Clara Blandick

Everyone knows Clara Blandick (1880 - 1962). Maybe not by her screen name, but I know that if you are reading this blog, you have seen her.

Clara has over 120 film roles over a span of 50 years. She started on the stage, and appeared to prefer that. She had a few small parts in silent films from 1911 to 1917, then left the screen until 1929. In 1930, after making half a dozen movies, she was in Romance, starring Greta Garbo, and in those early years she worked with Franklin Pangborn, Myrna Loy and others with less familiar names. Also in 1930, Jackie Coogan made Tom Sawyer, and Clara became Aunt Polly.

1931 was Clara's busiest year. She repeated her Aunt Polly role in Huckleberry Finn (1931), again with Coogan. She also worked with Garbo again in Inspiration that year. In the horror film The Drums of Jeopardy, Clara played opposite Warner Oland, who played a character named Dr. Boris Karlov! She was also in Laughing Sinners, starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, with the great Bit Actor, Neil Hamilton. She worked with Gable and Crawford again that year in Possessed. Also in 1931, she teamed up with Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard in I Take This Woman. In The New Adventures of Get Rick Quick Wallingford, she worked with Jimmy Durante (1893 - 1908). It was Durante's second film. Clara made 13 movies in 1931 alone. No wonder this was called the Golden Age.

Continuing on, look for her in Three on a Match (1932), with Joan Blondell, Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart. She also had a small role in the Janet Gaynor 1937 version of A Star is Born.

1939 was the banner year for Clara. She starts out in the Mickey Rooney version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Then, the role that would engrave her name in Hollywood history, as Auntie Em in The Wizard of Oz. (See? Everyone here has seen Clara Blandick.) Her next film that year was The Star Maker starring Bing Crosby, and then Drums Along the Mohawk with Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda.

While she never worked with Judy Garland again, she did make other films with Oz alumni. She worked four times with Charley Grapewin (Uncle Henry), three with Frank Morgan (The Wizard) and Maggie Hamilton (WWW), and twice with Jack Haley (The Tin Man).

Other good post-Oz films featuring Clara Blandick include Northwest Mounted Police (1940), The Wagons Roll at Night (1941), The Big Store (1941), Du Barry was a Lady (1943), Heaven Can Wait (1943), and Life with Father (1947). Her final film was Love that Brute (1950) starring Paul Douglas, with Cesar Romero and Keenan Wynn.

Sadly, Clara decided to end her own life in 1962 at age 81. She was in constant pain from arthritis and also facing blindness. But there will only be one Auntie Em.

Questions Without Answers

The experience of writing about bit actors, or actors, or movies in general, brings some questions to mind.  Who is your favorite bit part actor or actress?  You might as well ask a car nut what is your favorite car, or a movie buff what is your favorite movie.  Too many choices are blowin' in the wind.

I suppose it depends a lot on the mood you are in.  Sometimes I just want to see a great western.  It may be easy to pick a great western bit part actor, like Yakima Canutt, but wait...what about the era?  Let's say you are in the mood for Dances with Wolves.  Yakima was gone by then, but you may like Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who played Smiles A Lot in that movie.  A young Native American, just starting out in acting.  I thought his part in Dances added a lot to our sympathy for the natives who were ultimately going to be forced out of their homeland.  It could be a good subject for a blog, just talking about Native American actors.

It is more difficult to find a favorite bit actor in the context of silent films.  The reality is, other than the few real standout stars, most of the people involved in front of the camera in silent films were bit actors.  They moved from set to set making several movies every week.  I may say they are all my favorites!

War films fall into the same category as westerns.  A good detective movie from the 1930's or 1940's, they would be ripe with candidates for a great bit actor.  Think of The Maltese Falcon and all the small parts populated with actors like William Hopper (134 acting credits), Charles Drake (137 roles), Creighton Hale (284!), and even Walter Huston had a bit part that was uncredited.

The pickings may be smaller in romantic films because they tend to focus on the lead characters.  Comedies may be tough, especially the big ones with Bob Hope or Jerry Lewis.  It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World had almost every bit comic actor that was alive at the time.  Stan Laurel was alive but not in the film, although he was asked.  After Ollie died, he said he wouldn't work with anyone else.

Then there are the big musicals.  Warner Brothers and Busby Berkeley hired hundreds for each film.  MGM made The Wizard of Oz with hundreds of short people.  I met Meinhardt Raabe once.  He played the coroner in Wizard.  A nice fellow and very appreciative of his fame from such a small part with no screen credit.  According to IMDB, Wizard was his only screen credit.  He worked for Oscar Mayer for 30 years, though.  He just passed away in April.

That should get you thinking.  Watch something good tonight and see who makes an impression on you.  Try to stay away from old black and white TV shows.  Too much bit part fodder to think about!