Clara Bow- The "It" Girl's Early Years- ContinuedThe "It" girl was sexy. She was overflowing in charm and seduction, surging with a magnetism that fascinated both men and women. The very first and quintessential "It" girl, according to Elinor Glyn who coined the phrase, was Clara Bow. The best of the bobbed flappers, Clara epitomized the personal and sexual freedom that was just becoming popular in young women and revolutionized acting.

As the product of a torturous childhood, Clara easily lost herself in her roles, escaping her painful life in favor of those told in cinema. Before Clara, screen acting mimicked the stage, and while overly dramatic actions are necessary for more expansive venues, she realized that broad gestures were unsuitable for the silver screen. Clara opted instead for a more natural acting style, using her highly developed skill of pantomime and a broad range of subtle facial expressions. Today, her acting might still seem overboard, but for her day it was as close to reality as the movie-goer would get and rivetted her audiences.

After starring in "It" (the very same novel by Elinor Glyn), Clara's reputation as a sexpot was sealed. Her reputation was enhanced by a series of tawdry tabloid tales, which the movie studios were only too happy to encourage. Clara's supposed list of lovers reads as a silver screen Who's Who and included Bela Lugosi, John Wayne, and Gary Cooper. Rumors of alcholism, dsrug abuse, and mental illness swirled about her. It seemed that, regardless of her talents (or even any innocence) the studios would always consider her to be a disgrace and low-classed. Her public, many notable magazines, film writers, and even the founder of her own studio Adolph Zucker (Paramount Pictures) praised her talents and clamored for her to star in a broader range of roles; but studio heads chose instead to continually typecast the star.

To further the image of the wild flapper, Paramount began to go out of it's way to humiliate the star, dubbing her "Crisis-a-Day" Clara. After repeatedly cancelling her films and docking her pay, as well as charging her for unreturned costumes and publicity photographs, the already frazzled actress grew incereasingly frail and emotionally damaged. To add insult to injury, Paramount added a morality clause in her contract (for behaving like a lady and staying out of the papers) while touting and sensationalizing her exploits to the gossip rags. Their actions, however, couldn't hide her talents and in 1927 Clara was their most popular star. Her movie, Wings, even won the first Academy Award for Best Picture. Although the most popular actress of her day, she was shunned by all of the "right people", including her fellow actors. Considered low class, vuilgar, and uneducated by everyone, she was the lonliest star in Hollywood.

Although she suffered from "microphone fright" after "talkies" came into vogue, Clara's film career continued to boom and she starred in no less than 11 sound films. Her rough, Brooklynn-accented voice proved to add a dimension of reality to her quintessential flapper mystique and it's said that she was one of the inspirations for Betty Boop.

In 1930, the 25 year old star suffered from titanic scandals involving gambling, sex, and carousing. The viscious tabloids, no different from today, devoured and exaggerated every claim made in the high-profile court trials brought forth by her greedy ex-secretary, Daisy DeFoe. The studios refused to come to her aid, and then went so far as to sever her contract. She single-handedly managed her won comeback afterwards, but in the end it was Clara herself who tired of the sex-symbol roles and decided to retire. "I don't wanna be remembered as somebody who couldn't do nothin' but take her clothes off. I want somethin' real now."

At 28 years old, after making her last movie in 1933, she moved to the quiet deserts of Nevada with her husband, the cowboy star Rex Bell, to recover from her emotional breakdown. Although the tranquil domesticity of marriage and motherhood seemed to heal her, the newfound politcal carreer of her husband began to stress the wounds. Rex was often away from home and Clara grew more fretful and paranoid, the insomnia brought on by her mother's murder attempt only exasperated her condition. After a failed suicide attempt, she was admitted for extenive psychoanalysis and it was discovered that she suffered from schizophrenia, as her mother and grandmother probably had. She divorced Rex in 1950 and sought absolute solitude as a way of keeping her mental collapse at bay. Clara was able to live on her $500,000 estate (a huge some for her day) and finally passed away on September 26, 1965 at the age of 60.

Clara Bow made almost 50 movies during her 12 year career. The jazz baby's vampish pout, henna-ed red hair, and ravishing curves won her a place on the screen, but it was her heartbreaking tears, amazing energy, and free spirit that won her international fame. Today she's virtually forgotten, but it impact can't be denied.

Some Wikipedia factoids about the world's first sex-symbol:

- The 1930 U.S. Census lists Bow's residence as 512 North Bedford Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Her home's value was listed as $25,000, higher than most others on her block at the time.
- Clara's mass of tangled, slept-on red hair was her most famous attribute. When fans of the new star found out she put henna in her hair, sales of the dye tripled.
- Clara applied her red lipstick in the shape of a heart. Women who imitated this shape were said to be putting a "Clara Bow" on their mouths.
- Clara became a lifelong insomniac after her mother tried to kill her in her sleep.
- Clara preferred playing poker with her cook, maid, and chauffeur over attending her movie premieres.
- Not only did Clara kiss and tell; she did so in language that would make a sailor blush.
- A visibly nervous Clara had to do a number of retakes in The Wild Party, her first talkie, because her eyes kept wandering up to the microphone overhead.
- Clara was worried that staring in "Talkies" would ruin her sex symbol status due to her strong Brooklyn accent.