Decades ago my maternal grandmother was Bill Wellman’s housekeeper. She told me he became quite enamored of her breakfast biscuits she made for herself working to create them alongside his cook in his kitchen each morning, and after he asked her if he could try one he loved them so much that he then asked if she would make them for him as well each morning, and she did. His daughter actress Cissy Wellman was interviewed a short while back on actress and director Judy Norton’s UA-cam regular program entitled Ask Judy on which she covers topics to do with the Walton’s TV series where she portrayed the eldest daughter of that family, Mary Ellen. I submitted this little story in the comments where she interviewed Cissy, asking if she could share it with her, and sure enough Cissy herself replied telling me how much she enjoyed learning of that about her Dad.
Nice video. However, I don't think it is quite true to say that Clara Bow died of "mental illness". She certainly had problems, but it was a heart attack that killed her. According to Wikipedia (there is a reference listed) "An autopsy revealed that she suffered from atherosclerosis, a disease of the heart that can begin in early adolescence. Bow's heart showed scarring from an earlier undetected heart attack."
I like it a lot. The Wellman interviews are wonderful. Still haven't finished watching the other parts, but thanks for linking to it from Amazon. I'm very excited to finally get my hands on WINGS on blu-ray next week!
Also, I don't think Clara Bow's voice was bad at all. I've certainly heard much stronger Brooklyn accents since, in everything from Crocodile Dundee to CSI NY. If you have ever heard her in her last film "Hoop-La" she seems to be more than holding her own with the other actors and actresses. Maybe they were less tolerant of accents in those days. I think she quit simply because she just didn't want to work in the movies any more, it wasn't a case that no one wanted to employ her.
Fun fact: the "blood" on their shirts in the boxing scene is actually chocolate syrup. Red makeup, like ketchup or beet juice, didn't photograph well so they would use something dark like molasses or chocolate to look like blood. As for Rogers and Arlen supposedly not getting along, the narrator is confusing the actors with the characters they play. In part 2 of this series, there is a clip of Buddy Rogers himself saying that he, Arlen and Cooper were all good pals at the time; you can even find photos of the three of them hanging out together on Paramount's back-lot in the 30's, years after "Wings" was filmed.
Bow's career was not snuffed out because of her heavy Brooklyn accent. She voluntarily retired from a Hollywood system and celebrity culture which had exploited her. This documentary also simplifies and distorts her post-cinema life.
Clara Bow certainly was still popular when talkies came in, but her voice was a problem. And yes, I "Simplified" her post-cinema life because she really didn't have one. She did not "Voluntarily" retire from movies, she pretty well had to. "Bow held the position as fifth at box-office in 1931, but the pressures of fame, public scandals, overwork, and a damaging court trial charging her secretary Daisy DeVoe with financial mismanagement, took their toll on Bow's fragile emotional health. As she slipped closer to a major breakdown, her manager, B.P. Schulberg, began referring to her as "Crisis-a-day-Clara". In April, Bow was brought to a sanatorium, and at her request, Paramount released her from her final undertaking: City Streets (1931). At 25, her career was essentially over." Deanna Durbin Voluntarily retired. Jane Fonda Voluntarily retired for a long time. Bow did not. B.P. Schulberg exploited her, not her celebrity fame. She was constantly with health problems, spent time in hospitals and sanitariums... and died young, at only 60. I simplified her post-cinema life because the documentary is "The Making of WINGS", NOT "The life and times of Clara Bow". She's only a small part of it.
Clara Bow DID transition to talkies, and did NOT have a heavy Brooklyn accent, rather, by the 1930s her personal engine ran out of steam and so she retreated to Nevada , where her husband was involved in state politics. She was scarred by her terrible life as a kid, and physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted by all the life had thrown at her.
Saw the movies many times >>all quiet on the western front is a must see also, the movie red baron is the best aviator movie of modern times i believe , though wings is fantastic !!
Read Bow's Wikipedia page, or watch one of her biography's. Her Brooklyn accent had nothing to do with her leaving pictures. Yes, she admitted that she hated "talkies" but her fans or her studio Paramount had no problem with her accent. Bow's emotional health was very fragile and by 1931 the pressures of fame, public scandals, overwork began to take their toll. She was admitted to a sanitarium in 1931. At her request she was released from her contract at Paramount. She would make two more films for Fox in 32 and 33, which were both successful, but emotional issues continued to plague her. By the early 40s Bow started showing more severe symptoms of psychiatric illness and she spent the rest of her life in and out institutions. Her last years were spent under the constant care of a nurse and she died in 1965 at the age of 60.
You said in your comment that her voice was a problem, which it wasn't. You copied and pasted everything about her from Wikipedia except the part that states her voice not being a problem. Not a problem for her fans or Paramount. All I'm saying is her voice wasn't a problem.......That said, I really enjoyed your videos. There's so little out there on this great film..
battlebeastx thank you I’m watching it now ! Can I say this is awesome .. great series you put together, I saw Wings on the big screen recently at the Randwick Ritz cinema in Sydney Australia.. it looked so different on the big screen. I also met A C Lyles Paramounts longest serving employee and he showed me the camera used in the film which he had in his office at Paramount and I took a photo of the camera. Wings is a masterpiece. thank you for keeping this film alive!!!!
Are you saying the boxing match between Jack and Dave was a real boxing match between Rogers and Arlen? It wasn't blocked and staged to look the way it did? After all, Jack is younger, rash and impetuous and somewhat immature where Dave is a well-bred respectable gentleman with good manners. It makes sense in the story for Jack to beat up Dave but it would have been out of character for Dave to beat up Jack. Would a director allow his two stars go at each other for real? It had to have been blocked and staged to look the way it did with a bloody nose and torn shirts.
Decades ago my maternal grandmother was Bill Wellman’s housekeeper. She told me he became quite enamored of her breakfast biscuits she made for herself working to create them alongside his cook in his kitchen each morning, and after he asked her if he could try one he loved them so much that he then asked if she would make them for him as well each morning, and she did. His daughter actress Cissy Wellman was interviewed a short while back on actress and director Judy Norton’s UA-cam regular program entitled Ask Judy on which she covers topics to do with the Walton’s TV series where she portrayed the eldest daughter of that family, Mary Ellen. I submitted this little story in the comments where she interviewed Cissy, asking if she could share it with her, and sure enough Cissy herself replied telling me how much she enjoyed learning of that about her Dad.
Nice video.
However, I don't think it is quite true to say that Clara Bow died of "mental illness". She certainly had problems, but it was a heart attack that killed her. According to Wikipedia (there is a reference listed) "An autopsy revealed that she suffered from atherosclerosis, a disease of the heart that can begin in early adolescence. Bow's heart showed scarring from an earlier undetected heart attack."
I like it a lot. The Wellman interviews are wonderful. Still haven't finished watching the other parts, but thanks for linking to it from Amazon. I'm very excited to finally get my hands on WINGS on blu-ray next week!
Also, I don't think Clara Bow's voice was bad at all. I've certainly heard much stronger Brooklyn accents since, in everything from Crocodile Dundee to CSI NY. If you have ever heard her in her last film "Hoop-La" she seems to be more than holding her own with the other actors and actresses. Maybe they were less tolerant of accents in those days. I think she quit simply because she just didn't want to work in the movies any more, it wasn't a case that no one wanted to employ her.
Fun fact: the "blood" on their shirts in the boxing scene is actually chocolate syrup. Red makeup, like ketchup or beet juice, didn't photograph well so they would use something dark like molasses or chocolate to look like blood. As for Rogers and Arlen supposedly not getting along, the narrator is confusing the actors with the characters they play. In part 2 of this series, there is a clip of Buddy Rogers himself saying that he, Arlen and Cooper were all good pals at the time; you can even find photos of the three of them hanging out together on Paramount's back-lot in the 30's, years after "Wings" was filmed.
Very interesting and well done.Thanks for posting!.
love this video, you've helped me with my essay, thanks! :)
Bow's career was not snuffed out because of her heavy Brooklyn accent. She voluntarily retired from a Hollywood system and celebrity culture which had exploited her. This documentary also simplifies and distorts her post-cinema life.
Clara Bow certainly was still popular when talkies came in, but her voice was a problem. And yes, I "Simplified" her post-cinema life because she really didn't have one. She did not "Voluntarily" retire from movies, she pretty well had to.
"Bow held the position as fifth at box-office in 1931, but the pressures of fame, public scandals, overwork, and a damaging court trial charging her secretary Daisy DeVoe with financial mismanagement, took their toll on Bow's fragile emotional health. As she slipped closer to a major breakdown, her manager, B.P. Schulberg, began referring to her as "Crisis-a-day-Clara". In April, Bow was brought to a sanatorium, and at her request, Paramount released her from her final undertaking: City Streets (1931). At 25, her career was essentially over."
Deanna Durbin Voluntarily retired. Jane Fonda Voluntarily retired for a long time. Bow did not. B.P. Schulberg exploited her, not her celebrity fame.
She was constantly with health problems, spent time in hospitals and sanitariums... and died young, at only 60. I simplified her post-cinema life because the documentary is "The Making of WINGS", NOT "The life and times of Clara Bow". She's only a small part of it.
good job nice and informative intruduction i want to watch wings
Clara Bow DID transition to talkies, and did NOT have a heavy Brooklyn accent, rather, by the 1930s her personal engine ran out of steam and so she retreated to Nevada , where her husband was involved in state politics. She was scarred by her terrible life as a kid, and physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted by all the life had thrown at her.
Saw the movies many times >>all quiet on the western front is a must see also, the movie red baron is the best aviator movie of modern times i believe , though wings is fantastic !!
Read Bow's Wikipedia page, or watch one of her biography's. Her Brooklyn accent had nothing to do with her leaving pictures. Yes, she admitted that she hated "talkies" but her fans or her studio Paramount had no problem with her accent. Bow's emotional health was very fragile and by 1931 the pressures of fame, public scandals, overwork began to take their toll. She was admitted to a sanitarium in 1931. At her request she was released from her contract at Paramount. She would make two more films for Fox in 32 and 33, which were both successful, but emotional issues continued to plague her. By the early 40s Bow started showing more severe symptoms of psychiatric illness and she spent the rest of her life in and out institutions. Her last years were spent under the constant care of a nurse and she died in 1965 at the age of 60.
Did you read my comment below? I said all that.
You said in your comment that her voice was a problem, which it wasn't. You copied and pasted everything about her from Wikipedia except the part that states her voice not being a problem. Not a problem for her fans or Paramount. All I'm saying is her voice wasn't a problem.......That said, I really enjoyed your videos. There's so little out there on this great film..
Where is part 2 please???
Part 2 should auto play right after. But, if it doesn't, ua-cam.com/video/TpP6dDJtCiE/v-deo.html
battlebeastx thank you I’m watching it now ! Can I say this is awesome .. great series you put together, I saw Wings on the big screen recently at the Randwick Ritz cinema in Sydney Australia.. it looked so different on the big screen. I also met A C Lyles Paramounts longest serving employee and he showed me the camera used in the film which he had in his office at Paramount and I took a photo of the camera. Wings is a masterpiece. thank you for keeping this film alive!!!!
Please don't refer to United States Air Force with regard to WWI. That service did not exist, the fliers were Army Air Corps. USAF was born in 1947.
Are you saying the boxing match between Jack and Dave was a real boxing match between Rogers and Arlen? It wasn't blocked and staged to look the way it did? After all, Jack is younger, rash and impetuous and somewhat immature where Dave is a well-bred respectable gentleman with good manners. It makes sense in the story for Jack to beat up Dave but it would have been out of character for Dave to beat up Jack. Would a director allow his two stars go at each other for real? It had to have been blocked and staged to look the way it did with a bloody nose and torn shirts.
Subtitles in Spanish, please
William Wellman thay mack directors like that anymoreuse what they call a man's man.