David Stenn - Clara Bow: Runnin Wild

Praise for Clara Bow: Runnin Wild

This is one riveting portrait of movieland cannibalization. Dont miss it.

Films in Review

[Stenn] brings a fascinating era of American film history into a well-deserved focus.

Philadelphia Inquirer

A responsible biography of the actress... reliable in its details and in its effort to place emphasis on Bows acting achievements.

San Francisco Chronicle

Another worthy addition to the few brilliant reappraisals of Hollywood in its golden ageon par with Sidney D. Kirkpatricks A Cast of Killers and Otto Friedrichs City of Nets.

Film Comment

Writer David Stenn has certainly done his homework here. His book is thoroughly researched.... His writing style is clear and readable.

Washington Post

In this sensitive biography, readers will find a vibrant woman to empathize with, as well as an engrossing history of early picture-making.

Publishers Weekly

A wonderful mixture of life story and film history, along with a sensitive look at how a sexpot film star could also be a tragic, battered child inside.

Cosmopolitan

BY

DAVID STENN

Copyright 1988 by David Stenn

Filmography 2000 by David Stenn

First Cooper Square Press edition 2000

This Cooper Square Press paperback edition of Clara Bow: Runnin Wild is an unabridged republication of the edition first published in New York City in 1988, with the addition of a new filmography by David Stenn and eighty-five pages with textual emendations. It is reprinted by arrangement with the author.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

Published by Cooper Square Press,

An Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

150 Fifth Avenue, Suite 911

New York, New York 10011

Distributed by National Book Network

The previous edition of this book was cataloged by the Library of Congress as follows:
Stenn, David.

Clara Bow : runnin wild / by David Stenn.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

1. Bow, Clara, 1905-1965. 2. Motion picture actors and actressesUnited StatesBiography. I. Title.

[PN2287.B65S74 1990]

ISBN: 978-0-8154-1025-6

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.481992.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

For the movie pioneers

and film preservationists,

with gratitude and respect

Teet Carle, Arthur Jacobson, and William Kaplan endured numerous interviews with grace and charm. Tui Lorraine Bows concern about the expense of my trans-Pacific telephone calls led her to tape herself and mail the results, a treat for any listener. Daisy DeVoe broke fifty-five years of self-imposed silence to discuss the blackest period of my life in unsparing detail.

Jacqueline Onassis, my editor, and Owen Laster, my agent, believed in the project from its beginning. Their enthusiasm and encouragement meant more than they know.

Additional guidance and assistance was given by Karen Aderman, Rudy Behlmer, Kevin Brownlow, Kevin Jarre, Justine Kaplan, Sidney Kirkpatrick, Richard Lamparski, Dr. Jan Leestma, B. Ann Moorhouse, Barry Paris, Judy Sandman, David Shepard, Marc Wanamaker, Michael Yakaitis. And as always, forever, my family.

Finally, this book could not exist without the cooperation of Rex A. Bell, who, besides sharing his own memories, provided unrestricted access to his mothers psychiatric, medical, and financial records; professional and personal correspondence; and private photographs. I am beholden to and honored by his trust, friendship, and support.

Im runnin wild, lost control

Runnin wild, mighty bold

Always goin, dont know where,

All alone, runnin wild...

Runnin Wild

Anyone who went to the movies in the spring of 1927 knew who ran wildest, boldest, and beyond control. She was the girl of the year, wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, the It girl, the girl for whose services every studio was in violent competition. This girl was the real thing, someone to stir every pulse in the nation. She had a heart-shaped face, an hour-glass figure, and thick auburn hair dyed a flaming orange-red. She had It, the most desirable attribute of the decade. She was twenty-one. Her name was Clara Bow.

Superficially there was nothing special about Clara, or so she thought. Just a working girl, she said of herself. Jest a woikin goil, was how she sounded when she said it, her raucous Brook-lynese a barbaric contrast to her beauty. But the world had not yet heard Clara talk, and in 1927 it was in no hurry to do so. For the moment her presence was plenty.

Fans and critics felt there had never been anyone like her. Where other women acted, she came to life, a three-dimensional being in a two-dimensional medium. There was an energy, a vitality, a restlessness within her that turned rival actresses into zombies. Miss Van Cortland seems rather lacking in reserve, sniffs a haughty supporting character of Claras heroine in It, her namesake hit that spring of 1927, and as one historian has noted, its one of the great, classic understatements. Of course it is. The It Girl ran wild.

But there was more to Clara than It, and occasionally she said so. I smile, but my eyes never smile, she told reporters who considered her interchangeable with the carefree flapper she played. I wish I were, sighed Clara. Shes much happier than I am. From the personification of frivolity this was heresy, not honesty. Her protests were ignored.

Ultimately Clara had the last word, and when she did, it was a haunting one. All the time the flapper is laughin and dancin, theres a feelin of tragedy underneath, she said at the height of her career. Shes unhappy and disillusioned, and thats what people sense. Thats what makes her different.

The It Girl was running wild, all right. And running away. And running scared. Had she told anyone whyand she never, ever hadthey would not have believed her. The truth was too incredible, tragic, and frightening. The truth revealed what made Clara run.

Even now I cant trust life. It did too many awful things tme as a kid.

Clara Bow (1928)

Nobody wanted me tbe born in the first place.

She said it without self-pity, but with parents like Robert and Sarah Bow, pity is exactly what Clara deserved. Robert Bow was less than two years old when his mother died giving birth to her thirteenth child. He was raised without affection, attention, or care, and by adulthood his appearance and character showed it: all who knew him describe Robert Bow as puny in body and mind, a stupid, ugly little guy whom some were convinced was mentally retarded. They also remember his huge blackish-brown eyes, whose white rings around the iris gave them a dull and deadened expression.