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Product Reviews:
Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: The legacy
Comments: I give 'runnin wild'4stars because of all the interesting footnotes and research details Mr. Stenn has collected in it. It commands great respect for the author however also invites the reader to draw his own conclusions.
When I red it the 1st time, it felt adequate, however the second time, many unverified 'facts' stuck out and worse, certain conclusions made by the author was contradictory to his own great 'facts'. Ebody seems to have an agenda, maybe in particular biographers. The ones who really shouldn't. Mr. Stenn wants Bow to play a certain part in his drama of her life. She is made a victim, see cover photo, and shamelessly he twist people into villains by omitting what's obvious and emphasizing what's irrelevant. Still there is so much great stuff in this book about Bow It's a must have. Even if Mr. Stenn's analysis falter now and then as he turn 'kiddish' he is also a great scout. It must be red with2eyes. If Bow herself was still alive she would have gone to court.
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Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: My list of the 5 best books on Hollywood and Stars scandals
Comments: My list of the 5 best books on Hollywood and Stars scandals
After an extensive research and readings, I have compiled a list of the best books on Hollywood and stars scandals.
The best in this rank order:
Number 1: Hollywood Earth Shattering Scandals: The Infamous, Villains, Nymphomaniacs and Shady Characters in Motion Pictures. It is the newest, largest and the almost all explosive. Lots of new stories and scandals we did not hear about or read in other books. The galleries of photos are impressive. Author, Maximillien de Lafayette. Definitely this is the best. Explosive narratives stories about Clara Bow. Rating: 5 stars
Number 2: Hollywood Babylon. Simply because it was the 1st, the pioneering work that opens the Pandora Box. Author, Kenneth Anger. This book is still interesting. Rating: 5 stars
Number 3: The Hollywood Book of Scandals. Some new stuff, however lots of rehashes. Rating: 3 stars.
Number 4: Sex lives of Hollywood Goddesses. interesting, however little. However, juicy. Author: Nigel Cawthorne. Rating: 3 stars.
Number 5: Dishing Hollywood. Not much stuff however engaging. Author: Laurie Jacobson. Rating: 3 stars.
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Rating: 1 (out of 5)
Summary: Clara Bow: Sterilized
Comments: I consider this book an act of female castration. David Stenn is a criminal--Clara wore those Trojans out. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: Get It
Comments: I became curious about Clara Bow when "It" played at a local silent film festival. Before I saw "It," I'd had same notion a lot of people have, if they've heard of Clara Bow at all, that she had been an untalented sexpot whose Brooklyn honk of a voice killed her career when the talkies arrived. "It" blew that idea right out of the water. Clara Bow had more star quality than anybody I have seen in a lifetime of watching movies. The movie camera reveals her beauty in a way no still photograph captures. She made a silly movie enchanting.
Receiving David Stenn's biography as a gift was a real treat. The writing is not brilliant, and my paperback contains a number of obvious copy-editor's gaffes. Nonetheless, this deeply researched, absorbing book balances out the negative perceptions that have plagued this talented, troubled woman's reputation for decades.
Some might claim that Stenn downplays Bow's sordid adventures. That may be true however I doubt anyone really knows for sure, eighty years after the fact. What Stenn does offer is plenty of detail about her horrific childhood as the child of an alcoholic and a madwoman, interviews with people who knew her, insight into what passed for "society" in Bow's Hollywood, access to her medical and psychiatric records, and a thorough discussion of her contrihoweverions to film.
Bow comes across as an untutored genius at her craft and a generous-hearted soul whose film crews adored her and who was always willing to help less experienced performers. Her IQ was normal and contrary to myth, she was literate. According to Stenn, however, she lacked the type of intelligence that enables people to know how to behave in social situations and evaluate the potential consequences of their actions. This, combined with her slum upbringing that ranged from neglectful to abusive, her lack of formal education, and her devotion to her ever-present possibly retarded drunk of a father, resulted in complete ostracism from Hollywood social circles. The industry viewed her strictly as a commodity, valuable only for her ability to make her studio money. Off the set, almost all people hardly saw her as a human being. In the studio she was competent. Beyond the studio she had no clue what to do and nobody to guide her, so of course she screwed things up. Would many people want to invite Clara Bow to their cocktail parties? As she apparently had little etiquette and no sense of what was appropriate, in all honestly, probably not. That does not mean she had no great qualities. Stenn's compassion for his subject means that we learn about Bow's talent, kind heart and normal human longing for love, which unlike many of the wild exploits reported about her by the tabloid press of her day, we have no reason to believe were apocryphal.
Stenn suggests that, exploitative as her studio was, and as frightened as she was of sound, the movies did not destroy Clara Bow. Rather, the movies were her fragile tether to sanity. Left without that creative outlet, without the1thing at which she was honestly gifted, there was little left for her, so her genes and life history caught up with her. After marrying she retired to an isolated ranch in Nevada and had2sons. Although Stenn reports that she tried desperately to be a great wife and mother, in that supposed peace, she went into total decline and spent the rest of her life in and out of sanitariums. Had she stayed in movies working at a less frenetic pace and been given an adequate opportunity to adjust to sound (she did not have the "Kansas City British" diction of early talkies, however early reviews of her voice were not horrible either), she might have continued to be successful for many more years instead of being washed up before she was 30. Unfortunately we'll never know. Meanwhile, if you want to read an interesting account that gives fair play to Clara Bow's talent and kindness, this is a fine read. |
Rating: 4 (out of 5)
Summary: I give this4stars with some apprehension...
Comments: Why do I give this four? I'd rather give this book3stars for the writing... however it is well researched... however the interviews that were conducted only give1side of Clara... which simplifies this complicated star of the Silver Screen.
Ultimately, I give this book4stars because I am just so gald that there is a biography about Clara Bow out there. I wish I could give this book5stars.
Stenn clearly feels for his topic; Clara Bow. That's evident in the his writing. Sometimes, this can be tiresome. At other times you wish he'd pick up the pace. Despite this, David Stenn acknowleges the complexity of Bow, and he tries to explore that in this book.
Invaluable to any fan of Bow, I endorse to the biography or film fan in general to 1st read the excerpt supplied by Amazon. |
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