The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (10 page)

In 1921, keen to escape the horrors of her home life, Clara won a nationwide “Fame and Fortune” contest which she hoped would launch her into the world of showbiz and an eventual move to Hollywood. Unfortunately, this did not sit well with her mother, and one evening in 1922 the fledgling actress woke up to find the woman holding a knife to her throat. “You’d be better off dead,” Sarah told her terrified daughter, and while Clara was able to escape physically unharmed, the nightmares of that evening would live with her forever. Shortly afterwards, Sarah Bow was taken to a mental hospital and she died in early 1923.

Things looked bleak for the fledgling actress, with the “Fame and Fortune” organizers not in the least bit interested in her now that she had won the competition. However, she did receive a positive comment in the January 1922 issue of
Motion Picture Classics
magazine – shortly before her mother tried to kill her – which described her as very young but full of confidence and ambition. They also added, “She has a genuine spark of divine fire.”

They were not wrong. Clara was a courageous and determined young woman and despite her nightmarish background and abusive parents, she was positive that she would one day become a star. Casting directors were not so confident, unfortunately, but despite being told over and over again that she was not right for the part she was going for, the young woman continued to knock on doors and attend auditions. Eventually her persistence paid off and she started to win a variety of small roles in low-budget movies. This led to a move to Hollywood in July 1923, where her career really started to take off.

Despite being very young, Clara became the ultimate flapper girl, a symbol of what everyone believed 1920s Hollywood women looked like. With her flame-red hair, she began making a real name for herself among cinema-goers everywhere; and young girls tried to emulate her look and copy her style. She was extremely hard-working and appeared in dozens of films such as
Poisoned Paradise
(1924) and
The Plastic Age
(1925).

It was her 1927 appearance in
It
which cemented her fame (making her the first ever “It Girl”) and, for the first time in her life, Clara was actually a happy woman. During an interview in 1951 she described that period: “In my era, we had individuality. We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted. I’d whiz down Sunset Boulevard in my open Kissel with seven red chow dogs to match my hair. Today they’re sensible and end up with better health – but we had more fun.”

By the late 1920s, the fun Clara was having was getting a little too intense, however. She was now a huge star and soon found herself involved in more affairs than even the gossip columnists could remember. Her first real public relationship came in the form of a much publicized engagement to director Victor Fleming. He hoped it would lead to marriage, but Clara had no intention of allowing it to get that far. Instead of planning a wedding, the actress finished with her fiancé just weeks after they had announced their engagement because she found him “too much older than I. And gosh, he was too subtle. I couldn’t live up to his subtlety.”

She was not single for long, however, as film star Gary Cooper was next, and according to Clara it lasted for about two years. Of the relationship, she later told columnist Alma Whitaker that he was a “nice boy. But the studio objected to us keeping late nights and running around.”

While the gossip columnists may have found her affairs and comments ever-so-amusing, there was one affair that studio heads hoped would disappear without trace, as it actually had the potential to derail Clara’s career altogether. The romance in question was a 1928 affair with Dr Earl Pearson, who she met during a stay in hospital. Dr Pearson fell for the redheaded actress as most men did, and bombarded her with telegrams and notes, declaring on 27 September 1928 that he hoped his night-time loneliness would not be for long, and begging her to write to him. Then on 31 March 1929 he exclaimed, “Swiftly my love flies back to you, my own sweet darling. Earl.”

Pearson was obviously more than a little smitten and in return Clara found him intriguing, later describing him as dominating but gentle, before adding, “Sometimes I feel as if he might spank me if I seriously annoyed him.” In the 1920s, comments like these most certainly raised the eyebrows of both the newspaper readers and studio bosses, but that was nothing. Soon an even bigger scandal threatened to erupt when it was discovered that Dr Pearson was actually a married man with a wife who was not about to hand him over without a fight.

Despite Clara’s claims that Dr Pearson and his wife were actually separated, this seems to have been news to Mrs Pearson, who turned up in California and proceeded to threaten to sue Clara for $150,000. Clara later described her shock at being told of Mrs Pearson’s plans: “Blam! Like that! One hundred and fifty thousand smackers. Why, I had never seen that much money before.”

Clara was called to Paramount Studios, where she told furious bosses that she had every intention of fighting the case. However, instead of pleasing the executives with this revelation, they were absolutely mortified. If the scandal got out it could not only completely ruin the reputation of their biggest star, but also the studio itself, so there was no way they would agree to her going to court. They insisted that to keep the case away from the press, Clara should pay Mrs Pearson as much as she could in order to settle out of court. The actress was not at all pleased but felt cornered by her bosses and acceded with their wishes. Against her better judgement, she gave Mrs Pearson $30,000, which she insisted was as much as she could possibly afford.

But the covered-up scandal was not over, as the couple continued seeing each other, much to the dismay of Mrs Pearson, the studio and Dr Pearson’s family. Furious at the lack of respect from either her husband or Clara Bow, the wife hired private detectives to spy on the pair, while the studio told their star that they would be withholding $26,000 on the grounds of a “no scandal” clause in her contract, and $30,000 from several bonuses which came with the same stipulation. Clara was furious.

The concerned family of Dr Pearson decided in their wisdom to bundle him off to Europe in the hope that he would forget all about Clara. He didn’t, of course, and instead continued to write to his beloved, but after losing so much money she had no intention of ever seeing him again. Instead of responding with love letters of her own to Pearson, she instead wrote and told him that it was over, that she was not willing to see him any more and to just move on with his life. But while Clara may have lost a great deal of money over the past few months, as far as Dr Pearson was concerned, he had lost more when robbed of the love of Clara Bow. He continued to bombard her with letters, all of which she apparently ignored.

The studio executives were pleased that their star had ended the relationship, and breathed a sigh of relief when the scandal passed over the gossip columnists without even a sniff. However, it was a short-lived joy, as several years later, in June 1930, Clara Bow got wind that Mrs Pearson had never taken any of the $30,000 she had been offered as an out-of-court settlement. As far as Clara was concerned, she wanted to know exactly what had happened to her hard-earned cash and jumped on a train to Dallas to see her ex-boyfriend, Dr Pearson, and “straighten things out”. Meanwhile, the press found out that the actress was meeting someone in Texas, so happily met her at the station to see what was going on.

The thought of revealing her personal affairs to a pack of newsmen should have been enough to send Clara running back to Los Angeles but, unbelievably, she instead decided to give a full-on conference to the world’s press. There she told them everything from how she met Dr Pearson, to how she had been made to pay $30,000 to his wife (made up of $26,000 from a studio trust fund and $4,000 of her own money), to a blow-by-blow account of everything that had happened during the formerly covered-up scandal.

News quickly got back to executives at Paramount Studios that their star had entertained dozens of reporters with her revelations, and they were absolutely livid. The scandal had been successfully hidden back in 1928, and here was Clara Bow quite happily admitting everything to anyone who would listen. Still, they were determined to play down the confession, and when asked about her statement, B. P. Schulberg, the general manager of the studio, brushed the entire thing off as one of her little pranks. He refused to make an official statement but in his carefully worded reply said, “Miss Bow always has been inclined to make extravagant statements to interviewers. All newspaper men who have ever gone to see her on stories must know this.”

Not surprisingly, Clara received a good telling-off from Schulberg about her behaviour, and was ordered to return to Hollywood immediately. As she left for California via New York, the actress was forced to go back on her claims to the press that she had paid $30,000 to the wife of William Pearson, and backtracked on everything else she had said as well. “I was terribly misquoted,” she complained. “The reporter said things I didn’t say and just put two and two together. Why, I didn’t even know that the doctor was in Dallas until she told me.”

As for the pay-off itself, she was quick to offer this explanation: “I didn’t even have the money to pay such a thing,” she told reporters. “My money is tied up in a bonus trust fund which the studio established, and it can’t be touched by anybody.” This unfortunate statement was a complete contrast to what she had said previously, and sent the press scuttling to their telephones to research exactly what the trust fund was and how it worked. They established that, sure enough, an amount of approximately $25,000 was withdrawn from the California Trust Company on 17 October 1928, the very day Mrs Pearson had filed for divorce.

When asked about it, Clara replied, “Why, that’s ridiculous. I never paid off any lawsuit. As far as the doctor’s wife is concerned, I never met her or saw her . . . How was I to know Dr Pearson was married? Is it for me to inquire into their personal affairs?”

The press thought the whole thing hilarious. “She’s denying everything she claimed on her arrival!” reporters laughed in their editorials. Clara Bow was fed up by this point, especially when current boyfriends began phoning her to see why exactly she was hanging out with Dr Pearson in Dallas. The studio was still on her back and the press continued to camp on her doorstep.

“My contract is up a year from next October, and perhaps after that I can lead my own life. I am going to retire from pictures then,” moaned the tired actress.

Turning the clock back to 1929, when the scandal had not yet been leaked and was very much still brushed under the carpet, Clara Bow was at the very top of her game and enjoying thousands of fan letters every week. But with the advent of talkies, her career was being tested, as she sadly told reporters: “I hate talkies. They’re stiff and limiting.” She then declared her plans to take a long rest at the beach once her contract was over, “and just play and eat and sleep”, as well as settle down with a husband and children.

A new beau in the shape of nightclub-owner turned actor Harry Richman was a welcome distraction from her busy work schedule, though it is true to say he seemed more in love with the publicity she brought than Clara herself. Hungry for headlines, Richman paraded his new girlfriend around like a trophy, and if there was a party to be seen at, they would be there; if there was an opening to go to, he would be grabbing his coat.

The nightclub-owner was besotted with the fame and notoriety that being Clara Bow’s mate brought to his life, though in all honesty if he thought he was being discreet about his true intentions, he was sorely mistaken. Clara’s friends all became highly suspicious and worried that Richman was using the actress as a ticket to fame, rather than genuinely being in love with her.

It would seem that they were right. Richman’s hunger for fame was unfortunately demonstrated towards the end of 1929 when Clara was admitted to hospital for a gynaecological operation. The surgery was to remove an ovary – a dreadful operation for any woman to go through – but rumour-mongers started whispering that they believed the actress was secretly having an abortion. Any man worth the title of gentleman would have jumped immediately to his partner’s defence, but not Harry. Instead, he remained quiet in order to enhance his own reputation: that of a stud who was capable of getting the “It Girl” pregnant.

Why would he do such a caddish thing? It was all very simple really. Harry Richman was sterile and thoroughly enjoyed the idea of people thinking he was able to father a child. His ego was such that he would never acknowledge the fact that he could not father children, so he went along with the rumours to enhance his own libido, while allowing his girlfriend’s reputation to be thoroughly discoloured.

Several months before her surgery, however, Clara surprised friends by announcing her engagement to the unscrupulous nightclub-owner. This raised many eyebrows, primarily because Clara had a long list of failed romances, but gossip columnists were nevertheless happy to hear about her plans. “As soon as we complete our pictures, [Harry and I] are going to be married,” she told them. She refused to name a date though, which prompted several newspapers sarcastically to comment that she had been in this situation before – several times.

Richman responded to the negativity by declaring that the wedding would take place shortly before the honeymoon, which would be celebrated on a ship setting sail from New York on 12 September 1929. Wanting to attract the most attention he could, he also announced that the wedding would be a huge affair, attended by many prominent entertainers. Harry was ecstatic about this, of course, but to detract from his headline-grabbing ways, he made sure to add that he and Clara had wanted a small wedding, but friends would hear of no such thing. Then, just for good measure, he also added that he had won his fiancée’s heart with his “caveman tactics”.

Clara was absolutely furious. Not only did she object to Richman talking about their relationship to the media, but she had also never agreed to an actual date for their wedding. Yes, she admitted to reporters, they were engaged, but most certainly they had never discussed a ceremony or a honeymoon location. She then added, “If there is such a thing as love then I am in love with Harry Richman. But I am not going to rush into marriage because I do not want to do anything hasty.”