- For the cocktail named after this person, see Shirley Temple
cocktail.
Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928) is an iconic
American child actress of the 1930s. She also starred in
films as a young adult in the 1940s and 1950s. She later became a United States
Ambassador and diplomat. She is retired from public life.
[1]
Early life
Temple began dance classes at Meglin's Dance School in Hollywood in 1931, at the age of 3. Her film career began when Charles Lamont, a casting director from Educational
Pictures, visited her class. Although Temple hid behind the piano in the studio, she was chosen by Lamont, invited to
audition, and, eventually, signed to a contract with Educational.
Temple worked at Educational from 1932 to 1933, and appeared in two series of short subjects for the studio. Her first series,
Baby Burlesks, satirized recent motion pictures and politics. In the series, Temple
would dress up in a diaper, but would otherwise wear adult clothes. The series was considered
controversial by some viewers because of its depiction of young children in adult situations. Her second series at Educational,
Frolics of Youth, was a bit more acceptable, and cast her as a bratty younger sister in a contemporary suburban family.
While working for Educational Pictures, Temple also performed many walk-on and bit player roles in various films at other
studios. She is said to have auditioned for a lead role in Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies (later known as The Little Rascals) in the early
1930s; various reasons are given for her not having been cast in the role. Roach stated that Temple and her mother were unable to
make it through the red tape of the audition process, while Our Gang producer/director Robert F. McGowan recalls that the studio wanted to cast Temple, but they refused to give in to
Temple's mother's demands that Temple receive special star billing. Temple, in her autobiography Child Star, denies that
she ever auditioned for Our Gang at all.[2] However,
Temple had some connection with Our Gang in that Temple's carpool friend, David
Holt, had a small role in the 1933 Little Rascals film Forgotten Babies.
Actress for Fox
Temple was finally signed to Fox Film Corporation (which later merged with 20th
century Pictures to become 20th Century Fox) in late 1933 after appearing in
Stand Up and Cheer! with James Dunn. Later, she was paired with Dunn in
several films, notably her breakthrough block-buster Bright Eyes produced by
Sol M. Wurtzel. This was the film that saved Fox from near
bankruptcy in 1934 at the height of the Depression era. It was also in Bright
Eyes,that Temple first performed the song that would become one of her trademarks "On the Good Ship Lollipop". This was closely followed by the film "Curly Top", in which she first sang another trademarked song "Animal Crackers in My Soup". In 1936 Temple was paid an unprecedented amount of money for her
work on Poor Little Rich Girl: $15,000 per week. It was during this
period, in the heart of the depression when her films were seen as bringing hope and optimism, that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is reported to have proclaimed that "as long as our country has Shirley
Temple, we will be all right."[3]
In 16 of the 20 films Temple made for Fox, she played a character where either one or both of her biological parents were
dead. This was part of the formula for Temple films, which encouraged the adults in the audience to take on the role of her
parent.[4]
Temple would stay with Fox until 1940, becoming the studio's most lucrative player. Her contract was amended several times
between 1933 and 1935, and she was loaned to Paramount for a pair of successful films in 1934. For four solid years, she ranked
as the top-grossing box office star in America. Shirley's birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood; her birth year
was advanced from 1928 to 1929. She was not told her real age until her twelfth (which was actually her thirteenth)
birthday.[5]
Her popularity earned her both public adulation and the approval of her peers. Even at the age of five, the hallmark of her
acting work was her professionalism: she always had her lines memorized and dance steps prepared when shooting began.
Temple also made pictures with Carole Lombard, Gary
Cooper, Adolphe Menjou, and many others. Arthur
Treacher appeared as a kindly butler in several of Temple's films.
Temple's ability as a dancer (especially a tap dancer) is well known and celebrated. Even
in her earliest films she danced, and she was able to handle complex tap choreography by the age of five. She was teamed with
famed dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in The
Little Colonel, The Littlest Rebel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Just Around the Corner. Robinson also coached and developed her choreography for many of her
other films. Because Robinson was African-American, and the South was replete with
racism, his scenes holding hands with Temple had to be edited out in many cities in the
South.
Temple was the first recipient of the special Juvenile Performer
Academy Award in 1935 for recognition of her outstanding contribution to screen
entertainment in 1934. Seventy years later, Temple is still the youngest performer ever to receive this honor, or any Oscar. She
is also the youngest actress to add foot and hand prints to the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre.
The role of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz was originally meant for
Judy Garland. However, MGM executives were concerned with Garland's box office appeal.
Temple was considered for the role, however, she was unable to appear in the film when a trade between Fox and MGM fell through. However, Rags, who played Temple's beloved dog in Bright Eyes, was cast in The Wizard of Oz as Toto. In
1940 Temple starred in The Blue Bird, another fairy story with plot
similarities to The Wizard of Oz. It was her first box-office flop. Temple was also rumored to be the inspiration for
Bonnie Blue Butler in Gone with the Wind and was one of the early
contenders for the role in the motion picture, but was too old by the time the film went into production.
Temple appeared in her first Technicolor film, The Little Princess, produced by
Fox in 1939, near the end of her contract with them.
Product line
Aside from the films, there were many Shirley Temple products during the 1930s. Ideal's numerous Temple dolls, dressed in costumes from the movies, were top sellers. Original Shirley
Temple dolls bring in hundreds of dollars on the secondary market today. Other successful Temple items included a line of girls'
dresses and hairbows. Several of Temple's film songs, including "On the Good Ship
Lollipop"(from Bright Eyes), "Animal Crackers in My Soup" (from Curly Top) and
"Goodnight My Love" (from Stowaway)
were popular radio hits. She frequently lent her likeness and talent to promoting various social causes, including the
Red Cross.
Private school
In 1940, Temple left Fox. She juggled classes at Westlake School for Girls
with films for various other studios, including MGM and Paramount. Her most successful pictures of the time included
Since You Went Away with Claudette
Colbert, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer with
Cary Grant, and Fort Apache with
John Wayne. She retired from motion pictures in 1949,
reportedly because the public could not accept her appearing in adult roles. It is more likely she was motivated to retire
because she wanted to devote herself to raising a family and was unhappy with changes in the film industry.
Hollywood return
In the 1950s and 1960s, she made a brief return to show business with two television series. Shirley Temple's Storybook premiered on NBC on
January 12, 1958 and last aired December 1, 1959. Shirley
Temple Theatre (also known as The Shirley Temple Show) premiered on NBC on September 11, 1960 and last aired September
10, 1961. Both shows featured adaptations of fairy tales and other family oriented stories.
Shirley Temple was the hostess and occasional narrator/actress in both series.
In later years, she made occasional appearances on television talk shows, especially when she promoted her memoirs.
Controversy
Salvador Dalí's painting Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster
of the Cinema in Her Time, was controversial. It depicted Temple's head on the deep-red-colored body of a
heavy-breasted lioness with long white claws.[6] British author Graham Greene, reviewing a Temple film,
commented that although Temple was "marketed as an innocent kid, the performer had a 'more secret and more adult appeal'" and
that "for her male audience, 'the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their
desire'".[6]
Racism in Temple's films
Some modern film critics argue that many of Temple's films are flawed by the racist depiction of African-Americans that was common in the 1930s. For example, Andre Sennwald of The New York Times wrote that "The stereotypical treatment of black characters in
The Littlest Rebel is more offensive than usual, with "happy darkies"
nervously pondering the prospect of being freed from slavery and shivering in their boots when the Yankees arrive."[7] Bill Gibron, member of the Online Film Critics Society, wrote
that: "The racism present in The Littlest Rebel, The Little Colonel and
Dimples is enough to warrant a clear critical caveat." However Gibron, echoing most film critics who continue to see value
in Temple's work despite the racism that is present in some of it, also wrote: "Thankfully, the talent at the center of these
troubling takes is still worthwhile for some, anyway".[8]
Political and diplomatic career
Shirley Temple Black became involved in Republican Party
politics, unsuccessfully entering a Congressional race in 1967 on a platform that supported the United States'
involvement in the Vietnam War. She went on to hold several diplomatic posts, serving as the
U.S. delegate to many international conferences and summits. She was appointed a delegate to the United Nations by President Richard M. Nixon in 1969. She was appointed United States Ambassador
to Ghana (1974–76). In 1976, she became the first female Chief of Protocol of the United States which put in her charge of all
State Department ceremonies, visits, gifts to foreign leaders and
co-ordination of protocol issues with all U.S. embassies and consulates. She was United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and witnessed the Velvet Revolution.
She commented, about her Ambassadorship, "That was the best job I ever had." In 1987 she was designated the first Honorary
Foreign Service Officer in U.S. history by then U.S. Secretary of
State, George Shultz.
Black served on the board of directors of some large enterprises including The Walt
Disney Company (1974–75), Del Monte, Bancal Tri-State, and Fireman's Fund
Insurance. Her non-profit board appointments included the Institute for
International Studies at Stanford University, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Council of American Ambassadors, the World Affairs
Council, the United States Commission for UNESCO, the National Committee on US-China Relations, the United Nations Association, and the US
Citizen's Space TaskForce.
She received honorary doctorates from Santa Clara
University and Lehigh University, a Fellowship from College of Notre Dame, and a Chubb Fellowship from
Yale University. Black now lives in Woodside,
California.
Breast cancer
Temple was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1972, and underwent a mastectomy. She is often remembered as the first celebrity to publicly discuss her involvement with this form
of cancer, providing education and inspiration to many. In an interview published on the web page of the The American Cancer Society, actress Barbara Barrie is
quoted as saying:
- Shirley Temple Black was the first person who said, on national television, 'I have breast cancer.' It wasn't
Betty Ford, it was Shirley Temple, child star. One of the greatest stars of the world ever.
And, she was so brave to say that, because first of all, people never said "cancer" and they never said "breast," not in public.
She said it and she set the whole ball rolling. People don't remember that, but she did it.[9] Temple appeared on the cover of People magazine in 1999 with the title "Picture Perfect" and again later that year as part of
their special report, "Surviving Breast Cancer". She appeared at the 70th Academy
Awards and also in that same year received Kennedy Center Honors.
Recent activity
In 2001, she served as a consultant on the ABC Television Network
production of , based on part one of her
autobiography.
In 2004, she teamed with Legend Films to restore, colorize and release her earliest black and white films, as well as episodes of her 1960 television
series (originally shot on color videotape), The Shirley Temple Storybook Collection.
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) announced on September
12, 2005, that she was to receive the Guild’s most prestigious honor, the Lifetime
Achievement Award. SAG President Melissa Gilbert said:
I can think of no one more deserving of this year’s SAG Life Achievement award than Shirley Temple Black. Her contributions to
the entertainment industry are without precedent; her contributions to the world are nothing short of inspirational. She has
lived the most remarkable life, as the brilliant performer the world came to know when she was just a child, to the dedicated
public servant who has served her country both at home and abroad for 30 years. In everything she has done and accomplished,
Shirley Temple Black has demonstrated uncommon grace, talent and determination, not to mention compassion and courage. As a
child, I was thrilled to dance and sing to her films and more recently as Guild president I have been proud to work alongside
her, as her friend and colleague, in service to our union. She has been an indelible influence on my life. She was my idol when I
was a girl and remains my idol today.[10]
Family
Her father was George Francis Temple (1888–1980). Her mother was Gertrude Amelia Krieger (1893–1977). She has two brothers, Jack (b. 1915), and George Jr. (b. 1919). Her
father was a businessman and a banker in Santa Monica, California. Her mother loved dancing and this directed Shirley towards performing. Gertrude
was a constant presence on the lot during Temple's childhood acting years, and helped Shirley learn her lines, and controlled her
wardrobe. Shirley's famous hair style, known as the Shirley Temple Curls, was also under the control of Gertrude, who ensured
that there were exactly 52 ringlets in her hair for each take.[11]
At the age of 17, Temple was married to soldier-turned-actor John Agar (1921–2002) on
September 19, 1945. They had one daughter, Linda Susan Agar (later known as Susan Black), born on January 30,
1948. Temple filed for divorce in late 1949, with the divorce becoming final on December 5, 1950. In early 1950, while vacationing in Hawaii, Shirley met and
fell in love with California businessman Charles Alden Black (1919–2005). They
married on December 16 that year. Together, they had two children: Charles Alden Black Jr., born April 29, 1952,
and Lori Black, born April 9, 1954. They remained married until Charles's death from myelodysplastic
syndrome (a bone marrow disease) at age 86 on August 4, 2005.
She has one granddaughter, Theresa Falaschi (b. 1980), Susan's daughter.
Filmography
Features
Short subjects
- Merrily Yours (1932)
- Kid's Last Stand (1932)
- The Kid's Last Fight (1932)
- Glad Rags to Riches (1932)
- Runt Page (1932)
- War Babies (1932)
- The Pie-Covered Wagon (1932)
- New Deal Rhythm (1933)
- Kid in Hollywood (1933)
- Polly Tix in Washington (1933)
- Dora's Dunking Doughnuts (1933)
- Kid in Africa (1933)
- What's to Do? (1933)
- Pardon My Pups (1934)
- Managed Money (1934)
- The Hollywood Gad-About (1934)
- Our Girl Shirley (1942)
- American Creed (1946)
References in popular culture
- On The Jacksons Variety Show, Janet
Jackson did a skit with brother Randy to "On the Good Ship
Lollipop".
- Shirley was mentioned in Weird Al Yankovic's song "Confessions Part
III", in which the singer/comedian states that "in private, I really like to dress up as Shirley Temple and spank myself with a
hockey stick".
- Carol Burnett occasionally performed an impression of "On the Good Ship Lollipop",
exaggerating the concentration in Temple's face to look angry or scowling.
- Towards the end of the Phish song, "The Wolfman's Brother",
the name "Shirley Temple" can be heard numerous times.
- The animated television series The Simpsons episode "Last Tap Dance in Springfield" features a former child-star turned tap-instructor 'Little'
Vicki Valentine who is clearly modelled on Shirley. Also in "Treehouse of Horror
III" during his rampage, King Kong (portrayed by Homer) eats a child actress similar to Shirley Temple.
- When she first ran for public office, a poster was published showing her in one of her earliest movies; a caption read, "Vote
for Me or I'll Hold My Breath."
- In the animated feature film Shrek the Third, the Gingerbread Man sings "On the Good Ship Lollipop" to himself after seeing his life flash before his
eyes.
- Shirley Temple is the only person, besides The Beatles themselves, who appears more than
once on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album
cover. She appears as a cut-out in the last row and a Shirley Temple doll is featured on the right side, wearing a shirt saying
"Welcome The Rolling Stones".
References
External links
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