Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild

Hollywood's first sex symbol, the ' It ' girl, Clara Bow was born in the slums of Brooklyn in a family plagued with alcoholism and insanity. She catapulted to fame after winning Motion Picture magazine's 1921 " Fame and Fortune" contest. The greatest box-office draw of her day—she once received 45,000 fan letters in a single month, Clara Bow's on screen vitality and allure that beguiled thousands, however, would be her undoing off-camera. David Stenn captures her legendary rise to stardom and fall from grace, her success marred by studio exploitation and sexual scandals.










ISBN-13: 9780815410256
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 03/28/2000
Author : David Stenn

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Before there was Marilyn Monroe, there was Clara Bow, the original "It" girl. The story of Bow's transformation from a Brooklyn kid with a family history that included insanity and alcoholism into the silver screen's first sex symbol is truly the stuff that movies are made of.

Dominick Dunne

She was Marilym Monroe decades before Marilyn. How movingly David Stenn has written the story of this hilarious and heartbreaking star.

The New York Times

Stenn has found out as much to know about Clara Bow as it is given to mortals to know; he takes an intelligent approach, neither too solemn nor too flip, and the story he has to tell is almost always engrossing.

Los Angeles Times

Illuminating and unforgettable.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Clara Bow, star of numerous silent films and early talkies, personified sex as fun, earning the sobriquet ``The It Girl.'' Notoriety ended her career before she was 30. ``In this sensitive biography, readers will find a vibrant woman to empathize with, as well as an engrossing history of early picture-making,'' praised PW. (July)

C. Winecoff

Tracing the meteoric rise and nasty fall of the screen sexpot who presaged Harlow and Monroe, TV writer Stenn never loses sight of the scared working-class girl who spent a lifetime trying to escape her past. —Entertainment Weekly