

  Like, I just wanna say that right now, okay? Her skincare, her underwear, her dining habits, her living quarters, and of course, most importantly, again, bringing back Taylor Swift here, her relationships became front page news. And by 1928, the press were desperate for every piece of dirt they could dig up on Clara Bow. First, they went sniffing around her initial dalliance in Hollywood and very short engagement with Mexican-born actor Gilbert Rollet. And then spun the rumor mill out of control blaming Clara, who was not even 20 years old at the time, for man-trap director Victor Fleming's obsessive philandering.

• 54:51Speaker 03

  Then there was Gary Cooper, who co-starred with Clara in the 1927 film Children of Divorce, who the tabloids reported shared an intense six-month romance with the star that ended when Cooper's mother didn't like Clara, which she then reported that he had the biggest cock in Hollywood and no arse to push it with. That's her quote, not mine. Then there was rumors of affairs with billionaire aviator Howard Hughes, Hungarian actor Bella Lugosi, best known for playing Count Dracula, and the very handsome, very married doctor who treated Clara for a case of nerves, after which his wife sued for divorce. Now, I wanna be clear here, my divas, okay?

• 55:32Speaker 03

  Because yes, Clara liked men, and yes, Clara liked sex. And no, Clara would not be ashamed by either of those things. But my god, guys, was she a victim of some of the worst slut shaming in Hollywood history? Which really is fucking saying something, right? Tabloids, the press, and the rumor mill all made the subject of Clara Bow's sexuality a matter of international news. The misogyny was insane, with the vilification of Clara setting a lot of the precedent

• 56:14Speaker 03

  that the likes of Marilyn, Paris Hilton, Miley, Britney, right? And so many more have endured since. All incredibly strong, unique women who were turned into punchlines and all but driven to the outskirts of Hollywood by the press for living life on their terms. Something which took its toll on Clara, who began suffering from mental health issues. Describing her life as a gilded cage, Clara commented on this post-it period of her life, saying, quote, "All the time the flapper is laughing and dancing, this feeling of tragedy underneath. She's unhappy and disillusioned." Which, to be honest, guys, is a pretty fair description here.

• 56:59Speaker 03

  Keep in mind as well, at this point in Clara's life, she's pumping out still seven-plus films a year. And as such, is being prescribed lots of pills for both sleep and to pep her up, which, as we know, is not an isolated experience. I mean, you know, I think of Judy Garland, I think of Marilyn Monroe, who kind of both come to mind here. But this was all really exacerbated by Clara's family history of mental illness, which she shared very vulnerably in her 1928 memoir, written by Adela Rogers St. John's. Published in photoplay, this was basically the equivalent of the Princess Diana Panorama interview, okay?

• 57:41Speaker 03

  In which Clara was painfully, painfully honest about her struggles. She goes into details about mental health and kind of her family's history of mental health, like I mentioned. She talks about gambling, she talks about the awful experiences of her youth and the reality of overworking in Hollywood. Something which, instead, right, of inspiring support and empathy, ended up having the opposite effect. It is so vile what's happened here, with the press basically taking everything that she said and then twisting her words and manufacturing kind of this rage bait and outcry,

• 58:24Speaker 03

  of which the public were absolutely horrified by this kind of perfect star, their vision of this life that Clara lived being shattered. And soon Clara found herself at the very top of Hollywood with nowhere left to go but down. After all, as they say, the bigger you are, the harder you fall. And Clara was the biggest star La La Land had ever seen. So what's the next move? Well, you'll have to tune into part two, which you can find in your feeds on Monday morning for your drive to work, hot girl walk, or just general diva time. Okay, guys? In the meantime, though, it's been a pleasure getting down and dirty in time with you. And as always, if you're looking for some more hot history,

• 59:06Speaker 03

  you can follow us on Instagram and Substack at Hot History Club, and on YouTube and TikTok at Hot dot history. I will speak to you all on Monday, my divas. Thank you so much. Love you. Bye.

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