Bizarre & Beautiful

Exhibitionism, kinkiness, alcoholism and sexual frivolity with both men and women were just some of the things written about Clara Bow in the 1920s and early 1930s newspapers. 

"Clara Bow Running Wild," 1988s biography of Bow was a journey into literal insanity, and how even the young, sexy and wealthy experience the bitter side of life. 

When she was 21-years-old, every studio was in violent competition for her services. She was the real thing, someone to stir every pulse in the nation. She had a heart shaped face, an hour glass figure, and thick auburn hair dyed a flaming orange-red. She was the most desirable attribute of the 1920s, she had "It," F. Scott Fitzgerald said. 

 Above, Bow when she was 16-years-old, and she won 1921s Fame and Fortune Contest, thus igniting her career in the movies. She was the Marilyn Monroe of the roaring 20s, book reviewer Dominck Dunne said. 

Bow's mom was committed to an insane asylum before she was 4-years-old, and when she was 9-years-old, her best friend Johnny burned to death in the apartment he was living in below her. Bow tried saving the him by wrapping a carpet around his burning body. Her father was an abusive drunk who raped her when she was 16, and her mother who had been released from an asylum was recommitted when she tried killing bow with a butcher knife when she was still 16-years-old. 

Bow's grandfather was very loving and caring, and he also had sole custody of her. He died of a heart attack when she was 4-years-old.

"Wings" was the first movie to win the Academy Award for best picture of the year in 1927 in which Clara Bow starred in. This movie is still available to the masses, and surprisingly to me, a lot of Bow's movies from the 20s are lost. 

Gary Cooper, also in "Wings" was no stranger to life in the fast lane. Bows homemade den of iniquity included a made to order bed with a mirror on its canopy, facing you as you layed on it, Cooper said. Both Cooper and Bow had a very active sex life, both together and apart from one another.  

"He (Cooper) had the biggest cock in Hollywood and no ass to push it with," Bow said.

Bow was an avid fan of the USC NCAA football team and attended many of their games on a regular basis, and some said she did the dance with no under pants with the entire team. Newspaper journalist frequently wrote about her wild parties thrown at her Los Angeles home and accused her of incest, bestiality, and abusing drugs and alcohol.

In the 1950s, Bow was a diagnosed sycophantic and committed to the Southern California Sanitarium and prior to that, she spent 10 months in the Institute of Living in Harford, Connecticut. By the mid 50s, she was released from the Southern California Sanitarium and found peace with herself from swimming and books. She was known to read 12 books a week in the late 50s and 1960s.  

"A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered," Bow said.  

Writer Elinor Glyn labeled Bow the "It," girl, because she had the looks to lure men and even some women into delicious desires, she had It! 

Bow's hit 1927 movie, "It" was a romantic comedy based on Gyn's 1926 novella with the same title. 

The writer of this biography, David Stenn said 80 percent of all the silent films were lost, and many of them were Bow movies. "It" is still available to the masses. Unfortunately, "Grit," is among one of the lost films, released in 1924. "Grit" had to be edited for showings in New York because it was said to have scenes of disgusting immorality and sordid crime.  

"Flaming Youth," a lost 1923 film was based on the book with the same title which featured women who smoked, drank and partook in free love. Bow did not star in the film, but she was in the movie. 

"Rough House Rosie" is a 1927 film starring Bow that has been lost and was said to have lots of "It" with little clothing. 

Since reading "Clara Bow Running Wild," I learned some sad facts about child abuse and why some women normalize abuse in several different forms. On a positive note, I learned many racy or risqué films made in the 1920s and early 1930s were based upon books written by women. 

Writers Elinor Glyn, Anita Loos and Dora Mack are three writers from the early 20th century, and I want to read their books now. The books "Ex  Mistress" and "Vile Bodies" by Dora Mack are two of those novels I learned about from reading "Clara Bow Running Wild."

Three and half stars is my rating for this 1988 book, another gem acquired from the local library. 

Mark Izzy Schurr     

 

 

 

Too Little Too Late, or Too Much Too Soon?

At peace with myself at home, I was bathed in a nourishing glow of affection, father with unfailing jolly, both brothers were protective, and above all mother was a constant source of love ladled out in equal measures of encouragement and restraint, Shirley Temple Black said. 

"Child Star Shirley Temple Black An Autobiography" was released in 1988, and I was extremely impressed with all the details. Temple Black not only details her child star years, but also her high school romances and so much more. Born in 1928, the same year as Mickey Mouse, the ubiquitous Mickey Mouse, Temple Black said. 

Before she was 3-years-old, Temple was being formally trained in dancing at a famous dance studio for children in Los Angeles, and surprise, by the time she was 6-years-old, the dance studio enrollment sky rocketed. 

When Temple was 3-years-old, she starred in the Baby Burlesks one-reelers, depicting children in adult themes, and in 1934, she starred in three feature films, and from 1935-1938 she was the number one box office draw. 

Pictured above with her father, sighing a movie contract in 1934. In December of 1935, she was making $2,500. a week, two percent of what the studio was making off her movies at the time, Temple Black said. Some women offered themselves to Shirley's father to stud them, in hopes they would give birth to another Shirley Temple, she said. 

Temple Black really details her finances in this book, and I was very surprised at how much money she had when she was no longer making movies and married her second husband, Charles Alden Black when she was 22-years-old. 

The above picture is from 1935s "The Little Colonel," in which Temple and Bill Bojangles Robinson dance up the stairs. Temple and Robinson were Hollywood's first interracial dance team and this scene in which the two were holding hands was cut from the original theatrical release, because of simple minded idiots, and lame Hollywood politics. 

Even in her adult years, Shirley Temple always referred to Bill Robinson as Uncle Billy. 

Above picture, Temple with Uncle Billy in her treasured red and white racer from her treasured uncle Temple said. 

Above, Shirley Temple in 1945 when she was 17-years-old and engaged to be married to Air Cadet Andrew D. Hotchkiss jr. She married Hotchkiss that same year, and had her first child with him, Linda Susan in 1948. 

When she first married Hotchkiss, uncle Billy said if you ever hurt her, I'll cut you Temple said. Hotchkiss boozed and committed adultery and the two divorced and Temple got full custody of their daughter Susan. Uncle Billy did not cut him. 

Above photo, Temple with actual Blackfoot Indians from a Montana tribe. Twelve Blackfoot tribe members were in 1939s "Susannah of the Mounties." Chief Yellow Kidney, the tribes shaman officially made Temple a Blood Sister of the Blackfoot tribe. He cut his finger with a pen knife, then grasped Temple's hand and cut her finger and pressed their two bloody fingers together. It was quick if not totally painless Temple said, and her Blackfoot name became Bright Shinning Star. 

By the time Temple was 22-years-old, she was done with show business and never made another movie, and at least two different major studios offered her a large weekly sum of money to make one movie a year, and she declined the offers.

She was still in the movies while married to her first husband Hotchkiss, but she wasn't into the nightclub life like he was. When Temple was 18-years-old, actor Kirk Douglas met her in a night club and flat out said what he wanted to do to her sexually. She declined his offer, and in this more than 500 page book, there is not a single profanity. 

Above, Temple Black in 1954 with her husband, Charles Black. She had a boy and a girl with Black, and the child in the middle is her first, Susan, who she had with her first husband in 1948. When this book was released in 1988, the two were still married. 

The library is a great source, I highly recommend using it, and "Child Star Shirley Temple An Autobiography" was a fantastic read. My second five star rating. The non-alcoholic drink, the "Shirley Temple" was indeed named after her and she didn't like it. The drink looks like diluted blood, and tastes even worse, she said. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

   

  

Vintage Hollywood, An Incipient Brothel Tainting Virgin Eyes

Sex, vice and violence along with malevolent morals were just some of the things that assailed the senses and souls upon those who ventured into the darkened movie theaters laden throughout the universe.  

The above picture is Jean Harlow as Lil Andrews seducing her married boss, William, Chester Morris in 1932s "Red-Headed Woman."  Jean Harlow was integral in derailing the critique of commercial Christianity during the Pre-Code Hollywood era. 

In "Red-Headed Woman," Lil (Harlow) uses her natural allure to advance herself financially. Adultery and excessive boozing outraged many far-right Republicans and their insane counterparts, the crazed Christians who had the insane idea, they could dictate morals. By 1935, these Wack jobs won, and even the cartoon character of Betty Boop's skirt was drawn closer to her knees, and her garter belt was never shown to mainstream audiences after 1934. 

Lured subject matter was still allowed after 1934, but the wicked had to be punished in some form or another, via jail, an untimely death, or other forms of ill will toward these characters who partook in enthusiastic indulgences of sin and vice. 

If you want to watch 1932s "Red-Headed Woman," you may not want to read the next sentence and skip to the next paragraph, because I am going to give away the ending to this move. In "Red-Headed Woman," Lil fornicates with at least four different men, and with each of these rich men, she aims for an even a wealthier man, and in the end of the movie she marries a much older and very wealthy man. As Lil and her new hubby are in the back seat of their very nice, chauffeured car, the young handsome chauffer driver looks in the rear-view mirror at Lil and winks, and she winks back at him. Earlier in the film, Lil was married to another rich old man who had the same chauffer driver, and he divorced Lil, because she was seeing him while the two were married, hence, Lil's sins were rewarded in the end, which was a big no-no come 1935. 

By 1935, as I learned from reading 1999s "Pre-Code Hollywood Sex, Vice and Insurrection in American Cinema, 1930-1934," far righties and Christians with way too much power inflicted their laws biblically into Hollywood contracts; 'Thou shall not take or cause to be taken any photography in which girls are shown in underwear, fancy lingerie, teddies, scanties or drawers.' This is just one of the 12, yes 12 commandments in the actual Hollywood contract written in 1935, and it wasn't until the 1950s, these insane commandments for moviemakers started to cease, and not until 1968, did Hollywood implement the movie rating system.

The above picture is a publicity shot of Joan Blondell from her 1933 sex comedy, "Convention City." Blondell was another integral babe who combated the far righties and Christians with her sexiness and films that were an opiate for delicious deceits. 

Cruel Christians and their poisoned Republicans pals nearly ruined the movie industry, but these fools did their damage. In 1934, the original print of "Convention City" was destroyed along with hundreds of other copies of the 35mm film print, which makes it impossible to own a high-quality print of this lost classic, which, incidentally, is on my bucket-list to acquire. In the 1960s, Blondell owned a 16mm print of "Convention City" and showed this movie to various friends and family, and its been said by some, "Convention City" was soft core porn for its day. ("Joan Blondell A Life Between Takes," 2007) 

The above picture is a publicity still of 1932s "Virgins of Bali, a picture featured in the 1999 book, "Forbidden Hollywood..." by Thomas Doherty.  

The symbolic journey into the forbidden zone was ventured upon in "Virgins of Bali." The women bathed shamelessly in their nude bronze bodies. The girls were firmly and harmoniously developed and walked with a swinging and easy rhythmic movement. (Doherty)   

It's a no brainer today's movies are much more graphic and risqué than the four-year Pre-Code era, but that four-year period in cinematic Sin-Sation pioneered the way for today's sexy men and women to flaunt their stuff, and for the writers and directors to delve into the indulgences of wild youth, devious daughters, straying wife's and the elliptical allusions embracing visions of picturesque violence. 

Doherty's book, "Pre-Code Hollywood" is very detailed in documenting the Pre-Code movies exposing political fraud, hard drug use, and the heinous crimes of Al Capone and John Dillinger, among others. Sex just happened to be my favorite subject among these nearly 100-year-old movies, and because of my father and the local library, my quest to own and view these movies has essentially just begun. 

Dorothy Mackaill, pictured above from 1931s, Safe in Hell" is a tale of sex trafficking, hard boozing and murder, and yes, I own this gem of a flick. The people who love me the most don't even know me, yet they remaster movies made more than 90 years ago and distribute them just for me. Indeed, there is love for me. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

  

Sound on film was not mainstream until 1930, and the labyrinth of pleasure-seeking vice movies between 1930 and 1934 were truly entertaining and intriguing to me.