So I think I may have cracked the code. Listening to Clara Bow w this context in mind from the 4th, 9th, and 10th 🎃 messages makes the lyrics cut even deeper and explains the purpose of the anthology.
What Taylor is essentially saying is that above all else she is proud of her humanity. “Human. Human. Human.” “Flesh and blood.” Unlike some ppl in Hollywood like greedy big suits (cough SB^2 cough Big Machine cough) she’s managed to keep her humanity intact and didn’t let these negative experiences corrupt her or turn her bitter. She was able to find peace and courage in spite of it. And she’s saying I am abt to come out of the closet and while I am hopeful I’m also a little fearful. But isn’t that an amazing thing? Because being fearful, sad, furious, insecure, hopeful—these experiences are unique to humans! “Your heart beats red and hot and furious in your chest.”
“And most importantly, they will know about the human heart.” THIS is the purpose of the anthology. This is why she released 31 (13 backwards) songs for her fans to dissect and decode. Bc she wants them to understand that she’s not a god. She’s a flawed human just like the rest of us.
I think there’s a very good chance that THIS is what her movie is going to be about. Her journey out of the closet and all the hardship that came along w it and helping other ppl to understand the human heart. And I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a memoir that was released w it—“the professor said to write what you know.” And it makes sense too why the manuscript lyrics match perfectly w the all too well short film. Bc they’re talking abt the exact same thing!! She has a relationship w a much older man, experiences heartbreak, heals, and then writes abt it in a book—the story of us AKA the manuscript.
And this is why 🎃 kept referencing the story of us. I couldn't make sense of it a few months ago but now in hindsight it all makes perfect sense. Message in a bottle was probably a red tv vault track for this reason too. Bc the message in a bottle is the manuscript. The puzzle pieces really do all fall right into place.
Clara Bow was an actress from the 1920’s. she was an icon at the time, and it seems like she was pretty widely believed to be bisexual. she worked with lesbian director Dorothy Arzner on a queer film called The Wild Party, which is about how queer women would find safety and community in all-girls universities.
hi i sent an ask last night with a quick little info dump on Clara Bow, but id like to add on a bit more info now that i don’t desperately need to go to bed.
so, she was the woman from which the term “it-girl” was coined, after she starred in the 1927 film “It.”
she was one of the only actresses able to make the transition from silent films into “talkies,” even though she struggled with a anxiety induced speech impediment and was often criticized for her Brooklyn accent.
a large portion of her films have been lost to time. she was also heavily exploited by the producer that “discovered” her.
she played a very large part in helping the world recognize women as sexual beings, though on the flip side she was criticized as people worried she would negatively influence their young daughters who looked up to her.
she is also a great early example of PR narratives. she went on the record multiple times to make it clear that the person she was in the media was not the person she was at home. even stating that many articles and stories about her were simply to satisfy fans.
her career also ended abruptly, but most sources are somewhat conflicted on exactly how and why. she would retire just two years after marrying actor Rex Bell. a few sources say she was suddenly admitted to a sanitarium, others that she was forced to retire due to violations of the “morality clauses” in her contracts.
regardless, she spent most of her remaining years struggling with mental illness. her husband would later abandon her, taking their two children with him.
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serenabam submitted:
About Clara Bow
Long time lurker, sometime poster, very bad at figuring the clues out, so take that into consideration. However I am a HUGE silent film fan and I feel I can give some information about Clara Bow and why Taylor might have written a song about her.
Clara mainly had her success as a SILENT performer during the silent movie era. She did work in talkies too.
Little Clara was born into a terrible situation: Her mother Sarah was both physically and mentally ill and her father Robert would soon leave the family in extreme poverty. Clara was in fact not their first child - Sarah and Robert had had two daughters who both died very soon after birth and before Clara was born.
Sarah who was 25 when Clara was born, had fallen out of a window at 16 years old. It was never quite clear what exactly happened there. But Sarah was never the same after the fall. She got major head injuries, suffered from epilepsy from then on and developed severe mental health issues with episodes where she became hostile and aggressive. Sarah had been told by her doctors she should not get pregnant (again), because that could kill her. When she gave birth to Clara on July 29th 1905, Sarah and Clara almost died because New York was experiencing a heat wave.
Robert, Clara's father, was like Sarah the son of british and scottish immigrants, who had already lived in the US for generations. Robert had completely fallen in love with Sarah, who unfortunately never quite felt that way about Robert. With the years Robert became bitter about this. Whenever Sarah was experiencing one of her episodes, Robert would just leave, and yes, always leaving Clara behind. They lived in Brooklyn in Prospect Heights. Back then it was full of all ethnicities, working class and poor. From her birth until the time Clara left Prospect Heights, her family was registered at 14 addresses, marking how terrible their financial situation was.
By 1909 Robert lost his job and never managed to find something stable. He would disappear for months at a time, leaving Sarah and Clara to fend for themselves.
Clara later described her parents in loving words. She understood that her mother was never nice to her, but that was because she was sick. She understood that her father ran away because he couldn't handle the situation. As a toddler Clara started to learn how to take care of her mother. She later said, she never felt her mother had ever taken care of her.
At school Clara got bullied. The girls didn't want to spend time with her. She was a tomboy, dressed in shaggy clothes that didn't really fit, she had to learn how to fight. She was very proud of her right swing with which she could knock a boy out. Academically she couldn't keep up. She had bright red hair. Her only safe spaces where the sports field where she was very successful and the movie theatres.
In fact Clara spend every little penny on film fan magazines and movie tickets. She decorated the sparse apartments they lived in with the pictures from the movie fan magazines.
Many film scholars describe this situation as a horror show that Clara could only escape for a short time when she was at the movies. That is true but I don't think it does justice to this cruel situation, that Clara could not escape!
The first movie star who was a movie fan first, is a title that always gets attributed to Clara. At 14 years old she started entering competitions where the prize was a movie casting.
Sometime in 1921, Clara is 16, she drops out of school and her career goal is becoming a movie star. Her mother was completely against it, her father encouraged her. In October 1921 she started working at a normal office job. Around this time was the first time young women were able to find jobs like this. Clara would later play office workers in the movies and the movie press would point out that Clara was the only movie star who actually had this experience. She still enters competitions all the time and finally she films her first movie scenes. Clara impresses the director and producer because she can cry on cue and can act convincingly.
When that film hits movie theatres in February 1922 Clara is first in line only to find that her part was completely cut! She is devastated! She goes home and has to tell her mother who had predicted this.
Some little time later Clara is with her mother in the apartment alone. It is still winter, they have very little money, it is cold and they have no food. They lay together in bed in the evening and hug so that they're not cold at night. In the middle of the night, Clara awakes to find her mother over her holding a butcher's knife to Clara's neck. Sarah tells her that things will never get better and they are both better off dead. Clara can overpower her mother and lock her in, while she runs off trying to find her father. In the morning she returns to find her mother all calm ... she couldn't remember what she had done during the night.
Clara convinces her father to have her mother committed to a sanatorium, which Robert gets on the way right away.
This here is what Clara's driving force will be ... all her life. She will never have a good night's sleep. Later in life she will suffer from terrible insomnia with memories of her mother with the knife ...
Now that her mother is taken care of (in a terrible sanatorium) Clara can really put her everything into becoming a movie star. At 17 years old she lands her first official movie role, a small part but a real movie with national distribution. This time her part will not be cut, but will in fact make her a star. The premiere is in september 1922 and her career snowballs from here on.
Meanwhile her mother's health is taking a turn for the worse. She dies only aged 43 in the sanatorium. Clara takes this very hard! She has a nervous breakdown at the funeral and she tries to jump into the grave to be with her dead mother ...
In July 1923 when she turns 18 Clara leaves New York for Hollywood. Now she lives the dream ... studios hire her, the more she works, the more fans she gets, the more her fame grows.
I think Taylor can connect with Clara because both women have this perfect fun image! Clara was the IT girl, the epitome of the flapper girl. She was incredibly vivacious and just wonderful and fun to watch in the movies! Her private life was somewhat a lie in the press ... yes the press talked about the office girl Clara Bow. But they didn't talk about the tragic story of her mother's mental illness or Clara's trauma.
With success came pressure. Clara started hiring people and she financed her father and friends. She brought in good money, but her "payroll" grew and grew. The studios loved the money they could earn with her and so made Clara work as much as possible. Her mental health started to suffer ... She loved to party in her free time away from set. She got invited by other movie stars to fancy dinners ... she didn't really know how to behave there! While people loved her sweet personality, she just stood out, like all her life.
By 1930 Clara lived in Hollywood in a spacious home with a live-in secretary called Daisy DeBoe. Daisy had a gambling addiction and she stole money from Clara to pay off her gambling debts. When Clara found out, she wanted the money back, but Daisy first started blackmailing her with her life story and then Daisy talked to the press and told them lies about Clara. Like she had had sex with an entire football team - that never happened. She had gambling debts - it was actually Daisy, Clara didn't even gamble!
The studios where "in bed" with the movie press and so they heard about the Clara stories right away. They knew most of it could not be true, but they had a contract with Clara that made it now possible to not pay her anymore! Clara had signed a morality clause and if she created a scandal, the studio didn't have to give her any money anymore. At the same time, Clara had to continue to fulfill the contract without pay! If she refused to work, the studios could demand money from Clara for the damage caused for not showing up for wor.
At this point Clara is THE movie star! Since 1928 there is no movie star more popular than her. By 1929 the studios started filming talkies. At the time this Daisy DeBoe scandal blows up, she is testing with the studio if her acting voice is good enough for the movie screen. I don't know if you've seen the film "Singin' in the Rain" - i recommend!
Clara was popular for her natural movements, her vivacious expression. Now with the new technology Clara had to stand still, robbing her of so much what brought her success. It was a very stressful time for her. People were also not pleased with her heavy Brooklyn accent. Some people loved it, others not.
All of this proves too much. She has a nervous breakdown and the studio takes her to a sanatorium. Something she was very scared of all her life. She is 24 years old and her career will never be good again. She will film more films but the studios are clearly "over her". Her momentum is gone forever ......
She meets her future husband Rex Bell, they quietly get married in 1931 and she moves to his ranch in the middle of Nevada. They will have two sons. Clara finally for a few years finds peace and stability with Rex.
In 1933 her final film gets released. She quits the film business when she sees herself on the screen ... she still looks great but she is a little heavier and she doesn't look like flapper young anymore. "I'm too old and too fat, I can't do this anymore." With this, her career ends. She is 28 years old.
When Rex tries to go into politics in 1944, Clara is only 39 years old, she tries to commit suicide - the thought of having to be in the limelight again, scares her to death! Her insomnia gets worse and worse.
In 1949 Rex sends her to the infamous Institute for Living. This asylum is famous for many things, none good. Clara gets electro shock therapy and she never is the same again. After her stay there, she does not want to return home to Rex and her sons. She moves into a bungalow where she will live for the rest of her life, almost never leaving the building. A nurse takes care of her. She finally dies in 1965, aged 60.
Taylor has talked about her body image problems, her eating disorder ... Clara talked about it too. When she moved to Nevada, she said she finally found some peace by sleeping, exercising and eating. She had starved herself for all of her career and she ended her career when she saw herself on screen "looking fat" (she really wasn't). Clara lived a horrible life but back then, you wouldn't really know it because she had this bright and fun image! Her greatest success was when she was "silent" .... she moved her lips and acted but others wrote down her words for her. When she started speaking people were irritated to hear her true Brooklyn voice - people loved that she was "one of us", a movie fan who became a movie star, an office girl but then when they really heard her speak, saw her for who she really was .... they were irritated, some people just stop liking her. Her professional life was basically over way before she turned 30 years old.
Clara's personal life only made it into the public eye, when the press was looking for more bad press for her! Daisy DeBoe had given them stories but what more could they talk about ... her unpolished behaviour. Her same sex relationships.
How could Taylor not relate to Clara!
Sorry this is terribly long, I already cut so much. There is so much more about Clara. For further reading and a starting point I recommend David Stenn's biography "Clara Bow - Running Wild" from 2000. I think it might be out of print, but you can still get it used. And you have until April ;)
If you want to see Clara, please don't get scared of silent movies. IT is a wonderful fun movie. "Wings" is one of the most successful films of all time. It's still exciting today, I promise. And Clara is so damn charming! There is a wonderful silent movie documentary series called "Silent Hollywood". There is an episode about Clara and her transition into talkies.
Personally I hope this song is a gem like LGAD. Taylor's loving songwriting and a positive spotlight for Clara would be wonderful. Clara deserved so much better in life.
Sorry for all these words, I am a word person, I wrote this with love for Clara, Taylor and you right there reading it. :)
No. I am pretty sure that bracelet saga was all planned and scripted to start this narrative. // [ prefacing this to say i'm not trying to argue, just curious and trying to understand some things better, thank you for your time x ]
if this was pre-planned, why would she try to tap into the nfl side? there are other industries/fields she could've profited from heavily and gained male audiences from — f1 is actually not so bad of an alternative, there were already dating rumours/jokes that she could've leaned into and maximised the hype. the nfl seems like a really random venture and it does more harm than good? the only thing it managed to accomplish is to redirect and concentrate people's attention in one place.
This was a business deal that involved a lot of people.
NFL wanted to grow their female audience. Bring on Taylor Swift.
AMC Theatres was founded in Kansas City. Hence the Chiefs jersey with AMC Theatres name on the back in a photo with Taylor (see below). She bypassed the traditional Hollywood studios and partnered with AMC Theatres, the world's biggest cinema chain.
Taylor had a film deal through AMC Theatres for her Eras Film. She was able to get free commercials/promo for it by working with the NFL. They ran commercials and the commentators mentioned the film and Taylor.
The Chiefs and TK got massive exposure, making money off merchandise, etc.
I will not tolerate any London Boy disrespect because that song is the cheekiest fuck you to the PR narrative and here is why!
1. Lover was recorded and finished at the time that this song was created and added last minute - we know this because Cautious Clay confirmed he received a call after the date we know lover was completed, he was given 24 hours to respond to using his song as an interpolation on London Boy.
2. That song by Cautious Clay called Cold War features in the lesbian sex scene in BookSmart- which Taylor posted publicly about watching. This was not a popular song at the time!
3. The audio at the start is Idris Alba talking about going on a paid date and what they might do – “We could go riding on my scooter”
Sooo she finishes the album, (if you subscribe to lover coming out theory) had to quickly backtrack on plans and add a song to the lover is about Joe narrative. Picks a song from one of the most iconic lesbian sex scenes of that year, calls up the artists and gives him 24 hours to accept, makes a new song, samples Idris Alba talking about fake dates, the lyrics are “You know I love a London boy” – not “I love”, she’s poking fun at the public perception of her life. It’s brilliant, it’s satirical, i’m upset that more people don’t get it.
She was SO offended that they claimed the scarf that she brought it back so she could hand it to a woman right after singing "You can't help who you fall for".
Funny little „coincidence“: I was recently at victorias secret london and i havent been there for a while so i dont know how recent this is but they used to have the costume taylor wore at the show in 2013 there on a mannequin (havent seen it this time im not sure if its still there because the floor it used to be on was closed) and now they also have some of the wings that have been worn by angels before on display and they had karlies wings from 2014 at the entrance and guess what the tag says.
„Dream girl karlie“
as in: „i could still melt your world, argumentative anti-ethical dream girl“
Bonus: if they still have taylors costume, they are there at the same time, in the same building, out in the open together 🥺
i recently saw a tweet with pictures of taylor’s 2013 british invasion opener outfit in the shop window!
can anyone go investigate if karlie’s 2014 dream girl wings are there at the same time??
It amazes me how the know-it-all swifties vying for the title of Taylor’s favorite fan bestie on the former bird app have no idea how PR works (not that I’m an expert) but were world-renowned scholars about it back in May.
From what I gather by their logic, it’s PR (or “clout chasing”) when it’s someone they don’t like or who they no longer like. Remember how Toe was the greatest thing since sliced bread for 6 years and her “savior”? Now he’s a “jobless loser” who “didn’t let Taylor bejeweled”. Lol
The comment that irks me the most is one where someone said:
“They’re the last people to need a PR relationship”
Again…walk with me here. Grab a jacket because those fall temps are hitting in some places. Plus, aesthetic. lol
Travis, an NFL player, signed with CAA in May for representation off the field. Who is Travis Kelce outside of the NFL? He isn’t going to play football forever. Athletes build brands just as musicians and actors/actresses do.
He mentioned the friendship bracelet thing on his podcast in July. It got attention.
So what would his off the field representation do? Capitalize on it. It’s like when someone goes viral doing something funny—all of a sudden, they’re scoring brand deals, etc. because some company sees a way to profit from it.
Why would they capitalize on the bracelet story? To build his platform.
How do they capitalize on it? By emphasizing the fact that he went to the one of the biggest tours this year by one of the biggest artists of the year.
Because their job is to secure endorsement deals, etc. for him. They make money when he makes money. If they aren’t doing their job to his standards, they get fired. If they get fired, the money stops coming from him.
Their website literally says:
In addition to draft preparation and contract negotiation, we provide elite athletes with top-of-the-line marketing services. Our commitment to client service is reflected in everything we do.
Since CAA represents top talent across film, television, broadcasting, music and digital, we can create one-of-a-kind opportunities and partnerships for football clients.
Ask yourselves—how much have you ever heard about Taylor during an NFL game or even in the same sentence as the NFL before this? Only that she turned down the half time show, right? Or if someone was trying to be funny and make a joke about her at her expense.
However, after the rumors started, all you heard were puns about her in reference to who? Travis.
All the headlines today have done what? Mentioned how Travis “pursued” her as if it were some decades long mission, when this all came about from a story he told…in July.
Watch. You will see articles about “who are Travis & Jason Kelce” or “Who is Donna Kelce”—again, building the platform and introducing him to an audience outside of football.
After he originally told the bracelet story, he had pretty much left it alone.
Until recently. Comical.
We know Taylor isn’t trying out for the NWSL or WNBA anytime soon. She really only gets a male sports fan audience and she doesn’t even really need that.
Yes, I’m over analyzing. I tend to do that and fully admit it. I’ve been on several hills by myself, quite comfortably. L’s and all.
Btw, there’s even an article about Sophie and Taylor’s dinner outings being a top tier PR move. So why can’t the same be said about this?
i haven't been on social media for awhile, forgive me if this has already been discussed/considered, since taylor sang new years day at the show that karlie went to, do we think anything significant is going to happen on new year's day 2024?
No idea. So far they are taking very careful baby steps. I doubt they will pull something huge and drastic.
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