Clara Bow

American actress, the hottest Hollywood item in the late 1920s on and off-screen. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the 1927 film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". In 1927 she made 12 to 14 one-reelers, a year of silents. She successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including other hits such as Mantrap (1926) and Wings (1927). She was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.

At 16, Bow entered a Motion Picture magazine contest. She hoped to escape her unhappy cold-water tenement through winning the magazine's "Fame and Fortune" trial. In an incredible stroke of luck, she was selected as winner of a trip to Hollywood and a part in an actual motion picture. With her huge plaintive eyes and bow lips, she was a great hit, soon receiving more fan mail per week than was delivered to an average town of 5,000 people. She dominated the fan magazines that had fascinated her a few years before.

Bow worked all day and partied all night. She was known for the quantity of men in her life and for being a manic insomniac. Always on edge, she suffered "little nervous breakdowns" in between pictures, and feverishly burned the candle at both ends. Gary Cooper was wild about her and she helped launch his career in Wings, the best picture of 1927. Her lovers included her current leading men, John Gilbert, Charles Farrell, Frederic March, Gilbert Roland, Eddie Cantor, and even Bela Lugosi, who kept a nude portrait of Bow after their affair ended.

Clara had a devoted pal and live-in secretary, Daisy DeVoe, a former studio hairdresser. Daisy kept the house running, paid Bow's bills and kept on top of her appointments, sharing everything. One day, Clara discovered that Daisy had also been sharing her bank account.