Clara Bow’s family have praised Taylor Swift for her “hauntingly beautiful” new song about the late silent film queen.
One of the reigning movie stars of the 1920s, Clara is perhaps best known for her 1927 film It, which popularized the term “It Girl.”
However, in the 1930s she became a lightning rod for scandal, hounded by accusations that she was a drunken, gambling man-eater.
Taylor’s new song Clara Bow is part of her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department, which she dropped at midnight on Friday after a ravenous response from fans.
Now Clara’s great-granddaughters Nicole Sisneros and Brittany Grace Bell have spoken out People they “love” the song — but added that they haven’t been able to “successfully connect” with Taylor’s team to convey their feelings directly to her.
Clara Bow’s descendants have praised Taylor Swift (left) for her ‘hauntingly beautiful’ new song about the late silent film queen (right)
But in the 1930s she became a lightning rod for scandal, hounded by accusations that she was a drunken, gambling man-eater.
The lyrics include Hollywood “suits” telling a young, aspiring starlet that she resembles various showbiz icons such as Clara, Stevie Nicks – and Taylor herself.
Nicole said she got “chills” when she listened to the song and heard how it “poetically draws parallels between Clara Bow and Taylor.”
She praised Taylor and Clara as “raw and incredibly talented artists,” saying, “My family and I love the song and are grateful that Taylor has connected with Clara’s legacy through her songwriting.”
Brittany, meanwhile, chose specific lyrics from Taylor’s song and made connections to her great-grandmother’s life and legacy.
The opening lines of the song are: ‘You look like Clara Bow in this light – remarkable. Did you know all your life that you would be plucked like a rose?’
Brittany explained: ‘Clara was a ‘rose’ picked by the men of Hollywood who profited from her fame and talent. I think it perfectly captures how she would feel as Hollywood’s ‘It’ girl.”
She also focused on the line, “This town is fake, but you’re the real thing,” which she interpreted as a reference to “how Clara Bow was unapologetically herself, despite the Hollywood media noise and 1920s societal norms and thirty. The song feels ethereal and somewhat melancholic to me.”
In the teaser of her upcoming Fortnight music video with Post Malone, Taylor wore a hair and makeup style that Nicole said was a throwback to Clara.
Taylor’s new song Clara Bow is part of her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department, which she dropped at midnight on Friday after a voracious response from fans
Now, Clara’s great-granddaughters Nicole Sisneros and Brittany Grace Bell have told People they “love” the song Taylor wrote about their famous ancestor
Clara was one of the best Hollywood screen sirens of the 1920s, the original ‘It Girl’ who achieved sex symbol status by playing the archetypal flapper
She once told Photoplay that during her heyday she “went on a rampage, I think, in the sense of trying to have a good time”; depicted in a publicity campaign for No Limit
‘She has the same sultry look that was Clara Bow’s signature. And the precise application of the lipstick is undeniable,” Nicole argued.
Clara was one of the best Hollywood screen sirens of the 1920s, the original “It Girl” who achieved sex symbol status by playing the archetypal flapper.
She once told Photoplay that during her heyday she was “going crazy, I think, in the sense that she was trying to have a good time,” and her theory about her stardom was that “a lot of that excitement, that zest for life, came from the screen.’
However, she was scarred by childhood trauma – her father had raped her and her mother had been committed – and began to buckle under the pressure of fame.
When silent films fell out of fashion, Clara was able to switch to talkies, but she despised the new form of filmmaking as “stiff and restrictive.”
In the teaser (left) of her upcoming Fortnight music video with Post Malone, Taylor wore a hair and makeup style that Nicole said was a throwback to Clara Bow (right)
Then, in the early 1930s, she became entangled in a tangle of scandals that ultimately took their toll on her showbiz career.
Among the accusations she faced was the persistent rumor that she had indulged in an orgy with the entire USC football team – a story immortalized in Kenneth Anger’s infamous 1965 book Hollywood Babylon.
Her private life came under scrutiny after she fired her secretary Daisy DeVoe and sued her for embezzlement and blackmail.
When the case went to trial, Daisy spread a slew of gossip about the star’s love life, accusing her of gambling and drunkenness.
Although Daisy went to prison, the combination of Clara’s various problems caused her to have a breakdown and she ended up in a sanitarium.
She left the movies and married a Nevada politician, and although she briefly returned to Hollywood for the money, she eventually retired for good in 1933.