Reissued Clara Bow Memoir Revives the Original It Girl's Tragic Story

Histria Books has reissued "Clara Bow: My Life Story," as told to Adela Rogers St. Johns, originally serialized in Photoplay magazine in 1928. The reissue capitalizes on Taylor Swift's 2024 song "Clara Bow" from "The Tortured Poets Department," which references the silent film star's suffering. Bow, the original "It Girl" coined for her role in the silent film "It" based on Elinor Glyn's novel, was the biggest star of the 1920s. Her natural, spontaneous acting style redefined film acting, comparable to later icons like Marlon Brando. She starred in "Wings," the first Oscar-winning film, and her first sound film "The Wild Party" directed by Dorothy Arzner, who invented the boom mic for her. Bow's life was marked by trauma: an impoverished Brooklyn childhood, an abusive father, a mentally ill mother who threatened her with a knife, and a scandalous trial in 1931 revealing drugs, alcohol, and orgies. She retired in 1933 after "Hoop-La," moved to a Nevada ranch with husband Rex Bell, and died at 60 from a heart attack, diagnosed with schizophrenia. The memoir, though partly fictionalized, offers a first-person account of her pain, including witnessing a friend's death by fire. Scott Sublett's article in New Art Examiner contextualizes Bow's legacy against Swift's appropriation and the enduring myth of the It Girl.