Our Golden Age Star is truly a Golden Star. Shirley rocketed to fame at age 4 and unlike most child stars whose fame had an expiration dates like milk Shirley lives on forever in film and in our hearts. Many factors contribute I suspect to that fact, talent being the number one ingredient and like Gary Cooper once said no one rises to stardom without the help of a person of influence and that man was David O. Selznick who guided her successfully from age 4 until age 21. Of course Shirley’s ambitious mother Gertrude played a huge role in gaining the exposure Shirley needed to land her the first movie contract but her Mom never impeded Shirley’s success but also kept a watchful eye on her daughter’s global stardom. Her father George as if by serendipity a bank employee became her financial advisor. However what I think was the number one factor the real key to Shirley’s longevity was that everyone that worked with her or knew her loved her. Stars like Gary Cooper, Cary Grant and Bill Robinson (Mr. Bo jangles) were never threatened by her stardom because she was genuinely humble, naturally charming on screen and off and one of the most charitable Hollywood stars of any age.
Shirley born in Santa Monica California on April 23, 1928 got her start at just 3 years old in movie shorts called “Baby Burlesques” and her Mother Gertrude spotting her natural flair for dancing enrolled her in dance lessons at 3 ½. These two factors the low budget films and dance classes landed her a contract with Fox Film at age 6. Her first celluloid was the smash hit Little Miss Marker in 1934 costarring Adolphe Menjou that began her 4 year meteoric reign as the top box office draw for the Studio. Next came maybe one of her most famous musical numbers in Bright Eyes wherein she performed The Good Ship Lollipop. This tune is timeless. Her parents hoped she would do just 3 films a year but relented to 4 and we are so glad they did because in 1935 The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel followed wherein we witnessed her spectacular dance number with Bill Robinson. Eye popping for it’s time a little white girl dancing with a black man but audiences embraced it with a fervor that was unparalleled for that time in history. Her friendship with Bill lasted until his death in 1949.
One of this writer’s favorite came in 1937 Heidi. Most of you know the story. The grandfather played by Jean Hersholt a curmudgeonly old man hated by the town is transformed by the magic of his granddaughter who is thrust upon him unceremoniously by the wicked Aunt Dete played perfectly by Mady Christians. Ripped apart and happily reunited this film had all the makings of a classic that proved to be the exclamation point on a childhood stardom that will last from here until eternity.
As her childhood slipped away so did the roles being offered to Shirley however one that still stands out is the 1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer where she starred with the aforementioned Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. When roles she tried for were being offered to other stars Shirley knew the handwriting was on the wall and she bowed out gracefully. Her personal life featured two marriages one unsuccessful to John Agar who she starred in one film Fort Apache in 1948 with John Wayne and Henry Fonda. Her second time around found longevity and happiness followed for more than a half-century to Charles Black. Mr. Black recounted had the surf not been flat that day he might not have met Shirley. Instead he went to that cocktail party and that’s when he met Shirley Temple still just 22 he was 31 at the time. A veteran of WWII living in Honolulu at the time and son of the president of Pacific Gas and Electric he was in the eyes of the World the man who married Shirley Temple. That mattered little to Charles he had met the love of his life and their offspring Charles Black Jr. said of his parents they never spent more than a couple nights apart from each other in the nearly 55 years they were married until Charles’ death in 2005 to a bone disease.
Shirley made guest appearances albeit grudgingly from time to time more for her fans than for herself. She had some bouts with cancer and Robert Osborne who met her in the 1990’s was surprised that she still continued to smoke cigarettes. The fact that she smoked at all he felt was incongruous to her pristine life and not to mention deleterious to her health.
She ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for congress in 1967 and Shirley the diplomat’s career began in 1969 when she represented the U.S. for the General Assembly of the United Nations. Next she was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Ghana from December 1974 until July of 1976, then for Czechoslovakia in 1989-92. Appointed to many Board of Directors concurrently after that but that’s just boring filler Shirley Temple our Star for October was one of a kind and when her light went out on February 10, 2014 at age 85 it was as if Luna Park went dark.
