Biography
Friends and Family
Sarah Gordon
[Mother]
::
Robert Bow
[Father]
Trivia and Quotes
Quotes
 We had individuality. We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted. I used to whiz down Sunset Boulevard in my open Kissel, with several red Chow dogs to match my hair. Today, they`re sensible and end up with better health. But we had more fun. A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.
The more I see of men, the more I like dogs.
[on director Victor Fleming] Of all the men I`ve known, there was a man.
[when asked what "It" was, replying in her perfect Brooklyn accent] I ain`t real sure.
Trivia
1928: She became the highest paid movie star, receiving $35,000 per week.
1949: After being diagnosed with schizophrenia, her regimen included shock treatments. Later in her life her husband sent her to one of the top mental institutions in the nation.
As soon as Bow started to make money, she brought her father to live with her in Hollywood. For the next few years, she funded numerous business ventures for him, including a restaurant and a dry cleaners, all of which failed. He soon became a drunken nuisance on her sets, where he would try to pick up young girls by telling them his daughter was Clara Bow.
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.
Fellow actress Jeanine Louise DeName was born and raised in a neighborhood that Clara had briefly resided in as a youth, in Brooklyn, NY.
Her father, Robert Bow, was rarely present and may have had a mental impairment. Whenever he returned home, he was verbally and physically abusive to both wife and daughter. Reportedly he raped Clara when she was 15 or 16 years old.
Her mother, Sarah Gordon, was an occasional prostitute who suffered from mental illness and epilepsy. She was noted for her frequent public affairs with local firemen.
Hollywood`s first It-girl
Preferred playing poker with her cook, maid, and chauffeur over attending her movie premieres.
Before she was known as "The It Girl", she was known as "The Brooklyn Bonfire".
Her mother was mentally ill and was committed to a mental institution where she died when Clara was still relatively young.
Her reputation for being a rather loose and unrestrained free spirit earned her a somewhat sour reputation that would follow her for the rest of her life. Many legends and rumors grew up around her thanks in large part to the tabloid press. After her death there were rumors that she had faked her death and some had reported seeing her visiting her own grave.
Interred at Forest Lawn, Glendale, California, USA, in the Freedom Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Heritage, next to George Burns and Gracie Allen.
Kristin Hersh wrote a song about her for the band 50 Foot Wave entitled "Clara Bow." It appears on the band`s debut album "Golden Ocean."
Pictured on one of ten 29¢ US commemorative postage stamps celebrating stars of the silent screen, issued 27 April 1994. Designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, this set of stamps also honored Rudolph Valentino, Charles Chaplin, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Theda Bara, Buster Keaton, and the Keystone Kops.
She lived in a seven-room bungalow at 512 N. Bedford Dr. in Beverly Hills.
She worked at a hot dog stand on Coney Island as a teenager, run by a man named Nathan Handwerker, who later founded Nathan`s Franks. However, contrary to legend, she was not discovered there.
Unlike many movie stars of her era she did not flaunt her wealth, but lived on par with the middle class.
Was billed as "The Hottest Jazz Baby in Films" by independent producer B.P. Schulberg for The Plastic Age (1925).
Became a lifelong insomniac after her mother tried to kill her in her sleep.
Refused to write her memoirs on the grounds there were many things that might embarrass her two sons and their families. She felt all the money in the world would not compensate for the embarrassment.
WAMPAS Baby Star of 1924.
|
Gold Sites
Silver Sites
Star Sites
Fan Sites
Comments
Continue the Conversation