Clara Bow
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in silent films during the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" after 1927. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl". Bow came to personify the Roaring Twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol.
Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927), and Wings (1927). She was named first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second box-office draw in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture was said to have ensured investors, by odds of almost two-to-one, a "safe return". At the apex of her stardom, she received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month (January 1929).
Two years after marrying actor Rex Bell in 1931, Bow retired from acting and became a rancher in Nevada. Her final film, Hoop-La, was released in 1933. In September 1965, Bow died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
| Known For | Acting |
|---|---|
| Most Rating | 0.5267 |
| Birthday | 1905-07-29 |
| Place of Birth | Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA |
| Also Known As | Clara Gordon Bow, The 'It' Girl, |
1927
Wings
7.209/314
Two young men, one rich, one middle class, both in love with the same woman, become US Air Corps fighter pilots and, eventually, heroic flying aces du...
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Wings
1953
Yesterday and Today
0/0
A compilation of early-day silent films that serves as a glimpse back to the formative days of the movie industry as a salute to Hollywood's Golden Ye...
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Yesterday and Today
1924
This Woman
0/0
Facing poverty, Carol Drayton is prevented from suicide by Rose, a woman of the streets, who buys Carol a meal in a cafe of questionable reputation. T...
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This Woman
1929
The Wild Party
6.7/12
Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets i...
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The Wild Party
1927
It
6.9/72
A flapper shopgirl woos her rich boss with animal magnetism -- the captivating personal quality otherwise known as "it."
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It
1926
Mantrap
6/12
A sexy young manicurist living with her older backwoodsman husband in a small Canadian town finds herself attracted to a young, rich and famous divorc...
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Mantrap
1933
Hoopla
6/8
A hula dancer at a carnival sets out to seduce the naive son of the show's manager.
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Hoopla
1924
Poisoned Paradise
0/0
Margot Le Blanc loses her small fortune at Monte Carlo and makes the acquaintance of Hugh Kildair, an artist, who hires her as a housekeeper. A gang o...
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Poisoned Paradise
1932
Call Her Savage
5.652/23
A high-spirited and short-tempered Texan woman storms her way through life until her luck runs out, forcing her to learn the error of her ways.
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Call Her Savage
1994
100 Years at the Movies
7.5/21
Commemorates the centennial of American movies with a montage of clips and music scores from the most important movies of the century.
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100 Years at the Movies
1925
Parisian Love
4.6/11
Armand and Marie survive in the streets until charitable (and wealthy) scientist Pierre Marcel takes Armand in after a botched robbery. Marie, a fiery...
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Parisian Love
1931
No Limit
5.5/6
Theater usherette Bunny O'Day (Clara Bow) inadvertently becomes hostess of a private gambling den, and gets involved in a romance with a ne'er-do-well...
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No Limit
1929
Dangerous Curves
6/5
A young bareback rider in a circus is in love with a trapeze artist, but he has two problems: he drinks too much and he's fallen under the spell of a...
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Dangerous Curves
1929
The Saturday Night Kid
4.4/10
Mayme and sister Janie are salesgirls in Ginsberg's Department Store. Mayme is in love with store clerk Bill, but Janie tries to steal him from her. H...
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The Saturday Night Kid
1930
True to the Navy
7/3
Ruby is a counter girl at the San Diego Soda Shop with a habit of being a girlfriend to Sailors stopping by. Things get a little zany when she sets he...
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True to the Navy
1927
Rough House Rosie
0/0
A poor but ambitious young girl is determined to crash high society, but isn't prepared for the reception she receives.
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Rough House Rosie
1930
Love Among the Millionaires
6/2
A young waitress falls for the son of a railroad tycoon, and finds herself hobnobbing with the rich when he invites her to spend some time with he and...
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Love Among the Millionaires
1925
Free to Love
5/1
An ex-reformatory girl seeks a new life with the help of a fatherly judge and an earnest young minister. Trouble ensues when a criminal gang catch up...
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Free to Love
1925
My Lady of Whims
4.9/10
Aspiring author Prudence "Prue" Severn leaves her staid home for the wild life in New York's artistic Greenwich Village community. Her concerned famil...
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My Lady of Whims
1925
Capital Punishment
5.5/2
This is not a Clara Bow vehicle, and yet it is clearly the aspect/asset of Clara Bow which elevates a fairly serious melodrama to a timeless and profo...
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Capital Punishment
1925
The Plastic Age
6/13
Hugh Carver is an athletic star and a freshman at Prescott College. He falls in love with Cynthia Day, a popular girl who loves to party, and finds th...
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The Plastic Age
1930
Her Wedding Night
6/1
Norma Martin is an American movie star in France trying to avoid the attention of men. Going to visit a friend in Southern France, she finds herself "...
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Her Wedding Night
1926
Dancing Mothers
6.7/3
An unfaithful husband and his daughter go on nightly club outings, leaving the mother at home. The mother rebels against her lonesome life and attempt...
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Dancing Mothers
1926
Kid Boots
6.5/8
A salesman is helped out of a jam with an angry customer by a wealthy playboy. In return, he agrees to help the playboy get a divorce from his wife, o...
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Kid Boots
1927
Hula
5.974/19
The daughter of a pineapple plantation owner in Hawaii sets her sights on a married English engineer.
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Hula
1927
Get Your Man
6.4/12
A young American girl in Paris falls in love with a handsome nobleman, but he is about to wed in an arranged marriage. She hatches a plan to overcome...
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Get Your Man
1923
Black Oxen
5.2/7
A Manhattan playboy falls for a mysterious European woman, whom he notices is an exact double for a famous socialite who disappeared at the turn of th...
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Black Oxen
1924
Helen's Babies
5.625/8
A young man, who has vowed never to marry and doesn't particularly like children, is left in charge of his two very young nieces. At first they drive...
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Helen's Babies
1995
Betty Boop: Queen of the Cartoons
8/4
From the A&E "Biography" series, a review of the birth, development and cinematic history of Betty Boop, the flapper cartoon character who has been a...
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Betty Boop: Queen of the Cartoons
1928
Ladies of the Mob
0/0
A dead criminal's daughter falls in love with a small-time crook and tries to get him to reform before he winds up like her father.
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Ladies of the Mob
1925
The Primrose Path
5.2/4
Alcoholic playboy Wallace MacDonald (as Bruce Armstrong) would like to sober up and become more responsible, after a drinking accident causes him to c...
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The Primrose Path
1926
The Runaway
0/0
A movie actress, mistakenly thinking she has killed a fellow actor, goes on the run and finds herself taken in by a Kentucky mountain family.
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The Runaway
1923
Maytime
6.333/3
Ottilie Van Zandt is forced to wed her cousin, despite her love for Richard Wayne, the gardener's son. Richard leaves, vowing to return a wealthy man...
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Maytime
1924
Daughters of Pleasure
0/0
Newly rich Mark Hadley drifts from his old-fashioned wife into a secret liason with Lila Millas, a pretty French girl. At the same time, he advises hi...
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Daughters of Pleasure
1925
Kiss Me Again
0/0
Gaston Fleury's wife, Loulou, takes a perfunctory interest in music but a deeper one in a musician named Maurice. A lost film.
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Kiss Me Again
2002
Edith Head: The Paramount Years
7.5/2
A tribute to the legendary costume designer Edith Head during her years providing costumes for the films of Paramount studio which includes Sunset Bou...
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Edith Head: The Paramount Years
2011
Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
9/1
Among the pieces featured in Fragments are the final reel of John Ford's The Village Blacksmith (1922) and a glimpse at Emil Jannings in The Way of Al...
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Fragments: Surviving Pieces of Lost Films
1924
Black Lightning
0/1
A WWI drama in which a Red Cross dog saves a man.
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Black Lightning
1925
The Best Bad Man
0/0
Visiting his vast properties incognito, Hugh Nichols (Tom Mix) discovers that his land agent (Cyril Chadwick) is forcing Peggy Swain (Clara Bow) and h...
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The Best Bad Man
1930
Paramount on Parade
6.1/8
This 1930 film, a collection of songs and sketches showcasing Paramount Studios' contract stars, credits 11 directors
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Paramount on Parade
1926
Shadow of the Law
0/0
Mary Brophy, a young woman who is unjustly jailed by a master crook whom she refuses to wed, later meets and falls in love with James Reynolds, a youn...
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Shadow of the Law
1928
Red Hair
7/1
A free-spirited young girl has three middle-aged admirers, each of whom sees her from a completely different perspective. Unknown to her, they also ha...
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Red Hair
1928
Three Week Ends
0/0
A sexy young nightclub singer sets her sights on a young man she believes to be a millionaire playboy, although he is in reality only an insurance age...
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Three Week Ends
1927
Children of Divorce
5.7/21
A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn't marry her for fear the marriage would end...
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Children of Divorce
1931
Kick In
6/1
Chick Hewes is released from prison and finds work as an accountant. Two years later, Chick's crooked friend, Benny LaMarr, to whom he is indebted for...
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Kick In
1925
My Lady's Lips
0/0
A newspaper publisher finds out that his wild daughter has fallen in with a ring of gamblers. A reporter who has infiltrated the gang to get a story f...
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My Lady's Lips
1922
Down to the Sea in Ships
5.1/8
Being the story of the Morgans, a 19th-century Massachusetts whaling family, their tightly-knit Quaker community, and the dangerous adventures of an u...
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Down to the Sea in Ships
1922
Beyond the Rainbow
0/0
Marion Taylor is secretary to Edward Mallory, a wealth Wall Street businessman. She supports her invalid brother Tommy, who has been told by his docto...
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Beyond the Rainbow
1928
The Fleet's In
0/0
A girl who works in a dance hall falls in love with a sailor, but he has the wrong idea of what it is she does and doesn't want anything to do with he...
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The Fleet's In
1926
Fascinating Youth
0/0
Playboy Teddy Ward wants to marry Jeannie King, an artist, but his father wants him to marry Loris Lane, but tells Teddy he can marry whom he pleases...
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Fascinating Youth
1926
Two Can Play
0/0
Dorothy Hammis (Bow), the daughter of wealthy financier John Hammis (Fawcett), has chosen as her fiance James Radley (Forrest), but her father disprov...
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Two Can Play
1925
The Keeper of the Bees
0/0
A bee keeper does his best to help the army. This film is lost.
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The Keeper of the Bees
1933
The Film Parade
0/0
Pioneer filmmaker J. Stuart Blackton was intrigued by the idea of a film about the history of the movies as early as 1915. He finally released a 52-mi...
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The Film Parade
2010
Sigrid Holmquist
7/1
The story of Swedish silent film actress Sigrid Holmquist's life (1899-1970), by using the silent film medium. It consists of already existing film cl...
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Sigrid Holmquist
1925
The Ancient Mariner
0/0
Doris Matthews, a beautiful, innocent young girl, forsakes her sweetheart, Joel Barlowe, in favor of Victor Brant, a wealthy roué. On the night before...
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The Ancient Mariner
1924
Empty Hearts
0/0
Milt Kimberlin is a down-on-his luck horse owner, but Rosalie, a cabaret performer (the lively and engaging Clara Bow), doesn't care -- she turns dow...
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Empty Hearts
2007
Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
4.3/5
Before the G, PG and R ratings system there was the Production Code, and before that there was, well, nothing. This eye-opening documentary examines t...
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Why Be Good?: Sexuality & Censorship in Early Cinema
1931
The House That Shadows Built
7/1
The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a short feature, roughly 48 minutes long, from Paramount Pictures made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the...
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The House That Shadows Built
1923
The Pill Pounder
0/0
Charlie is a small town druggist trying to wait on trade and play a social game of poker in the back room.
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The Pill Pounder
1923
The Daring Years
0/0
Cabaret dancer Suzie La Motte is in love with Jim Moran, a boxer, but she tempts a young man named John Browning. Moran and John get into a fight in w...
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The Daring Years
1924
Grit
0/0
Two former childhood gang members, "Kid" Hart and Orchid McGonigle, attempt to go straight, despite pressure to continue their lives of lawlessness.
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Grit
1924
Wine
0/0
John Warriner, facing financial ruin, accepts the proposal of a bootlegger, Benedict, to underwrite the business of illegal wine-selling. His daughter...
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Wine
1925
The Adventurous Sex
0/0
A young man spends so much time at work on his airplane that he neglects his girl. She goes out on her own to live the high life, but her reputation i...
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The Adventurous Sex
1925
Eve's Lover
0/0
Austin Starfield has his greedy eye on a steel mill belonging to Eve Burnside. He persuades an impoverished count, Leon Molnar to marry Eve so he can...
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Eve's Lover
1925
The Lawful Cheater
0/0
Disguised as a boy, a young woman gets an inner-city street gang back on the straight and narrow path.
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The Lawful Cheater
1925
The Scarlet West
0/0
Cardelanche, the son of an Indian chief, returns from the East to find himself rejected by his own people. He is made captain of the U.S. army when he...
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The Scarlet West
1949
Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner
0/0
This entry of Screen Snapshots travels to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Ralph Staub visits and talks to many Hollywood notables as they arrive at the famed g...
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Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner
1923
Enemies of Women
5.2/2
The dashing but arrogant Prince Michael Fedor Lubimoff has to flee Tsarist Russia after falling into disgrace and settles in Monte Carlo, where he res...
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Enemies of Women
1999
Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
7.7/3
Clara Bow: Discovering the 'It' Girl features scenes from 25 of her films, as well as interviews with family members and acquaintances.
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Clara Bow: Discovering the It Girl
1923
Enemies of Women
5.2/2
The dashing but arrogant Prince Michael Fedor Lubimoff has to flee Tsarist Russia after falling into disgrace and settles in Monte Carlo, where he res...
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Enemies of Women
2025
Hodgepodge
0/0
Andrew Richter shares odd celebrity encounters from his years of working in hotels.
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Hodgepodge
2010
Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
0/0
Explores the culture and characters of the Jazz Age through the decade's heroine, the flapper.
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Flappers, Speakeasies, and the Birth of Modern Culture
1988
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
0/0
Famous Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
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Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies
2012
Clara Bow: Hollywood's Lost Screen Goddess
0/0
A documentary looking at the life, films, and troubled times of America's first sex symbol, screen actress Clara Bow, featuring interviews and archive...
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