Clara Bow
29/07/1905 to 27/09/1965
Later to become the personification of the flaming Roaring Twenties, Clara Bow was born and brought up in near poverty in Brooklyn, New York. She won a photo beauty contest which started a movie career of some 56 feature films. Best known as the uninhibited flapper, she reached the top as the "It Girl" in 1927. With the advent of sound and the Depressions unfavourable attitude towards Jazz-age extravagances, her popularity faded. Also. adding to her problems, were gambling debts, unpaid taxes and several sensational public court battles involving alienation of affections and embezzlement (by her secretary.) She then married cowboy star Rex Bell at age 26 and retired from the screen at age 28. Plagued by personal crises, a weight problem and mental instability, she never made another film. She died in 1965. |
