I did find a newspaper report that the Trojans' coach had declared Clara Bow's house off-limits. But what one was to extrapolate from that is a different story. It was really Kenneth Anger in "Hollywood Babylon" [published underground in 1959, above-ground in 1975] that first printed the story, and that book is primarily fiction.

There was usually a difference between things that got printed and things that got discussed. But her case was a huge exception, because there was a whole series about her in a tabloid called the Coast Reporter that was unprecedented and hasn't been matched since, and that led to an obscenity trial that preceded the "Ulysses" trial by three years. This man accused her of bestiality and drug addiction and incest and insanity and lesbianism and venereal disease. One of the issues concluded by saying, "You know, Clara, you'd be better off killing yourself." It never happened before, and it never happened since; the guy went to federal prison for eight years, to do hard labor.

But the fact that he had printed that stuff showed how far her reputation had gone. Here's how I interpret how it worked in those days. If it got out in the community, it gave the local press -- and by extension the chains they were all part of, like the Hearst papers -- permission to print things that otherwise they never would have. Because they heard so many more outrageous things about her, what they were printing was still worse than what they'd print about anyone else.

Even the fan magazines -- they might have used schoolmarm language, but people understood what they were saying. In the documentary you see one with Clara on the cover and the headline, "Quit pickin' on me!" -- mocking her language as well as showing that she's being harassed. And they tell you why she's being harassed, but they don't tell you that any of the scandals are untrue, so in a way they acknowledge them. They say, "It's because of her background, it's because she's so young, it's because she's a motherless child, it's because she didn't have any guidance."

She was crucified by the press, but also by her own public demeanor. She talked about breaking her engagements, about trying to choose between Victor Fleming and Gary Cooper and Gilbert Roland: "Well, Vick-ie mothered me, but Gary was a big bashful boy." Everyone knew what a euphemism "engagement" was for her. When I started the book I was skeptical about the coarseness of her reported language. But when I interviewed the actresses she worked with and Tui Bow (her stepmother and pal), they all said, "That's how she talked!" She'd compare sizes of her lovers and that kind of stuff -- unheard of in those days, especially in public. Esther Ralston said, "She used to come on the set and love to shock me."

After Mary Pickford and Lillian Gish -- who, as you write, played Victorian heroines -- to project something that was groundbreaking and individual, didn't a woman have to be sexually adventurous on-screen? What other avenues of expression were open to her as an actress?

Without her looks what else would Clara have had to offer? That's why Elaina Archer, one of the show's producers, picked that clip from "Dangerous Curves" -- Clara's character looking in the mirror and saying, "You did it yourself." Elaina thought it symbolized Clara's life and career. She was totally self-made. She dubbed herself a working girl, and she was -- being a star was her job. She called her fans her "wonderful fan friends"; they had helped anoint her the It girl and she was going to do the best she could to live up to that title. And by doing so she broke herself, or was broken. Because in the history of this business there has never been anyone so viciously persecuted.

Most people in Hollywood were burying their past; she was exhuming hers. They were doing everything behind closed doors, and she was talking to the press. Esther Ralston told me a story on herself that I thought revealed a lot about Clara and Hollywood. She and Clara were shooting "Children of Divorce" and the day they wrapped Esther was having a big party. Esther was very proper -- blond, petite, pretty -- and she lived in a big mansion. And everyone in Hollywood was invited -- that is, all the right people. So Esther was getting dressed in the dressing room and Clara walked by and lingered in the doorway and said, "You're having a party, ain't cha, Esther?" And Esther said, as if it had just hit her, "Oh Clara, would you like to come?" And Clara Bow stood in the doorway and said, "Oh, no, I know you don't want to invite me." This is the biggest star in Hollywood -- and she's a pariah to the point where no one even pretended to accept her. And Esther liked her.

I mean, there are plenty of people around who don't like the big female stars today, but they sure put on a great act.
salon.com | June 10, 1999

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