Who is Clara Bow, Taylor Swift's inspiration for "Tortured Poets"?

Clara Bow, the original 1920s "It Girl," is the latest Old Hollywood figure to serve as inspiration for Taylor Swift's 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, named a song after the popular silent film actress who rose to stardom just a few years after her debut. Known as the first sex symbol of the flapper era, Bow starred in several box-office hits, including an early Oscar-winning film.

Now that TTPD has finally arrived, keep reading to learn more about the late actress, including any connections she may have to Swift and what Bow's living relatives think of the musical tribute.

Clara Gordon Bowe was born on July 29, 1905, in Brooklyn, New York, and raised in a tenement slum by an abusive father and violent, psychotic mother; in a 1928 interview with Photoplay magazine, Bowe said that her mother's epileptic fits and psychotic episodes He recalled that he was often forced to take care of his mother and the house while she suffered from epileptic seizures and psychotic episodes.

As a teenager, Bow developed a love of film and eventually entered the "Fame and Fortune" contest, which launched her career. When Bow's mother learned that she wanted to be an actress, she told her daughter that she would "rather be dead."

In 1922, the same year Bow won her first acting role, she awoke in the middle of the night to find her mother threatening to kill her with a meat cleaver. Bow ran away, and her mother was institutionalized and later died in 1923.

After Bow's first role in the 1922 film "Over the Rainbow," the new actress took on many assignments, filming 15 projects in 1925 alone; according to the BBC, she was known for her "big eyes, baby-faced beauty" and played carefree, independent women. She also made a successful transition from the silent film era to talkies, starring in a total of 57 films during her career, 11 of which were talkies.

"She really came alive in front of the camera," says Judith McCrell, author of Flappers: Six Women of a Dangerous Generation. 'When you look at her, you feel as if she's voluntarily doing something for you, as if you're in a relationship with her. That may be an illusion, but it's a very powerful one.

Among Bow's most famous films (including 1925's Plastic Age and 1927's Wings, the first film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture), Clarence G. Badger's 1927 silent film It solidified the actress' legacy It. In this project, Bow played an eccentric retail clerk who wins the heart of the store's wealthy owner; as the BBC explains, the film created the elusive nature of having "it" and offered multiple definitions: at one point, the protagonist's best friend says that the owner of "it" is absolutely "self-conscious." . must not be, and must have an irresistible charm, a "sex appeal.""

After the film became a box office hit, countless fans came to know Bow as "It girl"; according to the BBC, fan mail that simply said "Miss It, California" or "The It Girl" still somehow made it to her home.

Biographer David Sten, who wrote the biography "Clara Bow: Running Wild": biographer David Sten, who also wrote the biography "Clara Bow: Running Wild," described her as "America's first sex symbol" in The Washington Post.

"Her character always had a career, and for a generation of women who had never seen anything like this before, it changed their lives. Women wanted to be her and men wanted to be with her. She had a warmth and vulnerability that was attractive to everyone."

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Despite her rapid rise to fame, Bow's Hollywood career was ultimately cut short; in the late 20s, at the height of her career, Bow was the subject of countless tabloid stories. The tabloids published both salacious rumors and true details of her personal life, focusing especially on her many romantic relationships. Hollywood stars are expected to be discreet about their relationships, but according to the Chicago Tribune, she "plunged into romance after romance," and the papers accused her of being an exposure freak. Of course, such attitudes toward famous women persist in one form or another today.

"Today we would call it slut-shaming," Sten told Today. The idea of the independent, strong woman still poses a threat to many in our culture."

The biggest blow to Bow's career and reputation came in late 1930, when she parted ways with Daisy de Vaux, a hairdresser turned personal secretary. According to Los Angeles Magazine, the secretary allegedly stole $16,000 (over $222,000 in today's money) from Vaux, as well as her jewelry and personal correspondence; in May 1931, she was committed to the Glendale Sanitarium and left Hollywood shortly thereafter.

Clara Bow retired from acting in 1933 at the age of 28 after completing her last film, Hoop-La. She retired to Nevada with her husband, actor/politician Rex Bell (whom she married in late 1931), where they lived on a walking box ranch and raised their two sons. According to the National Museum of American History, she attempted suicide in 1944, was treated by a psychiatrist several years later and diagnosed with schizophrenia; in 1950, she returned to Hollywood on her own, estranged (though not divorced) from Bell, and lived a private life until her death in 1965.

It turns out that Clara Bow's surviving relatives, along with the rest of the world, learned of the actress' accolades in the tortured poet category; after the 2024 Grammy Awards, the actress' great-grandchildren, Nicole Cisneros and Brittany Grace Bell, were "stunned" by the track list announcement, People People that they were "stunned.

"We couldn't believe it," Cisneros said. 'We were shocked, and then the intrigue began. Like everyone else, we found out through an Instagram post. [In her Grammy speech] Swift said she had been working on this for the past two years, so [we] want to know what triggered it and where this connection came from."

Cisneros also revealed that he had reached out to Swift's team but had yet to hear anything back.

The song "Clara Bow" is a big deal for Cisneros and Bell (who is the granddaughter of Bow's son Rex Bell Jr. The pair told People that they hope the song will honor the late actress' "perseverance."

"We hope Taylor conveys a positive image of Clara Bow. I know Taylor will use this as a way to highlight her accomplishments, accolades, and talents." They both have really strong raw talent."

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