Bow, Clara

Clara Bow.

(credit: Brown Brothers)

(born July 29, 1905, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.—died Sept. 27, 1965, Los Angeles, Calif.) U.S. film actress. At age 16 she won a magazine contest that gave her a bit part in a film. Hired by Paramount Pictures in 1925, she played larger roles in silent films such as Mantrap (1926) and Kid Boots (1926). After her starring role as a flapper in the popular film It (1927), Bow became known as “the It girl,” with “It” being understood as the appeal of a liberated young woman. She starred in 20 more films (1927–30), but scandals and nervous breakdowns undermined her career.

Bow, Clara (1905–65) movie actress; born in New York City. At age 16 she won a fan magazine beauty contest and by 1922 she was making her first movie. Mantrap (1926) was her first major hit and she was suddenly the epitome of the Roaring Twenties, the "It Girl" (referring to her sex appeal), and her kewpie-doll appearance was imitated by thousands of young women; a 1928 poll named her America's most popular female movie star. But by 1930 she was at the center of scandals involving adultery, gambling, drink, and drugs and her career burned out as fast as it began. She married cowboy star Rex Bell in 1931, who later became lieutenant governor of Nevada, but by then she was suffering recurrent breakdowns.