Hollywood (1938)

Above is the newest portrait of the "It" Girl who has been spending the last tour years as Mrs. Rex Bell on a big Nevada ranch CATCHING UP WITH CLARA BOW What are the changes that four years retirement have made in most famous of all the flappers? By GLADYS BABCOCK ■ When bewitching, red-headed Clara Bow, sparkling star of a hundred movies, "It" girl and flapper de luxe, came out of a four-year retirement a few months ago, moved back to Hollywood, and, with her husband, Rex Bell, entered into the cafe business, thousands believed she was angling for a movie "comeback." Certainly, reasoned Hollywood wiseacres, returning to the screen was the natural thing for her to do. But that is where they were wrong. Clara merely smiled, recalled old times and gave old friends a hand clasp that was sincere and strong, and let it go at that. AUGUST. 1938 What Hollywood never dreamed of in its gay welcome, was that Clara Bow, instead of getting lonely in Rex Bell's remote Nevada ranch-house, had fallen genuinely in love with a new life — with her home, and her plans for a family. Few in Hollywood ever gave the more serious side of Clara Bow a thought. She had been the outstanding example of the frivolous mad-cap flapper. Because she looked as young and gay as ever, it was taken for granted that she still was the fun-loving girl who had danced out of Hollywood over four years ago. "The first few months after I moved up to the ranch and Rex and I began to build our home there I was dreadfully lonely. I did miss the studios and the hustle and bustle of the sets; I missed the autograph hunters and the crowds. You can't just turn your back on a career and forget it in a moment. But I did find that being a wife and planning a home was quite the most wonderful job in the world. "When the weeks turned into months and the duties of the ranch and of guiding the baby's first steps came, I completely forgot I had ever been a movie actress, believe it or not, until a souvenir hunter came along. "I found that we had almost as many 'souvenir hunters' up on the ranch as they have in Hollywood. In a studio and on personal appearances visitors frequently took handkerchiefs, props from the sets or other personal and studio property for souvenirs. Up on the ranch — and 600,000 acres is a lot of front yard to watch — we found there were 'souvenir hunters' who would drive up at night in trucks and take ten or twenty cattle at a time. In the old days they used to call them cattle rustlers. Today they call them something more explosive. The rustlers with the taking ways use ten ton trucks instead of ponies. We lost more than 200 cattle in one year to these souvenir hunters. "I've been back in Hollywood a dozen times since the first baby was born but with no thought of going back into the studios again. When the opportunity to go into business in Hollywood presented itself, Rex and I decided to divide our time between the ranch and the city but I did not move back to California with any thought of making overtures for a new movie career; I came back to be closer to Dr. H. H. Blodgett, my physician, and better nursing facilities, knowing that our second baby was no longer just a dream." Clara's career as a wife and mother has been an expensive one. Since her retirement she has had three offers for long term contracts with major film companies ranging from $100,000 to $175,000 per picture, an offer of $150,000 plus a percentage for one picture, and two offers from independents which didn't stipulate any set figures, being profit sharing arrangements, an English film contract also was suggested. And there were other bids — offers for radio,' for endorsement of various products, for personal appearances, and for Broadway shows. One Broadway producer offered the "It" girl $12,500 a week straight salary for a run-of-the-play contract. Another offered $11,000. Then there was an offer of $20,000 a week for a personal appearance tour of ten weeks, another at $12,500 and another for an American and European tour assuring a net salary (taxes and expenses to be paid by the sponsor) of $10,000 a week for the term of the tour. The answer was always politely but definitely "No!" "Later — a year from now, maybe," Clara told them all, "But for some time to come I want to concentrate on being a mother." And she meant it, went back to her Hollywood hillside home, took baby Rex and his wooden horse [Continued on page 44] 37