Clara Bow

Long may she reign

As a longtime Swiftie, I was elated when I found out that Taylor Swift had a new song named after Clara Bow, and I thought, what better time to help people who may not know her story get to know her better? Clara was born desperately poor in early 1900s New York and suffered from a bad home life with an alcoholic father and a mentally ill mother. However, by the time she was a teenager, she won a beauty contest that shot her into stardom. Her fame came with a price, and she had her life intruded on by paparazzi; she was exploited by her managers and suffered from her own mental health issues. Come join me on today’s episode to learn about the women who coined the term IT girl. Bibliography The Clara Bow Page. “Biography,” June 30, 2019. https://www.clarabow.net/biography/biography.html. Biography.com Editors. “Clara Bow.” Biography, February 6, 2024. https://www.biography.com/actors/a45863068/clara-bow. Carlton, Genevieve. “Clara Bow, The Wild Child ‘It Girl’ Of 1920s Hollywood.” All That’s Interesting, January 13, 2024. https://allthatsinteresting.com/clara-bow. Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Clara Bow.” Wikipedia, March 19, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow. ———. “Rex Bell.” Wikipedia, February 28, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_Bell. Gibson, Kelsie. “Who Is Clara Bow? All About the Namesake of Taylor Swift’s New Song.” PEOPLE, February 6, 2024. https://people.com/who-is-clara-bow-all-about-actress-behind-taylor-swift-song-8559688. Hutchinson, Pamela. “Clara Bow: The Hard-Partying Jazz-Baby Airbrushed from Hollywood History.” The Guardian, June 21, 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2016/jun/21/clara-bow-wild-child-hollywood-history-silent-film. Find a Grave Memorial. “Rex Anthony Bell Jr. (1934-2011) - Find a Grave...” Accessed March 23, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73185860/rex_anthony_bell. Find a Grave Memorial. “Rex Bell (1903-1962).” Accessed March 23, 2024. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2096/rex-bell. EP Studios. “The Bittersweet Life of Clara Bow,” June 11, 2018. https://www.epstudiossoftware.com/clara-bow/. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Clara Bow.” Encyclopedia Britannica, July 20, 1998. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Clara-Bow.