It was less than two weeks ago that Taylor Swift upstaged her own Grammy win by announcing the release of her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, at the 2024 Grammy Awards. The day after revealing her new album, which is set to debut on April 19, Swift posted its track list to Instagram, which made fans spiral further.
One song in particular, titled “Clara Bow,” immediately caught fans’ attention since it’s a direct reference to the iconic American silent film era actor and because the musician has seemingly referenced her in the past during the promotion of her Midnights album.
During a recent interview with People, Bow’s great-granddaughters, Nicole Sisneros and Brittany Grace Bell, opened up about being stunned when Swift revealed the song title. “We could not believe it. We were shocked and then the intrigue set in because no one from our family has been contacted or knew about this prior. We found out via the Instagram post like everybody else,” Sisneros revealed.
“[I] took my oldest daughter to the [Eras Tour] concert,” she added. “When we told her [about the new ‘Clara Bow’ song] she was excited and looking forward to telling her little friends.”
Born in New York City in 1905, Bow found her way to movie stardom as a teenager in a beauty contest. She first appeared in the 1922 film Down to the Sea in Ships then moved to Hollywood, becoming a huge sex symbol through her roles in Black Oxen (1923), Wine (1924), It (1927), and Wings (1927), among others. Offscreen, her love life was scrutinized and her mental health unraveled, forcing her into early retirement at age 28. She spent the rest of her life largely out of the spotlight with her husband of 31 years, actor-turned-politician Rex Bell, and their two sons on the family ranch in southern Nevada.
Although the exact vibe of “Clara Bow” will remain a secret until the album debuts, both Sisneros and Bell hope it will capture the “perseverance” of their late great-grandmother. “I hope she conveys a positive image of Clara Bow, which I think she will,” Bell mused. “I would imagine that Taylor uses this as a way to highlight her accomplishments, her accolades, her talent. They’re both people that have really strong raw talent.”
Bow’s great-granddaughters also noted how Swift is a modern-day “It girl”—a title Bow was the first to hold following her starring role in the 1927 movie It. “I think the Eras Tour solidifies that,” Sisneros said. “Truly, that one performer can carry such a load and perform at such a grueling pace. And night after night, these three, four-hour shows with 40 odd songs on a set list that has hundreds of thousands of people captivated truly shows her place in this industry.”
“I think Clara Bow would feel the same kinship and protectiveness over someone who’s of the same level of fame as her in dealing with the media and how heavy the crown is to carry,” Bell added.
Gretty Garcia is the associate news editor at Cosmopolitan, where she covers all things news, entertainment, and pop culture. Before joining Cosmo, Gretty was a social strategist for Mrs. Dow Jones and a features and special projects editor at Editorialist. She holds an MS from the Columbia Journalism School and studied art history at Harvard College.
