It and Those

[Baker, John]

Dorothy Parker famously is said to have remarked of the It Girl, Clara Bow, "It, hell; she had Those."  Her comment (oddly missing from the Yale Book of Quotations) generally is taken to be an encomium on Bow's breasts - somewhat surprisingly so, considering Bow's actual endowment.  In actuality, the connection to Clara Bow is tenuous at best.  However, my question is, was that really what Parker meant?
 
The passage is part of a review (in The New Yorker, Nov. 26, 1927) of the novel It, by Elinor Glyn, in which "It" is described as "that strange magnetism that attracts both sexes."  After writing at some length about the meaning of "It," Parker describes two of the characters:
 
<<Then there was this girl, Ava Cleveland, and her brother Larry.  Larry had It something terrible, and he also had a little way of taking opium.  (Oh, please wait a minute.  I think I'm going to be able to use "opium" in a sentence.  I opium mother is feeling better.  No, I guess I'm not, either.)  Ava was young and slender and proud.  And she had It.  It, hell; she had Those.>>
 
The motion picture It was released in February 1927.  According to Wikipedia, it was based on a short story by Elinor Glyn.  According to the foreword of the novel, as quoted in Parker's review, the novel is "_not_ the story of the moving picture entitled, 'It,' but a full character study of the story 'It,' which the people in the picture read and discuss."  Clara Bow played the starring role of Betty Lou Spence in the movie.  The movie and the novel have different characters and plots, although both involve romances between poor, charismatic women and their wealthy employers.
 
Ava Cleveland is, as far as I can tell, purely a character in a novel, and Parker's review does not exactly focus on her appearance, beyond noting that she is young and slender and quoting a passage that mentions she has white skin (the untanned look still being fashionable in 1927, I suppose).  So it's far from clear to me, when the passage is examined in context, that "Those" refers to Ava's physical attributes, rather than her generous amount of It.
 
Subscribers to The New Yorker can examine the review in full at http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1927-11-26#folio=104.
 
 
John Baker
 
 
 

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