Taylor Swift's tribute to Clara Bow

A track on Taylor Swift's recent album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” honors a long-celebrated, often miscast heroine of American feminism: actress Clara Bow.

As historians of the Twenties, we now have examined Bow's fame and her cultural legacy. We supervise them on their ranch in rural Nevada a group of her personal artifactsincluding her clothes and a makeup case.

Bow was a girl ahead of her time, a star who owned her success and her sexuality. There is a well-liked perception that Bow was a victim of her own demons. But her story is anything but a cautionary tale.

It's a victory march.

America's “Hottest Jazz Baby”

Bow's profession began in her native New York, where she died in 1921 on the age of 16 She won a beauty contest and received a small role in a movie as a prize.

Bow took every opportunity to be on set and learn the craft. She got here early, stayed late and learned find out how to use cameras and lights. In a burgeoning film industry, Bow's professionalism and kindness stand out defined their success.

After moving to Hollywood in 1923, Bow's scene-stealing ability landed her a series of roles as a peppy sidekick in movies akin to “Dancing mothers(1926). The actress's star turn occurred in 1927.It“, during which she played a department store saleswoman attempting to woo her boss.

Variety called Bow, who had develop into known for her trademark pout, flirty eyes and fiery red hair, Hollywood's “hottest jazz baby.”

45,000 fan letters per thirty days

Off screen, a Series of high-quality romance novels made her private life fodder for the gossip pages.

In 1926, Photoplay told readers that Clara “plays the ruthless younger generation — on and off screen,” she noted that she kissed her boyfriend “so hard that his jaw was 'sore for 2 days.'

Bow's relationship with the press was cold and warm. But the stories didn't stop. They ranged from studio-sponsored puff pieces in major trade magazines to flimsy stories about orgies and abortions published by small newspapers struggling within the cutthroat Los Angeles media environment.

According to the press, Bow suffered from “nervous breakdowns,” was unlucky in love, and was too daring for her own good. Her legions of fans loved her regardless.

In 1929 she received 45,000 fan letters a month. That same yr, sales of the reddish dye henna, which fans tried to mimic, tripled her appearance. On set, she played cards, told rude jokes and handed out lavish gifts, including an emerald-encrusted watch that she gave to one among her hairdressers.

A century before Swift's “Eras Tour” Bow's brand of American femininity – confident, adventurous, sexy – had real range.

In his 1981 memoirsProducer Budd Schulberg wrote, “Millions of followers wore their hair like Clara's and pouted like Clara and danced and smoked and laughed and teased like Clara.”

A cog within the Hollywood machine

As powerful as Bow was within the late Twenties, she was largely powerless to direct her own profession.

She repeatedly signed low-cost contracts with male studio bosses who demanded an uninterrupted production schedule.

Early in her profession, her bosses at Preferred Pictures loaned her out to other studios and pocketed her salary. They imposed Rules and codes of conduct of their contracts to limit their behavior.

The demands of the job were relentless. Exhausted, Bow narrated Motion Picture Magazine from 1930: “People don't know that the studios are factories, that you get up at seven and work hard all day in uncomfortable conditions.” People don't know since the studios don't want them to know .”

Her family bullied. Maids stole. A friend turned personal assistant embezzled money after which sold their secrets to the press, which sparked a scandal and a trial. She had a gambling problem and mental health issues that reporters eagerly covered. Bow ended up making 58 movies in only over a decade. They owned the studios.

Then she did the final word power move.

She stops.

Live her years on her own terms

In the early Thirties, Bow left Hollywood and moved to the Walking Box Ranch in rural Nevada, a 400,000-acre estate owned by her husband, a cowboy movie star Rex Bell. Her whereabouts weren’t known to the press. Some colleagues wondered in the event that they Brooklyn accent whether it will have been capable of address the introduction of sound movies or whether it will have suffered one other breakdown.

In reality, she had fallen in love.

she said by Rex“He gave me the only selfless devotion I ever had.”

Together they raised two sons. He remained in Nevada and pursued a profession in politics. Although they never divorced, Bow eventually returned to California, where she spent her final years in Santa Monica together with her black poodle, Angel. She read voraciously, a habit reinforced by her lifelong insomnia. She loved decorating for Christmas.

It seems that Bow wasn't a victim of her time. She wasn't pushed out of the film because her Brooklyn accent got here to light within the talkies. Nor was she shunned by Hollywood society due to increasingly scandalous stories that got here to light.

She just left and, for probably the most part, didn't look back. Of her status as a recluse, her eldest son, Rex Bell Jr., said: “She wasn't nearly as reclusive as people thought.” She hid behind scarves and glasses, “hoping people wouldn't recognize her.” “, but when they did, “they’d come as much as her and say, 'You're Clara Bow, aren't you?'” On his mother's fame, he recalled, “She was at all times nice to people. She really was.”

Her legacy as a figurehead of American feminism is accurate, if incomplete.

Bow got here to the forefront of American culture at a time when Hollywood's nascent studio system was developing the formula for selling sex. By the late Twenties, the press realized that celebrity gossip sold newspapers and the private lives of actors and actresses were fair game. Recognizing that any attention is nice attention, studio executives welcomed high-profile media coverage of Bow's implied abortions or mental health issues.

Taylor Swift and Clara Bow have rather a lot in common: a meteoric rise to fame built on talent and labor; a row of closely observed love relationships; and legal drama involving managers, former friends and the press. Both women redefined expectations of what an American woman could – and may – be.

In 2019, amid a dispute together with her former label Big Machine Records, Swift decided to re-record her previous records and rename them “Taylor's Version.” to develop into the owner of their music again.

There was no “Taylor version” for Bow. But her decision to depart Hollywood was ultimately a middle finger to the lads she had made wealthy and powerful.

Now Swift Bow is back within the highlight for an encore – and for a brand new generation of fans.