# Clara Bow filmography

Clara Bow (1905–1965) was a 16-year-old living in the New York City borough of Brooklyn when she won the 1921 nationwide "Fame and Fortune Contest" advertised in Motion Picture Magazine. After submitting their autobiography with a completed entry form clipped from the magazine, finalists were given multiple screen tests. As the winner, she was cast in a small role in the silent era film Beyond the Rainbow. Although her part was eventually edited out, the contest inspired her to pursue an acting career. She relocated to Los Angeles and in 1923 signed with producer B.P. Schulberg. Over the next seven years, she would make more than 40 silent-era films, the majority of them under contract to Paramount Pictures. Her 1927 starring role in It, about an attractive and charismatic young woman, led the public to label Bow the "It girl".
The 1927 film Wings, in which she co-starred with Charles "Buddy" Rogers, won the first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1929. Paramount initially released it as a silent film, to accommodate smaller regional theaters that were not yet equipped for sound. They would later release a sound version, informally referred to as a "talkie".
Two of her other Paramount films, The Wild Party and The Saturday Night Kid, were also released in both silent and "talkie" formats. Paramount had a special department for the sole purpose of counting and answering every incoming fan letter. Named the film industry's top box office draw, her admirers flooded Paramount every month with an average of 30,000 fan letters. Yet, she dreaded the transition to sound in films. Bow never lost her Brooklyn accent and speech patterns, and was convinced that the new technology would be the end of her career. The studio arranged a special public appearance for her when the "talkie" version of The Wild Party opened at the 4,200-seat Brooklyn Paramount Theater. She addressed the cheering crowd in her hometown neighborhood jargon, "I hope youse all prouda me." Both the audience and the news media gave her rave reviews for her first sound movie.
Bow never completely adapted to the process of making sound pictures, was dissatisfied with her career, and would make only nine more films. She married fellow actor (and future lieutenant governor of Nevada) Rex Bell in 1931, moving to their Walking Box Ranch that spanned part of the Mojave Desert across the Nevada and California state lines. The couple split their time between the ranch and Los Angeles, briefly operating the "It Cafe" on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 8, 1960. During most of her husband's 1955–1962 tenure as an office holder in Nevada, Bow was confined to her Culver City, California, residence, where she was in declining health requiring around-the-clock nursing care. Rex Bell died in 1962, and Bow followed him in death in 1965.

## Theatrical releases

Feature-length film (silent except where noted) credits of Clara Bow :
| Title | Year | Role | Studio | Notes |
| Beyond the Rainbow | 1922 | Virginia Gardener | Robertson-Cole Pictures | |
| Down to the Sea in Ships | 1922 | Dot Morgan | Whaling Film Corp | |
| The Pill Pounder | 1923 | | W.W. Hodkinson Corporation | Originally lost, a print was found at an auction by filmmaker Gary Huggins in Omaha, Nebraska in 2023. |
| The Daring Years | 1923 | Mary | Daniel Carson Goodman production | Lost film |
| Enemies of Women | 1923 | Girl dancing on table | Cosmopolitan Productions | Uncredited An incomplete copy exists at the Library of Congress, missing reels 3 and 9 of 11 total |
| Maytime | 1923 | Alice Tremaine | B. P. Schulberg | An incomplete copy exists |
| Black Oxen | 1923 | Janet Ogelthorpe | Frank Lloyd Productions | Several incomplete copies exist |
| This Woman | 1924 | Aline Sturdevant | Warner Bros. | |
| Grit | 1924 | Orchid McGonigle | Film Guild Productions | Lost film |
| Poisoned Paradise: The Forbidden Story of Monte Carlo | 1924 | Margot LeBlanc | B. P. Schulberg | An incomplete copy is preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Daughters of Pleasure | 1924 | Lila Millas | B.F. Zeidman | An incomplete copy is held at the Library of Congress |
| Wine | 1924 | Angela Warriner | Universal Pictures | Lost film |
| Empty Hearts | 1924 | Rosalie | Banner Pictures Corporation | An incomplete copy is preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Helen's Babies | 1924 | Alice Mayton | Principal Pictures | |
| Black Lightning | 1924 | Martha Larned | Gotham Productions | Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Capital Punishment | 1925 | Delia Tate | B.P. Schulberg Productions | |
| The Adventurous Sex | 1925 | The Girl | Howard Estabrook Productions | Lost film |
| Eve's Lover | 1925 | Rena D'Arcy | Warner Bros. | Lost film |
| The Lawful Cheater | 1925 | Molly Burns | B.P. Schulberg Productions | Lost film |
| The Scarlet West | 1925 | Miriam | First National Pictures | Lost film Trailer survives |
| My Lady's Lips | 1925 | Lola Lombard | B.P. Schulberg Productions | Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Parisian Love | 1925 | Marie | B.P. Schulberg | Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Kiss Me Again | 1925 | Grizette | Warner Bros. | Lost film |
| The Keeper of the Bees | 1925 | Lolly Cameron | Gene Stratton Porter Productions | Lost film Trailer exists |
| The Primrose Path | 1925 | Marilyn Merrill | Embassy Pictures | |
| Free to Love | 1925 | Marie Anthony | B.P. Schulberg Productions | |
| The Best Bad Man | 1925 | Peggy Swain | Fox Film Corporation | |
| The Ancient Mariner | 1925 | Doris | Fox Film Corporation | Lost film |
| My Lady of Whims | 1925 | Prudence Severn | Dallas M. Fitzgerald Productions | Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| The Plastic Age | 1925 | Cynthia Day | B.P. Schulberg Productions | Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Shadow of the Law | 1926 | Mary Brophy | Embassy Pictures | Lost film |
| Two Can Play | 1926 | Dorothy Hammis | Encore Pictures | Lost film Fragments exist |
| Dancing Mothers | 1926 | Kittens Westcourt | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | |
| Fascinating Youth | 1926 | Herself | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film Trailer exists |
| The Runaway | 1926 | Cynthia Meade | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film |
| Mantrap | 1926 | Alverna | Paramount Famous Players–Lasky | Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Kid Boots | 1926 | Clara McCoy | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | |
| It | 1927 | Betty Lou Spence | Paramount Famous Players–Lasky | |
| Children of Divorce | 1927 | Kitty Flanders | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | |
| Rough House Rosie | 1927 | Rosie O'Reilly | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film Trailer exists |
| Wings | 1927 | Mary Preston | Paramount Famous Players–Lasky | Won the first Oscar for Outstanding Picture in 1929 released in both silent and sound versions |
| Hula | 1927 | Hula Calhoun | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | |
| Get Your Man | 1927 | Nancy Worthington | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | An Incomplete print exists, missing two of its six reels. |
| Red Hair | 1928 | Bubbles McCoy | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film Fragments exist, including the only known color footage of Bow) |
| Ladies of the Mob | 1928 | Yvonne | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film |
| The Fleet's In | 1928 | Peaches Deane | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film |
| Three Week-Ends | 1928 | Gladys O'Brien | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Lost film Fragments exist |
| The Wild Party | 1929 | Stella Ames | Paramount Pictures | Both sound and silent versions Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| The Saturday Night Kid | 1929 | Mayme | Paramount Pictures | Alternative title: Love 'Em and Leave 'Em Both sound and silent versions Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Dangerous Curves | 1929 | Pat Delaney | Paramount Famous Players Lasky | Sound film |
| Paramount on Parade | 1930 | Herself | Paramount Pictures | Sound film English and Spanish versions (Galas de la Paramount) Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Love Among the Millionaires | 1930 | Pepper Whipple | Paramount-Publix Corp | Sound film |
| Her Wedding Night | 1930 | Norma Martin | Paramount-Publix Corp | Sound film Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| True to the Navy | 1930 | Ruby Nolan | Paramount-Publix Corp | Sound film |
| No Limit | 1931 | Helen "Bunny" O'Day | Paramount-Publix Corp | Sound film |
| Kick In | 1931 | Molly Hewes | Paramount-Publix Corp | Sound film |
| Call Her Savage | 1932 | Nasa Springer | Fox Film Corporation | Sound film |
| Hoop-La | 1933 | Lou | Fox Film Corporation | Sound film |

## Miscellaneous

Various shorts related to Clara Bow :
| Title | Year | Notes |
| Untitled documentary about the 1920s | 1927 | Footage of multiple celebrities Warner Bros. |
| Clara Bow, former It Girl, and husband Rex Bell open the "It Cafe" in Hollywood, California | 1937 | Hearst vault material Preserved at UCLA Film and Television Archive |
| Screen Snapshots Series 20, No. 1 | 1940 | Columbia Pictures 20th anniversary show |
| Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner | 1949 | Short subject – Clara Bow, Rex Bell and other celebrities in Las Vegas |
| Screen Snapshots Series 35, No. 4 | 1958 | "Ramblin' round Hollywood" Columbia Pictures 20th anniversary show. Footage shot by Ken Murray, produced by Ralph Staub. |