My name is Audrey Bow (maiden name). I made this site as a tribute page in dedication to my Great, Great Aunt Clara Bow! Clara was incredibly talented in many ways and I am trying to make sure she is remembered through new generations. I am fortunate enough to be the only female left in the family to resemble her (I got her great eyes and lips among other traits). She would actually be 102 years old if she were still alive but myspace wouldn't go back that far! LOL! Please enjoy~
Clara Gordon Bow, destined to become THE flapper of the 1920's, was born and raised in poverty in Brooklyn, New York, on July 29, 1905. Her family was also beset with violence. Her mother tried to slit Clara's throat when she attempted to enter the film industry. She won a photo beauty contest which launched her movie career that would eventually number 58 films, from 1922 to 1933. It was the movie It (1927), which was to define her career. The film starred Clara as a shop girl who was asked out by the store's owner. As you watch the silent film you can see the excitement as she prepared for her date with the boss, her girlfriend trying hard to assist her. She was trying to use a pair of scissors to modify her dress in order to look more "sexy". This movie did a lot to change society's mores as there was only a few years between World War I and Clara Bow, but this movie went a long way in how society looked at itself. Clara was flaming youth in rebellion. In the film she was presenting a worldly wisdom that somehow sex meant having a good time. But you shouldn't be misled by the film, because she was still close to Lillian Gish in that when her boss tries to kiss her goodnight, she slaps him. Yes, she, too, was a good girl and a first cousin of Trueheart Susie. At the height of her popularity she received over 45,000 fan letters a month. She, too, was probably the most overworked and underpaid star in the industry. With the coming of sound, which did lend itself to her thick Brooklyn accent, her popularity waned. Clara was also involved in several court battles ranging from unpaid taxes to being in divorce court for "stealing" women's husbands. After the court trials, she made a couple of attempts to get back in the public eye. One was Call Her Savage (1932) in 1932. It was somewhat of a failure at the box office and her last was in 1933 in a film called Hoop-La (1933). She, then, married cowboy star, Rex Bell and retired from the film world at the age of 26. She was a doting mother of her two sons and would do anything to please them. Haunted by a weight problem, and a mental imbalance, she never entered show business again. She died of a heart attack in West Los Angeles, on September 26, 1965. She was 60 years old. Today she is finding a renaissance among movie buffs, who are recently discovering the virtues of silent film. The actress who wanted so much to be like the wonderful young lady in It (1927) has the legacy of her films to confirm what a wonderful lady she really was. She, too, was America's first sex symbol.
Famous Redhead And Cowboy Actor Deny Secret Nevada Wedding At First – Marriage Climaxes Two-Year RomanceMovie Classics, February 1932Ending the suspense of their two-year romance, Clara Bow and Rex Bell, cowboy actor and rancher, were quietly married in Las Vegas the night of December third. The following day, reporters discovered their secret, and broadcast it to the world. That same day, Rex denied that there had been any ceremony – though the District Attorney and Deputy County Clerk said they had seen the couple married the previous evening.The romance of the tall, stalwart young Westerner and Clara began when he played a supporting part in her picture, True to the Navy, and then became her business manager.It was Rex who counseled her to prosecute her former secretary, Daisy De Voe, for grand larceny, even though Daisy was reported to be in a mood to "tell all." Rex’s advice was, in effect, "Let her tell what she has to tell, which isn’t much – then the slate will be washed clean." Clara won new friends for her courage – but lost her health. To regain it far from the maddening crowd, she went to the faithful Rex’s ranch.On December 6, the couple went into Las Vegas again and Rex told reporters that the reason for all the secrecy – and denials – had been that they weren’t sure whether or not there was a non-marriage clause in Clara’s new film contract. He had now discovered that there wasn’t.But on December 8, back at her house in Beverly Hills, Clara revealed she was Mrs. George F. Beldon (Rex’s real name). She explained that they had denied the wedding in the hope of getting some privacy, and added they wished reporters would give them "a break and let a couple of honeymooners alone."That satisfied everybody – the movie colony, the reporters, and Sam Rork, independent producer, to whom Clara is now under contract. As quoted by the Associated Press, Mr. Rork’s exact words were: "I think marriage is the best thing Clara could have done. She has married a good man, one who will love and protect her, and she will be better than ever for it."
And the story goes that the women’s clubs, which have openly disapproved of Clara’s exciting romances, are also satisfied. Other stars and their prospective husbands may travel to Europe and back on the same trains and the same boars (three have done so only recently) without being frowned upon, but if Clara had climaxed her six months’ convalescence at the Rex Bell ranch with no wedding, the reformers would almost certainly have had something to say. But Clara and Rex broke down any such potential opposition to her return to the screen, whether or not that was their intention by marrying before her comeback.I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
