Get to know the women who inspired Taylor Swift's songs.
After releasing his 11th studio album Angry Poets Category At the 2024 Grammy Awards (where she made history by winning her fourth Best Album), the singer released the official tracklist on Feb. 5, and it immediately got Swifties talking.
One song that has garnered particular attention is “Clara Bow,” named after an actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s.
Throughout the song, Swift draws parallels between her and Beau's respective careers and their highly publicized lives in the spotlight.
Here's everything you need to know about Bow.
Who is Clara Bow?
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Bow was born in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn in 1905. After a difficult upbringing, in which his mother suffered from mental illness and was later institutionalized, Bow began his film career in his late teens.
At age 16, she entered a magazine beauty contest and won a small role in the 1922 film. Over the RainbowHer scenes were said to have been cut, but during the silent film era of the 1920s, Mantrap (1926), that (1927) and Wings (1927).
What was Clara Bow known for?
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Following her role in the aforementioned 1927 film thatBow's rise to fame earned her the nickname “It Girl.” As her popularity in the film industry grew, so did her personal life, with the tabloids filling up with gossip about her upbringing and relationships.
Parents He noted that Bow felt isolated from his peers because he was much “brazener” than most of his peers.
“She wasn't well-liked by other women in the film business,” fellow actress Lina Baskett once said about Bow, according to the same magazine. “Her society presence was taboo, which was rather ridiculous, because God knows Marion Davies and Mary Pickford had a lot to hide. It's just that they hid it, and Clara didn't.”
According to Elaine Shepherd, who made a BBC4 documentary about Bow in 2012, Hollywood quickly took a toll on Bow, leading her to retire from acting in 1933.
“The studio was working her to death,” Shepherd told the BBC. “She was taking huge amounts of primitive drugs to get up in the morning and sleep at night. Executives were taking advantage of her as much as they could, and the gossip magazines were writing terrible lies about her. She was dealing with it all on her own as a woman in her twenties.”
“She just found it too stressful,” Shepherd continued, “but it's not true that she was pushed out of Hollywood. Once sound was introduced, she was paid handsomely to make several talkies. If she had received more support early on, she might have been able to continue a fulfilling career.”
Bow later received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960 at the corner of Vine Street and Sunset Boulevard.
Was Clara Bow Married?
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In 1931, Bowe married Rex Bell, best known as a leading western actor, after they first met on the set of the 1930 film Apollo 11. Loyal to the Navy They married the following year and had two sons, Tony Beldam (later renamed Rex Anthony Bell Jr.) and George Beldam Jr.
After retiring from acting in 1933, Box and Bell lived with their children on a ranch in Nevada. The couple were married for over 30 years until Bell died of a heart attack on July 4, 1962.
How did Clara Bow die?
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According to the BBC, Bowe suffered from “mental illness” in her later years and reportedly attempted suicide in the 1940s when her husband “decided to return to political office.” Parents.
Just three years after her husband's death, Bow reportedly died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on September 27, 1965. The New York TimesShe was 60 years old at the time.
How did Clara Bow inspire Taylor Swift's new album? Angry Poets Category?
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The new song is Angry Poets Category It reminds me of a story similar to hers. red In the song “The Lucky One,” Swift sings about the young stars who came before her and how they faced scrutiny under the spotlight.
In the first verse, Swift sings, “You look like Clara Bow / In this light, worthy of attention / Did you know all your life you'd be picked like a rose?” She talks about how exciting it is to be plucked from obscurity and how she might “die” if it happened to her.
She named Stevie Nicks in 1975, recounting how the crowd “went crazy at her fingertips” and again alluding to the fact that she “might as well die” if she “made it big” in Los Angeles.
But the song takes a twist in the bridge, when Swift points out that fame and success don't come easy: “Beauty is a beast on its hands and knees, growling, demanding more,” she sings, before adding, “They only let you know when your girlish sparkle flickers at just the right time? It's hell in heaven, good fortune doesn't come easy.”
What does Clara Bow's family say about Taylor Swift's new song?
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Following the song's release, Bow's great-granddaughters Nicole Cisneros and Brittany Grace Bell (granddaughters of Bow's son Rex Bell Jr.) told People magazine exclusively that they were “thrilled” when they first heard the song. Cisneros added that the song “poetically draws parallels between Clara Bow and Taylor.”
Regarding the song's lyric, “Did you know that all your life you'll be chosen like a rose?”, Bell said, “Clara was a 'rose' chosen by the men of Hollywood who took advantage of her fame and talent. I think it perfectly describes how she felt as an 'It' girl in Hollywood.”
Prior to the song's release, Cisneros and Bell reflected on the many similarities between Bow and Swift, noting how they were both “pioneers in their fields.” Bell added that her great-grandmother would have been very protective of Swift. Bell referenced something Bow had previously said about Marilyn Monroe in the film Swift: Clara Bow: Running WildSo she said, “I never met her, but if I did, I would try my hardest to help her. I'm sure she must be as tired, hurt and confused as she is carrying a heavy load.”
Relating the same quote to Swift, Bell added: “I suspect Clara Bow would feel a similar sense of familiarity and protectiveness towards someone of her level of celebrity, in terms of dealing with the press and the weight of the crown.”
