Before a camera she could exude personality. Newsreel footage shows Clara among the Baby Stars, her unruly hair blowing in the wind while others wear chic cloche hats. Grinning impishly, she blows a kiss to the camera, as natural as the rest are formal. The moment is charming, but misleading: Clara was not the carefree Baby Star she seemed, and the distinction between her public and private selves did not pass unnoticed.
“She was peppy and vivacious in front of people, but when you talked to her one on one, she was serious and sad,” says [fellow Baby Star Ruth] Hiatt. “I liked her, but I didn’t get to know her well,” admits Dorothy Mackaill, another Baby Star aboard the train. “Nobody did. She was away from the crowd, a loner.”
The Wampas Baby Stars of 1924: Clara Bow, Elinor Fair, Carmelita Geraghty, Gloria Grey, Ruth Hiatt, Julanne Johnston, Hazel Keener (aka Barbara Worth), Dorothy Mackaill, Blanche Mehaffey (aka Joan Alden and Janet Morgan), Margaret Morris, Marian Nixon, Lucille Ricksen, Alberta Vaughn.
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