One of the many creative projects I am currently working on, is a book called The It Girl Gene. As I have mentioned previously, I have always found the idea of “It” girls completely fascinating. The term was coined in 1927, when English writer Elinor Glynn described actress Clara Bow in the now-classic silent film, “It”.
“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—all women if you are a man. “IT” can be a quality of the mind as well as a physical attraction… 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. That’s “IT”.
This is the type of woman I was raised to be, like my mother before me.
The plan is to chronicle the time in my mom’s twenties when she was engulfed in the 1980s Chicago punk rock/new wave/rockabilly scene, and to compare how similar my experience has been to her’s. I’ve been doing interviews with her for research, and it’s really amazing to hear stories of her life before me. I’m learning a lot of things about her that I never knew before. For instance, one of her first jobs was working the camera counter at Montgomery Ward. There, a suburban hippie fresh out of high school, she met John Fontaine (pictured below). John was the Andy to my mother’s Edie.
