Clara Bow

The “IT” girl Clara Bow in a cute Betty Boop like sitting from 1928. Bow was born on July 29, 1905 in the Bay Ridge area of Brooklyn, New York. She was the youngest of three siblings and the only one to survive past childhood. Her father was sexually abusive and left the home for long periods of time while her mother suffered from severe mental disorders, later threatening her adolescent daughter's life. Bow took to watching movies as an escape from the horrors of home and dropped out of school. At age 16, she entered a magazine's beauty contest and won a small part in the film "Beyond the Rainbow" (1922), though her scenes were initially cut. Even while facing resistance, Bow persevered in continuing to audition at New York studios and eventually received a part in "Down to the Sea in Ships" (1922). Bow made her way to Hollywood and signed with Preferred Pictures under honcho B.P. Schulberg, with the actress also working with other studios. She starred in an array of silent films such as "Grit" (1924), "The Plastic Age" (1925) and "Dancing Mothers" (1926). Bow became wildly popular after 1927's "It", a project which proved to be a tremendous box office success and lent the actress the nickname the "It" Girl. Bow's imagery and electric, sexy performances spoke to the flapper persona of the times. The actress made cinematic history with her 1927 co-starring role in "Wings," which went on to receive the first Best Picture Oscar. She later made the transition to talking movies with 1929's "The Wild Party" and starred in a couple of other films with Fox Studios before retiring from acting in 1933. She moved to Nevada with her new husband, cowboy actor Rex Bell and the couple had two sons. Bow spent her last years under the constant care of a nurse, and living off an estate worth about $500,000 at the time of her death. In 1965, at age 60, Clara Bow passed away from a heart attack, which her autopsy attributed to atherosclerosis.

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