Anthony Quinn

Our Golden Age star for June was one of those once in a lifetime icons that Robert Osborne called the most animated stars he ever met and later became friends with. He met A.Q. in 1999 in the series produced by TCM called Private Screenings and as he walked in the room as the cameras began to roll with his wide smile, bursting exuberance, and wild vivacity he recounted stories about his life and the people he met and worked with. It gave Osborne a real sense of the actor’s true charisma and as he called it whiz-bang personality that helped emblazon Quinn’s stardom during his tenure on the Silver Screen. Osborne adding his own exclamation point nicknamed him Tony the Tornado. 

 Anthony Rodolfo Quinn Oaxaca was born in Chihuahua, Mexico to an immigrant father from Cork Ireland and mother a native of Mexico this extraordinary talent would become one of the most versatile actors Hollywood would ever produce. Shortly after his birth his family settled in Los Angeles it was there young Anthony attended Catholic School and as early as age 6 he considered the Priesthood but when he was 9 his father had died and Anthony had to grow up fast taking odd jobs to support his family. Maybe unknown to we readers that in High School he won an architecture competition and was mentored by Frank Lloyd Wright who urged Quinn to enroll in acting school with the intention to hone his speaking quality for what would be on his future horizon. 

 They year 1936 saw his opportunity arrive as he starred with Mae West in his first movie Clean Beds and then Parole. This film was pivotal because it typecast him as the ethnic guy with the bad attitude. In that same year he played a menacing Cheyenne Indian opposite Gary Cooper in The Plainsman and then a more sympathetic one as Crazy Horse in They Died With Their Boots On opposite Errol Flynn. By the year 1947 Anthony Quinn appeared as a Hawaiian Chief, Filipino freedom fighter, an Arab sheik, Chinese guerilla, Mafia don, and even more Indians but it was this great versatility that yielded A.Q. his 2 Oscar wins. 

Some of his best work began in 1952 alongside Marlon Brando in Viva Zapata! For which he won best actor in a supporting role. He received that same award alongside Kirk Douglas in 1956’s Lust for Life and again that same year he won the Foreign Language Film Oscar in Fellini’s LaStrada.  The Best Actor nod nomination for Wild is the Wind in 1957 and maybe his best known film Zorba the Greek in 1964 and he achieved boffo box office success with Gregory Peck and David Niven in The Guns of Navarone in 1961 and Lawrence of Arabia with Peter O’Toole in 1962. Quinn had been a professional boxer earlier in his life and that might have helped in when he played as has been pugilist opposite Jackie Gleason as his manager and Mickey Rooney in the highly acclaimed Requiem for a Heavyweight. Six years later he found himself playing the Pontiff in Shoes of the Fisherman opposite the legendary Laurence Olivier. As one might observe Anthony Quinn many times played secondary roles but at times outshined the headliner and broke the mold for other character actors that followed.  

Quinn’s versatility extended to the stage as well. In 1947 he appeared in a Broadway production The Gentleman From Athens. He also took the replacement role of Stanley Kowalski, a Brando favorite in A Streetcar Named Desire and later in 1950 Borned in Texas, then Becket in 1960 and then Tony nominated for Tchin-Tchin in 1962.  

Did you know that A.Q.’s first wife was the daughter of famed director Cecille B. DeMille? Or that when John Barrymore needed a blood transfusion Quinn was there for his old friend? 

A.Q might have been known as Jack the Lad as well because he was married 3 times with multiple mistresses. He sired 13 children with his wives and mistresses and was accused of abuse by his second wife Yolanda that he disputed. He died of respiratory failure in Boston in 2001 he was 

Robert Mitchum

Robert Mitchum

Robert Osborne one of the nation’s best interviewers said of Mitchum when he interviewed him back in 2011 that he was a scoundrel. Before the mikes were turned on he was loquacious and charming but when the cameras began to roll Bob wouldn’t give a straight answer to any of Osborne’s simple queries. That was his style throughout his career and whenever he was interviewed he would become rhetorical rather than answer his interviewer and filled the content with hilarity and often vulgarity.  Our star for May never got caught up in his celebrity though in fact he reflected on it so casually and would say: “It sure beats working”. 

Born August 6, 1917 in Bridgeport Connecticut Mitchum would make over a 100 movies and what Hollywood studios and directors loved about him was that he would play anything from homicidal villains, heroic GI’s, flinty Private Eyes or the black hat in Hopalong Cassidy movies. Born to a railroad worker James Mitchum of Irish descent and daughter to a Norwegian ship captain Anne Harriet. Robert lost his father at age 2 to a railroad switching accident and his mother Anne became a linotype operator to support her 3 children. 

Leaving school at 14 Robert hopped freight trains around the country and made money as a laborer, a coal miner, aircraft assembler, even a boxer. He had many run-ins with the law, which gave him a lifelong repugnance to authority. Later in life he would face almost two months in jail on trumped up marijuana charges, which were later expunged. However marijuana had little to do with the deteriorating quality of life Robert Mitchum would later suffer from, as it was the chain smoking and alcoholic drinking that would distort his physiology and good looks even though he lived until he was 79.

Arriving in Long Beach California in 1936 with his sister he joined a local theater guild began as a ghost writer for an astrologer, worked as a stagehand then started acting as a bit player in some of the theater productions. He started writing poetry, songs and monologues for his sister Annette who was performing in nightclubs at the time.  Mitchum’s hiatus ensued as he returned to Maryland to marry his betrothed Dorothy Spence an enduring marriage until his death he sired 3 children with Dorothy and for a time worked as a machine operator with Lockheed. 

Mitchum would suffer a nervous breakdown precipitating a temporary blindness most likely from stress but after his recovery he would return to Hollywood as a villain opposite William Boyd Hopalong Cassidy in 1942-43. He then performed in a film opposite Randolph Scott in 1943 titled Gung Ho about war in the Pacific. Later he impressed Mervyn LeRoy in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and signed a seven-year contract with RKO. He followed with a moderately successful western Nevada but then was sent to United Artists for the critically acclaimed G.I. Joe in 1945 which was nominated for four Oscars including best supporting actor for Mitchum. He was then drafted and stayed in the army for less than a year and upon his return in 1947 he began to hit his stride with one hit after another starting with the iconic Film Noir Out of the Past costarring the now centenarian Kirk Douglas. It was early in 1948 when he was arrested on the much publicized marijuana charges along with actress Lila Leeds. The press had a field day taking pictures of him mopping floors in prison and the arrest only served to make Mitchum more popular than ever as his films afterward were box office hits. As was mentioned earlier the charge was a setup by the District Attorney’s office trying to entrap Hollywood actors. 

 Mitchum could play the white hat but would always return to Film Noir as some of his best film work rested there but it was his demonic portrayal of a preacher in 1955’s Night of the Hunter, which won him his biggest critical acclaim. Interestingly enough it was the only film that Charles Laughton directed. That same year Mitchum was thrown off the movie Blood Alley as it was reported he threw the transportation director into San Francisco Bay but it was most likely his erratic behavior that ended his role on that film. 

One of this writers favorite however I enjoyed as a youth was with Deborah Kerr in 1957’s Heaven Knows Mister Allison wherein he as a Marine corporal is shipwrecked on a Pacific island with a nun, Kerr. it was a riveting drama as the two battle the elements and an invading Japanese Army. The film nominated for two Academy Awards including best actress for Kerr and Mitchum was nominated for a BAFTA for his portrayal.   

Showing his versatility in 1960 Robert was reunited with Kerr in The Sundowners this time as husband and wife struggling in a depression era Australia. Kerr nominated again for best actress and the film for five Oscars. Mitchum won the National Board of Review for best Actor. In 1962 he returned to the predator role in Cape Fear opposite the iconic Gregory Peck. Rounding out his career he appeared in The Longest Day 1962, El Dorado 1967 and Anzio 1968.

Maybe you didn’t know that Robert Mitchum was both a composer and singer.  His voice can be heard in Rachel and the Stranger, River of No Return and The Night of the Hunter. He released an album on Capitol Records and his The Ballad of Thunder Road reached 62 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart. In 1991 Mitchum appeared on Saturday Night Live playing a parody of private eye Philip Marlowe in a short comedy sketch. That same year he was given a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures and the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1992. Mitchum died weeks short of his 80th birthday complications of lung cancer and emphysema he was survived by his wife of 57 years Dorothy.  Robert Mitchum The Soul of Film Noir as Roger Ebert referred to him as. 

Thelma Todd

A decided departure for April’s Star of the Month but nonetheless a huge talent our feature was an underrated comedic screen pioneer whether she was paired with Zasu Pitts or Patsy Kelly or as a stand alone star when featured in film’s like Horse Feathers in 1932 that starred Titans like The Marx Brothers, Thelma Todd was a stunning blonde that kept her audiences in stitches with her captivating countenance, raw talent and pinpoint comic timing.  Her life cut short however under mysterious circumstances at age 29 remain unsolved to this day. We will explore that conundrum later. 

She was born in Lawrence Massachusetts in 1906 and was a gifted student and that being the case her original intention was to be a teacher but fortunately for the world that didn’t last long.  Thelma found herself working part time as a fashion model, which led her to compete and won her the Title of Miss Massachusetts of 1925. She then competed for Miss America but lost but no matter a Hollywood talent agent discovered her and enrolled her in acting school in New York the following year and she began landing supporting roles in silent films like Fascinating Youth in 1926 and The Noose in 1928. Then Hal Roach recognized the opportunity to create a female version of Laurel and Hardy already in his stable pairing her first with Zasu Pitts (17 films) and then to even greater success with Patsy Kelly (21 films). 

Anxious to be taken as a serious actress Thelma changed her name and worked briefly as Alison Lloyd in a crime thriller under the direction of and later boyfriend with Roland West with the release of Corsair 1931.  Extending her dramatic side she played the lover of Ricardo Cortez assuming the character of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade in the original Maltese Falcon although it paled in comparison to the Humphrey Bogart edition released in 1941. Thelma Todd though was most at home in comedy and the perfect foil for the aforementioned Marx Brothers, Harold Lloyd, Jimmy Durante and Laurel and Hardy. Not to be outdone Thelma starred opposite A list actors Cary Grant in his first role This is the Night in 1932, a drama with John Barrymore Counselor at Law by William Wyler in 1933 and returning to comedy with Bing Crosby and Joan Bennett 1935’s Two for Tonight. 

Thelma made 119 films although most were shorts nearly all of them were hits and her lasting legacy will be a comedic genius whether as a duo or a solo she shined brightest among Hollywood’s finest comedian’s and held her own alongside the drama Kings and Queens of her day. The term screwball comedy probably originated with the likes of Thelma and her partners Pitts and Kelly and there were many more famous names to follow. Thelma Todd laid the groundwork for not only women comedians but for many of her male counterparts to follow as well.  The shorts she made with Patsy Kelly stand the test of time, as even today you’ll find yourself laughing throughout. These can be seen occasionally on TCM. 

Just before Christmas in 1935 Thelma was found outside her restaurant inside her car dead of an apparent accidental carbon monoxide poisoning. It was alleged she was warming up her car as the weather forecast was for a frosty morning that day in Los Angeles.  Conspiracy theories ran rampant soon afterward ranging from depression and suicide to money issues and murder and even extortion. The Grand Jury discovered that Thelma was bloodied about the mouth, which fueled the speculation that she had an altercation with ex-husband Pat DiCicco. They had physical abuse issues in their marriage.  Most disputed any notion that Thelma was depressed as she had just completed filming The Bohemian Girl and her restaurant Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café was drawing like gangbusters (no pun intended) and it was rumored the mob wanted in but Thelma and boyfriend Roland West didn’t want any part of them fleecing the Hollywood elite which also led some to believe had a hand in her demise. The underworld wanted Todd to turn her restaurant over to them and make it a gambling establishment. 

The medical examiner also found Thelma had cracked ribs, neck contusions, a broken nose, a chipped front tooth and partially digested food in her stomach. These facts alone would seem to rule out that Thelma was contemplating suicide and point more to her death was indeed a murder. The District Attorney at the time one Buron Fitts was rumored to be both corrupt and inept. If you’re interested in Thelma’s life there’s a few books out their Hot Toddy, which has mixed reviews and a more staid version The Ice Cream Blonde, and Testimony of a Death. 

Thelma Todd is not a name that might roll off your lips but The Ice Cream Blonde as a pioneer in comedy created a foundation that film historians like the late Robert Osborne took notice of and although she never got the recognition she deserved her comedic talents will be preserved forever

White Christmas Performed by The Kings Academy Players

Although it’s been years since I watched 1954’s Silver Screen version of White Christmas starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye when the last musical number concluded and we put our hands together in stunned appreciation for the High School company that just performed it for Debra and I, in my mind it could have rivaled any production stage or screen.  Maybe that’s overstating things a bit after all it was a High School production. But Ladies and Gentlemen what a production!

If these young adults many of them anyway aren’t headed for Julliard then for the Broadway stage knock me down with a feather. When you look at the Broadway like Playbill and then peruse the pictured actors and bios they look like kids. Yet up on the stage they become transformed into 20 something and when they open their mouths they become adult performers and in a flash of lightning you’re whisked away to the Great White Way in the exquisitely designed Page Family Center for Performing Arts. 

The story a simple one Bob Wallace and Phil Davis ex Army vets team up with sister act Betty and Judy Haynes put on a Christmas show in rural Vermont in a failing Country Inn run by their ex General Henry Waverly. With a little romance mixed in, the cast performs music by the legendary Irving Berlin with voices this side of heaven. This troupe featured junior Kyle Martin in Bing Crosby’s role filling the crooner’s delivery with a mellifluous voice that filled every inch of negative space and with his sidekick Graham Popadic a senior with equally rousing melodic chords in the Danny Kaye portrayal as the devil may care playboy suddenly struck by Cupid’s arrow by dancer and singer Gracie O’Connor in the Vera Ellen role. And rounding out the love interest duo is senior Jessica Turley as Betty Haynes who was instantly equally smitten to Kyle Martin. Gracie and Jessica both with earthbound Angelic voices complimented each other like no duo in recent memory.  These Haynes sisters together, apart and as a trio with Kate Higgins also a senior and a quartet with the boys nearly flattened me with each note. A surprising addition was the diminutive sophomore Sara Meldrim playing the General’s granddaughter belting out “Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep” took the audience by surprise in terms of it’s strength and melodic timbre.  Some of the best and lesser known masterfully crafted Berlin musical compositions are here including “Blue Skies”, “Sisters”, “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and of course “White Christmas”. However what made the whole evening astonishing was how the production blended the music with the pageantry of dance and costume. We will look forward to the King’s Academy’s next production which is slated for late January, Peter and the Star Catcher. 

The choreography alone is worthy of Broadway.  The dancers had our pupils widened with each scene. The tap dance numbers were syncopated with precision and the costuming was visually stunning. And leading this production is a Tony nominated director with the moniker of David Snyder without whom despite these gifted players this spectacular show could not have been elevated to this level of success.

The Kings Academy players are the crème de al crème and with White Christmas not only did they set the mood for the season but these teenagers made us hearken back to a period in this Country to a simpler time and for two hours had us riveted to our seats until it was time for us to bolt from our winged chairs and applaud them for this phantasmagorical Christmas delight. 

    

Frank Sinatra

Our star for this Christmas season is also our Birthday boy Frank Sinatra. Born on December 12, 1915 Ol’ Blue Eyes would’ve been 102 this year. He passed however in 1998 at the age of 82 too soon by most accounts but let’s dig a little deeper into this American icon and see if we can come up with some factoids that you might not be aware of shall we? Although he was widely known for his active support of JFK in his election bid in 1960 it was his ardent support for the state of Israel that had him switch to the Republican Party in the 1970’s.  

His longtime friend Bing Crosby said a voice like Sinatra comes along once in a lifetime but why did it have to come along in mine! Bing Crosby was indeed a humble man and had a tremendous career of his own both on screen and in the recording studio but his story is for another time. Francis Albert Sinatra was born in Hoboken New Jersey to Northern Italian immigrants Natalina Della Garaventa and Saverio Antonio Martino Sinatra a boxer, fireman and bar owner. It was that same friend that spurred Sinatra as a teenager to become a singer watching and listening to Bing Crosby. Sinatra began his career performing in glee clubs and later in local nightclubs. When the radio found his voice as he was later dubbed “The Voice” it was with the bandleader Harry James he made his first recording “All or Nothing at All” in 1940. He later joined the Tommy Dorsey orchestra and after one chart topper after another in 2 years he struck out on his own. Dorsey fought tooth and nail to hold on to his star attraction and it was rumored not until Frank’s mafia ties threatened the bandleader did he allow him out of his contract. 

Oddly enough Frank was turned down for the military because of a ruptured eardrum and it was during these years that the Bobby Soxers would swoon over his baritone voice and brand him with names like “The Voice”, “Ol’ Blue Eyes” and later “Chairman of the Board” He even made his film debut in 1943 with “Reveille With Beverly” and “Higher and Higher”. After the war though musical tastes began to change and it was during this period that Sinatra’s career flagged badly and he lost his recording contract. He even considered suicide and with damaged vocal chords his fate as a singer seemed all but sealed but Providence would intercede. In 1953 with the help of the love of his life (not hers) wife Ava Gardner harangued movie mogul Harry Cohn into giving the part of Maggio to Frank in his epic “From Here to Eternity” and when Cohn relented Frank’s performance won him the Academy Award for best Actor in a Supporting Role. Magically his acting and singing career was revived and to some he would rise to even greater heights. 

He struck a deal with Capitol Records and with his mature sound and jazzier delivery his renaissance was complete. In fact in 1955 another Academy Award Nomination would be his with “The Man With the Golden Arm” about a heroin addicted card dealer and then in 1962 he would achieve critical acclaim with “The Manchurian Candidate.” By the end of the decade and the British Invasion Sinatra had to endure yet another musical drought and as he ended his association with Capitol he bought his own record label Reprise. 

By the mid-60’s though Frank was back on top yet a 3rd time this time he had company and it was a formidable group. And as most of us know it was later to be known as The Rat Pack. At its core were Frank, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop. Their success especially in Las Vegas was legendary.  Even Jim Morrison of the Doors was to give Sinatra his due when he said, “No one can touch him.” 

They made some movies together some memorable “Oceans Eleven” and some forgettable like “Four for Texas”.  In 1966 he would have maybe his biggest commercial success with his recording of “Strangers in the Night” winning a Grammy and soon after a duet with daughter Nancy (My Nancy With the Laughing Face) in “Something Stupid” and in 1967 recording Paul Anka’s “My Way”.  

Sinatra’s personal life would take too much space to cover here but suffice it to say Frank married 4 times Nancy Barbato in 1939 who he sired 3 children with, in 1951 to Ava Gardner and in 1966 to Mia Farrow. The latter two were short lived but it was wife number 4, Barbara Marx (Ex-wife of Zeppo Marx) that Frank would have the most enduring marriage of 20 years until his death in 1998.  As a side note 2013 Mia Farrow said that Sinatra was the love of her life in an interview with Vanity Fair and also claim that her only biological son Ronan was Sinatra’s child. 

In 1987 Kitty Kelly published an unauthorized biography of Sinatra while he was still alive. It was mostly negative and highlighted his mob ties and his philandering and his overall despicable character. A hit piece if there ever was one but his career and impact was just too great and it turned out to be merely a flesh wound on a remarkable life and career.   Frank died of a heart attack on May 14, 1998 in Cedars-Sinai in California. At Yankee Stadium after every victory they play his hit “New York, New York”.  

    

Tyrone Power

Robert Osborne once wrote that two men stood out as if they were born on Mount Olympus the first was MGM’s Robert Taylor and the other is our Star of the Month for December 20th Century’s heartthrob Tyrone Power. In his time he gave mega stars Clark Gable and Errol Flynn a run for their money as Hollywood’s resident sex symbol. 

First though let’s trace his beginnings. Born in May of 1914 born to a family with  a long lineage of stage and screen actors. Tyrone began acting at age 7 and before his father died in 1931 he appeared with him before he was 17 in Chicago on stage in a production of The Merchant of Venice. 

After heading to California his father’s name opened a few doors but yielded not much more than jobs as an extra so it was back to Broadway to sharpen his skills and he landed one as an   understudy  to Burgess Meredith and it was there that  talent scouts from the West Coast brought him back to Hollywood where he signed with 20th Century Fox in 1936. After his first disaster in Sing Baby Sing he was undaunted and with Hollywood angel’s Alice Faye and Hedda Hopper by his side Tyrone continued to find regular work in light comedies like Girls Dormitory and Ladies in Love. With his two influential supporters  and his striking good looks Power would receive his landmark role that same year that minted his stardom in Lloyd’s of London. Within 6 months of that film’s release Power had his hand and footprints in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater and was #2 Box Office behind Mickey Rooney.   

He was finally off to the races as Power proved a bankable star in two big musicals Thin Ice in 1937 with Sonja Henie and then Alexander’s Ragtime Band in 1938 in which he sang the title track. Tyrone Power singing? He was no Sinatra but his voice was mellifluous enough for studio executives.  Then Tyrone went Western as he began to stretch his acting capabilities first in Jesse James in 1939 and Noir in 1940 with Johnny Apollo. Things then turned to the romantic side for Power as he reeled off The Rains Came, The Mark of Zorro and Blood and Sand the latter two costarring with the strikingly beautiful 17-year-old Linda Darnel and then The Black Swan  with Maureen O’Hara. It was these films and  the double edged sword of success  that rocketed Tyrone to superstardom yet kept him typecast in roles that prevented him reaching his true desire to be taken as a serious actor.

When WWII came Power joined the Marines in 1942 and although he remained stateside until 1945 he finally he became active in the War when he flew cargo and troop missions to Iwo Jima and Okinawa. When he returned home he was a changed man and after an affair with Judy Garland and a terminated pregnancy with her Tyrone was through with musicals and he sought more serious roles the first being Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge in ’46 and then very dark Nightmare Alley in ’47 the story of a con man’s rise and fall against the backdrop of a carnival. It was this role that proved his mettle way beyond his good looks. Studio bosses kept the film on the down low and after it’s release pushed hard with the release of  The Captain from Castile which was more in keeping with their image of who they thought America wanted to see.  So often when heroic stars take on roles that are so atypical it’s a risk for their career and the studio but Power pulled it off. In 1957 in what most critics agreed was his most acclaimed role opposite Charles Laughton and Marlene Dietrich in Witness for the Prosecution, Power plays a U.S. War Veteran accused of murder. It was a landmark film for its time garnering 6 Academy Award Nominations including Best Picture.    

Tyrone Power was one of the best swordsman in Hollywood and in what was to be his final film Solomon and Sheba in 1958 starring opposite his friend George Sanders while engaged in the film's sword fight Tyrone would exclaim: Must Stop! It was then he would drop to the floor then in seconds he fell supine  and expired  of a heart attack at age 44 a disease similar to his father. Yul Brynner was to take his place and if you look closely you can see Power in the long shots but this role would be just be an unaccredited one. 

Tyrone Power would sire 3 children 2 with second wife  Linda Christian and 1 with his companion of 6 months Deborah Minardos who gave birth to a child 2 months after his death. All 3 have pursued acting albeit to minor success including his namesake Tyrone Power Jr. 

Tyrone Power dead at age 44 November 15th 1958.  

Shirley Temple

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.