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Silent screen goddess Clara Bow was the embodiment of the Roaring Twenties, Hollywood's first sex symbol and a natural talent with an independent heart. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (58)

The legacy
I give 'runnin wild' four stars because of all the interesting footnotes and research details Mr. Stenn has collected in it. It commands great respect for the author but also invites the reader to draw his own conclusions.
When I red it the first time, it felt adequate, but the second time, many unverified 'facts' stuck out and worse, certain conclusions made by the author was contradictory to his own good 'facts'. Everybody seems to have an agenda, maybe in particular biographers. The ones who really shouldn't. Mr. Stenn wants Bow to play a certain part in his drama of her life. She is made a victim, see cover photo, and shamelessly he twist people into villains by omitting what's obvious and emphasizing what's irrelevant. Still there is so much good stuff in this book about Bow It's a must have. Even if Mr. Stenn's analysis falter now and then as he turn 'kiddish' he is also a good scout. It must be red with two eyes. If Bow herself was still alive she would have gone to court.

My list of the 5 best books on Hollywood and Stars scandals
My list of the 5 best books on Hollywood and Stars scandals

After an extensive research and readings, I have compiled a list of the best books on Hollywood and stars scandals.
The best in this rank order:

Number 1: Hollywood Earth Shattering Scandals: The Infamous, Villains, Nymphomaniacs and Shady Characters in Motion Pictures. It is the newest, largest and the most explosive. Lots of new stories and scandals we did not hear about or read in other books. The galleries of photos are impressive. Author, Maximillien de Lafayette. Definitely this is the very best. Explosive narratives stories about Clara Bow. Rating: 5 stars

Number 2: Hollywood Babylon. Simply because it was the first, the pioneering work that opensthe Pandora Box. Author, Kenneth Anger. This book is still interesting. Rating: 5 stars

Number 3: The Hollywood Book of Scandals. Some new stuff, but lots of rehashes. Rating: 3 stars.

Number 4: Sex lives of Hollywood Goddesses. Very very interesting, but little. However, juicy. Author: Nigel Cawthorne. Rating: 3 stars.

Number 5: Dishing Hollywood. Not much stuff but engaging. Author: Laurie Jacobson. Rating: 3 stars.

Clara Bow: Sterilized
I consider this book an act of female castration. David Stenn is a criminal--Clara wore those Trojans out.

Get It
I became curious about Clara Bow when "It" played at a local silent film festival. Before I saw "It," I'd had same notion a lot of people have, if they've heard of Clara Bow at all, that she had been an untalented sexpot whose Brooklyn honk of a voice killed her career when the talkies arrived. "It" blew that idea right out of the water. Clara Bow had more star quality than anybody I have seen in a lifetime of watching movies. The movie camera reveals her beauty in a way no still photograph captures. She made a silly movie enchanting.

Receiving David Stenn's biography as a gift was a real treat. The writing is not brilliant, and my paperback contains a number of obvious copy-editor's gaffes. Nonetheless, this deeply researched, absorbing book balances out the negative perceptions that have plagued this talented, troubled woman's reputation for decades.

Some might claim that Stenn downplays Bow's sordid adventures. That may be true but I doubt anyone really knows for sure, eighty years after the fact. What Stenn does offer is plenty of detail about her horrific childhood as the child of an alcoholic and a madwoman, interviews with people who knew her, insight into what passed for "society" in Bow's Hollywood, access to her medical and psychiatric records, and a thorough discussion of her contributions to film.

Bow comes across as an untutored genius at her craft and a generous-hearted soul whose film crews adored her and who was always willing to help less experienced performers. Her IQ was normal and contrary to myth, she was literate. According to Stenn, however, she lacked the type of intelligence that enables people to know how to behave in social situations and evaluate the potential consequences of their actions. This, combined with her slum upbringing that ranged from neglectful to abusive, her lack of formal education, and her devotion to her ever-present possibly retarded drunk of a father, resulted in complete ostracism from Hollywood social circles. The industry viewed her strictly as a commodity, valuable only for her ability to make her studio money. Off the set, most people hardly saw her as a human being. In the studio she was competent. Beyond the studio she had no clue what to do and nobody to guide her, so of course she screwed things up. Would many people want to invite Clara Bow to their cocktail parties? As she apparently had little etiquette and no sense of what was appropriate, in all honestly, probably not. That does not mean she had no good qualities.Stenn's compassion for his subject means that we learn about Bow's talent, kind heart and normal human longing for love, which unlike many of the wild exploits reported about her by the tabloid press of her day, we have no reason to believe were apocryphal.

Stenn suggests that, exploitative as her studio was, and as frightened as she was of sound, the movies did not destroy Clara Bow. Rather, the movies were her fragile tether to sanity. Left without that creative outlet, without the one thing at which she was truly gifted, there was little left for her, so her genes and life history caught up with her. After marrying she retired to an isolated ranch in Nevada and had two sons. Although Stenn reports that she tried desperately to be a good wife and mother, in that supposed peace, she went into total decline and spent the rest of her life in and out of sanitariums. Had she stayed in movies working at a less frenetic pace and been given an adequate opportunity to adjust to sound (she did not have the "Kansas City British" diction of early talkies, but early reviews of her voice were not horrible either), she might have continued to be successful for many more years instead of being washed up before she was 30. Unfortunately we'll never know. Meanwhile, if you want to read an extremely interesting account that gives fair play to Clara Bow's talent and kindness, this is a fine read.

I give this four stars with some apprehension...
Why do I give this four?I'd rather give this book three stars for the writing... but it is well researched... but the interviews that were conducted only give one side of Clara... which simplifies this complicated star of the Silver Screen.

Ultimately, I give this book four stars because I'm just so gald that there's a biography about Clara Bow out there.I wish I could give this book five stars.

Stenn clearly feels for his topic; Clara Bow.That's evident in the his writing.Sometimes, this can be tiresome.At other times you wish he'd pick up the pace.Despite this, David Stenn acknowleges the complexity of Bow, and he tries to explore that in this book.

Invaluable to any fan of Bow, I recommend to the biography or film fan in general to first read the excerpt provided by Amazon. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Sticks to the obvious
Old, and out of print, but yet available at Amazon.
"Running wild" by David Stenn is good when it comes to facts and events,
while "The It Girl" by Morella/Epstein get a better grip on Bow as a whole.
Buy both. ... Read more

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Der Erwerb des Buches enthält gleichzeitig die kostenlose Mitgliedschaft im Buchklub des Verlags zum Ausprobieren - dort können Sie von über einer Million Bücher ohne weitere Kosten auswählen. Das Buch besteht aus Wikipedia-Artikeln: Edie Sedgwick, Paris Hilton, Saaphyri Windsor, Heather Graham, Nadja Abd el Farrag, Davorka Tovilo, Ariane Sommer, Clara Bow, Peaches Geldof, Plum Sykes, Nicole Richie, Audrina Patridge, Leighton Meester, Xenia Anatoljewna Sobtschak, Alexa Chung, Blake Lively, Cory Kennedy, China Chow,. Online finden Sie die kostenlose Aktualisierung der Bücher. Nicht dargestellt. Auszug: Edith „Edie" Sedgwick (* 20. April 1943 in Santa Barbara, Kalifornien, USA; † 16. November 1971 ebenda) war ein amerikanisches Fotomodell, eine Schauspielerin und für kurze Zeit ein Star der New Yorker High Society. Mitte der 1960er Jahre arbeitete sie als trendsetzendes Mannequin für die amerikanische Vogue. Sie war ungefähr ein Jahr lang Muse und Begleiterin von Andy Warhol, der sie zur „Queen" seiner Factory erkor, sie in einer Art symbiotischer Beziehung protegierte und ihr durch seine Experimentalfilme zu Achtungserfolgen verhalf, die sie zu einer Ikone der Pop- und Subkultur machten. Sedgwicks rasantem Aufstieg zum gefeierten „It-Girl" der glamourösen New Yorker Partygesellschaft und deren Halbwelt folgte ein langsamer, von psychischer Krankheit und Drogenmissbrauch markierter Abstieg durch die Kliniken in einen frühen Tod. Edith Minturn Sedgwick stammte aus einem traditionsreichen, wohlhabenden und psychotisch vorbelasteten Elternhaus mit acht Kindern. Sie war das siebte Kind des Ranchbesitzers und Bildhauers Francis „Fuzzy" Minturn Sedgwick (1904-1967) und dessen Ehefrau Alice Delano De Forest (1908-1988). Ihre Geschwister waren Alice (* 1931), Robert Minturn II. (1933-1965), Pamela (1935-2008), Francis Minturn Jr. (1937-1964), Jonathan de Forest Minturn (* 1939), Katherine (* 1941) und Susanna (* 1945). Das Santa Ynez Va...http://booksllc.net/?l=de&id=896968 ... Read more

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Chapters: Brigitte Bardot, Judy Garland, Jennifer Jones, Clara Bow, Nell Carter, Peter Cushing, Dennis Price, Eminem, Artie Lange, Bubbles, Milk Ichigo, Patty Duke, Betty Hutton, Robert Young, Owen Wilson, Tuesday Weld, Lina Basquette, Mary Castle, Capucine, Rie Miyazawa, Martine Carol, Jean Wallace, Jeff Stewart. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 207. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), better known by his stage name Eminem is an American rapper, record producer, actor and singer. Eminem quickly gained popularity in 1999 with his major-label debut album, The Slim Shady LP, which won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album. The following album, The Marshall Mathers LP, became the fastest-selling solo album in history. It brought Eminem increased popularity, including his own record label, Shady Records, and brought his group project, D12, to mainstream recognition. The Marshall Mathers LP and his third album, The Eminem Show, also won Grammy Awards, making Eminem the first artist to win Best Rap Album for three consecutive LP's. He then won the award again in 2010 for his album Relapse, giving him a total of 11 Grammys in his career. In 2002, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Lose Yourself" from the film, 8 Mile, in which he also played the lead. "Lose Yourself" would go on to become the longest running #1 hip-hop single. Eminem then went on hiatus after touring in 2005. He released his first album since 2004's Encore, titled Relapse, on May 15, 2009. Eminem is the best-selling artist of the decade, and has sold more than 80 million albums worldwide to date, making him one of the best-selling music artists in the world. Eminem was ranked 82nd on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All-Time. He wa...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4429395 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 998 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Signed essays ranging from 500 to 2,500 words, written by subject experts and edited to form a consistent, readable, and straightforward reference. Entries include subject-specific bibliographies and textual cross-references to related essays. ... Read more

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Clara Bow, The Barrymore's ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Bowling, Beatniks, and Bell-Bottoms: Pop Culture of 20th-Century America, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 166 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.The hairstyles, slang terms, advertising jingles, pop music sensations, and all else described as popular culture is covered in this five-volume reference. Arranged chronologically by decade and by broad topics within each decade, this set focuses solely on the popular culture of the twentieth century, offering more detailed information on trends and fads than any other resource. Major topics include products and brands, toys and games, music and dance, holidays, shopping, sports, movements, and much more. ... Read more

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CAPER MEN'S ADULT MAGAZINESEPTEMBER 1962VINTAGE!PREVIEWJAZZ & JUNK, HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST SEX QUEENS, SMALL PHOTOS OF HOLLYWOODS GREATEST 12, AND SMALL ARTICLE ON EACH, INCLUDING, THEDA BARA, DOLORES DEL RIO, GRETA GARBO, MARLENE DIETRICH, CLARA BOW, JEAN HARLOW, MAE WEST, BETTY GRABLE, AND MARILYN MONROE!, ALSO, WINE CELLAR ON A BUDGETGREAT COLOR PHOTOS!AND MUCH MORE! ... Read more