Welcome to Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of horrors, hauntings and mysteries. I'm your host, Caitlin Moore. This is our second installment

of our Dark Hollywood history series, where we go back and discover the ghosts, curses, scandals, and murders that shape and stories. I talked about the most famous seance to ever happen in Hollywood and the

premonition Sharon Tate saw before her horrible murder at the hands of the

Manson family. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, make sure you check it out.

Though for this series you can listen to any episode in any order.

For today's episode, I had to go way back into the archives here at the house because it's

going to be a little more dark history focused.

I'm going to tell you the story of Clara Bow, Hollywood's first ever

it girl. Though her name hasn't managed to become as synonymous with old Hollywood as, say, Mary Pickford, May West, or Marilyn Monroe.

In her day, she was more famous than all of them.

But Clara was a firecracker. She burned hot and bright and was

gone in an instant when she lost everything in the midst of a scandal. It's

interesting then that Clara's name has resurfaced today. This

week Taylor Swift is releasing her 11th album which closes with a track titled

Clara Bow. I don't know what the contents of the song will be just yet,

but there's no denying that the two Starlets' lives have paralleled each other in a few ways. And for that reason, the story of a woman

born 119 years ago feels as relevant as ever. The problems she faced, the scandal, the hardship, the mental health

struggles are all things we can still relate to today. Lots of rumors have been spread about Clara. But today I'm going to take you on a

journey through the story of the real woman. Who was Clara Bow? Was she a villain, a flusy, a home wrecker like the tabloids all said?

Well, I'll let you decide.

By the way, if you're a first-time listener, welcome to our darkly curious community.

I'm so glad you're here.

...