En Plein Air - Clara Bow

Ladies and gentlemen, regard, observe and otherwise behold - in an informal pose - the vivacious, the audacious Clara Bow. Feast your weary optics upon this super flapper of them all - the hyper-reality and extra-ideality of a million or more film goers. Thus in one person, in one pose, we have the genus American girl, refined, washed, manicured, pedicured, permanent-waved and exalted herewith. We have all watched the little lady prancing and dancing in her own entrancing way upon the silver screen. Do you wonder that for the nonce she is almost the most popular of movie stars. And a writer too, if you please! Yes indeed; for dainty Clara has recently completed the only authentic story of her life, beginning with a statement whose veracity will surprise her most ardent admirers - "My father is the only person I care for, really". What can one add - except that she has red hair.

Ha! The picture above and excerpt were taken from Vanity Fair 1928. I couldn't come up with writing like that if I tried. Sounds like she's a circus side show attraction.

What I did find out though is that Clara did write a book titled 'The Misfortunes of the It Girl', by Clara Bow. The "It" symbolized the tremendous progress women were making in society in the 1920's, and leading the way was Clara Bow, the girl of the year, who had "It" in abundance. In reading her bio here, she had a very adventurous, troubled life with a schizophrenic mother and a sexually abusive father.

Out of the 56 films she made only 16 of them are available on video:
Down to the Sea in Ships (1922)
Capital Punishment (1925)
The Primrose Path (1925)
Free to Love (1925)
The Plastic Age (1925)
My Lady of Whims (1926)
Dancing Mothers (1926)
Mantrap (1926)
Hula (1927)
It! (1927)
Wings (1927)
The Wild Party (1929) - (her first talkie)
Dangerous Curves (1929)
The Saturday Night Kid (1929)
True to the Navy (1930)
No Limit (1931]

Enjoy these small tributes to a most talented actress.