Clara Bow:The outrageous flapper and actress.
When many people think of an “It Girl” they think of someone as luxurious, Clara Bow was one of the very first “It Girl” of the 1920’s, yet she was not luxurious at the start. Before, Clara Bow was considered a tomboy with her ragged and dirty clothes, she would always play in the streets with boys, no girls were willing to play around with her. Later, she entered into a contest The Fame and Fortune, winning the contest; she was brought into Hollywood by B.P Schulberg. During her acting career she also developed into a flapper; flappers were 1920’s women who dressed up in short dresses wore makeup and had short hair; they also smoked and drank at night clubs. Her career had to come to an end after
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Her abusive childhood was based on abandonment and brutal neglect. Huber says, in her early life, she grew up in an abusive home, not necessarily violently, but the way she was treated in her home. Her mother was schizophrenic and epileptic and her father was a coney island bus driver so her parents were not really around for her that often.“An unwanted child, she grew up in an impoverished, working-class family plagued by alcoholism, severe mental illness, and physical abuse” (Huber 111). She was considered the unwanted child and was surrounded by severe mental illness and alcoholism. Her mother did not like the idea of her wanting to be an actress but after her mother died she followed what she wanted to become. Haas says, “When she confided her dreams of stardom to her mother, Sarah castigated her desires as a prostitutes” (328). Leading into her career, Bow’s first appearance in the spotlight occurred when she entered a contest called The Fame and Fortune. She was able to get away from this home life around age sixteen after winning a beauty contest, which allowed her to star in a film: “She escaped drudgery at age 16 by winning a movie-fan-magazine beauty contest and getting a bit role in a film as part of her prize” (Katz 155).When Bow went to the contest she was dressed in all ragged and dirty cloths; however, the judges paid no interest in her before her screen test although after the screen test the judges set …show more content…
Clara Bow became a known person as an actress and as a flapper. She was named one of the very first “It Girl” and she was also named one of the very first sex symbols of the 1920’s. She impacted the 1920’s with the films she was starred in and also her figure as a flapper. A big part in the ending of her life was the illnesses she had faced and the depression she had went through in her last year. She accomplished many films in life and also faced challenges with depression and an illness. Even successful people face problems in
Imagine walking in the streets where all other women and girls are dressed in long dresses, look modest, and have long hair with hats. Then, there is a girl with a short skirt and bobbed hair smoking a cigarette. This girl makes a statement and is critically judged by many people for dressing this way. Women during the 1920s were not to look “boyish” in any way, so when short hair and short skirt were introduced, it was seen as shameful. The girls wearing this new style were known as flappers. Their style was introduced in the early 1910s but did not spark until the 1920s. The style was said to be more comfortable, but was not appealing to the more conservative. Before the change of style, most women were dressed modestly; however, women's
Clara Barton was born on December 25th 1821 in Massachussetts and is most widely known for founding the American Red Cross and supporting Union soldiers in the field during the American Civil War. Clara learned the arts of nursing at a young age when assigned the task of nursing her brother after he fell and received a severe injury.
In the 1920s, a new woman was born. She smoked, drank, danced, and voted. She cut her hair, wore make-up, and went to petting parties. She was giddy and took risks. She was a flapper.
CoCo Chanel’s action of moving away from the older Victorian ideologies was a show of liberalism for women. The writer uses t...
Her parents who at that time could not understand the choices she made are very happy for their daughter and what she has accomplish. When she left her home at the middle of a fight and never went back. She said,” I had to make my own way” and then lived in a Manhattan dance studio where she was training. Then she got an apartment with some friends in Manhattan Hell’s Kitchen. Since the time she move out of her home she started her showbiz career as a dancer in stage musicals and most notably in her tour to Golden musicals of Broadway and in a Japanese tour. Then she audition to be a fly girl in Fox’s hit comedy “In living Colors,” she beat out 2,000 other contenders in a nation wide competition. Then she cracked into Hollywood and she wanted to make a transition to acting, but she followed Color producer Keenan Ivory Wayans advice to stay with the show for a while before making any attempt to move on.
The dawn of the 20th century changed the perspective of the nation and introduced many different ideas and concepts. At the turn of the century, a new and influential ideal known as the “Gibson Girl” arose. The “Gibson Girl” image, created by the American illustrator Charles Gibson, represented the perfect female archetype of the era. In the first decade of the 1900s, the Gibson Girl, exuding confidence and poise, proved increasingly popular, and acted as an icon that women everywhere attempted to imitate. She eventually developed from an illustration into a reality as many girls applied the ideal to themselves. The Gibson Girl contrasted greatly with the common farm girl who, unlike the Gibson Girl, worked for a living. At first glance, one might perceive that the farm girl led a much more difficult life than the Gibson Girl. However, upon consideration, the Gibson Girl’s life proved just as demanding, if not more, than that of the farm girl, and illustrated upper-class society’s unrelenting superficiality and focus on perfection.
The most influential decade on contemporary was the 1920s because of the contribution in transportation technology, the advantage of credit, and the change in women’s freedom.
The lives of the young and wild women of the twenties began with a new attitude and a completely different look. The Flapper is “an emancipated young woman who embraced the new fashions and urban attitudes of the day”. Generally, one would cut their long hair down to a short, boy like bob and dye it jet black. Many wore dress that were very bright, flashy, loose fitting, and would not hang past the knee. Close fitting felt hats, many strings of beads, pumps, and skin toned stockings typically completed the look of a flapper. So many young women completely changed their lifestyles in their fight for equality. Smoking cigarettes and drinking immense amounts of alcohol in public became a normal attraction. Too many young girls were speaking openly about sexual activity, as well as other numerous activities that would have ruined their reputations, and lives not too long before. The discussion, of courtship and relationships completely and utterly offended...
After World War One the life style in America changed, this time was known as the Roaring Twenties. During the Roaring Twenties women evolved, in this time it became more acceptable for them to smoke and drink in public. Women had closer body contact while dancing and they had a much greater participation in the workforce. In the twenties there was a group of young women that became known as flappers. They wore shorter dresses with a straight loose silhouette (Scott). The title flapper also proclaimed the freedom of young women. These women were more rebellious; they smoked cigarettes and drank in public. Smoking and drinking were only just a few of the rebellious things women would do during this time. Flappers rejected moral value and the rules of the Victoria Age. During the Roaring Twenties washing machines, vacuums, and canned food made women’s lives easier. Women also gained careers from many different professions, unlike ever before (Howard; Ellis 522-24).
The youngest of five children, Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on December 25, 1821 to a middle class family in North Oxford, Massachusetts. In this rocky New England countryside, Clara, as she quickly became known, learned the value of hard work and hard principles through her labors on the family farm. From the beginning, Clara's family had an immeasurable influence on her. Her older siblings, who were all quite intelligent, helped educate Clara and could scarcely keep up with answering her never-ending barrage of questions. Her active mind readily absorbed new lessons and novel stories about famous ancestors. Something of a tomboy, she portrayed exceptional equestrian skills and could play sports with surprising aptitude, compliments of her brothers and male cousins.
Born on December 25, 1921, Clara grew up in a family of four children, all at least 11 years older than her (Pryor, 3). Clara’s childhood was more of one that had several babysitters than siblings, each taking part of her education. Clara excelled at the academic part of life, but was very timid among strangers. School was not a particularly happy point in her life, being unable to fit in with her rambunctious classmates after having such a quiet childhood. The idea of being a burden to the family was in Clara’s head and felt that the way to win the affection of her family was to do extremely well in her classes to find the love that she felt was needed to be earned. She was extremely proud of the positive attention that her achievement of an academic scholarship (Pryor, 12). This praise for her accomplishment in the field of academics enriched her “taste for masculine accomplishments”. Her mother however, began to take notice of this and began to teach her to “be more feminine” by cooking dinners and building fires (Pryor, 15). The 1830’s was a time when the women of the United States really began to take a stand for the rights that they deserved (Duiker, 552). Growing up in the mist of this most likely helped Barton become the woman she turned out to be.
Clara Bow’s fame did not leave her nature tainted, in a sense. She did not become spoiled or uppity. She remained rather self-less and ignorant to fame and those in its power. Her impudent attitude never faltered; she continued to live as the “chewing-gum-smacking eight-grade drop-out kid,” unaware of convention. Hey psychological welfare, though, was greatly affected. She was institutionalized, slit her wrists and throat, and eventually became the embodiment of an actress-gone-bad; booze, men, gambling, drugs, and insomnia.
In the early 1900’s the ideal woman would be dressed with long dresses and would normally have long hair. Several events such as World War I, in July of 1914, changed women’s role in society. They were not only taking care of the children and the household but they were also taking the role of a man. As men went to war, women replaced them in factories. This caused woman to be more independent. Women realized that having a job was something that could be done; their sex didn’t restrict them from taking this action. This was extremely important as it lead to women being more confident and capable. In the 1920s young women began to change. They went from having long dresses and long hair, to a short haircut and wearing dresses that were above the knee. Women developed a greater interest in looking attractive. According to Russell L. Johnson, the beauty industry grew rapidly as cosmetic expenses sky rocketed from 750 million to 2 billion dollars (Johnson 3). This was one of the causes of the sexual revolution. Women became “ less formal but more expressive (Mag...
These movies allowed female characters to embody all the contradictions that could make them a woman. They were portrayed as the “femme fatale” and also “mother,” the “seductress” and at the same time the “saint,” (Newsom, 2011). Female characters were multi-faceted during this time and had much more complexity and interesting qualities than in the movies we watch today. Today, only 16% of protagonists in movies are female, and the portrayal of these women is one of sexualization and dependence rather than complexity (Newsom, 2011).
Women used to dress very conservatively and strict before the turn of the decade. Clothing consisted of fitted dresses, long skirts, and corsets in lady like manners. Since the 1920’s brought women’s rights along, young women decided that they were not willing to waste away their young lives anymore being held down to the rules; they were going to enjoy life. The younger generations of women were breaking away from their old habits and their fashion statements changed their roles in society completely. Women were modeling their lives after popular icons...