0:00:12 > 0:00:14Clara Bow.
0:00:15 > 0:00:17Silent movie star.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21The 'It' girl.
0:00:21 > 0:00:23Once she was the queen of Hollywood.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26Today she's all but forgotten.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31Whatever happened to Clara Bow?
0:00:34 > 0:00:37The chance of a lifetime to see Hollywood.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39The city of magic.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41On a personally conducted coach tour
0:00:41 > 0:00:44where you'll get an eyeful of these folks!
0:00:44 > 0:00:48That modest bungalow belongs to Mary Pickford.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52And this little shack over here keeps the California sunshine
0:00:52 > 0:00:57and the rain from beating down upon that little redhead - Clara Bow.
0:01:01 > 0:01:07Clara Bow was a sensation and if no-one else recognised it,
0:01:07 > 0:01:09the public definitely did.
0:01:09 > 0:01:11Her movies were box office gold.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18There was no-one like her and there really hasn't been anyone like her.
0:01:18 > 0:01:19I don't think people realise how much,
0:01:19 > 0:01:23how popular she really was at her height.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29She almost seems, in hindsight, to have been genetically engineered
0:01:29 > 0:01:32to be a movie star in terms of her ability to convey emotion on camera.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38When you see her in action, she is flirting.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41She learned...
0:01:41 > 0:01:46all in a dark way, to please men.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50And to please people in Hollywood too.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56To say she's photogenic is an understatement.
0:01:56 > 0:01:59You don't want to look at anybody else in the scene.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02You only want to look at Clara Bow.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16Clara Bow was born in 1905
0:02:16 > 0:02:19and grew up in the tenement slums of Brooklyn.
0:02:21 > 0:02:23When you talk about Clara Bow's background,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25there's almost no way to describe it
0:02:25 > 0:02:27and make it sound credible and believable
0:02:27 > 0:02:31because it defies any kind of wild imaginative fiction.
0:02:31 > 0:02:36She was born into the most brutal poverty that was known at that time
0:02:36 > 0:02:40in the tenements of Brooklyn which were more populist than Calcutta.
0:02:44 > 0:02:49She couldn't have come from a worse background, truly.
0:02:50 > 0:02:54Poverty, or what you might call working poor in today's language,
0:02:54 > 0:03:00a history of mental illness, her mother, her grandfather.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05Her father, kind of a chronic drunk with all the worst things
0:03:05 > 0:03:07that goes along with that.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12As a teenager Clara took refuge in the newly emerging world
0:03:12 > 0:03:14of silent cinema.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18Out of the movie house darkness, stars like Pearl White,
0:03:18 > 0:03:23Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish flickered into life.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28Clara was from the first generation that was influenced by movies.
0:03:28 > 0:03:32She was just the right age to have been going to the movies
0:03:32 > 0:03:36in her adolescence and, you know,
0:03:36 > 0:03:43falling in love with the dream state that movies created.
0:03:45 > 0:03:48Clara Bow longed to be a motion picture actress.
0:03:48 > 0:03:54She knew it was ridiculous to, but it was her place of escape
0:03:54 > 0:03:59and she just thought there might be a chance
0:03:59 > 0:04:02and she used to tell the girls at school
0:04:02 > 0:04:07and they all thought she was ridiculous and a poseur.
0:04:08 > 0:04:12Clara's unstable mother was disturbed by the very idea
0:04:12 > 0:04:16of her daughter being, of all things, a lowly actress.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20With her father's permission but without her mother's knowledge,
0:04:20 > 0:04:2416-year-old Clara entered a fame and fortune contest in a movie magazine.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The prize included a bit part in a film.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Her mother associated actresses with street walkers.
0:04:30 > 0:04:33They wore heavy make-up, they were seen on the streets
0:04:33 > 0:04:36and she said to her daughter, "I'd rather see you dead."
0:04:36 > 0:04:37Clara Bow woke up one night,
0:04:37 > 0:04:41her mother was hovering over her with a butcher's knife.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Her father wasn't around and her mother chased her around the room. Clara Bow ran out of the apartment.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47She lived on the streets for about three days
0:04:47 > 0:04:49before she went back home.
0:04:49 > 0:04:52After that her mother was committed to a mental institution
0:04:52 > 0:04:53and never came out again.
0:05:00 > 0:05:01Not long after the attack,
0:05:01 > 0:05:04Clara found out she had won the competition.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07She put her troubled home life to one side
0:05:07 > 0:05:10and embarked on her new career - movies.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12The year is 1922
0:05:12 > 0:05:17and this is Clara Bow's first ever screen appearance.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19But cinema audiences didn't get to see her
0:05:19 > 0:05:22because her scenes didn't make the final cut.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27Having told the kids at school she was going to be in a picture
0:05:27 > 0:05:30and made sure they all went to see it,
0:05:30 > 0:05:35to her humiliation she was a face on the cutting room floor.
0:05:35 > 0:05:36Can you imagine?
0:05:38 > 0:05:39The humiliation.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48For her second film, a drama centred on the whaling industry,
0:05:48 > 0:05:52Clara began to exhibit the magnetism that would become her hallmark.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54The camera loved her.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07You can see in the picture, as soon as she appears as a stow-away,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12playing a tomboy which she said she was as a kid,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16that this is a character to watch.
0:06:16 > 0:06:20This was perfect for her. It's what Beyond the Rainbow didn't do.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44She brought a naturalism to screen acting
0:06:44 > 0:06:48that hadn't been seen before and she wasn't doing it consciously.
0:06:48 > 0:06:52She was a teenager with no training and no education.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55She was just doing what she knew how to do
0:06:55 > 0:06:58and it was almost like a prodigy or a genius without understanding that.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04Clara's next role was a bit-part in a romantic comedy.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08During filming, her father arrived on set with the news
0:07:08 > 0:07:10that her mother had died in the asylum.
0:07:10 > 0:07:13That was devastating because she said, "Here I was dancing
0:07:13 > 0:07:18"while they were shooting a movie and my mother was dying."
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Clara soon had four films under her belt.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31She was now earning a little money and supporting her father.
0:07:31 > 0:07:33But she was still in New York.
0:07:33 > 0:07:37The real movies were happening on the other side of the country.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40It would take a Hollywood scout to sit up and take notice,
0:07:40 > 0:07:44transporting her from the back lots of the east coast to sun-drenched California.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08Clara's the one in the striped coat arriving here
0:08:08 > 0:08:12at Preferred Pictures, the offices of her new boss, BP Schulberg.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14Before she knew it,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17the naive 17-year-old had signed a deal she'd ultimately regret.
0:08:19 > 0:08:22But for now, who cared? It was Hollywood and she'd arrived.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Schulberg always took the credit and the money.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28But it wasn't a good studio.
0:08:28 > 0:08:34It had directors who were really bottom of the barrel, cheap.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37This producer's loaning her out for thousands of dollars
0:08:37 > 0:08:41and paying her 50 a week and making a fortune at her expense.
0:08:41 > 0:08:44She doesn't know, and if she knew she didn't care
0:08:44 > 0:08:47because she just loved what she was doing. It was a dream come true.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50She couldn't believe this was happening to her.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55Clara soon made her Hollywood film debut as a supporting actress
0:08:55 > 0:09:00in Maytime, a run of the mill period romance.
0:09:00 > 0:09:04The story goes the film crew suggested the leading lady,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07here on the right, be replaced with Clara.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11It didn't happen but the point was made and she was on her way.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14A lot of the films she made in her early years were routine
0:09:14 > 0:09:17and that might be a kind word to describe some of them.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20They were pot boilers, as they used to call them.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24But even though the films weren't inspired,
0:09:24 > 0:09:30every time you see even an excerpt with Clara she's just so alive.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32She is so alive on camera.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35It's as if she found herself
0:09:35 > 0:09:37while performing before the camera
0:09:37 > 0:09:41in a way that she hadn't in her real life.
0:09:41 > 0:09:46The former child star, Diana Cary, known as Baby Peggy,
0:09:46 > 0:09:52remembers working alongside a teenage Clara in the 1924 film, Helen's Babies.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56Even though it was a very simple ingenue role,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59she did have personality. It comes right through.
0:10:01 > 0:10:05She was very demure, extremely nice
0:10:05 > 0:10:11and even the role was so far away from anything she became later -
0:10:11 > 0:10:15she wasn't snappy, she wasn't sharp-looking
0:10:15 > 0:10:18and she had always the eyes downcast.
0:10:18 > 0:10:21But she had a lot of expression.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Even then she played the girl next door.
0:10:24 > 0:10:29Clara was on the Hollywood treadmill and to add to her workload,
0:10:29 > 0:10:34her unemployed father had decided to move to California to join her.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Her father's presence was a constant pebble under her shoe.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41There's almost no way to talk about Clara Bow's father
0:10:41 > 0:10:44without being insulting
0:10:44 > 0:10:48because he seems to have served no productive purpose his entire life
0:10:48 > 0:10:50and certainly he was a malignant force in hers.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54He did nothing for her as a child, in fact ended up doing far worse than nothing,
0:10:54 > 0:10:56and then he followed her to Hollywood,
0:10:56 > 0:10:59installed himself in her house and lived off her money.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03He was known to walk around saying, "Hello, I'm Clara Bow's father,"
0:11:03 > 0:11:05especially to extra girls.
0:11:06 > 0:11:10When Clara, here on the left, was chosen as One to Watch
0:11:10 > 0:11:13by the Western Association of Motion Pictures Advertisers,
0:11:13 > 0:11:19her father should have been on hand to chaperone her on the publicity trip to San Francisco.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23Instead he got drunk and was banned from travelling on the train.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Among the other girls and their mothers, Clara travelled alone.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38But the parts kept rolling in and the cinema tickets kept selling.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41Clara was turning into box office gold
0:11:41 > 0:11:45and her producers couldn't get the films out fast enough.
0:11:45 > 0:11:49In 1925 alone, she made a staggering 15 films.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53They worked all day and into the night, whatever it took
0:11:53 > 0:11:57to get the film shot and to stay on budget and on schedule.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00She was making four and five pictures at a time
0:12:00 > 0:12:03because BP Schulberg had got her working like a dog.
0:12:03 > 0:12:05Nobody knew these things.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08There were a lot of independent producers
0:12:08 > 0:12:10at that time in the early '20s, cranking out films
0:12:10 > 0:12:13because you could do it on a fairly low budget.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16Actors were the lowest rung on the ladder.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18There were hotels in Hollywood
0:12:18 > 0:12:22when film companies first came there that said no actors or dogs.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27The actors, you know, weren't able to have much of another life.
0:12:27 > 0:12:28They were under contract
0:12:28 > 0:12:31and went from one picture to another to another.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39The amazing thing about Clara is she had no formal training,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43she had no formal education but she just popped.
0:12:43 > 0:12:45She popped off the screen.
0:12:48 > 0:12:50She has this spark, this fire,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53she has this effervescence, this enthusiasm.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58She seemed to thrive on this sort of a tomboy,
0:12:58 > 0:13:03even when she's all dressed up and looking beautiful and sexy and everything.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08There's always that tomboy image, she's always this feisty...
0:13:08 > 0:13:09She's real.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11You don't feel she's acting.
0:13:12 > 0:13:18You feel that every character that she's playing, that's the way she is.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21She really didn't need dialogue.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24She had an enormously expressive face
0:13:24 > 0:13:29and she could tell you what she was thinking without speaking.
0:13:29 > 0:13:31Billy Wilder called it 'flesh impact'.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33He said it's the ability of someone to appear
0:13:33 > 0:13:36three-dimensional in a two-dimensional medium, like film.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39He said the only people he ever saw who had that were Clara Bow
0:13:39 > 0:13:41and Marilyn Monroe.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44They made you feel they were real even though you were really
0:13:44 > 0:13:46only watching a shadow on the screen.
0:13:48 > 0:13:50She had developed all of these little skills,
0:13:50 > 0:13:54all of these wonderful expressions and these side-long glances
0:13:54 > 0:13:58and she just sparkled on the screen and she jumped off the screen.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02It was a time when personality was everything.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05The things about Clara is she just exuded, not just personality,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09she had tremendous vitality and personality,
0:14:09 > 0:14:11but also a very natural sexuality.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14You couldn't muzzle it.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20She's pretty.
0:14:20 > 0:14:24She has a quality about her that you just want to be with her.
0:14:29 > 0:14:32A key part of the Clara Bow look was created
0:14:32 > 0:14:35by legendary stylist, Max Factor.
0:14:35 > 0:14:40Max had more to do with her re-shaping her eyebrows,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42changing the colour of her hair.
0:14:42 > 0:14:47That was the kind of thing that Max would have done the whole package.
0:14:47 > 0:14:50The whole look for an actress
0:14:50 > 0:14:54and so many actresses turned to him at that time.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03She was lucky to have her costumes designed by Travis Banton.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07I'm not sure she realised it at the time.
0:15:08 > 0:15:13She was notoriously carefree about these beautiful gowns
0:15:13 > 0:15:14he would make her.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17He would send her onto set with a beautiful gown
0:15:17 > 0:15:23and you were never sure how it was going to last by the end of the day
0:15:23 > 0:15:28because she treated everything like it was just her casual clothes.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Clara, with a Hollywood makeover, proved to have a universal appeal.
0:15:33 > 0:15:36Men and women like her equally.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39Usually you have an actress where men are more interested in her
0:15:39 > 0:15:41than women or vice versa.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45With Clara Bow, men wanted her and women wanted to be her.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47So they all went to see the movies.
0:15:48 > 0:15:53This carefree magnetism synced perfectly with the mood of the day.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57Clara's persona and the flapper movement seemed made for each other.
0:16:02 > 0:16:08Flapper refers to a new woman at the beginning of the 20th century,
0:16:08 > 0:16:12after World War One, who broke with traditional standards.
0:16:12 > 0:16:17Everybody gasped at the way the skirts were going up
0:16:17 > 0:16:20and the way they carried on.
0:16:21 > 0:16:24They sat in the back of cars with young men(!)
0:16:26 > 0:16:31They cut off their hair, they cut off their skirt lengths, they wore make-up, they drank,
0:16:31 > 0:16:35they had a very casual attitude about sex and relationships.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38Much to the chagrin of the older generation.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42It was quite a thrill just to see a picture with a flapper in it.
0:16:42 > 0:16:43They didn't have to do much.
0:16:43 > 0:16:49Clara's vivacious personality just made that lifestyle
0:16:49 > 0:16:53so compelling and then, of course, the roles that she was in.
0:16:53 > 0:16:55So she really became the face,
0:16:55 > 0:16:59and a pair of shapely legs to boot, of the movement.
0:16:59 > 0:17:03Flapper icon Clara then became part of a publicity stunt
0:17:03 > 0:17:08cooked up between Paramount and a pretentious British novelist
0:17:08 > 0:17:10who was taking Hollywood by storm.
0:17:12 > 0:17:18Elinor Glyn was a novelist who had a voguish popularity in the 1920s.
0:17:20 > 0:17:26A mature woman who wrote in a coy way about sex and sexuality.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29And she wrote a novel called It.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31Everyone was talking about It.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35What is "it"? There were so many articles written on it.
0:17:36 > 0:17:37Everyone wanted to talk about it.
0:17:37 > 0:17:39Who else had "it"? It was a big thing.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48I read in the paper the other day that "it"
0:17:48 > 0:17:50is really just the same thing as sex appeal.
0:17:50 > 0:17:52Is that really true?
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Well you see, if that were really the case,
0:17:56 > 0:17:59every good looking woman in the entire world would have "it".
0:17:59 > 0:18:03Whereas, I suppose, if one counted it's one in every ten thousand.
0:18:04 > 0:18:07How does one tell this "it" in a person?
0:18:07 > 0:18:10Is it the way they talk or move or..?
0:18:11 > 0:18:14No, I should say, to give it the most exact description,
0:18:14 > 0:18:17it is something which emanates from the eyes.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Paramount bought the rights to It for 50,000 and said,
0:18:21 > 0:18:23how about you say Clara Bow has "it".
0:18:23 > 0:18:27Elinor Glyn said, for 50,000 I'll say Clara Bow has "it".
0:18:27 > 0:18:30But then she actually met Clara Bow and watched her work
0:18:30 > 0:18:33and realised she really does have something unique and special.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41In the film, Clara plays a vivacious shop girl
0:18:41 > 0:18:47loaded with the essential "it", who pursues her handsome boss.
0:18:51 > 0:18:56People adored what Clara was given to say by the top title writers
0:18:56 > 0:18:59who received huge sums for getting her to say them.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22You had to have something for the player to do that was dynamic
0:19:22 > 0:19:25and kept the attention of the audience.
0:19:25 > 0:19:27What better than to have a fellow kiss you
0:19:27 > 0:19:31and you think she's fast and you think she's easy and pow!
0:19:48 > 0:19:51And that was always the basic plot.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53She saw a man and she went after him.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56As commonplace as that may sound today,
0:19:56 > 0:20:01there's no way to describe how profoundly revolutionary it was at the time
0:20:01 > 0:20:05that you could, as a young woman, go to the movie theatre
0:20:05 > 0:20:10and watch a movie about another young woman who didn't wait around for a man to pursue her.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Clara Bow flipped the whole ritual of courtship.
0:20:15 > 0:20:20SLOW ROMANTIC VIOLIN MUSIC
0:20:46 > 0:20:51There's the scene where she goes to the arcade on a date
0:20:51 > 0:20:56and you can see briefly her bloomers under her skirt
0:20:56 > 0:20:58which she may not have worn in real life
0:20:58 > 0:21:05but for film, propriety dictated that if she was going to be rolling around
0:21:05 > 0:21:10inside of a moving tube she probably needed to have some bloomers.
0:21:12 > 0:21:15PLAYFUL UPBEAT MUSIC
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Clara's style in It was an inspiration for Peppy Miller,
0:21:54 > 0:21:59heroine of 2012's surprise Oscar winning silent film, The Artist.
0:22:01 > 0:22:03MUSIC: "George Valentin" from The Artist
0:22:04 > 0:22:07I definitely think there's a connection between The Artist and It.
0:22:07 > 0:22:10I used it as a reference and was very excited about using it.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15I wanted to use Clara's early costumes as an inspiration
0:22:15 > 0:22:17for Peppy Miller.
0:22:17 > 0:22:19The way I used a scarf.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23She's on the back of the ship playing a ukulele later in the film,
0:22:23 > 0:22:26and I used that look on Peppy Miller in The Artist.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31Then Peppy Miller is playing tennis and we put a scarf in her hair
0:22:31 > 0:22:35that was a style and a way of wearing a scarf
0:22:35 > 0:22:38that Clara often wore her hair.
0:22:38 > 0:22:43Whether consciously or unconsciously, there's a great bit of influence
0:22:43 > 0:22:47from Clara Bow in the costumes of The Artist.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50And it was this striking image perfected in It
0:22:50 > 0:22:54that defined the look of the day and helped make Clara a superstar.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56# Cos she's got it
0:22:56 > 0:22:58# And plenty of it, brother
0:22:58 > 0:23:00# She's got it
0:23:00 > 0:23:04# I never saw another have so much
0:23:04 > 0:23:07# Of such and such
0:23:07 > 0:23:10# She's really not exquisite But after all, what is it? #
0:23:10 > 0:23:14At the height of her fame, Clara was receiving more mail each week
0:23:14 > 0:23:17than the average US town of 5,000 people.
0:23:17 > 0:23:19# No, it ain't that That ain't it... #
0:23:19 > 0:23:23People used to mail things to her that simply said -
0:23:23 > 0:23:26The It Girl, Hollywood, California. and she got it.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29She'd got many, many letters from people,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32young girls as young as 12 saying,
0:23:32 > 0:23:35"You have amazing eyes, you have an amazing mouth,
0:23:35 > 0:23:37"I love your hair."
0:23:37 > 0:23:41She got so much fan mail about her behaviour and I think they took cues
0:23:41 > 0:23:45on how to relate to the opposite sex, how to behave on a date.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50One woman wrote she learned about closing her eyes
0:23:50 > 0:23:54when her boyfriend kissed her from watching Clara in the movies.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00She didn't identify with movie stars, she identified with her fans.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03She called them 'my wonderful fan friends' and to her
0:24:03 > 0:24:07she was just one of them who had been elevated to be a movie star.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15That same year saw the release of Wings,
0:24:15 > 0:24:20an ambitious, risky, big budget, World War One action movie.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25The studio gave Clara a lead role to help guarantee the film's success.
0:24:25 > 0:24:29They re-wrote the part to make it bigger
0:24:29 > 0:24:35so that she would be their insurance against this 1.2 million investment.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39In Wings, Clara is literally the girl next door who's always had
0:24:39 > 0:24:44a crush on Buddy Rogers's character, which he doesn't reciprocate.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46He thinks of her more as a pal.
0:24:49 > 0:24:54When he goes on a drunken bender on a weekend off from flying
0:24:54 > 0:24:56during World War One in Paris,
0:24:56 > 0:25:00she pretends to be a Parisian woman of the night
0:25:00 > 0:25:03in a misguided attempt to make love to him.
0:25:04 > 0:25:07The film has its cake and eats it too.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Clara's allowed to be sexy and vivacious
0:25:09 > 0:25:12and to even lead Buddy Rogers on.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17But she's not going to take advantage of him
0:25:17 > 0:25:20because she's a good girl.
0:25:20 > 0:25:24In this scene, Clara memorably reveals all to the camera.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34Again, this is just skirting the edge of what was acceptable
0:25:34 > 0:25:37at that time in American mainstream movies.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42In the end of course the girl next door gets her man.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53That was the emblematic Clara Bow part.
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Wings was a colossal success.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59The picture played for 63 weeks at the Criterion Theatre
0:25:59 > 0:26:01in New York City.
0:26:01 > 0:26:03At two dollars a tickets, that's a high price.
0:26:03 > 0:26:08Back in 1968, Wings co-star Richard Arlen
0:26:08 > 0:26:11was asked about his memories of working with Clara.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13She was a very courteous, lovely little girl.
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Vivacious, full of life
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and one of the nicest persons I've ever worked with.
0:26:19 > 0:26:21She was most generous with herself.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24She was the biggest star we had at that particular time
0:26:24 > 0:26:26and she was the last to know it.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31But the massive box office success and critical acclaim for Wings
0:26:31 > 0:26:34did little to endear her to the Hollywood elite.
0:26:34 > 0:26:37She was one of the boys with the grips
0:26:37 > 0:26:39and would eat lunch with everybody.
0:26:39 > 0:26:45There was none of this high-hat stuff at the studio, movie star stuff.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49She was still going to be one of the tomboys from Brooklyn
0:26:49 > 0:26:53and that endeared her to everybody she worked with
0:26:53 > 0:26:59except the people who wanted to put their humble origins
0:26:59 > 0:27:03behind them and project this image of something else.
0:27:03 > 0:27:09I think that's what got her in Dutch with a lot of the Hollywood community.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13Fellow actress Louise Brooks was an accepted part of that community
0:27:13 > 0:27:17but she could see the absurdity of Clara's predicament.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20She wasn't acceptable socially.
0:27:20 > 0:27:21Eddie Sutherland, my husband,
0:27:21 > 0:27:25gave absolutely the best parties in Hollywood.
0:27:25 > 0:27:28So I asked him one day to invite Clara Bow and he went,
0:27:28 > 0:27:31"Oh, heaven's no, we can't have her.
0:27:31 > 0:27:34"We don't know what she'd do. She's from Brooklyn."
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Everyone on the lot at Paramount said she's the greatest actress,
0:27:38 > 0:27:42but she wasn't acceptable and she knew that.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48Initially, Clara Bow was invited to these Hollywood social events,
0:27:48 > 0:27:53but her behaviour was so mortifying to these people
0:27:53 > 0:27:55that invitations quickly ceased.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01One of the funniest stories is she was invited to dinner
0:28:01 > 0:28:06by a director and his family at the Beverly Hills Hotel
0:28:06 > 0:28:10and she showed up in a bathing suit and high heels!
0:28:11 > 0:28:15Not only had she disregarded the idea of dressing for dinner,
0:28:15 > 0:28:18but also the dress code of the Beverly Hills Hotel
0:28:18 > 0:28:22and she couldn't understand why anybody should care what she wears.
0:28:23 > 0:28:26It was no accident that Clara's film characters
0:28:26 > 0:28:29shared this disdain for rules.
0:28:29 > 0:28:33In Rough House Rosie, a girl from the wrong sides of the tracks
0:28:33 > 0:28:35tries to gatecrash high society.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39But the crash for Clara came
0:28:39 > 0:28:43when her punishing schedule resulted in a breakdown during filming.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51For years she had ignored her chronic insomnia,
0:28:51 > 0:28:54worked all day and famously partied at night.
0:28:54 > 0:28:56The cracks began to show.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01Paramount realised that their valuable star needed a rest
0:29:01 > 0:29:02and gave her a three month holiday.
0:29:05 > 0:29:07This may have been a break from her crushing workload,
0:29:07 > 0:29:11but she still maintained an intense personal life.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14Clara Bow's love life was the fodder of a lot of speculation
0:29:14 > 0:29:15and heavy press coverage.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18She encouraged it in the sense she was very open and direct
0:29:18 > 0:29:20and honest about what she was doing.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23She would call her boyfriends her 'engagements'
0:29:23 > 0:29:26which at the time was a euphemism which everyone understood tacitly
0:29:26 > 0:29:27that we're sleeping with each other.
0:29:28 > 0:29:32Gary Cooper was one of several very public 'engagements'
0:29:32 > 0:29:34in the same year.
0:29:34 > 0:29:37Her relationships didn't last very long.
0:29:37 > 0:29:40But they were very intense and they must have been...
0:29:40 > 0:29:43She was one of the most famous people in the world,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47so you can imagine how the queue must have been around the block.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51Clara had fallen for future matinee idol Gilbert Roland
0:29:51 > 0:29:54when they appeared together in The Plastic Age.
0:29:54 > 0:30:00I did know him and he had that terrific sense of protection.
0:30:00 > 0:30:07He was very, very powerful and huge and quiet and, you know, a Mexican.
0:30:08 > 0:30:13Victor Fleming was another close relationship which started
0:30:13 > 0:30:16when he directed Clara as flirtatious minx Alverna
0:30:16 > 0:30:19in the acclaimed 1926 film - Mantrap.
0:30:23 > 0:30:26Fleming was one of those characters she loved.
0:30:26 > 0:30:30The macho, absolutely self-confident man.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33I don't see how Clara could have resisted him.
0:30:33 > 0:30:37He went on to direct The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind in the same year
0:30:37 > 0:30:40and he said Clara Bow was the most natural talent he ever worked with.
0:30:40 > 0:30:43These were people that she respected but if she liked you
0:30:43 > 0:30:46she wasn't going to be shy about it.
0:30:46 > 0:30:48She was very aggressive and almost masculine
0:30:48 > 0:30:54in terms of how she behaved and that hadn't been seen.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58I don't think she fully realised she had as much of a reputation
0:30:58 > 0:31:01as she was getting.
0:31:01 > 0:31:07Because the only time I ever heard my father gossiping about somebody
0:31:07 > 0:31:09because he didn't do that.
0:31:11 > 0:31:13But Clara herself fed the gossip machine
0:31:13 > 0:31:17by giving a major magazine confessional where she told all.
0:31:17 > 0:31:20The family mental illness,
0:31:20 > 0:31:23growing up in poverty and her current insecurity,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25breaking all the rules of Hollywood.
0:31:25 > 0:31:27It was too honest.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30We want to hear a dramatic story about how
0:31:30 > 0:31:35she was an abandoned countess and made it away from the Bolsheviks.
0:31:35 > 0:31:39We didn't want to hear about a tenement upbringing in Brooklyn.
0:31:39 > 0:31:43What she was doing without realising it was exposing the hypocrisy
0:31:43 > 0:31:47of all these other actresses who were putting on airs
0:31:47 > 0:31:49and pretending they were so refined
0:31:49 > 0:31:51when they were behaving the same way.
0:31:51 > 0:31:54It's no coincidence that Clara Bow's good buddy was Joan Crawford
0:31:54 > 0:31:56until Joan Crawford married Douglas Fairbanks Jr
0:31:56 > 0:31:59and then she pretended she didn't know Clara Bow
0:31:59 > 0:32:02because knowing Clara Bow brought you down socially.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08But who cared what the glitterati thought?
0:32:08 > 0:32:12Clara was a box office winner and Paramount wanted more.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19They had a new invention and Clara was earmarked to showcase it.
0:32:23 > 0:32:28The year was 1929 and sound was the next big thing.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34Fellow silent movie star Greta Garbo was given two years
0:32:34 > 0:32:38to tone down her foreign accent before moving into Talkies.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42Moneyspinner Clara was given just two weeks.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46She developed an immediate fear of the microphone.
0:32:46 > 0:32:51There was a prejudice against talking about a 'goirl' and a 'toikey'.
0:32:51 > 0:32:55They had to level that out.
0:32:55 > 0:33:00She was a typical example of not only the general adult attitude
0:33:00 > 0:33:04towards microphones, but the Hollywood intensity.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06It was a panic time.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09People had true panic attacks
0:33:09 > 0:33:12because everything in their lives hung on it.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18For stars like Clara who had no stage background,
0:33:18 > 0:33:23no theatrical training, and who may have depended in large part
0:33:23 > 0:33:26on the director talking her through a scene,
0:33:26 > 0:33:30which now wouldn't be possible with a microphone present,
0:33:30 > 0:33:34this was enormously frightening.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37It came at a time when she was at the peak of her box office success,
0:33:37 > 0:33:40the absolute zenith of her popularity.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44She was scared to death.
0:33:44 > 0:33:49Having now spent seven years working on an incredible 46 silent films,
0:33:49 > 0:33:53it was in this scene that Clara's fans heard her speak
0:33:53 > 0:33:56for the very first time.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58Just a working girl.
0:33:58 > 0:34:01LAUGHTER
0:34:01 > 0:34:03If you want exercise, try your muscles on this.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07To add to the unwelcome demands of talking pictures
0:34:07 > 0:34:11Clara's personal life was becoming increasingly stressful.
0:34:13 > 0:34:17In 1929, the Wall Street crash and subsequent Depression
0:34:17 > 0:34:22and unemployment was in contrast to the excesses of Hollywood.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Where movie fans and the tabloid press were once fascinated
0:34:25 > 0:34:29with the lifestyles of the stars, they were now appalled.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32The succession of scandals she was involved in
0:34:32 > 0:34:35made the public less and less tolerant of her behaviour.
0:34:35 > 0:34:41Here she is paying off 30,000 to a married doctor's wife to keep her silent
0:34:41 > 0:34:44and then losing 14,000 in a gambling spree.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48Even both of those stories were slanted in her disfavour
0:34:48 > 0:34:51and she was a lot more innocent than she appeared to be,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55the public disapproval about them was enormous because it felt like,
0:34:55 > 0:34:59are you completely insensitive to what's going in the world right now?
0:35:01 > 0:35:03But there was some calm in the turmoil.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06After the many boyfriends and fiances,
0:35:06 > 0:35:09Clara met someone on set who was to play a big part in her future.
0:35:11 > 0:35:12Goodbye, baby.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16I know it's going to be tough on you but I've got to shove off now.
0:35:16 > 0:35:18Goodbye, Eddie.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Clara Bow, who had so much misfortune in her life,
0:35:21 > 0:35:26from her earliest years on, finally got lucky when she met Rex Bell
0:35:26 > 0:35:29because they obviously loved each other
0:35:29 > 0:35:32but more than that, he wanted to protect her
0:35:32 > 0:35:35and look after her and she no longer felt
0:35:35 > 0:35:39the only time she had value was when she was in front of a camera.
0:35:39 > 0:35:44She was still a very young girl and her youth was probably extended
0:35:44 > 0:35:49because she had no way to mature mentally,
0:35:49 > 0:35:51intellectually.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53She didn't have a therapist,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56she didn't have anyone explain to her what was happening to her.
0:35:56 > 0:36:01Thank God she had Rex Bell because he took care of her.
0:36:02 > 0:36:05At least Rex was on the scene to support Clara
0:36:05 > 0:36:08when she was hit by yet another scandal.
0:36:10 > 0:36:12This time a devastating fraud case
0:36:12 > 0:36:16involving her best friend and assistant, Daisy DeVoe.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20That's when the public turned against her because Daisy,
0:36:20 > 0:36:23under oath, told all of these lies about Clara Bow's,
0:36:23 > 0:36:28what the newspaper called, wild spending orgies and all of these men.
0:36:28 > 0:36:32Suddenly everything she had been celebrated for in the 1920s,
0:36:32 > 0:36:34now in the early 1930s, she was being condemned for.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37It didn't seem so funny or amusing any more.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41In 1931, a tabloid news-sheet crossed the line.
0:36:41 > 0:36:46Salacious, vicious and above all fabricated,
0:36:46 > 0:36:50the story would leave a permanent stain on Bow's reputation.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53The Coast Reporter printed four issues that accused her,
0:36:53 > 0:36:57among other things, of bestiality, drug addiction, incest,
0:36:57 > 0:37:02lesbianism, gambling orgies, sexual orgies.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The man was convicted in a federal court and sent to prison
0:37:05 > 0:37:07but the damage was done.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10She had to read this and when she read it she threw up.
0:37:10 > 0:37:13Then she had another nervous breakdown
0:37:13 > 0:37:15and that was when she had to leave Hollywood.
0:37:15 > 0:37:18She was only 25 years old.
0:37:22 > 0:37:25After a brief spell in Glendale Sanitarium
0:37:25 > 0:37:29Clara finally severed ties with Paramount.
0:37:29 > 0:37:33At that point in her life, Rex Bell was an answered prayer
0:37:33 > 0:37:37because he was sincere and loving and kind and strong and he was a cowboy.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39He didn't particularly care about the movie business.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43In fact, he didn't like it. He wanted to get out and be a rancher.
0:37:43 > 0:37:46He could move her somewhere else, he could take care of her, he could protect her.
0:37:46 > 0:37:50So he seemed to be the answer and the exact man she was looking for
0:37:50 > 0:37:54after all these men who had failed her or not lived up to her expectations
0:37:54 > 0:37:58or hadn't been strong enough for her. He seemed like Mr Right.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Together, they pursued their dream of ranch life
0:38:04 > 0:38:08and bought land near to what was then the small town of Las Vegas.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15This ranch was actually 400,000 acres.
0:38:15 > 0:38:18They ran about 1,800 head of cattle during that time.
0:38:30 > 0:38:34Living in the Mojave Desert back then and even today,
0:38:34 > 0:38:36it hasn't changed a lot.
0:38:36 > 0:38:38It's definitely a wonderful retreat out here.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41We're in the middle of hundreds of thousands of acres
0:38:41 > 0:38:44and you come out and you have serenity in your soul.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49Something I think Rex and Clara were really looking for
0:38:49 > 0:38:52was that sense of getting away and the retreat.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55I feel like that every time I come out here.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00They were soon married but their desert retreat was short lived.
0:39:00 > 0:39:04Irritated by a magazine headline suggesting she had given in
0:39:04 > 0:39:07and tempted by a huge cheque by Fox Pictures,
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Clara was back in Hollywood on a lucrative two movie deal.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17Call Her Savage, based on a lurid bestseller,
0:39:17 > 0:39:22did excellent business and got Clara glowing reviews for her acting.
0:39:22 > 0:39:28She overcame all her awkwardness and all her fear of that microphone
0:39:28 > 0:39:31and delivered the goods just as she had in so many silent films.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36As a reward for her success, Fox sent Clara on a European press tour
0:39:36 > 0:39:40for what would be her final film - Hoopla.
0:39:40 > 0:39:42The trip included a visit to Britain.
0:39:42 > 0:39:47I just came back to do one more picture and I hope that you all will like it very much.
0:39:47 > 0:39:49I would like to be known as a serious actress
0:39:49 > 0:39:52and not just as an It Girl.
0:39:52 > 0:39:55And now here's a big surprise.
0:39:55 > 0:39:58I want you to meet the most gorgeous man in the world -
0:39:58 > 0:40:00Mr Rex Bell, my husband. Hooray!
0:40:02 > 0:40:05- Say hello, darling. - Hello, everybody.
0:40:05 > 0:40:10I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, no fool.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15In Hoopla, Clara plays an exotic carnival dancer
0:40:15 > 0:40:17with a heart of gold.
0:40:17 > 0:40:19Come on, Carrie.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23You get my bed tonight and tomorrow morning you'll feel OK.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25I love Hoopla.
0:40:25 > 0:40:30I think Hoopla is a beautiful and exceptional movie.
0:40:30 > 0:40:35Clara runs the gamut of emotions in this film. She's a wiseguy.
0:40:35 > 0:40:38The next time you pull anything like this,
0:40:38 > 0:40:41- I'm going to kick you off the show. - You and who else?
0:40:41 > 0:40:46She's a woman in love and everything in-between.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49Haven't you ever had a girl back home that you used to hold
0:40:49 > 0:40:51close in your arms and kiss sometime?
0:40:55 > 0:40:56I thought so.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Couldn't you shut your eyes and pretend I'm her?
0:41:08 > 0:41:11And that's her last appearance on screen.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14You watch that and you think, oh, really?
0:41:14 > 0:41:17No-one else was able to find a decent film
0:41:17 > 0:41:20and persuade her to come back before the cameras?
0:41:20 > 0:41:23But there would be no more movies.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27This was her final scene in her final film.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32Clara Bow was 28 years old.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36She hated making it but she's great in it.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41You can see the beginning of a real, serious, dramatic, talking actress.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45But the love had left and she was done and she walked away.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52She walked away back to the ranch in Nevada.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54This time for good.
0:42:00 > 0:42:04The pay cheque from Fox financed the building of a dream ranch house.
0:42:06 > 0:42:11After a decade of non-stop hard work and 57 movies,
0:42:11 > 0:42:14Clara was trying to settle down.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32GUNSHOT
0:42:33 > 0:42:36GUNSHOT
0:43:30 > 0:43:34Clara may have closed the door to more movies but she used her fame
0:43:34 > 0:43:38to launch a restaurant called the "It" Cafe back in Hollywood.
0:43:38 > 0:43:42Although we live on a cattle range in Nevada, we do have a soft spot
0:43:42 > 0:43:45in our hearts for our friends in Hollywood, and Hollywood.
0:43:46 > 0:43:50We have considerable time to spend here and we had to have somewhere to spend it
0:43:50 > 0:43:52and, also, a place to receive our friends.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57Very good. May I add, if I had more time I'd tell you about my pet fox,
0:43:57 > 0:44:00pet hawk, lambs, cattle, 25 dogs etcetera,
0:44:00 > 0:44:04but I haven't the time so please excuse.
0:44:04 > 0:44:07While the "It" Cafe provided a kind of therapy,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10chaos was never far away.
0:44:10 > 0:44:16Much to Clara's dismay, Rex had begun to get interested in politics.
0:44:16 > 0:44:20She saw her life as a politician's wife looming
0:44:20 > 0:44:22and it pushed her over the edge.
0:44:22 > 0:44:24In 1943, Clara took an overdose
0:44:24 > 0:44:29leaving a suicide note saying she preferred death to public life.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34I think she saw her move to the desert and her ability to now
0:44:34 > 0:44:38become a wife and a mother and live out of Hollywood as the answer.
0:44:39 > 0:44:41In fact it turned out to be her undoing,
0:44:41 > 0:44:43sort of the paradox of her life.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46When she was in crisis, she could function.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49When she had domestic bliss is when she started to fall apart.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51She needed to be doing something.
0:44:51 > 0:44:54It's really a feminist parable in a way
0:44:54 > 0:44:57because this is a story of someone who needed a career.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00It's what she needed to do, it's how she was able to survive
0:45:00 > 0:45:03and when you took her career away from her,
0:45:03 > 0:45:06she didn't know who she was any more. She had no identity.
0:45:06 > 0:45:11For over 15 years, Clara had made no public appearances.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16Then in 1947, she appeared in a charity competition
0:45:16 > 0:45:21on the hugely popular radio show, Truth or Consequences
0:45:21 > 0:45:25as the mystery voice codenamed Mrs Hush.
0:45:25 > 0:45:26We know that for many years,
0:45:26 > 0:45:29you've wanted nothing more than the privacy of your home and family.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32You voluntarily quit films at the pinnacle of your career
0:45:32 > 0:45:35because you wanted a normal home life with your husband, Rex Bell,
0:45:35 > 0:45:38and your two wonderful sons, George and Tony.
0:45:38 > 0:45:41You were very happy and even the hundreds of fan letters
0:45:41 > 0:45:44that still pour into your home weekly could not sway you from this.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47We know you are constantly turning down fabulous film contracts.
0:45:47 > 0:45:52Miss Clara Bow, or, as she has been so happily known
0:45:52 > 0:45:55for a good many years, Mrs Rex Bell.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57APPLAUSE
0:45:57 > 0:46:00I'd like to thank the people who really made this contest
0:46:00 > 0:46:04the great contribution it was for the March of Dimes.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07And that is you other listeners who entered the contest
0:46:07 > 0:46:10and contributed your dimes, dollars or just anything.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13All of our thanks to you.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18But the public and private face were at odds.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20Clara was putting on a good show,
0:46:20 > 0:46:24while in reality, she was, as ever, plagued by insomnia.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28In addition, she now complained of aches, pains and headaches
0:46:28 > 0:46:31and was displaying increasingly erratic behaviour.
0:46:35 > 0:46:39A year later, she checked into a prestigious psychiatric hospital,
0:46:39 > 0:46:41the Institute of Living in Connecticut.
0:46:43 > 0:46:47A former psychiatric aide remembers meeting a subdued Clara in 1949.
0:46:48 > 0:46:51When I first met Clara, she was pleasant.
0:46:51 > 0:46:55Sort of aloof, but still pleasant to me.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58She didn't talk very much with the other guests.
0:46:58 > 0:47:02I guess she didn't want to be disturbed.
0:47:03 > 0:47:07I think she wanted to be by herself. I think she was probably sad.
0:47:07 > 0:47:11Nobody's really happy to be institutionalised like this,
0:47:11 > 0:47:12but she seemed a little sad.
0:47:12 > 0:47:16The one thing I noticed, she looked very old for her age.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19I think she was in her 40s, I guess, when she got there.
0:47:19 > 0:47:21She looked 65.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27Clara Bow's treatment for her own mental health problems
0:47:27 > 0:47:29was really ahead of the curve.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32She was very forthright always,
0:47:32 > 0:47:34and she would talk about it
0:47:34 > 0:47:36and she sought the best treatment there was.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39She went to the top mental hospitals in America
0:47:39 > 0:47:41and she would stay for long periods, often as long as a year.
0:47:41 > 0:47:44She received electroconvulsive therapy treatments,
0:47:44 > 0:47:46which she liked because she said,
0:47:46 > 0:47:49"They help me forget my childhood." That's what she told her sons.
0:47:49 > 0:47:53Rex came to visit regularly. Hopeful of a cure.
0:47:53 > 0:47:57That support from him must have meant a lot to her, too.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00Here's someone who's your spouse who's being understanding,
0:48:00 > 0:48:02both privately and publicly.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05She seemed very happy and he seemed very happy to see her, too.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09Because I think he felt that she was getting better.
0:48:09 > 0:48:13And eventually, I guess she did improve enough
0:48:13 > 0:48:15to leave the Institute.
0:48:15 > 0:48:16In her ten-month stay,
0:48:16 > 0:48:20Clara was diagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22The intense psychotherapy sessions
0:48:22 > 0:48:25had also revealed some shocking facts.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Memories came flooding back to her that, for the first time,
0:48:29 > 0:48:31she seems to have shared with her doctors.
0:48:31 > 0:48:33One of which was the fact that
0:48:33 > 0:48:36not only her mother tried to kill her, which she talked about before,
0:48:36 > 0:48:37but the fact that her mother
0:48:37 > 0:48:40had been a part-time prostitute when it was necessary.
0:48:40 > 0:48:44And the other revelation, which was more difficult, even,
0:48:44 > 0:48:48was that her father, after her mother had been committed to a mental institution
0:48:48 > 0:48:51and she was still a teenager, her father had raped her.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55That was more difficult because her father was still alive at the time.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01Despite this, Clara continued to support her father financially
0:49:01 > 0:49:03until his death in 1959.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15The diagnosis of schizophrenia left no real hope of improvement
0:49:15 > 0:49:17and it was the end of the road for her marriage.
0:49:23 > 0:49:28A return to family life in Nevada was no longer possible for her.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30And in 1950, Clara moved back to LA,
0:49:30 > 0:49:34to a suburb only a few miles south of Hollywood,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36but to a very different world.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Clara Bow lived in Los Angeles in a small, humble house
0:49:43 > 0:49:44with a practical nurse.
0:49:44 > 0:49:47Not a licensed nurse, a practical nurse. Like a caretaker.
0:49:47 > 0:49:50Clara's son, Tony, had by then married,
0:49:50 > 0:49:56and his wife Jackie remembers visiting her mother-in-law in the early 1960s.
0:49:56 > 0:50:00I never was overwhelmed with who she was.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04I think it was because that part of her life...
0:50:04 > 0:50:07wasn't there.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10It was...she was a different person.
0:50:10 > 0:50:13A former neighbour remembers time spent growing up
0:50:13 > 0:50:15in the house opposite the ageing actress.
0:50:15 > 0:50:18To us, she was just the pretty lady across the street.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21I can't ever remember ever calling her Clara Bow
0:50:21 > 0:50:23or Mrs Bow or Mrs anything.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26It was just the pretty lady across the street.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33She very seldom came outside,
0:50:33 > 0:50:38and when she did, she was usually in a bathrobe or night robe.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41She always had sunglasses on. Her hair was always made up.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43Her hair was always done well.
0:50:43 > 0:50:49And she would sit on the porch and, er...smoke a cigarette.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52I know our Christmases together were planned
0:50:52 > 0:50:56right down to the, to the wire.
0:50:56 > 0:50:59And we would have to... SHE LAUGHS
0:50:59 > 0:51:01I shouldn't put it that way.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04But it was a tradition with her.
0:51:04 > 0:51:08And Tony had told me this, that that's what we do.
0:51:08 > 0:51:13And so we'd watch one of the silent films.
0:51:15 > 0:51:17She had an old projector.
0:51:20 > 0:51:23I know we watched one with Gilbert Roland.
0:51:30 > 0:51:34In the very, very back, she had kind of a collect-all room,
0:51:34 > 0:51:38where the photo albums and knickknacks and stuff were.
0:51:38 > 0:51:42And she sat there with me and showed me pictures, photo albums.
0:51:42 > 0:51:47A lot of different pictures from movies and family and friends.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50That was probably the fondest memory.
0:51:50 > 0:51:53She read constantly.
0:51:53 > 0:51:55She was well read.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57And it was a joy to talk to her.
0:51:57 > 0:52:01Although hidden away and protected from the stresses of life,
0:52:01 > 0:52:06Clara still had one problem that had never gone away.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Clara had insomnia.
0:52:09 > 0:52:14She never exhibited any mood changes
0:52:14 > 0:52:18or, you know, she was never...
0:52:18 > 0:52:22er...seemed out of sorts to me, ever.
0:52:22 > 0:52:28I assumed and never questioned it either, that, er...
0:52:29 > 0:52:31..she got a shot every night.
0:52:31 > 0:52:36But I, I never questioned anything about that.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43Clara had remained amicably apart from her husband, Rex.
0:52:43 > 0:52:46His sudden death from a heart attack in 1962
0:52:46 > 0:52:50saw Clara make a very rare appearance in public.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59I have an image I remember
0:52:59 > 0:53:03of her coming out of the house and standing on the porch
0:53:03 > 0:53:06dressed in the black memorial-type clothes.
0:53:06 > 0:53:11And that was one of the few times that I saw her actually dressed up.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16Within three years, Clara herself was to die
0:53:16 > 0:53:20in the house she had retreated to almost 15 years before.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33In the days before the funeral,
0:53:33 > 0:53:37fans queued at the chapel to pay their respects.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39She micromanaged her own funeral at home.
0:53:39 > 0:53:41She made a long list for her sons
0:53:41 > 0:53:45of what she wanted to be dressed in, the colour of the casket,
0:53:45 > 0:53:48the colour of the lining of the casket, what make-up she wanted.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51It's all specified in writing for them.
0:53:51 > 0:53:54So it was almost like the actress until the end.
0:53:56 > 0:54:00I remember the ride to Forest Lawn.
0:54:00 > 0:54:06And people that were alongside the road up to Forest Lawn.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10And the people outside the chapel.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14The whole thing was so surreal to me.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19It was hard for me.
0:54:31 > 0:54:37When Clara Bow passed away, as a memorial tribute for her,
0:54:37 > 0:54:39all the neighbourhood people,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42the close ones that had some kind of association with her,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45I believe it was her older son,
0:54:45 > 0:54:49set up a projector and screened one of her movies.
0:54:49 > 0:54:51I believe it was the It Girl.
0:54:51 > 0:54:55And I remember sitting on the floor
0:54:55 > 0:54:58with the other couple of neighbourhood kids, my mom and dad
0:54:58 > 0:55:02and a few other mom and dads in the living room,
0:55:02 > 0:55:03watching the movie.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06And that was the last recollection that I had.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09Her son thanked everybody
0:55:09 > 0:55:14and, you know, end of the chapter, you know.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Clara's seclusion, her early death
0:55:17 > 0:55:22and the lack of recognition for silent film created a void.
0:55:22 > 0:55:26I think the fact that Clara Bow's career ended so early
0:55:26 > 0:55:30and then she vanished from the spotlight so completely
0:55:30 > 0:55:34had a lot to do with her, er...
0:55:34 > 0:55:37disappearing from the public consciousness.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41So many of her films vanished, too.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44That was kind of a one, two punch.
0:55:45 > 0:55:48By the time she died, Clara was so forgotten
0:55:48 > 0:55:52that she was even overlooked by film historians.
0:55:52 > 0:55:54Kevin Brownlow failed to mention her
0:55:54 > 0:55:57in his 1960s' appraisal of silent cinema,
0:55:57 > 0:55:58The Parade's Gone By,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02much to the displeasure of Clara's contemporary Louise Brooks,
0:56:02 > 0:56:06who fired off a series of outraged letters.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08And she would get so angry.
0:56:08 > 0:56:11And they would almost burn their way out of the envelope.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14I could tell by the way she'd written,
0:56:14 > 0:56:16it was in sort of SS lettering.
0:56:16 > 0:56:18You know, lightning flashes.
0:56:18 > 0:56:20And, um...so I knew,
0:56:20 > 0:56:22"Oh, my God, I've done something wrong."
0:56:22 > 0:56:28But I do feel very sad that I didn't meet Clara Bow.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35A younger audience has discovered Clara Bow. That's really exciting,
0:56:35 > 0:56:38but it makes perfect sense to me. Because in a way,
0:56:38 > 0:56:41she's the forerunner of Sex and the City.
0:56:41 > 0:56:46She's the forerunner of the young, modern, independent woman.
0:56:48 > 0:56:51Clara Bow is the most colourful, delightful,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53wonderful creature on the screen.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57I quite understand people will go on being fascinated by her.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02She comes bursting out of the period with all guns blazing.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05So, after decades of neglect,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Clara Bow's legacy is, like her films,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11gradually being restored.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14Now, out of the 57 films she made,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17we have over 30, including all her sound films.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19They've all been preserved.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21And even now, new clips turn up out of nowhere.
0:57:21 > 0:57:24In the past year, the long-lost colour footage
0:57:24 > 0:57:27from the movie Red Hair, made at the height of her career,
0:57:27 > 0:57:30the only footage of Clara Bow in colour,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33with her famous signature red hair, has turned up.
0:57:33 > 0:57:35So it never ends.
0:58:34 > 0:58:37Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd