Montgomery County sentinel., 1931-06-26
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
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By FANNIE HURST 8
By FANNIE HURST

IN ACK in the days when "elocu-
H tion" was maidenly accom-
~ plishment, Clara Bailey Bunting
taught that gentle art
The two parlors Of the modest home
she occupied with her husband, Doctor
Bunting, were given over to her work.
1t kept her busy. There were two
babies, and in those days the doctors
practice, while never destined to be
large one, was of sufficient proper
tions to keep the telephone bell con-
stantly jangling.
1t was only Clara Bailey Bunting's
perennial enthusiasm for her work
that made 1t possible for her to carry
on her fragile shoulders the triple du-
ties of wife, mother, and elocutlon
teacher.
AS Clara used to say of herself,
when she married George Bunting, she
had not forfeited her stage career, but
had merely postponed 1t. And George
who dotted on Clara's recitative talents,
agreed that as soon as the children
were of more self-sufIicient age,
Clara owed 1t to herself and to her
art to resume her preparation for
career that had been nlpped in Its
very bud by her young romance and
subsequent marriage to the cookbook
ing physician.
And Of course what subsequently
happened was that, as the years drift
ed, Clara became more and more in
volved In home ties-the lives Of her
children and the problems of her hus-
band.
Teaching elocution was about as far
as Clara seemed to advance toward
her ultimate goal-the theater.
And yet the quality of her enthus-
iasm remained undoused. When she
was thirty, bit heavier, her blond
prettlness n bit paler, her never too
robust health bit Trailer, the sweet
blue eyes Of Clara Bailey Bunting
were still fixed resolutely upon the
destination Of the theater.
There was something undenfably
dramatic to Clara Bailey Bunting;
with her maturity there came Lady
Macbethian quality to her voice and
manner. She deepened, so to speak;
took on a new poise, and worked more
indefatigably than ever with "her
girls" as she called them.
The young girls from the high
schools and finishing school Of the
town came in numbers to study elocu-
tlon with Clara Bailey Bunting.
1t soon became apparent, even to
Clara who loved her husband, that he
was not destined for success in his
work. And yet, because she liked the
nobility Of the doctors task, she dis
couraged her husbands valiant offers
to abandon his medical practice for a
more lucrative mercantile position,
and carried on her own shoulders the
upkeep of the little home.
BY this time their children, pair
Of pretty girl twins, were of an age
when they, too, we're studying dra-
matte art with their mother And how
Clara Bailey Bunting worked with
these girls! Into them she poured all
Of her diverted energies.
The doctor dotted on these twins,
and spent most Of his time accompany
Ing them to this and that entertain
ment. No local charity event, chill
dren's festival, or community occa-
sion, was complete without them.
Their mother was kept busy by these
entertainments, arranging new read
lngs, new dances, new little dialogue
scenes for the children.
About this time Clara began to pre-
pare for an enterprise that had long
been smoldering in her mind To-
gether she and the doctor wrote a
little one-act skit which was to com
prise three characters: Clara and her
two daughters. The idea was to carry
this sklt when completed, to New
York.
That was the ysar that the doctor
developed a spot on his lung.
The next six catastrophe months
saw this little family, bewlldered by
adversely, packing themselves, bag
and baggage, for the more benign
slopes OF southern California.
II was thus out of volltlon not
her own that Clara Bailey Bunting
found herself catapulted into the heart
Of the new art industry known as the
motion picture.
Then and there Clara Bailey Bunt-
Ing, carrying now the additional load
Of an lnvallded husband, took up her
cudgels once more. In the front par.
lor Of a tiny California bungalow she
sought to gather unto herself new
class Of dramatic pupils sufficient TO
enable her to keep this tiny roof over
her famlly's heads.
After fashion she succeeded.
Young ladies' struggled into the parlor
Of Clara Bailey Bunting for instruc.
tion In the gentle art OF el0cutlon.
The twins grew older, and II was TO
be Claras and her lnyallded husbands
Joy and delight to behold them when
only In their sweet teens appearing
as "extras In the local motion Die.
ture studios OF Hollywood.
BY this time Clara herself, forty,
paler, lenner, tlreder, was now asplr-
Ing to character roles. In between
her teaching, running the household,
catering to the needs OF her husband
and sewing for her girls, Clara was
making hurried visits herself to the
studios, registering with the agencies,
sending hor photographs made up for