Photo Caption: “The winner of the contest is Miss Clara Bow, of 875 Seventy-third Street, Brooklyn, New York. She is very young, only sixteen. But she is full of confidence, determination and ambition. She screens perfectly, Above, a new portrait of Miss Bow.”
The New Star
“The great Contest is closed. The winner is chosen. These two short sentences might tell it all, representing as they do, nearly a year of hopes and disappointments for the thousands of contestants.
The winner is Miss Clara Bow, 857 73rd Street, Brooklyn, New York. She is very young, only sixteen. But she is full of confidence, determination and ambition. She is endowed with a mentality far beyond her years. She has a genuine spark of the divine fire. The five different screen tests she had, showed this very plainly, her emotional range of expression provoking a fine enthusiasm from every contest judge who saw the tests. She screens perfectly.
Her personal appearance is almost enough to carry her to success without the aid of the brains she indubitably possesses. She has short blonde curly hair, very thick. Her eyes are big and brown and set far apart in compliance with a law of beauty. Her features are delicate, the mouth particularly lovely. Her teeth are even and white, and her suite is as gay and unforced as youth itself. She is slenderly built, with an easy and graceful carriage, that proclaims perfect health and a freedom and zest, denied those of more mature years.
The distinguished contest judges are well satisfied with their decision.”
FULL TRANSCRIPTION BELOW:
“MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE is glad also, to publish the Final Honor Roll. It consists of those who were considered for the final winner. Several of them were very strong contenders, but individually they lacked the various good points that made Miss Bow the final choice. We are sorry to note that only one male entry is included. The Final Honor Roll is as follows:
Miss Clara Bow, 857 73rd Street, Brooklyn, New York.
Miss Eilleen Eliott, 1707 Ritner Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Miss Laura Lyle, 56 W. 47th Street, New York City.
Miss Ella Lee Jeannette Ruby, 838 N. Church Street, Rockford, Ill.
Miss Margaret Porter, 1078 Madison Avenue, New York City.
Miss Helene Bristow, 105 Thomas Street, Newark, N.J.
Miss Bojan Claussen, 129 W. 87th Street, New York City.
Mr. Maurice Kaines, 11 Abingdon Sq. New York City.
(Continued on page 99)
The New Star
(Continued from page 55)
“Miss Virginia Eastman, 104 West Seventieth Street, New York City.
Miss Lula M. Hubbard, 223 Fourth Street, San Antonio, Texas.
Other Awards in the contest were three very beautiful pieces of lace, which Ensign Tyburc, of the United States Navy, brought from abroad for the express purpose of giving them to the Fame and Fortune Contest. The lace was made by the nuns on the islands of Malta, famous the world over for their exquisite laces.
Miss Bow was given a little bolero jacket. Miss Eastman was presented with a filmy scarf. Miss Ursula Mengoni, a little girl just five years old, had a pair of unusual lace socks for her baby feet, given to her, as her share of the contest glory.
MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE is glad to present Miss Bow’s sincere and grateful letter in full:
‘Gentlemen: I want to thank all those in the Brewster Publications, Inc., who have been responsible for the kind treatment and many efforts on my behalf, from the day of my entrance into the Fame and Fortune Contest of 1921 up until the present time, and also for the beautiful outfit, which they so kindly presented me with. Everyone thinks the outfit beautiful, and is so very becoming, thanks to the taste of Mrs. Gleason and Miss Palmer.
‘Now, about my future. I hope that everything you credit me with will prove true, and that all your hopes and expectations will also do the same. I hope that with the proper training I will grow into a good actress, worthy of the Brewster Publications’ help, and hope that some day Mr. Brewster and the rest will be proud of me and my work. I intend to work very hard and try and perform the smallest role that is given to me to the best of my ability.
‘I thought that writing to you would be better than trying to get an interview. In any business matters, I hope to rely upon your judgment, as I am inexperienced in that direction.
‘Feeling that I have said all I wish to say, I will close, with much appreciation and thanks to the Brewster Publications, Inc. I am, Yours sincerely,
Clara BowinRed Hair (1928), which is now considered a lost film. This opening sequence that was shot in Technicolor is the only surviving color footage of Clara.
Clara Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) Bow was an American actress who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. It was her appearance as a spunky shopgirl in the film “It” that brought her global fame and the nickname “The It Girl”. Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol. Bow was born in a tenement in Brooklyn, New York, the only surviving child of a dysfunctional family afflicted with mental illness and dickensian poverty and physical and emotional abuse. In 1949 she checked in to The Institute of Living to be treated for her chronic insomnia and diffuse abdominal pains. Shock treatment was tried and numerous psychological tests performed. Bow’s IQ was measured “bright normal” (pp. 111–119), while others claimed she was unable to reason, had poor judgment and displayed inappropriate or even bizarre behavior. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The illness debut, or “onset”, as well as her insomnia, the analysts tied to the “butcher knife episode” back in 1922, but Bow rejected psychological explanations and left the Institute. Bow did not return to her family after leaving the institution. Bow lived alone in a bungalow, which she rarely left, until her death. Bow spent her last years in Culver City, Los Angeles under the constant care of a nurse, living off an estate worth about $500,000 at the time of her death. She died of a heart attack at the age of 60.
→ female vampires were considered to be seductresses who sucked the blood dry from males. this terrified a male dominated hollywood at the time because vamps challenged the social norms. they were overly sexual and aggressive (or so explained by columnists at the time). this archetype would later morph into title of femme fatale.
