Then there is the subject of Clara's visibility. In The Making of Gone with the Wind, a cable presentation now on video, there is a segment which details the 1938 nationwide public opinion poll MGM conducted to help them decide who should play the part of Scarlett O'Hara. Although some stars received hundreds of votes, other notables were among the nominees: Helen Hayes, four votes; Sylvia Sidney, five votes; Constance Bennett, three; Louise Ranier, seven; Loretta Young, five; Merle Oberon, four; Ginger Rogers, three; and Mae West, two. Ironically, the eventual winner, Vivien Leigh, received one vote-from someone in Australia. Perhaps even more revealing, Clara Bow received eleven votes. This was five years after she made her last picture. This is a long time for someone who supposedly had no talent to be remembered in Hollywood.
There were many talented actresses at the time in Hollywood besides those on this list. I wonder, could Mary Pickford have played Norma Desmond? Could Gloria Swanson have played Mary Preston? Could Clara Bow have been Unity Blake? Did Colleen Moore have any "It"? My answer is no to all of the above. But could Clara Bow have been Anne Darrow? Or how about Bette Davis as Nasa Springer? Could you picture Clara Bow in A Star Is Born? "What if..." speculations can go on forever.
But these are modern reflections on an older image. What was being said and written by fans and critics in magazines and newpapers when her films were current? The operative word here is image. Movie stars are the epitome of image-persona, charisma, fantasy-fulfillment, fashion. In this vein, few in 1920's Hollywood ever called Clara a fashion plate. She did as she chose and wore what she pleased, even if it countered the advice of her film costume designers and Beverly Hills cliques. To wit she refrained from the purchase of fancy clothing, foreign or domestic. She "has little or no taste in clothes, and she has a roomful of them."31 She wore simple apparel of sweaters and low-heeled shoes, her favorite attire; it did not contradict her basic personality. Nor did it win her legions of admirers merely for her haute couture. Hollywood Costume Design, by David Chierichetti, makes reference to Travis Banton, a very powerful designer who signed a new contract with Paramount in 1929. "She enchanted, but he found her complete lack of interest in fashion very saddening...Banton argued in vain that the high-society types that she was portraying in Dancing Mothers (1926) and Children of Divorce (1927) would not dress like that."32 In Harlow: An Intimate Biography, by Irving Shulman, it is stated that "women were annoyed by Clara, for she had no salutary impact on fashion..."33 What women? It certainly wasn't the shop girls, manicurists and clericals wo waited in box office lines by the millions to see her films. I suspect is was the same kind of people who find things to disapprove of regardless of the culture or medium. Clara's old-fashioned statement nonetheless garnered her countless loyal fans who had their own criteria for judging talent and the famous "It."
Speaking of "It," the July, 1927, issue of Photoplay said of the film, "good popular stuff with little Clara making the hit of her life."34
In Photoplay of December, 1929, the reviews of two of her movies were quite positive. In fact, they were both "named as one of the six best upon its month of review." Dangerous Curves and The Wild Party (Clara's first talkie) both received the honor of a star next to the titles. It is ironic that The Cocoanuts, the Marx Brothers' first picture did not. In the same issue, 250,000 London move fans, representing all classes, including the nobility, voted Clara Bow the third most popular female star, following Dolores Del Rio and Betty Balfour, an English star.
In the October, 1927, issue of Photoplay,Hula also receives the designation of one of the best pictures of the month. Interestingly, Clara Bow also receives the same accolades as giving one of the best performances of the month.
In Photoplay of May, 1933, Call Her Savage is named as one of the best upon its month of review. "Clara Bow comes back with the best performance of her career. You will want to see this old new Clara."35 In the same issue, the magazine ran a reader poll to select the best picture of 1932. Among the 50 nominees was Call Her Savage.
If Clara's talkies were such failures, why is Call Her Savage chosen as one of the best of the year?
In Motion Picture Magazine, October, 1926, the review of Mantrap states,"...the acting is a treat, particularly Miss Bow's performance..."36
In Silver Screen, August, 1933, Clara is depicted as a shrewd negotiator. "But it was on much the same terms that Clara went back to Fox Films, and her first picture, Call Her Savage, was a great success in spite of being a very poor story. Probably from it Clara will earn enough to add materially to the small fortune which she wants to make her independent."37 If Clara was as brainless and talentless as the modern critics are of her, neither of these previous statements would be true. But they are true.
The June, 1933, FilmFun also reviews Call Her Savage as "Clara Bow's comeback picture, in which the little Brooklyn lady proves she still has that certain something. As a matter of fact, she is much better than the film, which is pretty heavy and dull..."38
Photoplay of October, 1928, reviews Ladies of the Mob by saying, "Clara Bow becomes a gunman's 'moll,' and handles a dramatic story skillfully."39
Picture Play of June, 1928, describes Get Your Man as an "[e]xcellent picture of fascinating Clara Bow as an American girl in Paris who falls in love with a French youth betrothed to the friend of the family..."40