IT Girl - Kipling, Glyn and Clara Bow

Kipling, Glyn and Clara Bow

The invention of the concept "It" is often attributed to Elinor Glyn, who wrote the original magazine story which inspired the film It. However, Rudyard Kipling, in the short story "Mrs. Bathurst", had introduced "It" as early as 1904.

In the introduction to the film, Glyn described the term thus:

"It" is that quality possessed by some which draws all others with its magnetic force. With "It" you win all men if you are a woman and all women if you are a man.

and

Self-confidence and indifference whether you are pleasing or not and something in you that gives the impression that you are not at all cold.

Glyn stated that "Personality plus", was the rock-bottom definition and that "conceit" destroyed "It".

However, the movie also plays with the notion that "It" is a quality which eschews definitions and categories; consequently the girl portrayed by Bow is an amalgam of an ingenue and a femme fatale, with a touch of "material girl". By contrast, her rival is equally young and comely, and rich, blonde and well-bred to boot, but she simply hasn't got "It".

The movie was planned as a special showcase for the popular Paramount Studios star Clara Bow, and her spectacular performance introduced the term "It" to the cultural lexicon. Bow said she wasn't sure what "It" meant, although she identified Lana Turner, and later Marilyn Monroe, as It girls, and Robert Mitchum as an It man.