Clara Bow: The It Girl Hollywood Threw Away

In January 1929, Clara Bow received more than 45,000 fan letters in a single month. She was the number one box-office star in America, and the whole world knew her as the It Girl. Four years later, at 28, she walked away from Hollywood for good. For decades the story was that the talkies destroyed her. That story is wrong. This is the real one: a childhood of poverty in Brooklyn, a magazine contest that changed her life, the film that gave us the phrase "It Girl", a studio that worked her without rest, a courtroom scandal, and the Nevada desert where she finally found some peace. This video is commentary and education. The images are public-domain photographs, posters and publicity stills from the 1920s and early 1930s, plus modern photos shared under Creative Commons licenses. Facts checked as of October 2026. ⏱ Chapters 0:00 The It Girl 0:46 A Room Above a Church 1:53 A Spark of Divine Fire 3:03 The Girl Who Had It 4:59 A Big Freak 5:28 The Microphone 6:11 Crisis-a-Day Clara 7:09 The Desert 8:50 What Was Lost 9:48 The Girl Who Was Herself 📚 Sources David Stenn, Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild (1988; Cooper Square Press 2000): https://books.google.com/books?id=mm3... Clara Bow, "My Life Story" (as told to Adela Rogers St. Johns), Photoplay, Feb–Apr 1928: http://www.maxwelldemille.com/ClaraBo... Lois Shirley, "Empty Hearted," Photoplay, October 1929: https://archive.org/details/photoplay... Joe Morella & Edward Z. Epstein, The "It" Girl: The Incredible Story of Clara Bow (1976): https://archive.org/details/itgirlinc... Library of Congress, National Film Registry essay on "It" (Dino Everett): https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/n... Margaret Herrick Library (Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences), Clara Bow papers: https://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark... PBS NewsHour, "Who is Clara Bow from Taylor Swift's new album?": https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/who... Exhibitors Herald / Quigley annual exhibitors' poll (box-office rankings 1928–1930): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_Ten... Photos: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain, CC BY-SA 4.0, CC BY 2.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, CC BY 4.0). Music: “At Launch” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Eternal Hope” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Inspired” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Carefree” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Comfortable Mystery” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Undaunted” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Unanswered Questions” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Dreams Become Real” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Reign” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Music: “Americana” – Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) Full credits for every photo (title, author, license): see the "Photo credits" comments below the video. #ClaraBow #ItGirl #SilentFilm #OldHollywood #FilmHistory