The New Bedford Tie Featured on Taylor Swift’s New Album

Taylor Swift is white hot. It's hard to imagine a pop star more on top of her game. Swift seems to be doing it all right, both personally (finally) and professionally.

Nothing symbolizes Swift's success more than her boss move of breaking the news of her upcoming album while accepting her Album of the Year Grammy award for Midnights.

Swift stood at the podium Sunday night and announced the name of her new album will be called The Tortured Poets Department. The release date is expected to be April 20.

To further tantalize her Swifties, Taylor released the track names on her social media accounts this week. Five songs are listed on Side D of the album.

One of them is titled "Clara Bow."

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Who is Clara Bow?

We wondered who Clara Bow could be, and did a little investigating.  It turns out that Bow was a silent movie actress back in the 1920s.  According to the Mattapoisett Museum, her career skyrocketed after filming Down to the Sea in Ships, which was shot right here on the SouthCoast of Massachusetts in 1921.

Bow played Dot, granddaughter of New Bedford whaling ship owner Charles W. Morgan.

A majority of the whaling-themed movie was filmed in New Bedford, with at least one prominent scene shot at downtown's Seaman's Bethel to commemorate two of the characters who were lost while on a voyage at sea.

The silent filmmakers also utilized the Apponegansett Meeting House in South Dartmouth and Mattapoisett House on Water Street in Mattapoisett.

Clara Bow went on to have a great early career and was such a famous silent actress that she is often credited as being the inspiration for the cartoon character Betty Boop.

Powerful Women

This isn't the first time Taylor has written a song about a powerful historical woman who spent time here in New England. "The Last Great American Dynasty" was featured on the album Folklore. Taylor sang about Rebekah Harkness, the heir to the Standard Oil fortune. Harkness, who had a reputation for eccentric behavior, was also a former owner of Taylor's Watch Hill Mansion in Westerly, Rhode Island.

She couldn't be tamed and Taylor loves that.

Clara Bow, Tortured Poet?

So, what could this song about a young, silent actress possibly be about?  It's probably not an accident that Taylor chose a silent actress.  We can only speculate for now, but could a superstar "silent" actress be a metaphor for Taylor's fight against the patriarchy?

We'll know in a couple of months.