Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in 1934; her birth year was advanced from 1928 to 1929. Even her baby book was revised to support the 1929 date. She confirmed her true age when she was 21 (Burdick 5; Edwards 23''n'', 43''n''). April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was an American actress, singer, dancer, and diplomat who was Hollywood's number one box-office draw as a child actress from 1934 to 1938. Later, she was named United States ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia, and also served as Chief of Protocol of the United States.

Temple began her film career at the age of three in 1931. Two years later, she achieved international fame in '' Bright Eyes'', a feature film produced specially for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935 for her outstanding contribution as a juvenile performer in motion pictures during 1934. Film hits such as '' Curly Top'' and '' Heidi'' followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Temple capitalized on licensed merchandise that featured her wholesome image; the merchandise included dolls, dishes, and clothing. Her box-office popularity waned as she reached adolescence. She appeared in 29 films from the ages of 3 to 10 but in only 14 films from the ages of 14 to 21. Temple retired from film in 1950 at the age of 22.Windeler 26

In 1958, Temple returned to show business with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations. She made guest appearances on television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released. She sat on the boards of corporations and organizations, including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, and the National Wildlife Federation.

She began her diplomatic career in 1969, when she was appointed to represent the United States at a session of the United Nations General Assembly, where she worked at the U.S. Mission under Ambassador Charles W. Yost. In 1988, she published her autobiography, ''Child Star''.

Temple was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. She is 18th on the American Film Institute's list of the greatest female American screen legends of classic Hollywood cinema.

Early years

Shirley Jane Temple was born on April 23, 1928, at Santa Monica Hospital (now UCLA Medical Center) in Santa Monica, California, the third child of homemaker Gertrude Temple and bank employee George Temple. The family was of Dutch, English, and German ancestry.Windeler 16 She had two brothers: John and George, Jr. The family moved to Brentwood, Los Angeles.

Her mother encouraged her to develop her singing, dancing, and acting talents, and in September 1931 enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles.Burdick 6 At about this time, Shirley's mother began styling her daughter's hair in ringlets.Edwards 26

While at the dance school, she was spotted by Charles Lamont, who was a casting director for Educational Pictures. Temple hid behind the piano while she was in the studio. Lamont took a liking to Temple, and invited her to audition; he signed her to a contract in 1932. Educational Pictures launched its '' Baby Burlesks'',Windeler 111 10-minute comedy shorts satirizing recent films and events, using preschool children in every role. ''Glad Rags to Riches'' was a parody of the Mae West feature ''She Done Him Wrong'', with Shirley as a saloon singer. ''Kid 'n' Africa'' had Shirley imperiled in the jungle. ''The Runt Page'' was a pastiche of '' The Front Page''. The juvenile cast delivered their lines as best they could, with the younger players reciting phonetically.

Temple became the breakout star of this series, and Educational promoted her to 20-minute comedies. These were in the ''Frolics of Youth'' series with Frank Coghlan Jr.; Temple played Mary Lou Rogers, the baby sister in a contemporary suburban family. To underwrite production costs at Educational Pictures, she 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. Pictures for various parts including an uncredited role as a child whose doll's head is shot off right in front of her in '' To the Last Man'' (1933) starring Randolph Scott and Esther Ralston.

Film career

Fox Film songwriter Jay Gorney was walking out of the viewing of Temple's last ''Frolics of Youth'' picture when he saw her dancing in the movie theater lobby. Recognizing her from the screen, he arranged for her to have a screen test for the movie '' Stand Up and Cheer!'' Temple arrived for the audition on December 7, 1933; she won the part and was signed to a $150-per-week contract that was guaranteed for two weeks by Fox Film Corporation. The role was a breakthrough performance for Temple. Her charm was evident to Fox executives, and she was ushered into corporate offices almost immediately after finishing "Baby, Take a Bow", a song-and-dance number she performed with James Dunn.

Roles

Most of the Shirley Temple films were inexpensively made at $200,000 or $300,000 apiece and were comedy dramas with songs and dances added, sentimental and melodramatic situations, with few 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''. Shirley 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.Balio 227–228 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 the girl 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.

Biographer John Kasson argues:

Biographer Anne Edwards wrote about the tone and tenor of Shirley Temple films:

Edwards pointed out that the characters created for Temple would change the lives of the cold, the hardened, and the criminal with positive results. Her 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."Shirley and her parents traveled to Washington, D.C. late in 1935 to meet Roosevelt and his wife Eleanor. The presidential couple invited the Temple family to a cook-out at their home, where Eleanor, bending over an outdoor grill, was hit smartly in the rear with a pebble from the slingshot that Shirley carried everywhere in her little lace purse (Edwards 81).

Finances

On December 21, 1933, her contract was extended to a year at the same $150 per week () with a seven-year option, and her mother Gertrude was hired at $25 per week as her hairdresser and personal coach. Released in May 1934, '' Stand Up and Cheer!'' became Shirley's breakthrough film. She performed in a short skit in the film alongside popular Fox star James Dunn, singing and tap dancing. The skit was the highlight of the film, and Fox executives rushed her into another film with Dunn, '' Baby Take a Bow'' (named after their song in ''Stand Up and Cheer!''). Shirley's third film, also with Dunn, was '' Bright Eyes'', a vehicle written especially for her.

After the success of her first three films, Shirley's parents realized that their daughter was not being paid enough money. Her image also began to appear on numerous commercial products without her legal authorization and without compensation. To get control over the corporate unlicensed use of her image and to negotiate with Fox, Temple's parents hired lawyer Lloyd Wright to represent them. On July 18, 1934, the contractual salary was raised to $1,000 per week; meanwhile, her mother's salary was raised to $250 per week, with an additional $15,000 bonus for each movie finished. Temple's original contract for $150 per week is equivalent to $2,960 in 2019, adjusted for inflation; however, the economic value of $150 during the Great Depression was equal to around $18,500 in 2019 money due to the punishing effects of deflation—six times higher than a surface-level conversion. The subsequent salary increase to $1,000 weekly had the economic value of $123,000 in 2019 money, and the bonus of $15,000 per movie (equal to $296,000 in 2019) had the purchasing power of $1.85 million (in 2019 money) in a decade when a quarter could buy a meal. Cease and desist letters were sent out to many companies and the process was begun for awarding corporate licenses.

On December 28, 1934, ''Bright Eyes'' was released. The movie was the first feature film crafted specifically for Temple's talents and the first where her name appeared over the title. Her signature song, " On the Good Ship Lollipop", was introduced in the film and sold 500,000 sheet-music copies. In February 1935, Temple became the first child star to be honored with a miniature Juvenile Oscar for her film accomplishments,Temple was presented with a full-sized Oscar in 1985 (Edwards 357). and she added her footprints and handprints to the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre a month later.

Superstar

In 1935, Fox Films merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to become 20th Century-Fox. Producer and studio head Darryl F. Zanuck focused his attention and resources upon cultivating Shirley's superstar status. She was said to be the studio's greatest asset. Nineteen writers, known as the Shirley Temple Story Development team, made 11 original stories and some adaptations of the classics for her.

In keeping with her star status, Winfield Sheehan built Temple a four-room bungalow at the studio with a garden, a picket fence, a tree with a swing, and a rabbit pen. The living room wall was painted with a mural depicting her as a fairy-tale princess wearing a golden star on her head. Under Zanuck, she was assigned a bodyguard, John Griffith, a childhood friend of Zanuck's, and, at the end of 1935, Frances "Klammie" Klampt became her tutor at the studio.

1935–1937

In the contract they signed in July 1934, Temple's parents agreed to four films a year (rather than the three they wished). A succession of films followed: '' Now and Forever'' starring Gary Cooper and Carole Lombard (Temple was billed third with her name above the title beneath Cooper's and Lombard's), '' 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'' was Temple's last film before the merger between 20th Century Pictures, Inc. and the Fox Film Corporation. Both ''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'',In ''Dimples'', Temple was upstaged for the first time in her film career by Frank Morgan, who played Professor Appleby with such zest as to render the child actress almost the amateur (Windeler 175). and ''Stowaway'' were released.

Based on Temple's success, Zanuck increased budgets and production values for her films. By the end of 1935, her salary was $2,500 per 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, which included Victor McLaglen, C. Aubrey Smith and Cesar Romero.Windeler 183 Elaborate sets were built for the production at the famed Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, Calif., with a rock feature at the heavily filmed location ranch eventually being named Shirley Temple Rock. The film was a critical and commercial hit.

Temple's parents and Twentieth Century-Fox sued British writer/critic Graham Greene for libel and won. The settlement remained in trust for the girl in an English bank until she turned 21, when it was donated to charity and used to build a youth center in England.Edwards 106

'' Heidi'' was the only other Temple film released in 1937. Midway through shooting of the movie, the dream sequence was added to the script. There were reports that Temple herself was behind the dream sequence and she had enthusiastically pushed for it, but in her autobiography she vehemently denied this. Her contract gave neither her nor her parents any creative control over her movies. She saw this as Zanuck's refusal to make any serious attempt at building upon the success of her dramatic role in ''Wee Willie Winkie''.

One of the many examples of how Temple was permeating popular culture at the time is the references to her in the 1937 film ''Stand-In'': newly minted film studio honcho Atterbury Dodd (played by Leslie Howard) has never heard of Temple, much to the shock and disbelief of former child star Lester Plum (played by Joan Blondell), who describes herself as "the Shirley Temple of my day", and performs " On the Good Ship Lollipop" for him.

1938–1940

The Independent Theatre Owners Association paid for an advertisement in ''The Hollywood Reporter'' in May 1938 that included Temple on a list of actors who deserved their salaries while others' (including Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford) "box-office draw is nil".

That year, ''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 of her films 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 the girl. 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 Shirley's acting at its peak.

Convinced that the girl would successfully move from child star to teenage actress, Zanuck declined a substantial offer from MGM to star her 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 successful, but because she made only two films in 1939, instead of three or four, Shirley dropped from number one box-office favorite in 1938 to number five in 1939.

In 1939, she was the subject of the Salvador Dalí painting ''Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time

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