Hot History - CLARA BOW: Part 2 - Taylor Swift's muse

Episode Date: August 9, 2026

Welcome back for Part 2 of our Clara Bow series where we unpack how this young girl from Brooklyn became the muse of Taylor Swift, Stevie Nicks and Margot Robbie!Looking at her relationship with the press, struggles with mental health, financial situation and final years, we're going to unpack Clara's impact on both culture and history. Because as it turns out, Hollywood and indeed society haven't really changed how we speak about or view women since Clara Bow!Shout out to our incredible researcher Grace McCamish for pulling this together, and if you're wanting more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Substack⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and of course, right here! 'Til next week, Ainslie xPlease take care while listening with the sensitive themes mentioned at the top and should you require assistance please use the below:In Australia, support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 0477 131 114 (lifeline) or 1300 22 4636 (Beyond Blue).In the USA,  support is available 24/7 by calling or texting 988 (⁠⁠988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline⁠⁠) or texting HOME to 741741 for the ⁠⁠Crisis Text Line⁠⁠.In the UK, support is available 24/7 by calling NHS 111  (NHS) or  ⁠⁠116 123⁠⁠  (Samaritans)

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If you or someone you know is struggling with these, take care and I've left some resources in the show notes. All right, guys, hello, and welcome back to another episode of Hot History, your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history you probably should know but don't. I'm your host Ainsley Harvey, ready to cover part two. So we are back on the life of the original It Girl, Clara Bo. Okay, guys, she is the biggest star Hollywood has ever seen, the muse of one Taylor

Alison Swift and so many more, and of course, guys, revolutionary in her impact on both history and culture. So let's pick it back up with where we left off. Now at this point, the year is 1929. Okay, Clara is well and truly established as the it girl, with her life, relationships and mental health struggles being brandished over tabloids as public fodder, setting her on a downward spiral, which she worried, would ultimately land her in the same position her grandmother and mother before, left for dead in a sanitarium. But the one thing, guys, that we know about Clara is that no matter how hard it gets, she will battle like hell to make it through. And by 1929, there was one big battle that everyone in Hollywood is facing.

The advent of the talkie. So as we covered in part one, right, the majority of the 1920s films were silent. But as 1930 approached, so too did the talking pictures, something which knocked many stars off the silver screen with their talent in silent films, which is heavily reliant on facial expressions and physicality, not really translating to talkies, which again, you know, kind of rely on memorizing and delivering dialogue. So this is a really big shift, which transforms the film industry. And despite, guys, tabloids stating that Clara was not cut out for life, like outside of

silent films, this is just big, old, fake Hollywood news. Largely stemming from Clara's slight stammer and thick Brooklyn accent, which we spoke about in part one, which was widely criticized by basically like movie snops and critics, right, who are saying that it was harsh and jarring. But while that's what they may have thought, and while that's what made the papers, audiences loved Clara in these talkies, with some of them going on to become huge, major financial successes, which writer Heather Babcock says came down to her sultry accent, which perfectly suited the modern and snappy dialogue of talkies, which divas put so many bums in seats, okay, that police were often needed to control the Clara crazed masses,

which lined up for her premieres and screenings, alack. Soon, headlines such as It Girl Speaks and Clara Bo talks began gracing the daily papers, as did the very first Academy Awards. That is right, my divas. 1929 is a big year, okay? Not only is it kind of like the advent of the talkie, but it also sees the first Oscars, where wings. Clara's 1927 film won the very first Oscar for Best Picture. So, come 1930, right, the dawn of this new decade, Clara's adapting. She's bouncing back from the disastrous autobiography incident

and seems to be really quite in a good position with her mental health. But not all that glitters is gold. And while Clara made the talkies look effortless, they really weren't. Okay, she had serious ongoing anxiety about delivering spoken. lines, suffering breakdowns during filming and struggling with having to pair back her expressions and movements for highly sensitive microphones. And while audiences still bought themselves a ticket to see Clarabot in whatever film she turned out next, the cracks in her passion for the film industry were beginning to fall, which is when she meets one Mr. Rex Bell on the set of Paramount's

new talkie comedy, true to the Navy. An attractive and kind man, record Bell moved west in his youth, working as a cowboy before entering the film industry on Hollywood Westerns, which again, guys, it's giving like Elsie Silver, cowboy smutty book talk kind of trope, right? Which I'm loving for Clara. Now, although he appeared in several films and was incredibly talented by all accounts, he never achieved or enjoyed the level of fame that Clara had, gaining instead a reputation for professionalism rather than celebrity, which my deavers was exactly what Clara Beau needed. Okay, she is struggling at this point, and unlike almost all of the men in her orbit,

Rex, who don't give a fuck about her fame or her money, and treated her, by all accounts, as an ordinary person. Which again, this is just the tonic she needed. So very much a right person, right place, time here. And they were really well matched, laughing on set, riding horses after hours and developing a relationship built on honesty and normality, something totally unthinkable for a star of Clara's size. They also, successfully and surprisingly, managed to keep their courtship under wraps,

with Rex helping Clara through her mental health struggles day by day, eventually showing just how committed he was to a life with her, Clara the person, not Clara the Star, by proposing. She accepted, with the pair marrying in 1931, a year that would ultimately change Clara Bow's life forever. And I don't mean because she became a Mrs. I am instead, guys, referring to one of Hollywood's most bitter lawsuits, that of Clara Boe and her former secretary, Daisy DeVoe.

Now, trigger warning here, guys, okay, this story will boil your blood. So strap yourself in. Basically, this is a case as old as time. We see in Hollywood, like, era after era, right? Young woman, makes a lot of money, is largely financially illiterate, then goes and gives that money to the wrong person and chaos ensues. But usually, in this situation, that person is a man. However, in Clara's story, which is super on brand for her, the manager in question is a woman, her secretary, Daisy DeVoe, who took over operations for Clara in 1928. At first, this all seemed jolly, right? Everything's all well, in fact, so much so that by 1930, Clara's finance

were well and truly on track. She was making a lot of money. But, because there's always a butt. On November 10th, that same year, a really disturbing and alarming report made its way into a local paper, claiming that Clara and Daisy had split ways. Initially, both women denied this story, with Daisy commenting, quote, as far as I know I'm still her secretary, Ms. Bo has not served notice on me, I guess I'll have to find out all about it. So it seems from the kind of get-go from the set-off here, right? That this is misreporting or misunderstanding, and her and Clara kind of like having a bit of a he-he about it, like, oh, I'll have to figure out, I'll just read the papers and you'll

tell me what's going on. But a few days later, it was revealed that Daisy, in fact, had been fired by Clara after Rex suspected something was wrong with Daisy's accounts, which it turns out was bang on. Not only had Daisy been hiding things from Clara who, like, outright. trusted her implicitly, but she'd been helping herself to the star's cash and jewelry. Apparently taking diamonds, a sapphire ring, Clara's insurance papers, and even the cut of a big, that $20,000 check from Clara's home. Now, obviously, right, Clara is horrified, as you would be if someone that was like really

close to you and install all this stuff from you. But it was just that stuff, right? Material goods. what really sent Clara Bo spiraling here was that Daisy got her grubby little hands on her personal papers, including letters and love notes, and decided to gear up to file a lawsuit against Clara for thousands of dollars in back pay.

So kind of like blackmail, really. Now, this all sounds horrible, right? Terrible, of course. But rest easy, my divas, because before this conniving plan could come to life, Daisy was actually arrested and indicted by a grand jury, on 37 counts of grand theft, Arthur Rex encouraged Clara to present evidence to the authorities, who revealed that Daisy stole an estimated $22,4244 U.S. dollars in today's money from Clara. So, like a serious chunk of Dosh and like I said, all the other stuff.

But still, Daisy refuses to admit to any of this. She's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Instead, posting her $1,000 bond and waiting to go to trial on. on January 13, 1931. Now, you'd be thinking, or like to think anyway, this is going to be an easy win for Clara, right? It's obvious Daisy's robbed her, but much to Clara's dismay,

Daisy's lawyer took the strategy of defence through attack. But not, which may have been relevant here, right? Not of Clara's actions as an employer, but of her character and lifestyle, which given the time of the Great Depression, was really used to position Clara's wealth as a moral issue. And when it came out that she spent the equivalent of $4.8 million US dollars today on clothes, cars and going out between February 1929 and October 1930,

the Court of Public Opinion turned on the Star for taking her secretary to court over an amount so relatively small to her personally. This, of course, to be honest, is kind of valid? I mean, I know there's at the moment even a couple of cases. open against Kylie Jenner, not for theft of property like in this case, but the idea of this big, rich star, kind of going to court over what's a drop in the ocean for her, is controversial. I mean, look at Gwyneth's $1 like, I wish you well.

Ski accident case here, right? I personally don't agree with this stance, but I do understand what people come from here. This, however, wasn't even the biggest problem. This isn't the biggest trump card in the defense's kind of arsenal, Because amongst the things Daisy stole, like we said, was Clara's personal documents. From telegrams to love letters and contracts to medical records, the details of Clara Bow's life were presented and read aloud for all to hear. As you can imagine, the tabloids went fucking ballistic on this shit, right?

Printing as much as they could about her personal correspondence, which must have been both excruciating and just flat out humiliating. I mean, I just off the top of my head here, the Johnny Depp Amber Heard. Court case comes to mind how that was kind of blasted everywhere. Same with Justin Baldoni and Blake lively, right? And that ends up extending to other people in their orbit, Taylor Swift, as kind of the other person on the other end of the correspondence. So like a really, really nasty, nasty thing to endure here for Clara.

And unfortunately, it only got worse. With these sensitive documents, the gossip colloquial. soon filled with over-sensationalised, flat-out, made-up stories of drug use, alcoholism, kinks and lovers which led Hollywood producer B.P. Schulberg to refer to the star as crisis a day, Clara. And while that is kind of very mean for someone to say, he was really close to her as well, so like especially mean, he wasn't wrong my divas. Because every single morning, it genuinely seemed like some new sort of accusation was made in both the press and the trial, which purported flat out lies in exaggerations, like I said,

including that Clara slept with anyone who looked at her, had public sex, shared drugs freely, and sickeningly, like, I don't even want to say it out loud, but like, have to for the purpose of this story, engaged in sex with dogs. Like, what the fuck is. room with people. Beastiality? Really? Like, it's, it's so disgusting and inhumane and flat-out criminal and incorrect, obviously, and all of this went to print. Like, it is one thing, right, for this to be thrown around a courtroom or, like, gossiped about, but to be thrown on a front page is fucking

diabolical. Like, I genuinely, when I think about this, I just thank God that there was no social media when Clara Bo was alive. Like, I cannot imagine this kind of hatred and lies being spewed out online. Although, guys, unfortunately, let's be real. I actually can imagine this because we see it all the time and have done both in the years before Clara Bo with the likes of Anne Bole, who spoke about a few weeks ago, Marie Antoinette as well, and after Clara, right? The most poignant example of which is none other than Britney Spears. we think about it, guys. The similarities here are wild, right? Both women rose to fame at an exceptionally young age. Clara, becoming the it girl at barely 20, Brittany becoming an international pop sensation

at that same time, all of which does largely seem to, it didn't, but it feels like, right, it kind of happened overnight as their first admired for their youthful fun and kind of beauty. Then their talent. Then shortly after that, they're totally transformed. again and commodified as big sex symbols, which also just gross considering their young age still. These two women then go on to ultimately become the face of their generations, with Clara embodying the liberated flapper of the 20s, while Brittany, the optimism and youth culture of the late 90s and early 90s. And then, as their stars rise, they're hounded by the media, who quickly transform both women

from human beings into fantasies. with every romance, every rumour, every hairstyle, every public appearance becoming headline news, which again, yes, this does increase their fames and fortune, right? It's how it works. But it also increases the scrutiny. As Clara Bow's personal life was relentlessly dissected by gossip columnists, while Brittany endured a constant army of paparazzi following her every move. So while the technology, right, that of phones, the internet, social media, like we said, is different. The effect here is remarkably similar,

with the public consuming their private lives, mental health, and human failures as entertainment, all of which resulted in public catastrophic implosion leading to lifelong, incredibly serious mental health crises before the age of 30. We are inclined, right, to look at these two women side by side and as I say, thank God, that social media wasn't around when Clara was experiencing this and obviously, right,

right away, feel immense levels of sympathy for Brittany, which again, if you're just like a normal, decent fucking person, you should feel anywhere, this poor woman. But I will say, through social media, Britney did at least have something. A right of reply, an ability to contradict and reach millions of people in minutes with her own side of the story. Whereas Clara Bow never had this, resulting in millions of people worldwide believing the nonsense and the lies. And while, yes, thank God, the editor of the paper who claimed that she had had sex with dogs was put in jail, as he fucking should be, and the jury ultimately found Daisy guilty, the damage to Clara was immense. Firstly, on the legal front, Daisy was only found

guilty on one of over 30 counts of grand theft. And while she was sentenced to 18 months in prison, this was not total victory. In fact, it wasn't even close. Let's be so real. And secondly, as I said, the damage to Clara's image and career was huge, with both largely left in tatters as she was chewed up and spat out by the fame machine. Something which has a real cyclical irony to it here, guys, right? Because think about it, magazines and the press literally gave her her first chance in Hollywood with the fame and fortune competition. And now it had ruined her. Which again, the same with Brittany, the same with Marilyn, the same with Amanda Biance, right? All of these women were made famous by the press and then destroyed by them only a few years later. Which, of course,

is catastrophic to Clara's mental health, with any last semblance of fortitude she had crumbling away, leading the star to be admitted to the Glendale Sanatorium to seek treatment. With this time away, Clara was released from her final paramount contract, and now watched under the careful eyes of physicians who began intense rest therapy to regulate her sleep, build up her nutrition and strength through exercise, and undertake talk therapy to aid her severe anxiety, insomnia, panic attacks and emotional exhaustion, which modern historians believe today would likely be diagnosed as complex post-traumatic stress disorder, although there was no formal diagnosis made during her time in Glendale,

with instead the word on the street being that Clara had a mental breakdown. Again, guys, the resemblance here to like Brittany's 2007 mental health crises, hers, of course, being widely publicly photographed and spread around the world in what can only be described as a complete, inhumane disregard of human decency. At least during all of this, Clara is kind of in, you know, relative private at the sanatorium, where after several weeks of treatment, she'd turned enough of a corner medically to return home. But she did not return to Hollywood. No, my divas.

You see, having endured more highs and more lows than many humans on God's green earth can ever relate to, Clara needed to get away. And as such, moved with Rex to a ranch in Nevada to work cattle, walk the land, and heal her body and mind. She deserves it. I'm happy for her here. Okay? She's like, again, Elsie Silver, like Chestnut Springs, Cowboy Diva. And she remained here for months and months on end, soaking up what? it meant to be Clara the person, not Clara the It Girl or Clara the film star, just Clara. And after almost a year of solitude, she figured it out.

She was the flapper as much as she was a rancher. She was from Brooklyn as much as she was from Hollywood, because every step of her journey brought her to where she was now. And with that, she decided to give films another go. not for the fame or fortune, although maybe a little for the fortune, but mainly for the love of it. Right, she was a skilled performer who embodied her characters and loved the craft. Plus, I think let's be real, it's also probably a big old-fashioned, like, fuck you to the press and Daisy for bringing her solo, right?

She's like, I'm going to prove all of you divas wrong. So now, with a new perspective end, her health improved, Clara returned to Hollywood. And now in her mid to late 20s, which, like, is just wild to think she's done all of this by kind of 27 years old, had the power to shape her own career. And as such, took a two-year film deal with Fox Film Corporation who reportedly paid her $50,000 plus a percentage of the profits for each of these productions. The first of which was call her Savage, where Clara played NASA Dynamite Springer, one of the most complex and emotionally-distance. demanding roles of her career. Portraying the fiery Texan heiress who finds out her real father is a Native American man, which upends her whole identity,

Clara deliberately decided that her comeback debut would be a woman of complex character. Right? Not the carefree flapper or college student with a crush, but a complex, more mature woman, which really allowed her to demonstrate not only her dramatic depth, but pull on her own struggles. resulting in what many historians today regard as one of the finest acting performances of Clara Bo's career. So she's come back with a bang, right? Which is followed by 1933's Hoopla, where Clara portrayed one of her most sympathetic characters, Lou, a working-class woman trying to make a living on the carnival circuit.

This in and of itself, guys, was revolutionary for Clara, who rarely played working-class women, which makes Hoopla feel in many ways. right, like a real nod back to her own upbringing, something that would ultimately become a pretty cyclical real world moment. For this was Clara Bow's final film. She had been the most famous woman in the world, right? The most dragged actress, certainly in the press, and been both adored and abandoned and loved and hated and worshipped and vilified by audiences. And despite everything stacked against her from almost the moment she drew breath, Clara Bro beat it all,

proving to everyone and proving, most importantly here, to herself, that she could face anything, including retirement, which kicked off for Clara at age 28 after completing a grand total of 58 in just 13 years. Like, wow, this is giving Zadaya in 2026 a run for her money, okay? So she's had this huge innings. And let me tell you, she deserves the rest. Again, I'm just happy for this diva, like getting out of Hollywood.

Although, I'm not quite sure she got the rest she was intending. Instead, working with Rex on the ranch, raising cattle and raising their family, giving birth to Tony in 1934 and George in 1938, which revealed Clara's most important role to date, that of a mother. Determined to give her boys the furthest thing from what she experienced growing up, Clara embraced motherhood, especially in the younger years, with friends recalling that she loved cooking, caring for animals, gardening and spending time outdoors with her sons, whom she deliberately kept hidden away from the public out of fear for the pressure of the spotlight.

In this, she remained totally steadfast guys, prioritising her son's mental well-being, which biographers claimed she constantly worried about given her own family history. history, something her sons later remembered their mother fondly for, saying she was warm, playful and deeply devoted. But, as is always the case with Clara, amongst this happiness, there was also loss, namely the stillbirth of her daughter, which she never recovered from, only pushing past wounds closer to the surface until they finally cracked open. And while Rex, who was like all in all an incredible man here, took on much of the responsibility for raising the boys during these bouts of anxiety and depression,

it put masses of strain on their relationship, which inevitably came to an end in the mid-1940s when he decided to try his hand at politics. Making the jump from acting to Nevada's lieutenant governor, which is giving very much like Annie Schwarzenegar vibes here, right? Clara really struggled, with the bright lights and mounting pressure of public life beginning to creep back into her own existence.

So the pair decided to amicably split, co-parenting their sons between Nevada and California, where Clara lived alone in a series of apartments, where her mental state declined further. At one point, she was in such despair that she attempted suicide and was subsequently hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and diagnosed with schizophrenia. The same disease, her mother, and largely historians believe her grandmother also suffered from. Learning this, Clara was determined. right? She had such clarity that she wanted to get better to seek treatment, which included the highly experimental new shock therapy. Something which historians now tend to agree was not

the right course of action, with Boe likely suffering from depression and possibly even bipolar disorder, rather than a strict kind of schizophrenia, like down-line diagnosis. But still, guys, such were the barbarous treatments and the limited knowledge of the time. So now on her own back in California and kind of, you know, undergoing treatment, regardless of how incorrect or ineffective, what does Clara Bow's life look like? Well, to be honest, it wasn't anything fancy, but it also wasn't nothing either, which is the key thing here, guys, because let me tell you, the amount of silent film stars who earned these massive paychecks and rose to kind

of astronomical levels of fame in the 20s, only to go on to live as paupers in the golden years of their lives was astronomical. Okay? but lucky for Clara, she wasn't one of them. So I thought let's take this little minute, right, to unpack the finances behind 1920 stardom because it was, as it still is today, a highly lucrative business. So, as we said earlier in part one,

Clara's very modest upbringing made her more conservative with her funds when she first arrived in Hollywood in those first years, right? But as her star is rising, the purse strings opened, something that made her producer and head of preferred pictures B. P. Schorberg, increasingly nervous. After all, he'd seen firsthand just how quickly cash could be burned, which, according to biographical accounts, he tried to combat by making sure that every single check he gave her, he insisted she invest half. And while this didn't stop her spending

money freely, which she absolutely had the right to do divas, let's remember she's basically working six days a week for most of her life. Those investments paid off, ensuring that Clara had long-term financial security, which was, of course, aided by the ludicrous checks she negotiated for her final appearances in Call for Savage and Hoopla. So she was able to go, you want me to come back? Pay me my money, right? Which we love for her. So she's very comfortable by this point in her life financially, right? And as such, takes these funds, or part of them anyway, and moved into a modest two-bedroom bungalow in Culver City, California, which for those of you unfamiliar, was a quiet, middle-class neighbourhood outside of the hustle and bustle. There was no Beverly Hills

heiresses or Hollywood High Flyers here. It was just a regular neighbourhood with regular middle-class folks going about their regular business, including Estella Smith, Clara's live-in nurse and housekeeper, who kept the former star company, which she needed, because from 1950 onward, my deavis, Clara Bow, became a recluse. Avoiding any and all public. appearances bar, this like one kind of key exception, Rex's funeral in 1965, where she stoically went to pay tribute to the man she loved as a husband and as father of her sons, Clara was rarely seen. And to be really honest here, guys, she was also rarely missed by the public at large. I want to remind you, at this point, Hollywood is a well-churned machine, and the big name right now

is Marilyn Monroe, whose fame, fortune and cultural capital matched Clara's in many ways, as she really became the next kind of iteration of the Hollywood sex symbol, something which suited Clara just fine. Because let me tell you, she's actually kind of living her dream life at home around this time, right? In the shadow of the 50s and 60s stars, Clara Bo could live a private life, spending her days with Estella playing games and chatting, always followed around by her dogs, and her nights, if she needed an adventure, going to the drive-in cinema in disguise. But most of all, Clara Bow was an avid reader of, you guys guessed it, history.

That is right, my divas, our gal was a hot historian, okay? With Edward Gibbons, the history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and William Shreyer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, amongst her favorites. So basically, Clara Bo is living with her friend, hanging out with her dogs, and reading history books at home in her final years, which, to me,

sounds like fucking bliss. And for Clara Bo, a woman burdened with so much trauma and ridicule and pressure throughout her whole life is exactly what she deserves. She also, thank God, stopped shock treatment and other experimental psychoanalysis.

managing her mental illness alongside her physical health, which really began to decline by the 1960s, resulting in her death from a heart attack in 1965 at the ripe old age of 60. In the days that followed, headlines and obituaries flowed, and despite being out of Hollywood for more than three decades, there was still a strong reverence for Clara's career, both in front of the camera and her cultural impact behind it. On her passing, The New York Times wrote, quote, more than any other woman entertainer of her time, Clara Bo perhaps best personified the giddy aspects of an unreal era, which is really quite lovely, guys, and also bang on here. But the rest of the obituaries were entirely one-dimensional.

With the Daily Breeze, for example, here writing, quote, silent film and talkie star, roaring 20 sex symbol, it girl, Clara Bo dead at 60. which really does show how her legacy was largely reduced, one to her sex life and two, to her physical appearance. Something which continued after her death, thanks in part to Kenneth Anger's 1959 book, Hollywood. Babylon, which is like the Margarabi film we've been talking about, it's based on this. And let me tell you, this thing was basically the burn book for Hollywood in the roaring 20s, okay? It is full of gossip. It is full of rumour. It is full of scandals and orgies and drug-induced amnesia, which was so explicit that it ended up being banned for almost a decade in the US.

Which you may be thinking, one, censorship and two, like, that's hella dramatic. But this is not entirely unjustified, okay? In one part of the book, Anger made a disgusting show of Jane Mansfield's death by greatly exaggerating its kind of gruesomeness in, like, real defined, disgusting detail. In another, he claimed that actress Lupe Velez committed suicide by drowning herself in her own toilet, which completely fucking false. And then, to top it all off, right, a little sprinkle on top, he's just publicly outing queer film stars and celebrities, like it's a little kind of tip bit to throw in between

death scenes and orgies, right? This shit was fucking awful. So of course, it had to feature Clara Beau. After all, you can hardly write a burn book about the 20s in Hollywood without its biggest star, who he claimed slept with the entire USC football team in one evening. This is obviously false and outrageously slanderous. But guess what? It sold copies.

Adding to this larger-than-life mythology of The It Girl, something which Clara in her final years didn't really give a shit about, reportedly saying of her legacy, quote, I'm just a woman who happened to be in the pictures. Still, this book and the many headlines during her life led to greater sensationalism of Clara's character. It's not really hard to see why. I mean, I don't agree with it, but, I mean, you have to admit,

going through just what we've spoken about, right? Clara Bow's life feels like something out of a movie she herself would starring. Poor girl, yeah? wins competition, promising fame and fortune, which she finds, rising to the top only to be struck down, hitting rock bottom, after which she stages a comeback for the ages, and a shock early retirement, which ends with her living as a wealthy, a, you know, scollered kind of society recluse.

I mean, it writes itself, guys, which is why she's so fascinating and why she is the muse of one Taylor Swift. Yes, my Divas, you have all been waiting so patiently for the Taylor of it all, so let's get into it. Now, the Swifties amongst us will know that Taylor released a song on the tortured poets department titled Clara Bo, which essentially traces a line through three generations of female stardom, starting with Clara, the original, right? The one who set this whole thing in motion, changing not only kind of her own generation, but every single one after. with the verses moving chronologically saying a young woman is told she's the next Clara Bow and another is told she's kind of the next Stevie Nix

and then the one after that being told she's the new Taylor Swift. Now, I shan't even attempt to kind of explain, you know, Taylor's experience writing this. I could not ever do it justice. So instead, I'm just going to go ahead and let her tell you herself. Have a listen. I kind of like being a narrator that's not the story. person I relate to. So the narrator in Clara Bow is either a studio, like a Hollywood studio person or a label executive who's sitting in my mind behind a desk and meeting with a brand new starlet

who's just come to town. The exec says you look like Clara Bow in this light. It's remarkable. You're so special. You're amazing. We're going to make you just like her. In my mind, that girl was Stevie Nix, right? So Stevie Nix sits down. They tell her she looks like Clara She's got those big moon eyes and we're going to make you just like her. Don't worry. We're going to put you through this machine and you'll be a god. The second verse says, you look like Stevie Nix in this light, the hair and lips. So in my mind, that was me that sat down opposite that desk, right?

I sit down at a record label and they're like, you look like Stevie Nix will make you the next Stevie Nicks. And basically you learn that like you're in this machine and they're trying to make you into a woman that they just idealized and then discarded. Like, the entertainment industry love bombs women, right? We love you. We don't know who you are. Why are you even here?

And so in the last verse, in my mind, it's a new artist that sits down across from a record label desk and they say, you look like Taylor Swift. In this light, we're loving it. You've got edge, she never did. The future's bright dazzling. Because that's also another thing that you get when you're a female in the music or the entertainment industry, movies, whatever. It's like, oh, you're like, you're like, you're like, you're a lot.

like this person that we, like, they name a big name and they're like, oh, but, like, you're going to be so much better. It's going to be so, no, no, no, it's going to be cooler. You're going to be, you're so much better, like, to offset the comparison. I love this clip, guys, not in the least, because I'm always just like, oh my God, this woman is so fucking smart. But because it really does get to the point I'm trying to make here about Clara Bow. Okay. She is, really, really is the original celebrity. The Blue blueprint for how a regular girl from a poor background can become rich and famous thanks to her talent and her looks and ultimately become the face of her generation.

Something which she is both commodified and ruined for in the same breath. Again, right, we see Brittany here, we see Marilyn. But the point Taylor makes and the reason, guys, Clara Bo is her muse, is because Clara refused to be beaten. pushing through her struggle because she was able to recognize her own self-worth, which is the whole point of that song, right? There will always be people around you in this fame machine who will tell you how great you are. What potential you'll have.

And if you do this and if you do that, then you can be the next Clara Bow, or the next Stevie Nix or the next Taylor Swift. But it is not from a place of love or encouragement or kindness or as a kind of muse and inspiration. it is because they want to commodify you for themselves. And at the end of the day, just like Clara Bow and Marilyn Monroe and Britney Spears and Stevie Nix and Taylor Swift, right? Those same people who tell you all those beautiful things,

or as Taylor says, love bomb you, will just as quickly try to rip you down. Because when you are a young woman, nothing sells better than one, sex, and two, your failure, specifically a catastrophic public implosion. So the only defense, the only protection, the only armor we have against this is knowing our self-worth, which is why Clara Bo, despite her circumstances, the headlines or the struggle managed to carry on because she knew deep down in her most fundamental soul, right, in her very DNA,

that she was a thoroughbred star. Born for it, not because of the fame or the fortune, but because of a passion, a longing, a wantedness to share. And in the words of Nellie LaRoy herself, you're either a star or you ain't, and I am. Which brings us, my divas, to the end of another episode of Hot History. Thank you so much for listening along on this series.

I have loved digging into this period of Hollywood history. It's so fascinating and fabulous and tragic and toxic and all of the things. So I wanted to stay in this realm, okay? But we are leaving Hollywood. We are leaving the US. And instead we are heading back to where we always seem to somehow end up. Romanov Russia, where we meet the most famous ballerina in history. Okay?

The dying swan herself. Anna Pavlova. Until then, guys, if you are looking for some more Hot History, you can follow us on Instagram and substack at Hot History Club and on YouTube and TikTok at hot.history. It has been a pleasure, getting down and dirty in time with you, and I will see you all shortly. Thanks, guys. Love you.

Bye.