Speaker 1: Before we get started, a quick warning, this episode contains
Speaker 1: mentions of suicide. Hello for Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny
Speaker 1: Kaplan and this is Womanica. Historically, women have been told
Speaker 1: to make themselves smaller, to diminish themselves. Some have used
Speaker 1: that idea to their advantage, disappearing into new identities. For others,
Speaker 1: a disappearance was the end to their stories, but the
Speaker 1: beginning of a new chapter in their legacies. This month,
Speaker 1: we're telling the stories of these women. We're talking about
Speaker 1: disappearing acts. Today's Womaniquin was the talk of the town
Speaker 1: during her sparkling film career. She inspired girls across the
Speaker 1: country to cut their hair and hem their dresses, to
Speaker 1: rouge their knees and make themselves seen when etiquette books
Speaker 1: encouraged them to stay home and stay quiet. Even as
Speaker 1: a silent star, she was loud and boisterous for twenty
Speaker 1: eight years until she quickly and quietly disappeared from public life.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Clairearah Beow. Clara was born on July
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nineteen oh five, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Her
Speaker 1: early life was tough. She was the only one of
Speaker 1: three siblings to survive childhood. Born to an abusive father
Speaker 1: and a mother with mercurial moods. Clara's mom likely had
Speaker 1: severe mental illness. Untreated, she became more erratic as Clara
Speaker 1: got older. Clara sought an escape, and she found it
Speaker 1: when she could get away in the dark of a
Speaker 1: theater hall, in the silver glow of a movie screen.
Speaker 1: Clara loved watching films. At that point, an industry taking
Speaker 1: its first steps, Hollywood was already rattling with promise. Charlie
Speaker 1: Chaplin had immortalized himself on two real prints. Clara knew
Speaker 1: she had to get out there somehow. In nineteen twenty two,
Speaker 1: she got her first bite at stardom when she won
Speaker 1: a magazine's beauty contest, her face plucked from obscurity. The
Speaker 1: prize was a small part in a nineteen twenty two film,
Speaker 1: Beyond the Rainbow, but Clara scenes ended up on the
Speaker 1: cutting room floor. Undeterred, Clara landed a different part in
Speaker 1: a different movie that same year, another bit part, sure,
Speaker 1: but that was all she needed. Clara Bow was on film.
Speaker 1: Within the next year, Clara had made her way out
Speaker 1: west and signed with a small production company. She started
Speaker 1: a string of silent films. Re signed with the much
Speaker 1: bigger Paramount Pictures, and then in nineteen twenty seven, Clara
Speaker 1: Bow hit the big time. Clara became the first ever
Speaker 1: it girl. The phrase actually comes from Clara's first big success,
Speaker 1: a movie called It. She played a poor shop girl
Speaker 1: whose natural charm wins her the heart of her rich boss.
Speaker 1: Plot aside, one thing was clear. Clara had it. Her pout,
Speaker 1: her bobbed hair, a music sort of magnetism that translated
Speaker 1: through the screen. As one Paramount Boss put it, she
Speaker 1: danced even when her feet were not moving. Clara was
Speaker 1: a star. Over the next decade, Clara made fifty seven films.
Speaker 1: The majority were silent, but she made a seamless jump
Speaker 1: to talkies, a shift that stunted the careers of many
Speaker 1: of Clara's peers. Oh it's just another sculving I've heard
Speaker 1: a thousand times before, Nasa, you don't seem like a
Speaker 1: daughter of Line. I know, I know, but he's going
Speaker 1: to live. She also made film history co starring in Wings,
Speaker 1: the first movie to win the Best Picture Oscar. Off screen,
Speaker 1: Clara lived a life noisy enough to rival her greatest
Speaker 1: on screen roles. Her red sports car laden with her
Speaker 1: seven Chihuahuas was a common sight in Hollywood. Thousands of
Speaker 1: fan letters poured in for her each week. She was
Speaker 1: a fun, loving, jazzy, free living kid. At least that's
Speaker 1: what she told the world. In nineteen twenty eight, when
Speaker 1: she was twenty two years old, Clara gave a tell
Speaker 1: all interview for the magazine Photoplay. In it, she spilled
Speaker 1: everything her difficult upbringing, her rise to stardom, even her
Speaker 1: own insecurities. At the top of the article, she wrote,
Speaker 1: There's only one thing you can do when you're very
Speaker 1: young and not a philosopher. If life has frightened you
Speaker 1: by its cruelty and made you distrust its most glittering promises,
Speaker 1: you must make living a sort of gay curtain to
Speaker 1: throw across the abyss into which you've looked and wear,
Speaker 1: lie dread memories. Partly due to this tell all, partly
Speaker 1: due to a public legal trial, and partly due to
Speaker 1: the rigorous schedule required of Hollywood starlets, time started to
Speaker 1: catch up with Clara. She was called crisis a day
Speaker 1: Clara and her final two movies weren't exactly successes. Unbeknownst
Speaker 1: to the public, Clara was also struggling with her mend
Speaker 1: untill health. At just twenty eight years old, Clara Bow
Speaker 1: retired from acting. In just a few years, one of
Speaker 1: the biggest stars in show business had erased herself off
Speaker 1: the map. In nineteen thirty one, Clara entered a sanitarium
Speaker 1: and after a few weeks, moved to her home in Nevada.
Speaker 1: That same year, Clara, whose love life had always been
Speaker 1: the subject of tabloid gossip, quietly married actor Rex Bell.
Speaker 1: Together they had two sons. Making Clara Bow, the Hollywood
Speaker 1: starlet disappear was quite the trick, But Clara, the girl
Speaker 1: from Bayridge, was only human. She'd vanished from the public
Speaker 1: eye to take a break, and things weren't any easier
Speaker 1: in Nevada. She attempted suicide and was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Speaker 1: While Rex, her husband, remained in the headlines through his
Speaker 1: acting career and his later run for governor, Clara stayed
Speaker 1: out of the spotlight. When she appeared quietly at his funeral,
Speaker 1: she sent newspapers buzzing, as if to test just how
Speaker 1: thoroughly Clara completed her disappearing act. She voiced a character
Speaker 1: called Missus Hush on the nineteen forty seven radio show
Speaker 1: Truth or Consequences, Listeners could call in if they thought
Speaker 1: they could identify the voice behind Missus Hush. Fourteen years
Speaker 1: after retiring from acting, Clara stumped a nation of listeners
Speaker 1: with her voice. It took three months of broadcasts for
Speaker 1: someone to call in and identify Clara, the sports car
Speaker 1: driving jazz baby of the twenties, lived the rest of
Speaker 1: her life in relative peace. Clara Bo died on September
Speaker 1: twenty seventh, nineteen sixty five, in Los Angeles. Though she
Speaker 1: disappeared on her own terms in her own lifetime, Clara's
Speaker 1: print on film history is undeniable. Just in March of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, a thought to be lost movie of
Speaker 1: hers resurfaced at a garage sale in Omaha, inciting new
Speaker 1: appreciation from film lovers. Her face, her dancing feet are
Speaker 1: what helped bring around Hollywood as we know it, the
Speaker 1: first Oscar winning movie and smiles to countless faces in
Speaker 1: countless dark theater halls. A disappearing act, she may be,
Speaker 1: but forgotten she is not. All month we're talking about
Speaker 1: disappearing acts. For more information, find us on Facebook and
Speaker 1: Instagram at Wollmanica Podcast Special Thanks to Liz Kaplan, my
Speaker 1: favorite sister and co creator. As always, we'll be taking
Speaker 1: a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday.