CLARA BOW

Clara Bow was an actress from the 1920s to the early 1930s. She was the most famous "flapper girl" of the mid to late 1920s (she became known as "The It Girl" after the character she played based on the popular novel by Elinor Glyn). She had a major role in Wings, and was Paramount's biggest star at that time. But she had a notorious private life and seemingly "settled down" when she married cowboy star Rex Bell in 1931 (she had two children and she retired from movies), but sadly in 1949 she went into a mental institution after a failed suicide attempt (she had had psychiatric issues for quite some time) and she was released but never returned to her family, and lived alone until she passed away in 1965 at the age of 60. She continued to mature as an actress and she successfully made the transition from silent to sound movies, and she had the gift of making the audience like her, even though she played a character with no morals. Most fans say that had she not had her serious personal problems, she would have likely been a major rival to Jean Harlow for roles as likeable "bad girls" throughout the 1930s! Some of her movies include: It, Wings, Dancing Mothers, Call Her Savage, Hula, Hoopla, as well as 50 more almost forgotten silents!