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Hollywood's Original IT Girl: Clara Bow

© Jenny Lynn Higgins

The 1920's was an era of liberation and excess - no one personified this more than Clara Bow. Notorious for throwing wild parties and engaging in questionable activities, Clara was the symbol of the flapper era.

Born in 1905 in the slums of the Bronx to abusive parents, Clara rose above her impoverished background to become an icon of the silver screen. As a child, she would go to see cheap movies and then mimic the stars for hours in front of her mirror, dreaming of becoming a film actress. In 1921, when she was fourteen, she entered a Fame and Fortune contest sponsored by movie fan magazines. She won the prize of a silver trophy, an evening gown, and a part in a motion picture.

Clara's mother was not pleased with her daughter's acting ambitions: one night, Clara woke to find her mother standing over her bed with a knife. She said, "I'm going to kill you, Clara - it'll be better." Her mother was later sent to a mental institution, where she died a few years later. A traumatized Clara would have trouble sleeping for the rest of her life.

The movie role that she won was in a film called Beyond the Rainbow. Clara's part ended up on the cutting room floor, but she soon landed a part in another picture called Down to the Sea in Ships. Her performance received good reviews and she was sent to see B.P. Schulberg of Preferred Pictures to audition for a three-month contract at $50 a week.

Schulberg was not impressed when Clara showed up, but her agent convinced him to give her a direct test. Schulberg looked at her and demanded, "Laugh." She did so convincingly. Then he suddenly said, "Stop laughing. Cry!" Immediately, tears began flowing down her cheeks. Her agent, Maxine Alton, later referred to her as "an emotional machine." Schulberg threw up his hands, turned to Alton, and said, "You win." In her films for Preferred Pictures, Clara portrayed the quintessential flapper - wild and free, dancing and happy, surrounded by men. She was also one of the first women to play strong characters in Hollywood - nobody messed with Clara and it was obvious that she would not stand meekly by and let a man run her life. She was fast becoming the role model of flappers across the country. In 1925, author Elinor Glyn was placed under contract at Paramount Pictures to write, develop and supervise productions. She was writing a short novel titled "IT" which was published a year later. In the novel, Glyn described "IT" as "that strange magnetism which attracts both sexes. 'It' is a purely virile quality, belonging to a strong character. (The possessor of It) must be entirely unself-conscious and full of self-confidence, indifferent to the effect he or she is producing, and uninfluenced by others. There must be physical attraction, but beauty is unnecessary. Conceit or self-consciousness destroys 'It' immediately."

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