She was born Clara Gordon Bow on July 29, 1905, in Brooklyn, New York. Her mom Sarah suffered from psychosis as a consequence of epilepsy. Tragically Sarah was institutionalized after she tried to kill Clara with a butcher knife. Along with her mom out of the home her alcoholic father Robert Bow began sexually abusing her. When she was sixteen Clara entered a a contest in Movement Image journal and gained a display screen check. She made her movie debut int he 1922 drama Past The Rainbow. The gorgeous brunette signed a contract with Most popular Footage and in 1924 she was chosen to be a Wampas Child Star. Throughout this time she additionally posed nude for photographer Alfred Cheney Johnston. In 1925 she appeared in fourteen movies together with The Plastic Age, Parisian Love, and The Primrose Path. Clara was solid as a carefree flapper within the 1927 comedy It. The movie made her a famous person and from then on she was referred to as “The It Woman”. Subsequent she starred within the hit drama Wings which gained the Academy Award for Greatest Image. By 1929 she was the highest feminine box-office star within the nation and was getting forty-five thousand fan letters a month.
When the talkies began she was nervous about her thick Brooklyn accent however audiences liked her voice. Her first talkies, The Wild Occasion and Harmful Curves, have been field workplace hits. Though she earned greater than 5 thousand {dollars} every week she lived in a modest seven-room bungalow in Beverly Hills. She hated going to Hollywood occasions and most popular to remain residence and play poker. Clara’s attractive picture and her off display screen romances made her one of the crucial gossiped about girls in Hollywood. Amongst her many lovers have been Fredric March, Gilbert Roland, Bela Lugosi, and Gary Cooper. She was briefly engaged to director Victor Fleming. Clara as soon as mentioned “A intercourse image is a heavy load to hold when one is drained, harm and bewildered.” In 1930 her secretary, Daisy DeVoe, was arrested for stealing cash from her. At her trial Daisy testified that Clara was concerned in orgies and bestiality. Though these tales have been false her fame was ruined. Shortly after the trial she suffered a nervous breakdown and needed to be hospitalized.
She appeared to lastly discover real love when she married actor Rex Bell in 1931. Bored with Hollywood she determined to cease making motion pictures. Her last movie was the 1933 drama Hoopla. Clara and Rex moved to a big ranch in Nevada. The couple had two sons – Rex Jr and. In addition they opened a restaurant in Hollywood referred to as “The It Cafe”. Sadly she suffered from power insomnia and was finally identified with schizophrenia. Clara tried suicide in 1944 by swallowing a bottle of capsules. As she bought older she turned reclusive and infrequently left her residence. She turned down a profitable provide to write down her autobiography as a result of she did not wish to embarrass her household. After her husband Rex died from a coronary heart assault in 1962 she moved to Culver Metropolis, California. On the night of September 26, 1965 she watched the movie The Virginian on tv. It was directed by her former fiance Victor Fleming and starred her former lover Gary Cooper. Early the following morning, on September 27, Clara died at age sixty from a coronary heart assault. She is buried subsequent to Rex at Forest Garden Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
