Clara Bow: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s First ‘It Girl’

What makes someone an ‘It Girl’? It’s a mix of youth, a bit of mystery, and a style that’s all their own. There’s a certain spark, a kind of confidence that can’t be faked. Over the years, plenty have worn the label, but it all kicked off with one woman in the 1920s. Clara Bow, born in Brooklyn in 1905, had a rough start. Her two older sisters died as babies, and her mum, Sara Frances Bow, was told not to risk another pregnancy. Clara later recalled in Photoplay magazine in 1928,

“I don’t suppose two people ever looked death in the face more clearly than my mother and I the morning I was born. We were both given up, but somehow we struggled back to life… She idolised me, but with a strange, bitter love, almost as though she was afraid to love me for fear I, too, would be snatched away from her.”

From early on, Clara was looking after her mum, who suffered from epilepsy and later, psychosis after a bad fall. Clara described her as “mean”, but knew it wasn’t her fault. The roles were reversed from the start, with Clara as the carer. One day, she spotted an acting contest in a magazine. Her dad gave her a dollar for headshots, and she sent them in, though she doubted herself. After five screen tests, the judges said, “She has a genuine spark of divine fire.” With no experience, she was drawn to the glamour of the big screen. She wrote, “I’d save and save and beg Dad for a little money, and every cent of it went into the box office of a motion picture theatre… For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world… My whole heart was afire, and my love was the motion picture.”

Early Struggles and Hollywood Breakthrough

Clara’s mum wasn’t keen on her dreams. When Clara told her she wanted to act, her mum replied, “You are going straight to hell. I would rather see you dead.” One night, Clara woke to her mum holding a knife to her throat. She managed to fight her off and lock her in a room. Her mum had no memory of it the next day and was soon sent to a sanitarium, passing away in 1923. Clara later wrote, “Looking back on it now, it seems to me that the day of my mother’s funeral was the beginning of a new life for me. Perhaps it was the birthday of the Clara Bow that you know.”

Her first film job was in 1921’s Beyond the Rainbow, but all her scenes were cut. She kept at it, landing a role in 1922’s Down to the Sea in Ships thanks to her tomboy image. In 1923, she danced on a table in Enemies of Women—uncredited, but memorable. She was juggling work and caring for her mum, saying, “I’d go home at night and help take care of mother; I’d cry my eyes out when I left her in the morning – and then go and dance on a table… I think I used to be half-hysterical, but the director thought it was wonderful.” That year, she moved to Hollywood, signed with Preferred Pictures, and started working with different studios.

Becoming the ‘It Girl’

Clara’s first Hollywood film was Maytime, followed by Poisoned Paradise in 1924. She became the face of the “flapper girl”—emotional, charismatic, and a bit rebellious. In 1925 alone, she appeared in 14 films, often working on several at once. Her appeal came from breaking gender norms, sometimes dressing androgynously, but always confident in herself. In 1926, she signed with Paramount and made eight films, but it was 1927’s It that made her a star. The film, based on Elinor Glyn’s story, followed a shop-girl who wins her boss’s heart with her ‘It’ factor. Glyn defined ‘It’ as,

“That quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With ‘It’ you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man. ‘It’ can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction.”

Clara was soon known everywhere as ‘The It Girl’, living up to the hype with her bohemian lifestyle and disregard for Hollywood’s snobbery. She once said,

“I’m a curiosity in Hollywood. I’m a big freak, because I’m myself!”

She stayed on top as films moved to sound, still drawing crowds. But by the early 1930s, the pressure was getting to her, and her mental health took a hit. She was sent to a sanatorium in 1931 and dropped from her last Paramount film. At just 25, her first big run was over. She moved to Nevada with her husband, actor Rex Bell, and bounced back, signing a two-film deal with Fox. Both Call Her Savage (1932) and Hoop-La (1933) were hits, but she retired that year, becoming a mum to two boys.

Legacy and Lasting Impact

Clara’s struggles didn’t end with her career. Her mental health continued to decline, and in 1944, she tried to take her own life. After treatment, she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, linked to the trauma of her mum’s attack, but she refused further psychological help. She left treatment, didn’t return to her family, and lived alone in a bungalow until her death from a heart attack in 1965, aged 60.

Her life was marked by hardship, but in less than a decade, she changed the face of the film industry, setting the standard for what it meant to be an ‘It Girl’. The weight of that title was heavy, a warning about the cost of fame. As she once put it,

“All the time the flapper is laughing and dancing, there’s a feeling of tragedy underneath, she’s unhappy and disillusioned, and that’s what people sense.”