Clara Bow’s Rise to Fame

Prior to her rise to fame, Clara had endured an abusive childhood. Her path to success is a true testimony that despite the challenges that people face as they grow up, the ultimate success can only be attributed to the determination in whatever she has ventured in.  Born in Brooklyn, 1905, Clara grew in a family of three siblings, who endured sexual abuse from her father, while her mother had mental disorder hence there was little protection she could offer to her children (Stenn 2000, p. 21). Having to persevere the harsh life, Clara opted out of school at age 16 to pursue beauty contest, which by good luck she got an opportunity to take part in the film ‘Beyond the Rainbow’ in 1922.

Clara’s Rise to Fame

Clara Bow is a well renowned Hollywood artist, whose role depicts the feminism role that she played. Being the very first “it girl”, a tag which is depicted within the context of the role play. The period around 1920’s saw the rise of jazz-baby, whose contribution to the film industry is immense (Hammer, 2017). The ‘It Girl Musical’ shows Clara’s rise to fame and fortune, where she played a role in sexism exceptionally well. It beats logic to view her differently given the level of electrifying performances. From the magazine which Clara featured in, it was the epitome of her success.  The Fame and Fortune Beauty Contest that Clara won made her make enough money to be able to meet her basic needs, as she cut her niche in a crowded industry full of stars, where she was little known. She became an instant on-demand actress, who fetched for a high amount of money in order to get her to a film.

The society has placed certain expectation upon people who have risen to public limelight. Clara has been depicted a flapper, given the energy that she put in her performances as well as the charm during each moment that she would come on stage. The physical composition of Clara was instrumental to produce better performance, with ‘Dancing Mothers’ coming to bring out the best of Clara, as a sexy performer who had the ‘fluid’ body and bones, to much it up with lots of humor.

The corporate film industry in Hollywood serves the purpose of bringing bigger expectation, as it is the largest film platform in the world (Porter 2016). Hence, people who manage to perform in Hollywood poses exceptional characters that surpass any other entertainment industry. The film industry requires people with outstanding personalities which meet the demands of the sector (Startup 2016, p. 115). As an actor, it is expected that the representation becomes an outlook of the overall role that one plans. This is viewed on the stage and outside the stage in everyday life. With Clara’s electrifying performances, it is evident that she has the metal of steel to handle any situation that would come her way (Allan 2016 3).  From the first performance that her character did not feature in the film, Clara became determined to succeed despite the little letdown, the next film that she stared in in 1922 was so electrifying as she got a role that matched her character, this was the turning point towards her success.

Life Challenges

During Clara’s early days, she experiences some pregnancy scare as she had affection outside her marital arrangement. The period was witnessed much depression in her life, given the challenges she was facing while growing up. It becomes of importance that whatever the society has placed more emphasis on, was making it a little bit hard to imagine that a star of her statue could have such perceived low moments of her life. Her flirtatious behavior resulted from the life experience that she had undergone as a child, where she was looking for a father figure. However, being a star, it was almost expected that one has to lead a life that is to be desired by the rest of the family and society at large. Her flirtatious behavior can be viewed as a shocker to many as her childhood experience was expected to be a painful reminder to many, that despite the pain and mental torture she underwent, one can still succeed and be a role model to many.

The rise of Clara Bow to stardom is credited to the breaking of some societal norms and asserting her position as a strong woman. During the 1920s, when Clara Bow was making a stride to be one of the top performers in Hollywood, the audience had the tendency of dictating the performers whom they preferred (Cross 2015, p. 256). The preference of an actor by the audience was also driven by the off-screen life that the audience often needed to know about the actor. Such was a driving force for Clara Bow who went against the societal grain by being a flapper. Clara was a good dancer and had a preference of listening to Jazz music, habits that were not acceptable to women living in her generation. Her dressing style of wearing short skirts had many people yearn to see her perform.  During the 1920s, Hollywood was experiencing growth owing to the introduction of talkies and the increased production of films and a further increase in the annual ticket sales (Rupp 2017, p. 78). As such, the producers of the films were majorly driven by the need to push forward profits. As such, the character who could attract a larger audience was of the preference to the film producers (Desjardins 2017, p. 13). Additionally, being granted the platform to perform served to enhance their fan base and was a motivating factor into them becoming stars.

The era of consumerism is also a contributory factor as Clara Bow had the capability of advertising things, which were majorly tailored for the flapper generation of women. The shooting of the film Mantrap led to the coining of the name ”It girl” for Clara Bow, a name that was often seen as an advertising brand for the luxury fashion producers (Bowman 2015, p. 9). The Sexiness that Clara Bow was able to produce is responsible for the contracts that she got from Hollywood that led to her being featured in films such as Dancing Mothers and Plastic Age. The actors getting contracts is largely driven by the need to enhance their professionalism within the film industry. Additionally, the actors that attracted huge viewership such as Clara Bow were given contracts to tie them to Hollywood to affirm the leading position of Hollywood in the global film industry. In the 1920s, Hollywood was a corporate industry that was largely driven by the need to create more profits despite them not granting their actors good earning for their most watched films.

References

Allan, H., 2016. Canvas Chairs. LiNQ (Literature in North Queensland), 14(3).

Bowman, H., 2015. Clara Bow: Being the” It Girl” in the Roaring Twenties.

Cross, G., 2015. American Fun: Four Centuries of Joyous Rebellion. American Journal of Play, 7(2), pp.255-257.

Desjardins, M., 2017. The perils of ‘It’: Clara Bow, experience, agency, and the scandalous life story. Celebrity Studies, pp.1-17.

Hammer, K.A., 2017. Butch Between the Wars: A Pre-History of Butch Style in Twentieth-Century Literature, Music, and Film.

Porter, L., 2016. ‘This New Noise’Women working in the transition between silent and sound cinema’.

Porter, L., 2016. The problem of the female voice: Women working in the transition between silent and sound film in Britain.

Rupp, T., 2017. Rockne and Jones: Notre Dame, Usc, and the Greatest Rivalry of the Roaring Twenties. The Kent State University Press.

Startup, F., 2016. Herd, Tracey: Not in this World. School Librarian, 64(2), pp.115-116.

Stenn, D., 2000. Clara Bow: runnin’wild. Cooper Square Press.