RetroClips

It is the film that put the phrase 'It Girl' into permanent circulation, adapted from a novella by Elinor Glyn, who appears in the film in person to explain exactly what 'It' means (magnetic, unselfconscious charm, in case anyone was wondering). It turned Clara Bow into the defining flapper icon of the Jazz Age almost overnight, and the term she embodied has outlived nearly everyone who used it unironically at the time. This is Hollywood's original influencer-marketing moment: a studio built an entire star, and a whole cultural vocabulary, around one word.