Shirley Temple Black (April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American film and television actress, singer, dancer and public servant, most famous as a child star in the 1930s. As an adult, she entered politics and became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana and later to Czechoslovakia, and as Chief of Protocol of the United States.
Easton Press Shirley Temple books
Child Star - Signed Limited Edition (5000 copies) - 1996
The Shirley Temple Scrap Book: A Book of Memories - Signed Limited Edition - 2002
The Films of Shirley Temple by Robert Windeler - 2014
(This page contains affiliate links for which we may be compensated.)
Shirley Temple biography
Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, California. She was the daughter of Gertrude Amelia Temple (née Krieger), a homemaker, and George Francis Temple, a bank employee. The family was of English, German and Dutch ancestry. She had two brothers, George Francis, Jr. and John Stanley. Temple's mother encouraged her infant daughter's singing, dancing, and acting talents, and in September 1931 enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles. About this time, Temple's mother began styling her daughter's hair in ringlets similar to those of silent film star Mary Pickford.While at Meglin's, she was spotted by Charles Lamont, a casting director for Educational Pictures. Although Shirley hid behind the piano while in the studio, Lamont took a shine to her, inviting her to audition, and in 1932 signed her to a contract. Educational Pictures were about to launch their Baby Burlesks, series of short films satirizing recent film and political events, using pre-school children in every role. Because the children were dressed as adults and given mature dialogue the series was eventually seen as dated and exploitive.
Baby Burlesks was a series of one-reelers; another series of two-reelers called Frolics of Youth followed, with Temple playing Mary Lou Rogers, a youngster in a contemporary suburban family. To underwrite production costs at Educational, Temple and her child co-stars modeled for breakfast cereals and other products. She was lent to Tower Productions for a small role in her first feature film (The Red-Haired Alibi) in 1932 and, in 1933, to Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros., for various bit parts. After Educational Pictures declared bankruptcy in 1933, her father purchased her contract for $25.
Movies
It was while walking out of the viewing of her last Frolics of Youth picture that Fox Film songwriter Jay Gorney saw Temple dancing in the movie theater lobby. Recognizing her from the screen, he arranged for her to have a tryout for the movie Stand Up and Cheer!. Arriving for the audition on December 7, 1933, she won the part and was signed to a $150/week contract guaranteed for two weeks by the Fox Film Corporation. The role turned out to be a breakthrough performance for her. Her charm was evident to Fox heads, as she was ushered into corporate offices almost immediately after the completion of the Baby Take a Bow song and dance number she did with James Dunn. On December 21, 1933, her contract was extended to a year at the same $150/week with a seven year option and her mother Gertrude was hired on at $25/week as her hairdresser and personal coach. Released in May 1934, Stand Up and Cheer! became Temple's breakthrough film. Within months, she became the symbol of wholesome family entertainment. In June, her success continued with a loan-out to Paramount for Little Miss Marker.
Following the success of her first three 1934 movies, it soon became apparent to the Temples that the amount of money she was being paid was not commensurate to the amount of money her films generated for the studios. Her image also started to appear on numerous commercial products without approval and without compensation. In an effort to get control over the corporate piracy of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired the lawyer Loyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, Temple's contract was raised to $1,000 a week and her mother's salary was raised to $250 a week, with an additional $15,000 bonus for each movie completed. Cease and desist letters were sent out to several companies and the process was started for awarding corporate licenses.
On December 28, 1934, Bright Eyes was released. It was the first feature film crafted specifically for Temple's talents and the first in which her name appeared above the title. Her signature song, "On the Good Ship Lollipop", was introduced in the film and sold 500,000 sheet music copies. The film demonstrated Temple's ability to portray a multi-dimensional character and established a formula for her future roles as a lovable, parentless waif whose charm and sweetness mellow gruff older men. In February 1935, Temple became the first child star to be honored with a miniature Juvenile Oscar for her 1934 film accomplishments, and she added her foot- and handprints to the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre a month later.
Following the success of her first three 1934 movies, it soon became apparent to the Temples that the amount of money she was being paid was not commensurate to the amount of money her films generated for the studios. Her image also started to appear on numerous commercial products without approval and without compensation. In an effort to get control over the corporate piracy of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired the lawyer Loyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, Temple's contract was raised to $1,000 a week and her mother's salary was raised to $250 a week, with an additional $15,000 bonus for each movie completed. Cease and desist letters were sent out to several companies and the process was started for awarding corporate licenses.
On December 28, 1934, Bright Eyes was released. It was the first feature film crafted specifically for Temple's talents and the first in which her name appeared above the title. Her signature song, "On the Good Ship Lollipop", was introduced in the film and sold 500,000 sheet music copies. The film demonstrated Temple's ability to portray a multi-dimensional character and established a formula for her future roles as a lovable, parentless waif whose charm and sweetness mellow gruff older men. In February 1935, Temple became the first child star to be honored with a miniature Juvenile Oscar for her 1934 film accomplishments, and she added her foot- and handprints to the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre a month later.
20th Century Fox
Fox Films merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to become 20th Century Fox in 1935. Producer and studio head Darryl F. Zanuck focused his attention and resources upon cultivating Temple's superstar status. With four successful films to her credit, she was the studio's greatest asset. Nineteen writers known as the Shirley Temple Story Development team created 11 original stories and some adaptations of the classics for her.Biographer Anne Edwards writes about the tone and tenor of Temple films under Zanuck, "This was mid-Depression, and schemes proliferated for the care of the needy and the regeneration of the fallen. But they all required endless paperwork and demeaning, hours-long queues, at the end of which an exhausted, nettled social worker dealt with each person as a faceless number. Shirley offered a natural solution: to open one's heart." Edwards points out that the characters created for Temple would change the lives of the cold, the hardened, and even the criminal with positive results. Edwards quotes a nameless filmographer: "She assaults, penetrates, and opens [the flinty characters] making it possible for them to give of themselves. All of this returns upon her at times forcing her into situations where she must decide who needs her most. It is her agony, her Calvary, and it brings her to her most despairing moments ... Shirley's capacity for love ... was indiscriminate, extending to pinched misers or to common hobos, it was a social, even a political, force on a par with democracy or the Constitution." Temple films were seen as generating hope and optimism, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "It is a splendid thing that for just fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles."
Most films Temple starred in were cheaply made at $200,000 or $300,000 per picture and were comedy-dramas with songs and dances added, sentimental and melodramatic situations aplenty, and little in the way of production values. Her film titles are a clue to the way she was marketed Curly Top and Dimples, and her "little" pictures such as The Little Colonel and The Littlest Rebel. Temple often played a fixer-upper, a precocious Cupid, or the good fairy in these films, reuniting her estranged parents or smoothing out the wrinkles in the romances of young couples. She was very often motherless, sometimes fatherless, and sometimes an orphan confined to a dreary asylum. Elements of the traditional fairy tale were woven into her films: wholesome goodness triumphing over meanness and evil, for example, or wealth over poverty, marriage over divorce, or a booming economy over a depressed one. As Temple matured into a pre-adolescent, the formula was altered slightly to encourage her naturalness, naïveté, and tomboyishness to come forth and shine while her infant innocence, which had served her well at six but was inappropriate for her tweens (or later childhood years), was toned down.
1935–1937
In the contract they signed in July 1934, Temple's parents agreed to four films a year from their daughter (rather than the three they wished). A succession of films followed: The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top (with the signature song "Animal Crackers in My Soup"), and The Littlest Rebel in 1935. Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel were named to Variety's list of top box office draws for 1935. In 1936, Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples, and Stowaway were released. Curly Top was Temple's last film before the merger of 20th Century and Fox.Based on Temple's many screen successes, Zanuck increased budgets and production values for her films. By the end of 1935, Temple's salary was raised to $2,500 a week. In 1937, John Ford was hired to direct the sepia-toned Wee Willie Winkie (Temple's own favorite) and an A-list cast was signed that included Victor McLaglen, C. Aubrey Smith and Cesar Romero. Elaborate sets were built at the famed Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., for the production, with a rock feature at the heavily filmed location ranch eventually being named in honor of Temple and becoming known as Shirley Temple Rock.
The film was a critical and commercial hit. but British writer and critic Graham Greene muddied the waters in October 1937 when he wrote in a British magazine that Temple was a "complete totsy" and accused her of being too nubile for a nine-year-old:
Her admirers were middle-aged men and clergymen who respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire.
Temple and Twentieth Century-Fox sued for libel and won. The settlement remained in trust for Temple in an English bank until she turned twenty-one, when it was donated to charity and used to build a youth center in England.
The only other Temple film released in 1937 was Heidi. Midway through the shooting of the movie, the dream sequence was added into the script. There were reports that Temple was behind the dream sequence and that she was enthusiastically pushing for it but in her autobiography she vehemently denied this. Her contract gave neither her or her parents any creative control over the movies she was in. She saw this as the collapse of any serious attempt by the studio to build upon the dramatic role from the previous movie Wee Willie Winkie.
1938–1940
In 1938, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Broadway, and Just Around the Corner were released. The latter two were panned by the critics, and Corner was the first Temple film to show a slump in ticket sales. The following year, Zanuck secured the rights to the children's novel, A Little Princess, believing the book would be an ideal vehicle for Temple. He budgeted the film at $1.5 million (twice the amount of Corner) and chose it to be her first Technicolor feature. The Little Princess was a 1939 critical and commercial success with Temple's acting at its peak. Convinced Temple would successfully move from child star to teenage actress, Zanuck declined a substantial offer from MGM to star Temple as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and cast her instead in Susannah of the Mounties, her last money-maker for Twentieth Century-Fox. The film was lackluster and dropped Temple from number one box-office favorite in 1938 to number five in 1939.In 1940, Temple starred in two consecutive flops at Twentieth Century-Fox, The Blue Bird and Young People, which was so weak it was often billed as the second feature in many theaters. It was obvious the child star's career was finished. Temple's parents bought up the remainder of her contract and sent her at the age of 12 to Westlake School for Girls, an exclusive country day school in Los Angeles. At the studio, Temple's bungalow was renovated, all traces of her tenure expunged, and the building reassigned as an office complex.
1941–1950: Final films and retirement
After leaving 20th Century-Fox, Temple signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . However, following a disagreement with MGM producer Arthur Freed, they ended their contract before any films were produced. The next idea was teaming Temple with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland for the musical Babes on Broadway. Fearing that either of those two could easily upstage Temple, MGM replaced her with Virginia Weidler. As a result, Temple's only film for MGM was the unsuccessful film Kathleen, released in December 1941. Miss Annie Rooney (1942) distributed by United Artists, was also unsuccessful. The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) starring Cary Grant and Fort Apache (1948) starring John Wayne and Henry Fonda were two of her few hit films in the 1940s. Her then-husband John Agar also appeared in Fort Apache. She and future U.S. president Ronald Reagan were both in That Hagen Girl (1947). Temple formally announced her retirement from films in 1950.Television
Between January and December 1958 Temple hosted and narrated a successful NBC television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations called Shirley Temple's Storybook. Temple acted in three of the sixteen hour-long episodes, and her children made their acting debuts in the Christmas episode, "Mother Goose". The series was popular but faced some problems. The show lacked the special effects necessary for fairy tale dramatizations, sets were amateurish, and episodes were telecast in no regular time-slot, making it difficult to generate a following. The show was reworked and released in color in September 1960 in a regular time-slot as The Shirley Temple Show (also known as Shirley Temple Theater). It faced stiff competition from a popular western and a Disney program however, and was cancelled at season's end in September 1961.Temple continued to work on television, making guest appearances on The Red Skelton Show, Sing Along with Mitch, and other shows. In January 1965, she portrayed a social worker in a sitcom pilot called Go Fight City Hall that was never released. In 1999, she hosted the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars awards show on CBS, and, in 2001, served as a consultant on an ABC-TV production of her autobiography, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.
Motivated by the popularity of Storybook and television broadcasts of Temple's films, the Ideal Toy Company released a new version of the Shirley Temple doll and Random House published three fairy tale anthologies under Temple's name. Three hundred thousand dolls were sold within six months and 225,000 books between October and December 1958. Other merchandise included handbags and hats, coloring books, a toy theater, and a recreation of the Baby, Take a Bow polka-dot dress.
Marriages and children
In 1943, Temple met John George Agar (1921–2002), an Army Air Corps sergeant, physical training instructor, and scion of a Chicago meat-packing family. On September 19, 1945, they were married before 500 guests in an Episcopal ceremony at Wilshire Methodist Church. On January 30, 1948, Temple gave birth to their daughter, Linda Susan. Agar became a professional actor and the couple made two films together: Fort Apache (1948, RKO) and Adventure in Baltimore (1949, RKO). The marriage became troubled, and Temple divorced Agar on December 5, 1949. She received custody of their daughter and the restoration of her maiden name. The divorce was finalized on December 5, 1950.In January 1950, Temple met Charles Alden Black, a WWII United States Navy Silver Star hero and Assistant to the President of Hawaiian Pineapple. Conservative and patrician, he was the son of James B. Black, the president and later chairman of Pacific Gas and Electric, and reputedly one of the richest young men in California. Temple and Black were married in his parents' Del Monte, California home on December 16, 1950, before a small assembly of family and friends.
The family relocated to Washington, D.C. when Black was recalled to the Navy at the outbreak of the Korean War. Temple gave birth to their son, Charles Alden Black, Jr., in Washington, D.C. on April 28, 1952. Following war's end and Black's discharge from the Navy, the family returned to California in May 1953. Black managed television station KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and Temple became a homemaker. Their daughter Lori was born on April 9, 1954. In September 1954, Black became director of business operations for the Stanford Research Institute and the family moved to Atherton, California. The couple remained married until his death on August 4, 2005, at home in Woodside, California of complications from a bone marrow disease.
Death
Shirley Temple died on February 10, 2014, at the
age of 85. She was at her home in Woodside, California, surrounded by
family and caregivers. Her family stated only that she died of natural
causes. The specific cause, according to her death certificate released
on March 3, 2014, was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. A lifelong
smoker, she avoided revealing her habit in public to avoid setting a bad
example for her fans. She is survived by her three children, as well as
a granddaughter and two great-grandchildren. Politics
Following her venture into television, Temple became active in the Republican Party in California, where, in 1967, she ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in a special election to fill a vacant seat. She ran as a conservative and lost to liberal Republican Pete McCloskey, a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War.Breast cancer
In the autumn of 1972, Temple was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumor was malignant and removed, and a modified radical mastectomy performed. Following the operation, she announced it to the world via radio, television, and a February 1973 article for the magazine McCall's. In doing so, she became one of the first prominent women to speak openly about breast cancer.International activities and ambassadorships
Temple was appointed Representative to the 24th General Assembly of the United Nations by President Richard M. Nixon (September - December 1969), and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana (December 6, 1974 – July 13, 1976) by President Gerald R. Ford. She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the United States (July 1, 1976 – January 21, 1977), and was in charge of arrangements for President Jimmy Carter's inauguration and inaugural ball. She was appointed by President George H. W. Bush as United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992).Corporation commitments
Temple has served on numerous boards of directors of large enterprises and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte, Bank of America, the Bank of California, BANCAL Tri-State, Fireman's Fund Insurance, the United States Commission for UNESCO, the United Nations Association, and the National Wildlife Federation.Shirley Temple drink
The Shirley Temple drink is typically a combination of ginger ale or lemon-lime soda, grenadine syrup, and a maraschino cherry as a garnish. It's a sweet and fruity drink that has been a popular choice for children and non-drinkers.Shirley Temple recipe
Ingredients:
1/2 cup ginger ale or lemon-lime soda (Sprite or 7UP)
1/2 cup lemon-lime flavored soda (such as Sprite or 7UP)
1 to 2 tablespoons grenadine syrup
Ice cubes
Maraschino cherry for garnish
1/2 cup ginger ale or lemon-lime soda (Sprite or 7UP)
1/2 cup lemon-lime flavored soda (such as Sprite or 7UP)
1 to 2 tablespoons grenadine syrup
Ice cubes
Maraschino cherry for garnish
Instructions:
Fill a glass with ice cubes.
Pour the ginger ale or lemon-lime soda over the ice.
Add the lemon-lime flavored soda to the glass.
Pour in the grenadine syrup. The amount can be adjusted according to your taste preferences. Start with 1 tablespoon and add more if you prefer a sweeter drink.
Gently stir the ingredients to mix the flavors. Be careful not to let the carbonation fizz over.
Garnish the drink with a maraschino cherry.
Optionally, you can also add a slice of orange or a twist of lemon for extra flavor.
Serve and enjoy your refreshing Shirley Temple drink!
Serve and enjoy your refreshing Shirley Temple drink!