Who is Clara Bow from Taylor Swift’s new album and what is her southern Nevada connection?

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) —  The final track on Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” released on Friday, April 19, is named after a prominent Nevada historical figure.

“You look like Clara Bow in this light, remarkable,” Taylor sings as the song about ambitious women begins.

But who exactly was Clara Bow?

Bow, born in 1905, was an American actress who rose to stardom during the 1920s in silent films before making her way into films with sound, back then called “talking pictures.” She earned the nickname “The It Girl,” after her starring role as “a plucky shopgirl” Betty Lou Spence in the 1927 film “It.”

Early in her career, critic James W. Dean wrote about Bow in The Odgen standard-examiner following her supporting performance in “Down to the Sea in Ships,” Bow’s first on-camera performance.

“Miss Bow will undoubtedly gain fame as a screen comedienne,” the December 1922 Utah newspaper read.

Throughout her career, Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 “talking pictures,” including hits such as 1926’s “Mantrap,” the afore-mentioned “It,” and “Wings” (1927). Bow typically played characters who embodied sexuality or broke traditional gender roles, setting her apart from other actresses at the time.

It’s no wonder Swift found the actress inspiring.

In December 1931, Bow married American actor and politician Rex Bell, who made his film debut in 1928 and appeared in the 1930 movie “True to the Navy,” which starred Bow. Bell was known for primarily Western films.

Bell would later become the 21st lieutenant governor of Nevada from 1955 until his death in 1962.

The two married in Las Vegas, then a small town north of Walking Box Ranch, which Bell purchased in May 1931.

Bow and Bell lived at the Nevada ranch, located on a large plot of land just outside Searchlight on the Joshua Tree Highway, with their two sons until the mid-1940s. Bow referred to the ranch as her “desert paradise.”

“The remote mystique of the southern Nevada desert-scapes are exactly what captured the attention of Hollywood stars Rex Bell and Clara Bow in the early 1930s, who craved solitude and a way of escaping the rat race,” Travel Nevada wrote about the ranch.

Walking Box Ranch, named after Hollywood box cameras, became one of the most famous ranches in Nevada, often attracting other Hollywood icons for a visit, including Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Errol Flynn, and John Wayne.

Today, Walking Box Ranch is co-managed by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the Bureau of Land Management. In 2009, the ranch was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

For a short time in 2022, UNLV offered public tours of the ranch, guided by students and professors with the Public History program.

The tours included “hands-on activities with the ranch’s collection of material culture; expert-led nature walks on ranching and indigenous plant life of the area; films showcasing former ranch owners and actors Rex Bell and Clara Bow; and a mac n’ cheese contest in honor of Bow’s favorite recipe.”

According to the BLM website, Walking Box Ranch is currently closed to the public, but they hope to have more tours in the future.

Bow died in 1965 at the age of 60 following a heart attack.

She wasn’t the only famously ambitious woman Swift mentioned in the song. “You look like Stevie Nicks” opens the second verse of the song, starting a series of lyrics about the “Fleetwood Mac” singer.

Two hours after the initial release of TTPD, as fans have shortened the album title, Swift announced “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” a collection that includes the original 16-track album with an additional 15 songs.

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