Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
Name	Thelma Todd
Caption	in Corsair (1931)
Birth name	Thelma Alice Todd
Birth date	July 29, 1906
Birth place	Lawrence, Massachusetts, U.S.
Death date	December 16, 1935
Death place	Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.
Other names	Alison Loyd
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1926–1935
Spouse

Thelma Alice Todd and starred in his film Corsair.

Thelma Todd became highly regarded as a capable film comedian, and Roach loaned her out to other studios to play opposite Wheeler & Woolsey, Buster Keaton, Joe E. Brown, and the Marx Brothers. She also appeared successfully in such dramas as the original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon starring Ricardo Cortez as Sam Spade, in which she played Miles Archer's treacherous widow. During her career she appeared in 119 films although many of these were short films, and was sometimes publicized as "The Ice Cream Blonde."

In August 1934, she opened a successful cafe at Pacific Palisades, called Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Cafe, attracting a diverse clientele of Hollywood celebrities as well as many tourists.

Todd continued her short-subject series through 1935, and was featured in the full-length Laurel and Hardy comedy The Bohemian Girl. This was her last film; she died after completing all of her scenes, but most of them were re-shot. Producer Roach deleted all of Todd's dialogue and limited her appearance to one musical number.

Death

On the morning of Monday, December 16, 1935, Thelma Todd was found dead in her car inside the garage of Jewel Carmen, a former actress and former wife of Todd's lover and business partner, Roland West. Carmen's house was approximately a block from the topmost side of Todd's restaurant. Her death was determined to have been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. Todd had a wide circle of friends and associates as well as a busy social life; police investigations revealed that she had spent the last night of her life at the Trocadero, a popular Hollywood restaurant, at a party hosted by entertainer Stanley Lupino and his actress daughter, Ida. At the restaurant, she had had a brief but unpleasant exchange with her ex-husband, Pat DeCicco. However, her friends stated that she was in good spirits, and were aware of nothing unusual in her life that could suggest a reason for committing suicide.

The detectives of the LAPD concluded at first that Todd's death was accidental, the result of her either warming up the car to drive it or using the heater to keep herself warm. Other evidence, however, pointed to foul play. The Grand Jury ruled her death as suicide. Since her body was cremated, a second, more thorough autopsy could not be carried out. It was believed that she was the target of extortion, but refused to pay. It is also possible that she was locked in the garage by her assailant after she started the car. Blood from a wound was found on her face and dress, leading some to believe that she was knocked unconscious and placed in the car so that she would succumb to carbon monoxide poisoning.

Todd's death certificate states her cause of death as accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. She was cremated; after her mother's death, her remains were placed in her mother's casket and buried in Bellevue Cemetery in her home town of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Complicating matters, there was an apparent murder two years later involving Todd's ex-husband Pat DiCicco and another movie actor as the victim. According to E.J. Fleming's book The Fixers (about MGM's legendary "fixers" Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling), Wallace Beery (one of MGM's top stars), gangster Pat DiCicco, and Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli (who was also DiCicco's cousin and eventual producer of the James Bond films) allegedly beat comedian and movie actor Ted Healy to death in the parking lot of the Trocadero nightclub on December 21, 1937. The book claims that Beery was sent to Europe by the studio for a few months, while a story was concocted that three college students had killed Healy. Immigration records confirm a four-month-long trip to Europe on Beery's part immediately after Healy's death, ending April 17, 1938. A pencil drawing of Beery survives that was done on a film set by Healy, an amateur artist as well as the organizer and original leader of the Three Stooges.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Thelma Todd has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6262 Hollywood Blvd.

Selected filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Film |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1926 | Fascinating Youth | Lorraine Lane | |- | 1927 | Fireman, Save My Child | | Uncredited |- | 1928 | | Phyllis | |- | 1928 | Abie's Irish Rose | | |- | 1929 | Seven Footprints to Satan | Eve | |- | 1929 | Unaccustomed As We Are | Mrs. Kennedy | Short film |- | 1930 | Her Man | Nelly | |- | 1930 | Another Fine Mess | Lady Plumtree | Short film |- | 1931 | Chickens Come Home | Mrs. Hardy | Short film |- | 1931 | No Limit | Betty Royce | |- | 1931 | | Iva Archer | Alternative title: Dangerous Female |- | 1931 | Monkey Business | Lucille Briggs | |- | 1931 | On the Loose | Thelma | Short subject

|- | 1931 | Broadminded | Gertie Gardner | |- | 1932 | | Kay Mitchell | |- | 1932 | This Is the Night | Claire | |- | 1932 | Horse Feathers | Connie Bailey | |- | 1932 | Speak Easily | Eleanor Espere | |- | 1932 | Call Her Savage | Sunny De Lane | |- |1933 |You Made Me Love You |Pamela Berne | |- | 1933 | Fra Diavolo | Lady Pamela Rocburg | Alternative titles: Bogus BanditsThe Devil's Brother |- | 1933 | Sitting Pretty | Gloria Duval | |- | 1933 | Counsellor at Law | Lillian La Rue | |- | 1934 | Palooka | Trixie | Alternative titles: Joe PalookaThe Great Schnozzle |- | 1934 | Hips, Hips, Hooray! | Amelia Frisby | |- | 1935 | Two for Tonight | Lilly | |- | 1936 | | Gypsy queen's daughter | |}

See also

Pitts and Todd

References

Further reading

External links

Thelma Todd Photo Gallery

Paulist Productions Page For Todd Building Contains pic and brief text concerning her death and the building her cafe was located in, still standing today.

The Mysterious Death of Thelma Todd. Los Angeles: Past, Present and Future Project, USC.

Photographs and literature

The Death of Thelma Todd

Thelma Todd's ex-husband and Ted Healy's death

Thelma Todd's ex-husband Pat DiCicco

Thelma Todd and Pat DiCicco photos

Category:Actors from Massachusetts Category:Accidental deaths in California Category:American film actors Category:American silent film actors Category:Deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning Category:Hal Roach Studios actors Category:Hal Roach Studios short film series Category:People from Lawrence, Massachusetts Category:1906 births Category:1935 deaths

Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
Region	Western Philosophy, German philosophy
Era	19th century philosophy
Color	#B0C4DE
Caption	Marx in 1875
Name	Karl Heinrich Marx
Birth date	5 May 1818
Birth place	Trier, Kingdom of Prussia
Death date	March 14, 1883 (bronchitis/pleurisy)
Death place	London, United Kingdom
Religion	Protestantism; later, none (atheist)
School tradition	Marxism, Communism, Socialism, Hegelianism
Signature	Karl Marx Signature.svg
Main interests	Politics, economics, philosophy, sociology, history, class struggle
Influences	Hegel, Feuerbach, Spinoza, Proudhon, Stirner, Smith, Voltaire, Ricardo, Vico, Rousseau, Goethe, Helvetius, d'Holbach, Shakespeare, Dante, Fourier, Balcescu, Hess, Hupay, Francois Guizot
Influenced	Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Brezhnev, Mao, Tito, Hoxha, Castro, Guevara, Ceaușescu, Ho, Christofias, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Luxemburg, Lukács, Gramsci, Korsch, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Chomsky, Bookchin, Arendt, Marcuse, Lyotard, Tzara Foucault, Deleuze, Debord, Frankfurt School, Negri, Taussig, Roy and many, many more ...
Notable ideas	Co-founder of Marxism (with Engels), surplus value, contributions to the Labour theory of value, alienation and exploitation of the worker, The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital, materialist conception of history |}}

Karl Heinrich Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, sociologist, economic historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist who developed the socio-political theory of Marxism. His ideas have since played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement. He published various books during his lifetime, with the most notable being The Communist Manifesto (1848) and Capital (1867–1894), many of which were co-written with his friend, the fellow German revolutionary socialist Friedrich Engels.

Born into a wealthy middle class family in Trier, Prussia, Marx went on to study at both the University of Bonn and the University of Berlin, where he became interested in the philosophical ideas of the Young Hegelians. In 1836, he became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, marrying her in 1843. Following the completion of his studies, he became a journalist in Cologne, writing for a radical newspaper, the Rheinische Zeitung, where he began to use Hegelian concepts of dialectical materialism to influence his ideas on socialism. Moving to Paris in 1843, he began writing for other radical newspapers, the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher and Vorwärts!, as well as writing a series of books, several of which were co-written with Engels. Exiled to Brussels in Belgium in 1845, he became a leading figure of the Communist League, before moving back to Cologne, where he founded his own newspaper, the Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Exiled once more, in 1849 he moved to London together with his wife Jenny and their children. In London, where the family was reduced to poverty, Marx continued writing and formulating his theories about the nature of society and how he believed it could be improved, as well as campaigning for socialism and becoming a significant figure in the International Workingmen's Association.

Marx's theories about society, economics and politics, which are collectively known as Marxism, hold that all societies progress through the dialectic of class struggle. He was heavily critical of the current socio-economic form of society, capitalism, which he called the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie", believing it to be run by the wealthy middle and upper classes purely for their own benefit, and predicted that, like previous socioeconomic systems, it would inevitably produce internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system, socialism. Under socialism, he argued that society would be governed by the working class in what he called the "dictatorship of the proletariat", the "workers state" or "workers' democracy". He believed that socialism would, in its turn, eventually be replaced by a stateless, classless society called pure communism. Along with believing in the inevitability of socialism and communism, Marx actively fought for the former's implementation, arguing that both social theorists and underprivileged people should carry out organised revolutionary action to topple capitalism and bring about socio-economic change. Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history, and in a 1999 BBC poll was voted the "thinker of the millennium" by people from around the world.

Biography

Early life: 1818–1835

Karl Heinrich Marx was born on 5 May 1818 at 664 Brückergasse in Trier, a town located in the Kingdom of Prussia's Province of the Lower Rhine. His ancestry was largely Jewish, with his paternal line having supplied the rabbis of Trier since 1723, a role that had been taken up by his own grandfather, Merier Halevi Marx; Merier's son and Karl's father would be the first in the line to receive a secular education. His maternal grandfather was a Dutch rabbi. Karl's father, Hirschel Marx, was middle-class and relatively prosperous, owning a number of Moselle vineyards; he converted from Judaism to the Protestant Christian denomination of Lutheranism prior to his son's birth, taking on the German forename of Heinrich over Hirschel. A man of the Enlightenment, Heinrich Marx was interested in the ideas of the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Voltaire, and took part in agitations for a constitution and reforms in Prussia, which was then governed by an absolute monarchy. Karl's mother, born Henrietta Pressburg, was a Dutch Jew who, unlike her husband, was only semi-literate. She claimed to suffer from "excessive mother love", devoting much time to her family, and insisting on cleanliness within her home. She was from a prosperous business family. Her family later founded the company Philips Electronics: she was great-aunt to Anton and Gerard Philips, and great-great-aunt to Frits Philips.

Little is known about Karl Marx's childhood. He was privately educated until 1830, when he entered Trier High School, which was then run by the headmaster Hugo Wyttenbach, a friend of his father. Wyttenbach had employed many liberal humanists as teachers, something which angered the government, and so the police raided the school in 1832, discovering what they labelled seditious literature espousing political liberalism being distributed amongst the students. In 1835, Karl, then aged seventeen, began attending the University of Bonn, where he wished to study philosophy and literature, but his father insisted on law as a more practical field of study. He was able to avoid military service when he turned eighteen because he suffered from a weak chest. Being fond of alcoholic beverages, at Bonn he joined the Trier Tavern Club drinking society (Landsmannschaft der Treveraner) and at one point served as its co-president. Marx was more interested in drinking and socialising than studying law, and due to his poor grades, his father forced him to transfer to the far more serious and academically oriented University of Berlin, where his legal studies became less significant than excursions into philosophy and history. Their eventual marriage was controversial for breaking two social taboos of the period; it was a marriage between individuals who belonged to the middle and upper class (aristocracy), respectively, and between a man and a woman older than he. Such issues were lessened by Marx's friendship with Jenny's father, Baron Ludwig von Westphalen, a liberal thinking aristocrat. Marx dedicated his doctoral thesis to him. The couple married seven years later, on 19 June 1843, at the Pauluskirche in Bad Kreuznach.

Marx became interested in, but critical of, the work of the German philosopher G.W.F Hegel (1770–1831), whose ideas were widely debated amongst European philosophical circles at the time. Marx wrote about falling ill "from intense vexation at having to make an idol of a view I detested." He became involved with a group of radical thinkers known as the Young Hegelians, who gathered around Ludwig Feuerbach and Bruno Bauer. During that period, Marx concentrated on his criticism of Hegel and certain other Young Hegelians. He soon gave up writing fiction for other pursuits, including learning English and Italian.

He was deeply engaged in writing his doctoral thesis, The Difference Between the Democritean and Epicurean Philosophy of Nature, which he finished in 1841. The essay has been described as "a daring and original piece of work in which he set out to show that theology must yield to the superior wisdom of philosophy", and as such was controversial, particularly among the conservative professors at the University of Berlin. Marx decided to submit it instead to the more liberal University of Jena, whose faculty awarded him his PhD based on it.

From considering an academic career, Marx turned to journalism. He criticised the governments of Europe and their policies, but also liberals and other members of the socialist movement whose ideas he thought were ineffective or outright anti-socialist. The paper eventually attracted the attention of the Prussian government censors, who checked every issue for potentially seditious material before it could be printed. Marx said, "Our newspaper has to be presented to the police to be sniffed at, and if the police nose smells anything unChristian or unPrussian, the newspaper is not allowed to appear." After the paper published an article strongly criticising the monarchy in Russia, the Russian Tsar Nicholas I, an ally of the Prussian monarchy, requested that the Rheinische Zeitung be banned. The Prussian government shut down the paper in 1843. Marx wrote for the Young Hegelian journal, the Deutsche Jahrbücher, in which he criticised the censorship instructions issued by Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. His article was censored and the newspaper closed down by the authorities shortly after.

In 1843, Marx published On the Jewish Question, in which he distinguished between political and human emancipation. He also examined the role of religious practice in society.

Paris: 1843–1845

Following the government-imposed shutdown of the Rheinische Zeitung, Marx got involved with a new radical newspaper, the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher (German-French Annals), which was then being set up by Arnold Ruge, another German socialist revolutionary. The paper was based not in Germany, but in the city of Paris in neighbouring France, and it was here that both Marx and his wife moved in October 1843. They initially lived with Ruge and his wife communally at 23 Rue Vaneau, but finding these living conditions difficult, the Marxes moved out following the birth of their daughter Jenny in 1844. Although it was intended to attract writers from both France and the German states, the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher was dominated by the latter, with the only non-German writer being the exiled Russian anarcho-communist Michael Bakunin. Only one issue was ever published, but it was relatively successful, largely due to the inclusion of Heinrich Heine's satirical odes on King Ludwig of Bavaria, which led to those copies sent to Germany being confiscated by the state's police force.

It was in Paris that, on 28 August 1844, Marx met German socialist Friedrich Engels at the Café de la Régence after becoming interested in the ideas that the latter had expressed in articles written for the Rheinische Zeitung and the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher. Although they had briefly met each other at the offices of the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842, it was here in Paris that they began their friendship that would last for the rest of their lives. Engels showed Marx his recently published book, The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, which convinced Marx that the working class would be the agent and instrument of the final revolution in history. Engels and Marx soon set about writing a criticism of the philosophical ideas of Marx's former friend, the Young Hegelian Bruno Bauer, which would be published in 1845 as The Holy Family. Although critical of Bauer, Marx was increasingly influenced by the ideas of the other Young Hegelians Max Stirner and Ludwig Feuerbach, but eventually also abandoned Feuerbachian materialism as well.

In 1844 Marx wrote The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, a work which covered numerous topics, and went into detail to explain Marx's concept of alienated labour.

After the collapse of the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher, Marx, still living on the Rue Vaneau, began writing for what was then the only uncensored German-language radical newspaper in Europe, Vorwärts!. Based in Paris, the paper had been established and was run by many activists connected to the revolutionary socialist League of the Just, which would come to be better known as the Communist League within a few years. In Vorwärts!, Marx continued to refine his views on socialism based upon the Hegelian and Feurbachian ideas of dialectical materialism, whilst at the same time criticising various liberals and other socialists operating in Europe at the time. However in 1845, after receiving a request from the Prussian king, the French government agreed to shut down Vorwärts!, and furthermore, Marx himself was expelled from France by the interior minister François Guizot. In 1845 Marx and Engels visited the leaders of the Chartists, a socialist movement in Britain, using the trip as an opportunity to study in various libraries in London and Manchester. In collaboration with Engels he also set about writing a book which is often seen as his best treatment of the concept of historical materialism, The German Ideology; the work, like many others, would not see publication in Marx's lifetime, only being published in 1932. He followed this with The Poverty of Philosophy (1847), a response to the French anarcho-socialist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's The Philosophy of Poverty and a critique of French socialist thought in general.

These books laid the foundation for Marx and Engels's most famous work, a political pamphlet that has since come to be commonly known as The Communist Manifesto. First published on 21 February 1848, it laid out the beliefs of the Communist League, a group who had come increasingly under the influence of Marx and Engels, who argued that the League must make their aims and intentions clear to the general public rather than hiding them as they had formerly been doing. The opening lines of the pamphlet set forth the principal basis of Marxism, that "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

Later that year, Europe experienced a series of protests, rebellions, and often violent upheavals, the Revolutions of 1848. In France, a revolution led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of the French Second Republic. or 5000 francs, allegedly used a third of it to arm Belgian workers who were planning revolutionary action. Although the veracity of these allegations is disputed, the Belgian Ministry of Justice accused him of it, subsequently arresting him, and he was forced to flee back to France, where, with a new republican government in power, he believed that he would be safe.

Cologne: 1848-1849

Temporarily settling down in Paris, Marx transferred the Communist League executive headquarters to the city and also set up a German Workers' Club with various German socialists living there. Hoping to see the revolution spread to Germany, in 1848 Marx moved back to Cologne where he began issuing a handbill entitled the Demands of the Communist Party in Germany, in which he argued for only four of the ten points of the Communist Manifesto, believing that in Germany at that time, the bourgeoisie must overthrow the feudal monarchy and aristocracy before the proletariat could overthrow the bourgeoisie. On 1 June, Marx started publication of the daily Neue Rheinische Zeitung ("New Rhenish Newspaper"), which he helped to finance through his recent inheritance from his father. Designed to put forward news from across Europe with his own Marxist interpretation of events, Marx remained one of its primary writers, accompanied by other fellow members of the Communist League who wrote for the paper, although despite their input it remained, according to Friedrich Engels, "a simple dictatorship by Marx", who dominated the choice of content.

Whilst editor of the paper, Marx and the other revolutionary socialists were regularly harassed by the police, and Marx was brought to trial on several occasions, facing various allegations including insulting the Chief Public Prosecutor, an alleged press misdemeanor and inciting armed rebellion through tax boycotting, Meanwhile, the democratic parliament in Prussia collapsed, and the king, Frederick William IV, introduced a new cabinet of his reactionary supporters, who implemented counter-revolutionary measures to expunge leftist and other revolutionary elements from the country. Marx returned to Paris, which was then under the grip of both a reactionary counter-revolution and a cholera epidemic, and was soon expelled by the city authorities who considered him a political threat. With his wife Jenny expecting their fourth child, and not able to move back to Germany or Belgium, in August 1849 he sought refuge in London.

London: 1849–1883

Marx moved to London in May 1849 and would remain in the city for the rest of his life. It was here that he founded the new headquarters of the Communist League, and got heavily involved with the socialist German Workers' Educational Society, who held their meetings in Great Windmill Street, Soho, central London's entertainment district. Marx devoted himself to two activities: revolutionary organizing, and an attempt to understand political economy and capitalism. For the first few years he and his family lived in extreme poverty. His main source of income was his colleague, Engels, who derived much of his income from his family's business.

From December 1851 to March 1852 Marx wrote The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, a work on the French Revolution of 1848, in which he expanded upon his concepts of historical materialism, class struggle and the dictatorship of the proletariat, advancing the argument that victorious proletariat has to smash the bourgeois state.

The 1850s and 1860s also marks the line between what some scholars see as idealistic, Hegelian young Marx from the more scientifically-minded mature Marx writings of the later period. Nor do all scholars agree that it indeed exists.

In 1864 Marx became involved in the International Workingmen's Association (also known as First International). He became a leader of its General Council, to whose General Council he was elected at its inception in 1864. In that organization Marx was involved in the struggle against the anarchist wing centered around Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). The most important political event during the existence of the International was the Paris Commune of 1871 when the citizens of Paris rebelled against their government and held the city for two months. On the bloody suppression of this rebellion, Marx wrote one of his most famous pamphlets, The Civil War in France, a defense of the Commune.

Given the repeated failures and frustrations of workers' revolutions and movements, Marx also sought to understand capitalism, and spent a great deal of time in the reading room of the British Museum studying and reflecting on the works of political economists and on economic data. By 1857 he had accumulated over 800 pages of notes and short essays on capital, landed property, wage labour, the state, foreign trade and the world market; this work did not appear in print until 1941, under the title Grundrisse. In 1859, Marx published Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, his first serious economic work. In the early 1860s he worked on composing three large volumes, the Theories of Surplus Value, which discussed the theoreticians of political economy, particularly Adam Smith and David Ricardo. In 1867 the first volume of Capital was published, a work which analyzed the capitalist process of production. Here, Marx elaborated his labor theory of value and his conception of surplus value and exploitation which he argued would ultimately lead to a falling rate of profit and the collapse of industrial capitalism. Volumes II and III remained mere manuscripts upon which Marx continued to work for the rest of his life and were published posthumously by Engels.

In a letter to Vera Zasulich dated 8 March 1881, Marx even contemplated the possibility of Russia's bypassing the capitalist stage of development and building communism on the basis of the common ownership of land characteristic of the village mir. While admitting that Russia's rural "commune is the fulcrum of social regeneration in Russia", Marx also warned that in order for the mir to operate as a means for moving straight to the socialist stage without a preceding capitalist stage, it "would first be necessary to eliminate the deleterious influences which are assailing it (the rural commune) from all sides." Given the elimination of these pernicious influences, Marx allowed, that "normal conditions of spontaneous development" of the rural commune could exist. family and friends in London buried his body in Highgate Cemetery, London, on 17 March 1883. There were between nine to eleven mourners at his funeral.}} Marx's daughter Eleanor and Charles Longuet and Paul Lafargue, Marx's two French socialist sons-in-law, were also in attendance. Liebknecht, a founder and leader of the German Social-Democratic Party, gave a speech in German, and Longuet, a prominent figure in the French working-class movement, made a short statement in French. In 1970 there was an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the monument using a homemade bomb.

Marx's thought

Inspirations

Marx's thought demonstrates influences from many thinkers, including but not limited to: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's philosophy; The classical political economy (economics) of Adam Smith and David Ricardo; French socialist thought, Earlier German philosophical materialism, particularly that of Ludwig Feuerbach; By adopting this approach, Marx attempted to separate key findings from ideological biases. Humans recognise that they possess both actual and potential selves. For both Marx and Hegel, self-development begins with an experience of internal alienation stemming from this recognition, followed by a realisation that the actual self, as a subjective agent, renders its potential counterpart an object to be apprehended. in desired ways, the subject takes the object as its own, and thus permits the individual to be actualised as fully human. For Marx, then, human nature—Gattungswesen, or species-being—exists as a function of human labour. but characterises Hegelian self-development as unduly "spiritual" and abstract. Marx thus departs from Hegel by insisting that "the fact that man is a corporeal, actual, sentient, objective being with natural capacities means that he has actual, sensuous objects for his nature as objects of his life-expression, or that he can only express his life in actual sensuous objects." Consequently, Marx revises Hegelian "work" into material "labour", and in the context of human capacity to transform nature the term "labour power".)}} Marx had a special concern with how people relate to that most fundamental resource of all, their own labour power. He wrote extensively about this in terms of the problem of alienation. As with the dialectic, Marx began with a Hegelian notion of alienation but developed a more materialist conception.

Commodity fetishism provides an example of what Engels called "false consciousness", which relates closely to the understanding of ideology. By "ideology", Marx and Engels meant ideas that reflect the interests of a particular class at a particular time in history, but which contemporaries see as universal and eternal. Marx and Engels's point was not only that such beliefs are at best half-truths; they serve an important political function. Put another way, the control that one class exercises over the means of production includes not only the production of food or manufactured goods; it includes the production of ideas as well (this provides one possible explanation for why members of a subordinate class may hold ideas contrary to their own interests). An example of this sort of analysis is Marx's understanding of religion, summed up in a passage from the preface to his 1843 Contribution to the Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right:

}}

Whereas his Gymnasium senior thesis argued that religion had as its primary social aim the promotion of solidarity, here Marx sees the social function of religion in terms of highlighting/preserving political and economic status quo and inequality.

Economy, history and society

Marx thoughts on labor were related to the primacy he gave to the economic relation in determining the society's past, present and future (see also economic determinism). Together these compose the mode of production, and Marx distinguished historical eras in terms of distinct modes of production. Marx differentiated between base and superstructure, with the base (or substructure) referring to the economic system, and superstructure, to the cultural and political system. On one hand, Marx, in the 19th century's deepest critique of the dehumanizing aspects of this system, noted that defining features of capitalism include alienation, exploitation and reoccurring, cyclical depressions leading to mass unemployment; on the other hand capitalism is also characterized by "revolutionizing, industrializing and universalizing qualities of development, growth and progressivity" (by which Marx meant industrialization, urbanization, technological progress, increased productivity and growth, rationality and scientific revolution), that are responsible for progress. Capitalism can stimulate considerable growth because the capitalist can, and has an incentive to, reinvest profits in new technologies and capital equipment.}}

In this new society the self-alienation would end, and humans would be free to act without being bound by the labor market. While he allowed for the possibility of peaceful transition in some countries with strong democratic institutional structures (such as Britain, the US and the Netherlands), he suggested that in other countries with strong centralized state-oriented traditions, like France and Germany, the "lever of our revolution must be force."

Personal life

Marx married Jenny von Westphalen in 1843. Together had seven children, but partly due to the poor living conditions they were forced to live in whilst in London, only three survived to adulthood. The children were: Jenny Caroline (m. Longuet; 1844–83); Jenny Laura (m. Lafargue; 1845–1911); Edgar (1847–1855); Henry Edward Guy ("Guido"; 1849–1850); Jenny Eveline Frances ("Franziska"; 1851–52); Jenny Julia Eleanor (1855–98) and one more who died before being named (July 1857). There are allegations that Marx also fathered a son out of wedlock by his housekeeper, Helene Demuth.

Marx was fond of using pseudonyms, often when renting a house or flat, apparently to make it harder for the authorities to track him down. Whilst in Paris, he used that of 'Monsieur Ramboz', whilst in London he signed off his letters as 'A. Williams'. His friends referred to him as 'Moor', due to his dark complexion and black curly hair, something which they believed made him resemble the historical Moors of North Africa, whilst he encouraged his children to call him 'Old Nick' and 'Charley'. He also bestowed nicknames and pseudonyms on his friends and family as well, referring to Friedrich Engels as 'General', his housekeeper Helene Demuth as 'Lenchen' or 'Nym', whilst one of his daughters, Jennychen, was referred to as 'Qui Qui, Emperor of China' and another, Laura, was known as 'Kakadou' or 'the Hottentot'.}} , Berlin-Mitte]] note used in the German Democratic Republic. 100-Mark banknotes with Marx's portrait circulated from 1964 until monetary union with West Germany in July 1990.]]

Marx has widely been thought of as one of the most influential thinkers in history, who has had a significant influence on both world politics and intellectual thought. Marx's biographer Francis Wheen considered the "history of the twentieth century" to be "Marx's legacy", whilst Australian philosopher Peter Singer believed that Marx's impact could be compared with that of the founders of the two major world religions, Jesus Christ and Muhammad. Singer noted that "Marx's ideas brought about modern sociology, transformed the study of history, and profoundly affected philosophy, literature and the arts." and have influenced a wide variety of disciplines, including archaeology, anthropology, media studies, political science, theater, history, sociological theory, cultural studies, education, economics, geography, literary criticism, aesthetics, critical psychology, and philosophy.

In July 2005, 27.9% of listeners in a BBC Radio 4 series In Our Time poll selected Marx as their favorite thinker.

The reasons for Marx's widespread influence revolve around his ethical message; a "morally empowering language of critique" against the dominant capitalist society. Nevertheless, Marxists have frequently debated amongst themselves over how to interpret Marx's writings and how to apply his concepts to their contemporary events and conditions.

Founder of social science

, formerly the East German city Karl-Marx-Stadt (Karl Marx City)]] Marx is typically cited, along with Émile Durkheim and Max Weber, as one of the three principal architects of modern social science. In modern sociological theory, Marxist sociology is recognized as one of the main classical perspectives. For Isaiah Berlin, Marx may be regarded as the "true father" of modern sociology, "in so far as anyone can claim the title."

Criticism

Predictions and theories

While many Marxist concepts are still of importance for modern social science, numerous specific predictions Marx made have been shown to be false, or at the very least, unlikely. to overturn capitalism, but instead, they occurred in pre-industrial, agrarian nations, such as in Russia and China. Marx predicted the fall of capitalism, to be replaced by socialism, yet since the late 20th century state socialism is in retreat, as the Soviet Union collapsed, and the People's Republic of China shifted towards a market economy. Few today support his argument that the capitalist system will collapse due to internal flaws.) but also that this would mean growing impoverishment of the growing worker class, increasingly exploited by the capitalists. (It should be noted that scholars are debating whether Marx's comments about proletariat can be analyzed in the context of the working class). In addition to specific predictions, certain of Marx's theories, such as his labour theory of value, have also been criticized.

Marxism as the ideology of totalitarian states

While Marxist thought may be used to empower marginalized and dispossessed people, it has also been used to prop up governments who have utilised mass murder to remove those seen as impeding the revolution. This abuse of Marx's thought is perhaps most clearly exemplified in Stalinist Marxism, described as the "most widespread and successful form of mass indoctrination... a masterly achievement in transforming Marxism into the official ideology of a consistently totalitarian state." The controversy is further fueled as some left-wing theorists try to shield Marxism from any connection to the Soviet regime.

The undue focus on the Marxist thought in the former Eastern Bloc, often forbidding social science arguments from outside the Marxist perspective, led to a backlash against Marxism after the revolutions of 1989 freed science from control of the socialist government; for example, references to Marx drastically decreased in Polish sociology after the fall of the revolutionary socialist governments, and two major research institutions which advocated the Marxist approach to sociology were closed.

Selected bibliography

The Philosophical Manifesto of the Historical School of Law (1842)

Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, 1843

On the Jewish Question, 1843

Notes on James Mill, 1844

Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844, 1844

The Holy Family, 1845

Theses on Feuerbach, 1845

The German Ideology, 1845

The Poverty of Philosophy, 1847

Wage-Labor and Capital, 1847

Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848

The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, 1852

Grundrisse, 1857

A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, 1859

Writings on the U.S. Civil War, 1861

Theories of Surplus Value, 3 volumes, 1862

Value, Price and Profit, 1865

Capital, Volume I (Das Kapital), 1867

The Civil War in France, 1871

Critique of the Gotha Program, 1875

Notes on Wagner, 1883

Capital, Volume II (posthumously published by Engels), 1885

Capital, Volume III (posthumously published by Engels), 1894

See also

Karl Marx House

Marx Memorial Library

Marx’s method

Marx's notebooks on the history of technology

Marxian Class Theory

Marxian economics

Pre-Marx socialists

References

;Footnotes

;Bibliography |year= 2002 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location= Oxford |isbn=978–0631213475 |nopp=|ref=Cal02}} |year= 2010 [1983]|publisher=Bookmarks |location= Bloomsbury, London |isbn=978–1905192687 |nopp=|ref=Cal10}} |year= 1967 [1913]|publisher=Foreign Languages Press |location= Peking |isbn=|nopp=|ref=Len67|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1914/granat/index.htm}} |year= 1980 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn=978–0192875105 |nopp=|ref=Sin80}} |year= 2004 |publisher=Index Books |location= Kettering |isbn=978–0572029357 |nopp=|ref=Sto04}} |year= 1973 |publisher=Verlag Die Wirtschaft |location= |isbn= |nopp=|ref=Vyg73|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/vygodsky/1965/discovery.htm}} |year= 2001|publisher=Fourth Estate |location= London |isbn=978–1857026375 |nopp=|ref=Whe00}}

Further reading

Althusser, Louis and Balibar, Étienne. Reading Capital. London: Verso, 2009.

Avineri, Shlomo, The Social and Political Thought of Karl Marx (Cambridge University Press, 1968) ISBN 0–521–09619–7

Axelos, Kostas, Alienation, Praxis, and Techne in the Thought of Karl Marx (translated by Ronald Bruzina, University of Texas Press, 1976).

Barnett, Vincent, Marx (Routledge, 2009)

Blackledge, Paul. Reflections on the Marxist Theory of History (Manchester University Press, 2006)

Bottomore, Tom, ed. A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. Oxford: Blackwell, 1998.

Alex Callinicos, The Revolutionary Ideas of Karl Marx (Bookmarks, 1983)

Isaiah Berlin, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment (Oxford University Press, 1963) ISBN 0–19–520052–7

G. A. Cohen, Karl Marx's Theory of History: A Defence (Princeton University Press, 1978) ISBN 0–691–07068–7

Andrew Collier, Marx (Oneworld, 2004)

Hal Draper, Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution (4 volumes) Monthly Review Press

Ronald Duncan and Colin Wilson, (editors) Marx Refuted, (Bath, UK, 1987) ISBN 0–906798–71–X

Fine, Ben. Marx's Capital. 5th ed. London: Pluto, 2010.

Foster, John Bellamy. Marx's Ecology: Materialism and Nature. New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000.

Stephen Jay Gould, A Darwinian Gentleman at Marx's Funeral – E. Ray Lankester, Page 1, Find Articles.com (1999)

Harvey, David. A Companion to Marx's Capital. London: Verso, 2010.

Harvey, David. The Limits of Capital. London: Verso, 2006.

Georg G. Iggers, "Historiography: From Scientific Objectivity to the Postmodern Challenge."(Wesleyan University Press, 1997, 2005)

Leszek Kołakowski, Main Currents of Marxism Oxford: Clarendon Press, OUP, 1978

Daniel Little, The Scientific Marx, (University of Minnesota Press, 1986) ISBN 0–8166–1505–5

Mandel, Ernest. Marxist Economic Theory. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1970.

Mandel, Ernest. The Formation of the Economic Thought of Karl Marx. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977.

McLellan, David Marx before Marxism (1980), Macmillan, ISBN 978–0–333–27882–6

McLellan, David. Karl Marx: his Life and Thought Harper & Row, 1973 ISBN 978–0–06–012829–6

Franz Mehring, Karl Marx: The Story of His Life (Routledge, 2003)

Miller, Richard W. Analyzing Marx: Morality, Power, and History. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1984.

Boris Nicolaevsky and Otto Maenchen-Helfen (translator), Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (Penguin Books, 1976) ISBN 0–14–021594–8

Postone, Moishe. Time, Labor, and Social Domination: A Reinterpretation of Marx's Critical Theory. Cambridge [England]: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Murray Rothbard, An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought Volume II: Classical Economics (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 1995) ISBN 0–945466–48–X

Maximilien Rubel, Marx Without Myth: A Chronological Study of his Life and Work (Blackwell, 1975) ISBN 0–631–15780–8

Schmidt, Alfred. The Concept of Nature in Marx. London: NLB, 1971.

Jerrold Seigel, Marx's fate: the shape of a life (Princeton University Press, 1978) ISBN 0–271–00935–7

Thomas T. Sekine, The Dialectic of Capital. A Study of the Inner Logic of Capitalism, 2 volumes (preliminary edition), Tokyo 1986; ISBN 4924750449 (vol. 1), ISBN 4–924750–34–4 (vol. 2)

Paul Strathern, "Marx in 90 Minutes", (Ivan R. Dee, 2001)

Thomas, Paul. Karl Marx and the Anarchists. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1980.

Amy Wendling, Karl Marx on Technology and Alienation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)

Francis Wheen, Karl Marx: A Life, (Fourth Estate, 1999), ISBN 1–85702–637–3

Francis Wheen, Marx's Das Kapital, (Atlantic Books, 2006) ISBN 1–84354–400–8

External links

Bibliography and online texts

Works by Karl Marx at Zeno.org

Karl Marx at Libcom.org

Marxists.org, homepage of the Marxists Internet Archive

Works by Karl Marx in audio format from LibriVox

Articles and entries

Dead Labor: Marx and Lenin Reconsidered by Paul Craig Roberts

Hegel, Marx, Engels, and the Origins of Marxism, by David North

In Praise of Marx Terry Eagleton synopsizing his Why Marx was right chronicle.com 10 April 2011.

Karl Marx: Did he get it all Right? by Philip Collins, The Times, 21 October 2008

Karl Marx ,Ernest Mandel

Karl Marx and the Iroquois by Franklin Rosemont

Liberalism, Marxism and The State, by Ralph Raico

Marx, Mao and mathematics: the politics of infinitesimals, by Joseph Dauben

Marx Was Right

Marxism and Ethics from International Socialism Paul Blackledge (2008)

Marxmyths.org Various essays on misinterpretations of Marx

Portraits of Karl Marx (International Institute of Social History)

Paul Dorn, The Paris Commune and Marx' Theory of Revolution

The Top Seven Reasons why Marx was Right by Green Left Weekly

Why Marx is the Man of the Moment

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Coordinates	38°53′51.61″N77°2′11.58″N
Name	Clara Bow
Caption	in Rough House Rosie (1927)
Birth name	Clara Gordon Bow
Birth date	July 29, 1905
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Death date	September 27, 1965
Death place	West Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Spouse	(his death)
Children	Tony Beldam (b. 1934)George Beldam, Jr. (b. 1938)
Years active	1921–1933
Occupation	Actress

Clara Gordon Bow (July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress born and raised in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, who rose to stardom in the silent film era of the 1920s. Her high spirits and acting artistry made her the quintessential flapper and the film It brought her global fame and the nickname "The It Girl." Bow came to personify the roaring twenties and is described as its leading sex symbol. She appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies, including hits such as Mantrap (1926), It (1927) and Wings (1927). She was first box-office draw in 1928 and 1929 and second in 1927 and 1930. Her presence in a motion picture has been described to have ensured investors, by odds of almost 2-to-1, a safe return with only two exceptions. At the apex of her stardom, in January 1929, she received more than 45,000 fan letters. Bow ended her career with Hoop-La (1933), and became a rancher in Nevada. In 1931 she married actor Rex Bell, later politician and Lieutenant Governor, with whom she had two sons.

Early life

Clara Bow was born 1905 in a tenement in Brooklyn slums. Bow was the third child; the first two, also daughters, born in 1903 and 1904, died in infancy. Her mother, Sarah Bow (1880–1923), was told by a doctor not to become pregnant again for fear the next baby might die as well. Despite this, Bow was conceived in the fall of 1904. According to Bow, her mother became "almost mad with apprehension and fear". The delivery proved to be as difficult as feared: "At first, they thought I was dead ... I don't suppose two people ever looked death in the face more clearly than my mother and I the morning I was born. We were both given up, but somehow we struggled back to life". which apart from the seizures can cause disordered thoughts, delusional ideas, paranoia and aggressive behavior.

From her earliest years, Bow learned how to care for her mother during seizures and how to deal with psychotic and hostile episodes. She said her mother could be "mean" to her, but "didn't mean to ... she couldn't help it". Sarah worsened gradually, and when she realized her daughter was set for a movie career, she told her she "would be much better off dead". One night in February 1922, Bow awoke with a butcher knife against her throat; when her mother hesitated, Bow fended her off and locked her up. In the morning, Sarah had no recollection of the episode and was later committed to a charity hospital. Robert was often absent, leaving his family without means to survive. "I do not think my mother ever loved my father. He knew it. And it made him very unhappy, for he worshiped her, always".}}

Sarah died on January 5, 1923. When relatives gathered for the funeral, Bow accused them of not being supportive when it counted. She was so angry she even tried to jump after her mother into the grave.

Motion pictures

In the early 1920s, roughly 50 million Americans, or half the population, attended the movies every week. Budding womanhood had made Bow's stature as a "boy" in her old gang "impossible", she didn't have any girlfriends, school was a "heartache" and home "miserable". But on the silver screen, she found consolation; "For the first time in my life I knew there was beauty in the world. For the first time I saw distant lands, serene, lovely homes, romance, nobility, glamor". And further; "I always had a queer feeling about actors and actresses on the screen ... I knew I would have done it differently. I couldn't analyze it, but I could always feel it". At sixteen Bow "knew" she wanted to be a motion pictures actress, even if she was a "square, awkward, funny-faced kid". With her father's support but against her mother's wishes, she competed and won. In the final screen test Bow was up against an already scene-experienced woman, who went first and did "a beautiful piece of acting", but when Bow did the scene she actually became her character and "lived it". In the January issues 1922 of Motion Picture Classics the contest jury, Howard Chandler Christy, Neysa Mcmein, and Harrison Fisher, concluded:

Beyond the Rainbow (1922)

Bow won an evening gown and a silver trophy and the publisher committed to help her "gain a role in films". But nothing happened. Bow's father told her to "haunt" Brewster's office (located in Brooklyn) until they came up with something. "To get rid of me, or maybe they really meant to (give me) all the time and were just busy", Bow was introduced to director Christy Cabanne who cast her in Beyond the Rainbow, produced late 1921 in New York City and released February 19, 1922. Bow did five scenes, impressed Cabanne with true theatrical tears, However, movie ads and newspaper editorial comments from 1922–1923 suggest that Bow was not cut from Beyond the Rainbow. Her name is on the cast list among the other stars, usually tagged "Brewster magazine beauty contest winner" and sometimes even with a picture.

Down to the Sea in Ships (1923)

Encouraged by her father, Bow started to run around studio agencies asking for parts. "But there was always something. I was too young, or too little, or too fat. Usually I was too fat."

Down to the Sea in Ships was shot on location, New Bedford Massachusetts, produced by Independent 'The Whaling Film Corporation', and documented the life, love and work in the whale-hunter community. The production relied on a few less known actors and local talents. It premiered at 'Olympia', New Bedford, on September 25, and went on general distribution on March 4, 1923.

Bow was billed 10th, but shined through and critics sang her praise: "Miss Bow will undoubtedly gain fame as a screen comedienne". "She scored a tremendous hit in Down to the Sea in Ships..(and)..has reached the front rank of motion picture principal players". "With her beauty, her brains, her personality and her genuine acting ability it should not be many moons before she enjoys stardom in the fullest sense of the word. You must see 'Down to the Sea in Ships'". "In movie parlance, she 'stole' the picture ... ".

]]

WAMPAS Baby Star (1924)

Bow found herself walking time after time by a Broadway movie theater, staring at her name in shimmering electric light above the entrance. "I can never tell you what happiness I felt, life had been so terrible hard and it seemed to me that now all my troubles were to be in the past".

Grit (1924)

Three months before Down to the Sea in Ships was released, Bow danced half nude, on a table, unaccredited in Enemies of Women (1923). In spring she got a part in The Daring Years (1923), were she befriended actress Mary Carr, who taught her how to use make-up.

In the summer, she got a "tomboy" part in Grit, a story, which dealt with juvenile crime and was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Bow met her first boyfriend, cameraman Arthur Jacobson, and she got to know director Frank Tuttle, with whom she worked in five later productions. Tuttle remembered: Grit was released on January 7, 1924. Variety reviewed; "... Clara Bow lingers in the eye, long after the picture has gone."

While shooting Grit at Pyramid Studios, in Astoria, New York, Bow was approached by Jack Bachman of independent Hollywood studio Preferred Pictures. He wanted to contract her for a three months trial, fare paid and $50 a week. "It can't do any harm",

On July 21, 1923 she befriended Louella Parsons, who interviewed her for The New York Morning Telegraph. In 1931 when Bow came under tabloid scrutiny, Parsons defended her and stuck to her first opinion on Bow:

The interview also revealed that Bow already was cast in Maytime and in great favor of Chinese cuisine.

Hollywood (1923-1933)

) copy of Maytime. Bow comforting Ethel Shannon]]

Preferred Pictures (1923-1925)

July 22, 1923, Bow left New York, her father and her boyfriend behind. As chaperon for the journey and stay in Hollywood, the studio appointed writer/agent Maxine Alton, who Bow later branded a liar. She was tested and a press-release from early August says Bow had become a member of Preferred Picture's "permanent stock". She and Alton rented an apartment at The Hillview near Hollywood Boulevard.

Maytime (1923)

Bow's first Hollywood picture was an adaptation of the popular operetta Maytime, in which she essayed "Alice Tremaine". Before Maytime was finished, Schulberg announced that Bow was given the lead in the studio's biggest seasonal assessment, Poisoned Paradise,

Black Oxen (1923)

(1923), holding Flaming Youth to her chest; with Kate Lester and Tom Ricketts]] Director Frank Lloyd was casting for the part of high society flapper Janet Oglethorpe, and more than fifty women, most with previous screen experience, auditioned. It was released on January 4, 1924.

New York Times: "The flapper, impersonated by a young actress, Clara Bow, had five speaking titles, and every one of them was so entirely in accord with the character and the mood of the scene that it drew a laugh from what, in film circles, is termed a "hard-boiled" audience"

Los Angeles Times: "Clara Bow, the prize vulgarian of the lot...was amusing and spirited...but didn't belong in the picture".

Variety: "...the horrid little flapper is adorably played...".

Painted People controversy

Colleen Moore made her flapper debut in a successful adaptation of the daring novel Flaming Youth, released November 12, 1923, six weeks before Black Oxen. Both films were produced by First National Pictures, and while Black Oxen was still being edited and Flaming Youth not yet released, Bow was requested to co-star Moore as her kid sister in Painted People (AKA The Swamp Angel).

Moore essayed the baseball-playing tomboy and Bow, according to Moore, said "I don't like my part, I wanna play yours". Moore, a well-established star earning $1200 a week — Bow got $200 — took offense and blocked the director from doing a close-up on Bow. Moore was married to a studio executive and Bow's protests fell short. "I'll get that bitch", she told her boyfriend Jacobson, who had arrived from New York. Bow had sinus problems and decided to have them attended to immediately. A bandaged Bow left the studio with no options but to recast her part. & Jean Harlow in Bow's ex-fiancee Victor Fleming's screwball comedy Bombshell (1933)]]

1924

The Perfect Flapper

During 1924 Bow's "horrid" flapper raced against Moore's "whimsical". In May Moore renewed her efforts in The Perfect Flapper, produced by her husband, but despite good reviews she suddenly withdrew. "No more flappers ... they have served their purpose ... people are tired of soda-pop love affairs", she told the Los Angeles Times, In November 1933, Bow described the Hollywood years as a French Revolution picture, where "women are hollering and waving pitchforks twice as violently as any of the guys ... the only ladies in sight are the ones getting their heads cut off".

"If that's what my baby wants, that's what my baby does"

By New Year 1924, Bow defied the possessive Maxine Alton and brought her father to Hollywood. Bow remembered their reunion; "I didn't care a rap, for (Maxine Alton), or B. P. Schulberg, or my motion picture career, or Clara Bow, I just threw myself into his arms and kissed and kissed him, and we both cried like a couple of fool kids. Oh, it was wonderful". On September 7, 1924, The Los Angeles Times, in a significant article "A dangerous little devil is Clara, impish, appealing, but oh, how she can act!", her father is titled "business manager" and Jacobson referred to as her brother.

Bow appeared in eight releases in 1924. In Poisoned Paradise, released on February 29, 1924, Bow got her first lead. "... the clever little newcomer whose work wins fresh recommendations with every new picture in which she appears". In a scene, described as "original", Bow adds "devices", to "the modern flapper"; she fights a villain, using her fists, and significantly, does not "shrink back in fear". In Daughters of Pleasure, also released on February 29, 1924, Bow and Marie Prevost, "flapped unhampered as flappers De luxe ... I wish somebody could star Clara Bow. I'm sure her 'infinite variety' would keep her from wearying us no matter how many scenes she was in".

Wine (1924)

(1924)]] As an out-loan to Universal-Jewel, Bow top-starred, for the first time, in the prohibition, bootleg drama/comedy Wine, released on August 20, 1924. The picture exposes the widespread liquor traffic in the upper-classes, and Bow portrays an innocent girl who develops into a wild "redhot mama". "If not taken as information, it is cracking good entertainment", Carl Sandburg reviewed September 29. "Don't miss Wine. It's a thoroughly refreshing draught ... there are only about five actresses who give me a real thrill on the screen — and Clara is nearly five of them".

Alma Whitaker of The Los Angeles Times observed on September 7, 1924: Bow remembered: "All this time I was "running wild", I guess, in the sense of trying to have a good time ... maybe this was a good thing, because I suppose a lot of that excitement, that joy of life, got onto the screen". Preferred Pictures rented Bow to producers "for sums ranging from $1500 to $2000 a week". The studio like any other independent studio or theater at that time, was under attack from "The Big Three", MPAA, who had formed a trust to block out Independents and enforce the monopolistic studio system. On October 21, 1925, Schulberg filled Preferred Pictures for bankruptcy, with debts at $820,774 and assets $1,420. Three days later, it was announced that Schulberg would join with Adolph Zukor and became associate producer of Paramount Pictures, bringing his organization, including Bow. (1925)]] Adolph Zukor, Paramount Picture CEO in his memoirs: "All the skill of directors and all the booming of press-agent drums will not make a star. Only the audiences can do it. We study audience reactions with great care". Adela Rogers St. Johns had a different take, in 1950 she wrote: "If ever a star was made by public demand, it was Clara Bow". And Louise Brooks from 1980: "(Bow) became a star without nobody's help ... ".

The Plastic Age (1925)

The Plastic Age was Bow's final effort for Preferred Pictures and her biggest hit so far. Bow starred as the good-bad college-girl, Cynthia Day against Donald Keith. It was shot on location, at Pomona College, in the summer of 1925, and released on December 15, but due to block booking, not shown in New York until July 21, 1926. Photoplay was displeased: "The college atmosphere is implausible and Clara Bow is not our idea of a college girl". Theater owners however, were happy: "The picture is the biggest sensation we ever had in our theater ... It is 100 per cent at the box-office". Some critics felt Bow conquered new territory: "(Bow) presents a whimsical touch to her work that adds greater laurels to her fast ascending star of screen popularity". Time singled out Bow: "Only the amusing and facile acting of Clara Bow rescues the picture from the limbo of the impossible". Bow began to date her co-star Gilbert Roland, who became her first fiancee. In June 1925, Bow was credited for being the first to wear hand-painted legs in public and was reported to have many followers at the Californian beaches.

Paramount Pictures (1925-1931)

The free-wheeling actress

"Rehearsals sap my pep", Bow explained in November, 1929 and from the beginning of her career she relayed on immediate direction: "Tell me what I have to do and I'll do it". Bow was keen on poetry and music but according to Rogers St. Johns, her attention-span didn't allow her to appreciate novels. Bow's focal point was the scene and her creativity made directors call in extra cameras to cover her spontaneous actions, rather than holding her down. Director William Wellman was less poetic: "Movie stardom isn't acting ability — it's personality and temperament ... I once directed Clara Bow ("Wings"). She was mad and crazy but WHAT a personality!". In 1981 Budd Schulberg described Bow as "a easy winner of the dumbbell award" who "couldn't act" and compared her to a puppy who his father B.P. Schulberg, "trained to become Lassie".

1926

In 1926 Bow appeared in eight releases: five for Paramount, and three as an "out-loan", shot in 1925.

Dancing Mothers (1926)

In late 1925, Bow returns to New York to co-star in the Ibsenesque drama Dancing Mothers, as the good/bad "flapperish" upper-class daughter "Kittens". Alice Joyce starred as her "dancing mother" with Conway Tearle as "bad-boy" Naughton. The picture was released on March 1, 1926. "Clara Bow known as the screen's perfect flapper, does her stuff as the child, and does it well". "... her remarkable performance in Dancing Mothers ... ". Louise Brooks remembered: "She was absolutely sensational in the United States ... in Dancing Mothers ... she just swept the country ... I know I saw her ... and I thought ... wonderful".

The film was released on July 24, 1926.

Variety: "Clara Bow just walks away with the picture from the moment she walks into camera range". Photoplay: "When she is on the screen nothing else matters. When she is off, the same is true". Carl Sandburg: "The smartest and swiftest work as yet seen from Miss Clara Bow". The Reel Journal: "Clara Bow is taking the place of Gloria Swanson...(and)...filling a long need for a popular taste movie actress".

(1927)]]

1927

It (1927)

In the Cinderella story It, the poor shop-girl Betty Lou Spence (Bow) conquers the heart of her employer Cyrus Waltham (Antonio Moreno). The personal quality It, provides the magic to make it happen. The film gave Bow her nickname "The It Girl." It was first shown in New York on February 5, 1927. New York Times: "(Bow)...is vivacious and, as Betty Lou, saucy, which perhaps is one of the ingredients of 'It'". The Film Daily: "Clara Bow gets a real chance and carries it off with honors...(and)...she is really the whole show". Carl Sandburg: "'It' is smart, funny and real. It makes a full-sized star of Clara Bow". Variety: "You can't get away from this Clara Bow girl. She certainly has that certain 'It'...and she just runs away with the film". Dorothy Parker: "It, hell: She had Those".

Wings (1927)

(1927)]] In 1927, Bow starred in Wings, a war picture largely rewritten to accommodate her, as she was Paramount's biggest star. The film went on to win the first Academy Award for Best Picture.

I'm a big freak, because I'm myself!

A famous scenario writer, who had done a number of pictures with Bow said:

Bow's bohemian lifestyle and "dreadful" manners were considered reminders of the Hollywood Elite's uneasy position in high society.

Bow fumed: "They yell at me to be dignified. But what are the dignified people like? The people who are held up as examples of me? They are snobs. Frightful snobs ... I'm a curiosity in Hollywood. I'm a big freak, because I'm myself!"

MGM executive Paul Bern said Bow was "the greatest emotional actress on the screen", "sentimental, simple, childish and sweet". He felt her "hard-boiled attitude" was a "defense mechanism".

1929

Talkies

With "talkies" The Wild Party, Dangerous Curves, and The Saturday Night Kid, Bow kept her position as the top box-office draw and queen of Hollywood.

The quality of Bow's voice, her Brooklyn accent, was not an issue to Bow, her fans or Paramount. However, Bow, like Charlie Chaplin, Louise Brooks and most other silent film-stars didn't embrace the novelty: "I hate talkies", she said, "they're stiff and limiting. You lose a lot of your cuteness, because there's no chance for action, and action is the most important thing to me". The inventor of the motion picture camera, Thomas Edison himself, was so annoyed by the stiffness of the early "talkies" that he refused to see them and returned to his favorite "silents" with Bow and Mary Pickford.

A visibly nervous Bow had to do a number of retakes in The Wild Party because her eyes kept wandering up to the microphone overhead; Dorothy Arzner took credit for being the first director to hang the microphone from overhead.

1931-1933

With No Limit and Kick In, Bow held the position as fifth at box-office in 1931. She ended up in a sanatorium in April 1931 with a case of shattered nerves. On her request Paramount released her from her last undertaking City Streets. Following a brief period away from Hollywood, Bow signed a two-picture deal with Fox Film Corporation and returned to the screen in Call Her Savage(1932) and Hoop-La(1933), both successful, Variety favored the latter: "A more mature performance...she looks and photographs extremely well". Bow commented on her revealing costume in Hoop-La: "Rex accused me of enjoying showing myself off. Then I got a little sore. He knew darn well I was doing it because we could use a little money these days. Who can't?". Bow concluded her career:

Later life

Bow and cowboy actor Rex Bell, later a Lieutenant governor of Nevada, married in Las Vegas, December 1931, and had two sons, Tony Beldam (born 1934, changed name to Rex Anthony Bell, Jr.) and George Beldam, Jr. (born 1938). Bow retired from acting in 1933. Her last public exposure, albeit fleeting, was a guest appearance on the radio show Truth or Consequences in March 1948; Bow provided the voice of "Mrs. Hush".

Health issues

In 1944, while Bell was running for the U.S. House of Representatives, Bow tried to commit suicide.

A note was found in which Bow stated she preferred death to a public life.

In 1949 she checked into The Institute of Living to be treated for her chronic insomnia and diffuse abdominal pains. Shock treatment was tried and numerous psychological tests performed. Bow's IQ was measured "bright normal" (pp. 111–119), while others claimed she was unable to reason, had poor judgment and displayed inappropriate or even bizarre behavior. Her pains were considered delusional and she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, despite experiencing neither sound nor vision hallucinations or psychosis. The illness debut, or "onset", as well as her insomnia, the analysts tied to the "butcher knife episode" back in 1922, but Bow rejected psychological explanations and left the Institute.

In the permanent exhibition, "Myths, Minds and Medicine", the Institute addresses malpractice issues of the past, including lobotomy, which peaked in 1949, and "crude electroconvulsive therapy".

Later years

Bow spent her last years in Culver City, Los Angeles under the constant care of a nurse, living off an estate worth about $500,000 at the time of her death. Bow's heart bore scars from an earlier undiagnosed heart attack. She was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Her pallbearers were Harry Richman, Richard Arlen, Jack Oakie, Maxie Rosenbloom, Jack Dempsey and Buddy Rogers.

Honors

For her contributions to the motion picture industry, Bow was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1994, she was honored with an image on a United States postage stamp designed by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

Urban myths

The book Hollywood Babylon spread the contemporary legend that Bow's friendship with members of the 1927 University of Southern California football team included group sex with the entire team. This was finally proved incorrect by her biographer, David Stenn, who interviewed still-living members of that year's team while researching his book.

In popular culture

Max Fleischer's cartoon character Betty Boop was modeled after Bow and entertainer Helen Kane (the "boop-boop-a-doop-girl"). Bow's mass of tangled red hair was one of her most famous features. When fans of the new star found out she put henna in her hair, sales of the dye tripled. An autographed picture of Bow is offered as a consolation prize of a beauty contest in the 1931 George Gershwin musical Of Thee I Sing.

Filmography

{| class="wikitable sortable" |+ Film |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |- | 1922 | Beyond the Rainbow | Virginia Gardener | Extant |- | 1922 | Down to the Sea in Ships | Dot Morgan | Extant |- | 1923 | Enemies of Women | Girl dancing on table | Extant(incomplete) |- | 1923 | | Mary | Lost film |- | 1923 | Maytime | Alice Tremaine | Extant |- | 1923 | Black Oxen | Janet Ogelthorpe | Extant |- | 1924 | Grit | Orchid McGonigle | Lost film |- | 1924 | Poisoned Paradise | Margot LeBlanc | Extant |- | 1924 | Daughters of Pleasure | Lila Millas | Extant |- | 1924 | Wine | Angela Warriner | Lost film |- | 1924 | Empty Hearts | Rosalie | Extant |- | 1924 | Helen's Babies | Alice Mayton | Extant |- | 1924 | This Woman | Aline Sturdevant | Lost film |- | 1924 | Black Lightning | Martha Larned | Extant |- | 1925 | Capital Punishment | Delia Tate | Extant |- | 1925 | | The Girl | Lost film |- | 1925 | Eve's Lover | Rena D'Arcy | Lost film |- | 1925 | | Molly Burns | Lost film |- | 1925 | | Miriam | Lost film(trailer survives) |- | 1925 | My Lady's Lips | Lola Lombard | Extant |- | 1925 | Parisian Love | Marie | Extant |- | 1925 | Kiss Me Again | Grizette | Lost film |- | 1925 | | Lolly Cameron | Lost film (Trailer exists) |- | 1925 | | Marilyn Merrill | Extant(incomplete) |- | 1925 | Free to Love | Marie Anthony | Extant |- | 1925 | | Peggy Swain | Extant |- | 1925 | | Cynthia Day | Extant |- | 1925 | | Doris | Lost film |- | 1925 | My Lady of Whims | Prudence Severn | Extant |- | 1926 | Shadow of the Law | Mary Brophy | Lost film |- | 1926 | Two Can Play | Dorothy Hammis | Lost film |- | 1926 | Dancing Mothers | Kittens Westcourt | Extant |- | 1926 | Fascinating Youth | Clara Bow | Lost film |- | 1926 | | Cynthia Meade | Lost film |- | 1926 | Mantrap | Alverna | Extant |- | 1926 | Kid Boots | Clara McCoy | Extant |- | 1927 | It | Betty Lou Spence | Extant |- | 1927 | Children of Divorce | Kitty Flanders | Extant |- | 1927 | Rough House Rosie | Rosie O'Reilly | Lost film (trailer exists) |- | 1927 | Wings | Mary Preston | Extant |- | 1927 | Hula | Hula Calhoun | Extant |- | 1927 | Get Your Man | Nancy Worthington | Extant but incomplete;(missing at least 2 reels) |- | 1928 | Red Hair | Bubbles McCoy | Lost film (Fragments exist, including the only known color footage of Bow) |- | 1928 | Ladies of the Mob | Yvonne | Lost film |- | 1928 | | Trixie Deane | Lost film |- | 1928 | Three Weekends | Gladys O'Brien | Lost film(fragments survives) |- | 1929 | | Stella Ames | Extant |- | 1929 | Dangerous Curves | Pat Delaney | Extant |- | 1929 | | Mayme | Alternative title: Love 'Em and Leave 'Em, ;Extant |- | 1930 | Paramount on Parade | herself | Extant |- | 1930 | True to the Navy | Ruby Nolan | Extant |- | 1930 | Love Among the Millionaires | Pepper Whipple | Extant |- | 1930 | Her Wedding Night | Norma Martin | Extant |- | 1931 | No Limit | Helen "Bunny" O'Day | Extant |- | 1931 | Kick In | Molly Hewes | Extant |- | 1932 | Call Her Savage | Nasa Springer | Extant |- | 1933 | Hoop-La | Lou | Extant |- | 1949 | Screen Snapshots 1860: Howdy, Podner | Clara Bow – Resort Guest | Short subject |}

References

Bibliography

"The 'It' girl" by Joe Morella and Edward Z Epstein, 1976, Dell pub, Co, Inc, ISBN 0-440-14068-4.

"Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild" by David Stenn, 1988, Doubleday, ISBN 0385241259.

TCM Film Guide, "Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era", Chronicle Books, San Francisco, California, 2006.

Vieira, Mark A. Sin in Soft Focus: Pre-Code Hollywood. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. 1999. ISBN 0-8109-8228-5

External links

Photographs and bibliography

Clara Bow My Life Story

Clara Bow attends a premiere with Mae Murray

Category:Actors from New York City Category:American film actors Category:American silent film actors Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale) Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction Category:People from Brooklyn Category:1905 births Category:1965 deaths