Clara Bow was the third child of Sarah and Robert Bow. Growing up in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood, Clara faced a difficult childhood caring for her mother, who struggled with epilepsy and psychosis. Despite these challenges, Clara showed remarkable drive and talent, which led her to enter a “Fame and Fortune” contest that would change her life.
Winning the contest earned Clara her first film role as Dot in Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), a silent whaling drama filmed largely in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Though she had originally been scheduled to stay only two weeks, production lasted over thirteen, during which she immersed herself in the whaling city’s maritime atmosphere. Many key scenes were filmed around the Seamen’s Bethel, the Whaling Museum, and the historic waterfront, giving the movie a deep connection to New Bedford’s seafaring heritage. For audiences of the time, the film provided one of the most authentic visual records of the port’s 19th-century whaling world.
When Down to the Sea in Ships premiered at the Olympia Theater in New Bedford, local critics praised Clara’s natural acting and expressive presence. Her performance stood out so strongly that she was soon chosen for her next major role in Grit, based on a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Within two years, she was named one of the most promising young talents in Hollywood and became the original “It Girl” — a title inspired by her magnetic screen presence in It (1927).
Although Clara’s fame took her far from New Bedford, the city marked the beginning of her transformation from a Brooklyn teenager to a national icon. The Seamen’s Bethel and the surrounding whaling district — still standing today — remain living reminders of the production that launched her career. The film not only preserved the atmosphere of New Bedford’s maritime past but also tied the Seamen’s Bethel to early American cinema history.
In later years, Clara worked for Paramount Pictures and starred in films such as Children of Divorce, Wings, Hula, and Get Your Man. Despite her success, she battled mental-health issues and retired from acting in 1933. She lived quietly until her death in 1965, but her story — and her time filming among the whalemen’s chapels of New Bedford — continues to echo through the city’s cinematic and maritime heritage.