An Inherently Funny Concept: "Aunt Clara"

Marion Lorne (August 12, 1883 – May 9, 1968) was an American actress of stage, film, and television.

After a career in theatre in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life, played small roles in films and television. Her recurring role, between 1964 and her death in 1968, as Aunt Clara in the comedy series, Bewitched (1964–1972) brought her widespread recognition, and for which she was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Career
Lorne debuted on Broadway in 1905; she also acted in London theaters, enjoying a flourishing stage career on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. After appearing in a couple Vitaphone shorts, Success (1931) starring Jack Haley and A Peach of a Pair (1934) starring Shemp Howard and Daphne Pollard, she made her feature film debut in her late 60s in Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The role was typical of the befuddled, nervous, and somewhat aristocratic matrons that she usually portrayed.

From 1952-55, Lorne was seen as perpetually confused junior high school English teacher Mrs. Gurney on Mr. Peepers. From 1957–58, she co-starred with Joan Caulfield in the NBC sitcom Sally in the role of an elderly widow who happens to be the co-owner of a department store. Although afraid of live television, declaring "I'm a coward when it comes to a live [television] show", she was persuaded to appear a few times to promote the film The Girl Rush with Rosalind Russell in the mid-1950s. Between 1958–64, she made regular appearances on The Garry Moore Show (1958–64).

                                                   Marion Lorne in Sally in 1957
Her last role, as Aunt Clara in Bewitched, brought Lorne her widest fame as a lovable, forgetful witch who is losing her powers due to old age and whose spells usually end in disaster. Aunt Clara is obsessed with doorknobs, often bringing her collection with her on visits. Lorne had an extensive collection of doorknobs in real life, some of which she used as props in the series

Death
She appeared in twenty-seven episodes of Bewitched, and was not replaced after she died of a heart attack in her Manhattan apartment, just prior to the start of production of the show's fifth season, at the age of 84.

Posthumous
The producers of Bewitched recognized that Lorne's performance as Aunt Clara could not be replicated by another actress. Comedic actress Alice Ghostley was recruited to fill the gap as "Esmeralda", a different type of befuddled witch with wobbly magic whose spells often went astray. Coincidentally, Lorne and Ghostley had appeared side-by-side as partygoers in the iconic comedy-drama film The Graduate, made the year before Lorne's death. She received a posthumous Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Bewitched. The statue was accepted by Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Lorne

Afterword by the Blog Author
It might prove very tempting to dismiss this blog entry as a bit of historical fluff of no importance and no concern to the reader. I understand such an attitude but regard it as a serious mistake, because Lorne’s opus in theatre, film and television is important.
The ditzy and forgetful old woman Lorne played in Mr. Peepers, Sally, The Garry Moore Show and –perfectly!—as Aunt Clara in Bewitched represents splendid examples of what professional comedians often call "an inherently funny concept."

When Marion Lorne’s Aunt Clara stumbled onto the set of Bewitched, viewers knew it was going to be a funny half hour in which heroic efforts would be made to end Clara’s spells and bring things back to normal. This is important because the character appeared approximately seven times in each of the first four seasons of the show. Lorne thus helped bend the show toward being a comedy: the first six episodes of Bewitched showed a mismatched couple whose marriage was rocky and unstable. The show moved toward comedy because that was what worked – and Lorne was reliably, consistently hilarious as Aunt Clara.

There's a website devoted to Aunt Clara's appearances on Bewitched.  Click here:

http://harpiesbizarre.com/clara.htm