On Sept. 26, 1930, the Roseville Press Tribune informed readers that famed actress Clara Bow had recently visited their county. According to the article: “Clara Bow, ‘It’ girl of the movies, magnetic as she may be with the hearts of men, did not exercise such magnetism over ‘Lady Luck’ on a recent visit to Placer County.”
Clara Bow was in the county because her boyfriend, Rex Bell, was filming a movie in the area with Will Rogers called “Lightnin’.” The movie company used the Tahoe Tavern as its home base.
One evening in early September, Will Rogers introduced Clara Bow to the managers of Cal Neva, a gambling resort that spanned the California-Nevada border. She tentatively gambled a few hundred dollars before the fever struck and within 10 days had written checks for nearly $14,000. It seemed she could not win at anything.
Her boyfriend, Rex Bell, was suspicious of the loss and advised her to stop payment on the checks, which she later did. He thought they had taken advantage of her and possibly rigged the games so she would lose. Bow herself said later that she thought the chips were 50 cents instead of $100.
Cal Neva threatened to sue, but gambling was illegal in both California and Nevada, so they were unable to collect. The political winds in Nevada were already favoring a move to legalize gambling to revitalize the economy and attract tourists during the Great Depression. The Clara Bow incident was not the catalyst or the ultimate reason why gambling was legalized March 19, 1931, but some people did point to the incident as yet another reason to pass the law.
Clara Bow married Rex Bell in 1931, and unlike her gambling persona, she beat the odds. They were happily married until his death in 1962 (while he was serving as lieutenant governor of Nevada). Clara died three years later.
Photo: Clara Bow, c. 1932
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