Her film career held more future sadness and scandal than she could have possibly imagined when she signed on the dotted line. For all her successes, Bow was snubbed by the in-crowd, and for years after her heyday she would be nudged out of history. Sadly, while the movie contract took Bow out of Brooklyn, where she had spent her abusive and impoverished childhood, her new home had dangers of its own. On screen she epitomised the joie de vivre and permissiveness of the jazz age, and for many people she remains the ultimate flapper, the “It girl”, with charm and sex appeal to spare. Bow became a hugely popular actor, and, in tabloid-speak, a notorious wild child. “Flapper” movies such as The Plastic Age or Dancing Mothers were perfect for Bow, who had a stunning ability to move naturally in front of the camera, bobbing and smirking with humour and sexiness. The films she went on to make there included some silent classics: they, and she, were precociously flirtatious, youthful and saucy.
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