Who is Clara Bow? What you need to know ahead of the Taylor Swift song
Clara Bow, Taylor Swift.
Getty Images(2)Before everyone on TikTok was singing about being an “It Girl,” Clara Bow was actually that girl.
In case your school curriculum didn't cover “talkies” extensively, Bow rose to fame as a silent film actress, flapper and sex symbol in the 1920s – decades before that. Taylor Swift wrote a song named after her for her 2024 album. While fans will have to wait until April 19 to hear the track on Swift's 11th studio album, The department of tortured poetsSwifties are already making connections between Swift and Bow.
In the early 1920s, Bow dropped out of school after winning a “Fame and Fortune Contest” and earning a role in the 1922 film. Beyond the rainbow. She then met studios in her native New York City and began a silent film career.
“I was too young, or too short, or too fat. Most of the time I was too fat,” Bow said in an interview with Photoplay. “When I told them I won this competition, they just laughed. They said that the forest was full of girls who had won a beauty pageant and that they were mostly stupid, otherwise they would not have entered a beauty pageant in the first place. Which I thought might have been right.”
For her part, Swift spoke about dealing with comments about her body in a candid scene of hers Ms. Americana documentary in 2020.
Marcelo Endelli/TAS23/Getty Images While Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department came as a surprise to fans, the pop star seemingly dropped several Easter eggs, hinting that her eleventh studio album was on the way. Swift unveiled her latest musical venture while accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album – her 13th career win – […]
“I've learned over the years that it's not good for me to see pictures of myself every day because I tend to – and it's only happened a few times and I'm not proud of it in any way” , she says. said in the movie. “I tend to get triggered by something — whether it's a photo of me where I feel like my belly was too big, or someone said I looked pregnant or something — and that will only make it worse.” make me starve a little. . Just stop eating.”
Back to Bow, the actress signed a contract with Paramount in 1926 and starred in films with the title Mantrap, It, divorce children, rough house Rosie, wings (the first film to win the Oscar for Best Picture), Hula And Get your man. During this period, Bow was dubbed “The It Girl,” based on her performance in the 1927 film It. (Bow plays shop girl Betty Lou, who competes for the affections of her manager, Cyrus. It is not lost Us that Swift has a song called 'Betty' and shop girl Betty Lou goes to Coney Island – which is also the name of the Swift song.)
When films began to advance and add sound, Bow reportedly had difficulty adjusting to working with the microphone. Then her first talkie, The wild party, was released in 1929, but received good reviews. Some historians report that she worried about how her Brooklyn accent would be received and felt that “talkies” were taking away from her screen presence, but Bow's films – including Dangerous turns And The Saturday night kid – remained at the top of the box office in 1929.
Fans of Swift know she successfully made the transition from country music to pop, but even with millions of records sold in both genres, she has reflected on the criticism of the switch and the power of her voice.
Taylor Swift started writing songs about love and breakups in the early 2000s, but her talent was quickly recognized by music executives who knew she was the real deal. From releasing her first record in 2006 to gracing stages around the world, this star has earned her place in the Hollywood A-list music scene. […]
“When Fearless won Album of the Year at the Grammys and I became the youngest solo artist to ever win the award. With that victory came criticism and reactions in 2010 that I, as a young new artist, had never experienced before. Suddenly people started doubting my singing voice. Was it strong enough? Was I a little spicy? Suddenly they weren't sure if I was the one writing the songs, because sometimes in the past I'd had co-writers in the room,” Swift said in her Billboard Woman of the Year acceptance speech in 2019. “Now they say my album Red is filled with too many breakup songs? “Okay, okay, I'll make one about moving to New York and deciding that my life really is more fun with just my friends.” Oh, they say my music changes too much to stay in country music? Agree. 'Okay, here's a whole genre shift and a pop album called 1989.'”
As 'It Girl', Bow's personal life became the talk of the town, and she struggled for decades before real awareness of mental health arose with mental illness and its ups and downs. At just 28 years old, Bow retired from Hollywood to try to find peace. Swift fans are now very familiar with the years preceding her Reputation era – when she wasn't seen in public for months – when she was 28.
In addition to being labeled as a party girl, Bow was also reportedly engaged several times, leading to more talk about her reputation. She subsequently married an actor Rex call in 1931, with conflicting accounts of how healthy their marriage was.
Those who follow pop culture in 2024 don't need a full recap of Swift's love life, as she has responded to criticism that she was linked to too many musicians and actors before dating. Joe Alwyn for six years. After calling it quits with the man some media outlets reported she hoped to marry, Swift began dating a football star Travis Kelce.
“Over the past decade, I've seen women in this industry criticized, compared, and bullied for their bodies, their romantic lives, and their fashion. Or have you ever heard someone say about a male artist, “I really like his songs, but I don't know what it is, there's just something about him that I don't like?” No,” Swift said in the aforementioned Billboard speech. “That criticism is reserved for us.”
As an extra fun fact, Swifties discovered that Bow's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is located at Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard. In Swift's song 'Gorgeous' she sings: 'Whisky on ice, Sunset and Vine / You've ruined my life, by not being mine.' Other Swifties draw connections between “Clara Bow” and Poets song 'But Daddy I Love Him', which they think is a play The little Mermaid that Ariel says before giving up her vote for a real chance at love with Prince Eric.
The countdown has begun for the lyrical analysis for “Clara Bow,” but it's safe to say the two women would have had a lot to talk about had they lived at the same time.