10 Vintage Facts About: Clara Bow

She was known as the "Flapper-par-Excellence" or the "The Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman of sex, who always gets her man"... so here are more fun facts about the 1920s silent film star, Clara Bow.


A photo of a young Clara Bow, probably around the time she won the beauty contest that would change the course of her life | source

10 Vintage Facts About: Clara Bow

1.] Her idols included Mae Murray, Gloria Swanson, and Theda Bara

2.] Clara Bow arrived in Hollywood in 1923

3.] She went to Hollywood by way of winning a Beauty Contest while she was still in high school

4.] She failed in the talkies mostly because of her thick Brooklyn accent


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5.] From 1927 to 1930 she was one of the top five Hollywood box-office attractions

6.] Clara Bow had a horrible childhood and grew up poor. She was sexually abused by her father and neglected by her emotionally unbalanced mother.

7.] Her last name "Bow" is short for her actual last name "Bowtinelli"

8.] Young Gary Cooper had a crush on Clara Bow

9.] Despite her films' successes and more money, Clara Bow opted to live humbly in a bungalow instead of a mansion

10.] She married cowboy actor and rancher, Rex Bell, in Las Vegas. They lived in Nevada where Rex Bell eventually became lieutenant governor.


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To find out more about the 1920s film star Clara Bow, please read: Biography: Clara Bow and The Unknown Clara Bow. For more Clara Bow pictures, I highly recommend the Clara Bow Archive