About the writing of a book, Winston Churchill said, “To begin with, it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress. Then it becomes a master. Then it becomes a tyrant. And the last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him out to the public.” Well…my pal, my great buddy, Clara has never been a tyrant, she’s never been a monster. But I am thrilled to “fling her out to the public.
I’ve sat opposite Clara for numerous imagined and metaphorical coffees, been at her elbow as she whirled through Hollywood, sometimes on a bender in her red Kissel. Clara has lived with me—and therefore, Linda, for over a year. I can honestly say that she has endured herself to Linda as much as she has to me.
She was born into madness and poverty only to become the original “IT girl,” the first sex symbol, and most popular female icon of the wild jazz, gin, and cinema-filled decade of the Roaring Twenties. No star shone brighter.
Ever plucky and resourceful, Clara is a charmer. Armed with vivaciousness, sensuousness, and a touch of cunning tossed in. Her eyes jumped off the screen, innocent, insecure, vulnerable. Clara was always in motion, dancing, striking sultry poses, and fluffing her hair, in playful sexual self-display, innocent one minute, wild the next.
In the opulent and fast-paced era of the Roaring ’20s, the entertainment world was a dazzling spectacle, bursting with glitz, glamour, and untold stories. Amidst the Jazz Age rhythms and the allure of the silver screen, one star shone brighter than the rest: Clara Gordon Bow. Clara was not just a name; she was a phenomenon. She became a symbol of the new age woman, the flapper: independent, ambitious, and unapologetically glamorous.
Clara’s star rose during the silent film era. Silence is multi-layered, mysterious, and tricky. It can be a serene sanctuary or a place of loneliness. She was both a heroine and a casualty of the muted screen.
Clara’s entry into the movies was nothing short of meteoric. Her natural charisma enthralled audiences, making Clara a household name. She stars in numerous films, including The Plastic Age and Mantrap, showcasing her versatility and depth as an actress. Her defining moment was the film IT, which popularized the term It Girl, referring to a woman with magnetic charm and undeniable appeal.
Ever plucky and resourceful, Clara is a charmer. Armed with vivaciousness, sensuousness, and a touch of cunning tossed in, Clara Bow lit up a screen like no other actress in history. She was a flapper of flappers. Clara wore her red lipstick in the shape of a heart. Women who mimicked her were said to be putting a “Clara Bow” on their mouths.
I hope I humanely portray the “IT” girl who personified her age: ambitious, daring, talented, vibrant, competitive, destructive, and a little crazy. So much myth surrounds Clara that true intimacy with her is as elusive today as it may have been then.
I love what Time Magazine wrote on October 8, 1965, eleven days after Clara’s passing. Time remembered her this way.
“Until 1926, ‘it’ was just another pronoun. After that, “It” became the most provocative two-letter word in the language—all because of her. She was Clara Bow, the ultimate flapper for the movie audiences of the ’20s, grown too sophisticated for the synthetic, exotic Theda Bara (“Kiss me, my fool”) and Pola Negri. Clara Bow, by contrast, was as fresh and authentic as the girl next door, only more so. She had enormous saucer eyes, dimpled knees, bee-stung lips, and a natural boop-poop-a-doop style. She was the cat’s pajamas, the gnat’s knees, and the U.S.’s favorite celluloid love goddess.”
I’d also like to share some of the kind things my excellent editor, Fran Lebowitz, said about SHE’S GOT IT.
I found ‘She’s Got IT’ a highly transporting, spirited, and riveting read. I read it for hours on end without wanting to leave the world it had constructed for me. I was in every room, every scene, and felt swoony with desire and energy. It’s so bouncy and readable and absolutely makes me love Clara so much.
I shared in Clara’s restlessness and found deep pockets of joy in her surprising generosity and kindness. I wondered where she might have gone had she been born today; what would have been easier and harder to achieve.
You brought so much of her alive through the context of your timeline; you brought the era alive with this relevant history of film, which mirrored the mores and moods of the country. Combining what is on screen with what is off screen and then negotiating this through the delicate psyche of the woman half shoe-horned into fame and half self-declared, certainly destined, gives us a full experience of what fueled our nation, to an extent.
Even though it is personalized and synthesized with some bias, as we are clearly favoring Clara, the narrator does manage to keep a distance and with that, credibility and perspective.
