Clara Bow Double Feature: The Primrose Path (1925) / Down to the Sea in Ships (1922) (Silent)

Clara Gordon Bow (1905-1965) was born to a life of poverty in Brooklyn, New York. An avid moviegoer in her teens, she entered a movie magazine's "Fame and Fortune" contest in hopes of escaping her dreary upbringing. Winning through sheer determination, she was soon cast in her first hit, Down to the Sea in Ships (1922). Several more successes followed, before Bow starred in It (1927), in which she played a shop girl turned flapper. Afterwards, she would be forever known as "The It Girl". Her bobbed haircut, shapely figure, and free-spirited lifestyle made her the role model of choice for young women in the 1920s. Whether because of the arrival of sound or unsubstantiated rumors about her personal life, Clara retired from acting in 1933 at the age of 28, but her timeless appeal still makes her beloved today.

Down To The Sea In Ships (1922): Growing up in a small whaling town, young Patience Morgan struggles with the strict guardianship of her father, Captain Charles Morgan. A devout Quaker, Morgan forbids his daughter from marrying her childhood sweetheart. He instead insists that Patience marry Samuel Siggs, a fellow Quaker. But the captain does not suspect that Siggs is not what he seems, and plans on stealing his business. Down to the Sea in Ships was praised for its documentary-style whaling sequences, which have been compared to Nanook of the North (1922). It was remade in 1949 with Richard Widmark and Lionel Barrymore.

The Primrose Path (1925): Wealthy playboy Bruce Armstrong has a bright future ahead of him with gorgeous showgirl Marilyn Merrill. Despite this, the young man can't stop gambling, and lands in trouble with a vicious mobster. Armstrong becomes a diamond smuggler to pay off his debt, but a man is accidentally killed during a fight over the jewels. Now it's up to Marilyn to save the man she loves before he is sentenced to the electric chair. Director Harry O. Hoyt also made the science fiction classic The Lost World (1925).

• silent