Biography

� Shirley Temple (born April 23rd, 1928) is a former Amerian child actress.� � She began her screen career in 1932 at the age of three, and, in 1934, skyrocketed to superstardom in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Academy Award in February 1935, and blockbusting super hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid to late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes, and clothing. Temple's box office popularity waned in her tweens and she left the film industry at the age of twelve to attend high school. She appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid to late teens, and retired completely from the silver screen in 1950 at the age of twenty-one. She was the top box-office draw four years in a row (1935–1938) in a Motion Picture Herald poll.[1] [2] �

In 1958, Temple returned to show biz with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations. She made guest appearances on various television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released. She sat on the boards of many corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, and the National Wildlife Federation. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully for United States Congress, and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and to Czechoslovakia in 1989. In 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star. Temple is the recipient of many awards and honors including Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

In 1945, seventeen-year-old Temple married Army Air Force sergeant John Agar, who, after being discharged from the service, entered the acting profession. The couple made two films together before Temple divorced him on the grounds of mental cruelty in 1949. She received custody of their daughter Linda Susan and the restoration of her maiden name in the process. In January 1950, Temple met the conservative scion of a patrician California family and United States Navy Silver Star recipient Charles Alden Black. She married him in December 1950 following the finalization of her divorce and retired from films the same day to become a homemaker. Charles Alden Black, Jr. was born in 1952 and Lori Alden Black in 1954.

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Weighing six pounds eight ounces, Shirley Temple was delivered without complications at 9:00 p.m. on Monday April 23, 1928, at the Santa Monica Hospital in Santa Monica, California by Dr. Leonard John Madsen to George Francis Temple, a bank emloyee and Gertrude Amelia Krieger, a housewife. George Temple was born May 1888 in Fairview, Pennsylvania and died September 30, 1980, at Woodside, California. His wife Gertrude Amelia Krieger was born July 15, 1893, in Chicago, Illinois and died January 1, 1977, at Woodside, California. At the time of their daughter's birth, the Temples were the parents of two sons, thirteen-year-old John "Jack" Stanley Temple and nine-year-old George "Sonny" Francis Temple, Jr.

Mrs. Temple tried to influence her daughter's future by prenatal association with music, art, and natural beauty. During her pregnancy, she listened to phonograph records, read books aloud, and attended dance recitals and concerts.[3] In the child's first years, Mrs. Temple read storybooks to her toddler, altering the pitch of her voice according to the character's sex, and enacted the story and characters. Her daughter began to mimic her.[4]

The early years of the Great Depression left but little impact on the Temples, though Mr. Temple did take a cut in pay at the bank, which, nevertheless, remained sound through the era. The Temples' house and car were paid in full and Mr. Temple had been cautious with investments. As neighbors and friends were wiped out, Mrs. Temple attended fewer card parties and became aloof and private, focusing her attention upon her daughter. She taught the tot the words to her favorite popular songs, noted the child was able to bring expression to the words, and observed that the child had perfect pitch and could easily repeat simple dance steps.

Child film performers increased in popularity during the Depression era, and, early in 1931, Mrs. Temple took the first steps in bringing her daughter to the screen. She was convinced her three-year-old daughter had exceptional talent,[6] and, at the prompting of her husband,[7] enrolled the youngster in the highly competitive Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles, California on the Mack Sennett lot (leased at the time to Educational Pictures, a Poverty Row studio) for twice weekly dance lessons[8] [9] beginning on September 13, 1931.[10] An added attraction of the dance studio for Mrs. Temple was the the March 1935 issue of Silver Screen magazine that her daughter quickly became the studio's star pupil.[10]

Mrs. Temple started constructing at home the stylish clothing of fashionable women and children for herself and her daughter, and initiated the morning ritual of styling her daughter's lengthening and thickening hair into precisely fifty-six ringlets in imitation of the hairstyle worn by the young Mary Pickford. The process involved dampening the hair with a wave solution, wrapping a length of hair around a finger, securing it with a bobby pin, and gently combing the ringlet when dry. She called her daughter "Presh" (short for precious) and gave her a few dolls, which became the nucleus of Temple's world famous doll collection.[11]

Shortly after Temple's third birthday, Educational Pictures planned a series of one-reelers called Baby Burlesks to compete with the popular Our Gang comedy shorts.[note 2] Charles Lamont, a film director with Educational, conducted a talent search among the children at the Meglin School, found Temple hiding behind a piano, and encouraged her to audition for the series. She did, and was signed to a two-year contract in January 1932 at $10 a day for a typically four day shooting schedule.[12] [13] [14]�

The Baby Burlesks were eight 10–11 minute films produced by Jack Hays and directed by Charles Lamont that satirized contemporary motion pictures, celebrities, events, and politics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP7_16-0">[15] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17">[16] The casts were composed entirely of preschoolers who wore adult costumes on top and diapers fastened with enormous safety pins on the bottom.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18">[17] The concept was likely inspired by the mid-1920s art of C. C. Twelvetrees whose diaper-clad, top-hatted children appeared in Pictorial Review and other publications.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP6_10-2">[10] Universal Studios put up 75 percent of the backing for the Baby Burlesks and a proposed Universal contract for Temple guaranteeing two years of work, twenty-four films, and plenty of benefits but pay only for days before the camera. Expenses and rehearsals (sometimes as many as ten days) were not remunerated.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP7_16-1">[15] Temple was disciplined at the studio by being confined to a small "black box" isolation chamber with only a block of ice to sit upon.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP7_16-2">[15] Her first day on the job entailed almost twelve hours of work with two naps. She took home a $10.00 check, a considerable sum at the time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP7_16-3">[15] Her films thereafter usually demanded four days of shooting, days of unpaid rehearsals, and publicity photo shoots.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP7_16-4">[15]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP111_15-0">Temple made her screen debut in April 1932 with Runt Page, a spoof of the play and film The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19">[note 3] It was the only film in the series dubbed by adults. The remaining films in the series would by voiced by the children themselves.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP7_16-5">[15] Temple's first spoken screen line was "Mais oui, mon cher" in War Babies,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-BurdickP11_20-0">[18] and her first on-screen tap dance and song, "She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage", occurred in Glad Rags to Riches.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP111_15-1">[14]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP111_15-0">Temple appeared in all eight films in the series, and graduated to a series of Educational two-reelers called Frolics of Youth portraying Mary Lou Rogers, a youngster in a contemporary suburban family.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21">[19] She was paid $15 a day or $50 a picture.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22">[20] In order to underwrite film production costs at Educational, Temple and her juvenile co-stars were peddled as models for chewing gum, breakfast cereal, cigar, and candy bar promotional gimmicks and photographs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24">[22]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP111_15-0">While under contract for Educational, Temple was loaned-out to other studios. Her first appearance in a feature film was a barely visible role in The Red-Haired Alibi for Tower Productions, Inc. in 1932.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-25">[23] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26">[24] In 1933, she made several short films for Educational, and, again, was loaned out for bit parts in feature films at Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros..<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-27">[25] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28">[26]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP111_15-0">In February 1934, she signed a contract with Fox Films after Educational declared bankruptcy in September 1933.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29">[27] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP355_30-0">[28] She appeared in bit parts for Fox and was loaned out for a two-reeler and two feature films at Paramount and a feature film for Warner Bros.-First National.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31">[29] Fox publicists did their best to promote Temple as a wunderkind of some sort, but Mrs. Temple conducted her own interviews, often correcting the hyperbole of others and requiring interviewers to submit copy for her approval (Burdick 5).

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In 1934, Fox Films faced serious financial difficulties and merged with producer Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures to become Twentieth Century-Fox. Thereafter, studio head Zanuck (one of the best story minds in the film industry at the time)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-45">[42] focused his attention and resources upon cultivating Temple's superstar status. Temple was the studio's greatest asset, and, after four successful films—Stand Up and Cheer!, Little Miss Marker, Baby Take a Bow, and Bright Eyes—the public adored her.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-46">[43] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-47">[note 5] The studio's top priority became developing projects, vehicles, and stories for Temple, and, to that end, the "Shirley Temple Story Development" team of nineteen writers went to work creating eleven original stories and adaptions of the classics.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP75_48-0">[44]

The nation was in the midst of the Great Depression, and, though bureaucratic schemes for relieving impoverished and suffering Americans abounded, most treated the great unwashed masses as nothing more than faceless numbers. Temple's films would propose a simple natural solution to the Great Depression's woes—open one's heart and give of oneself. On the screen, her goodness, innocence, and charm would melt the hearts of cold authority figures like military officers, corporation heads, and orphanage matrons, and touch the lives of the grumpy, the wizened, the rich, the bratty, the miserly, and the criminal with positive results. In doing so, she was presenting them with the opportunity to give of themselves.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP75_48-1">[44]�

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP75_48-1">Temple and Twentieth Century-Fox sued for libel and won. The settlement remained in trust for Temple in England until she turned twenty-one, at which time it was used to build a youth center in England.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP106_59-0">[52] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-60">[53]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP75_48-1">The only other Temple film released in 1937 was Heidi, a story suited to her maturing personality.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP106_59-1">[52] Her blond hair had darkened to ash blond and the ringlets brushed back into soft curls. Her theatrical instincts had sharpened and she suggested the Dutch song and dance dream sequence and its placement within the film.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-61">[54] After minor disagreements about the dance steps with the other children in the scene, director Allan Dwan had badges made with 'Shirley Temple Police' inscribed upon them. Every child was issued one after swearing allegiance and obedience to Temple.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-62">[55]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP75_48-1">In 1938, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Broadway, and Just Around the Corner were released. The latter two were critical duds with Corner the first Temple film to falter at the box office.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-63">[56] 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 make the transition from child star to teenage actress,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-64">[57] Zanuck declined a substantial offer from MGM to star Temple as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and cast her instead in the banal Susannah of the Mounties, her last money-maker for Twentieth Century-Fox.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-65">[58] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-66">[59] The film dropped Temple from number one box-office favorite in 1938 to number five in 1939.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-67">[60]

<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP75_48-1">In 1940, Temple starred in two consecutive flops at Twentieth Century-Fox (The Blue Bird and Young People).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-68">[note 9] Times had changed with the advent of World War II. The breezy, flippant escapist films of the 1930s had given place to serious fare reflecting the anxiety Americans felt as they were drawn into a cataclysmic war. A fairy tale film about a selfish, pouting girl could not have been more inappropriate.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-69">[61] Zanuck preferred to disassociate himself and the studio from a child star whose career was clearly finished.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP128_70-0">[62] Temple's parents were furious but bought up the remainder of her contract in 1940 and sent her at the age of twelve to Westlake School for Girls, an exclusive and pricey country day school in Los Angeles.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-71">[63] At the studio, Temple's bungalow was renovated, all traces of her tenure expunged, and the building reassigned as an office complex.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-EdwardsP128_70-1">[62]�

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Last Films and retirement
Within a year of her departure from Twentieth Century-Fox,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-72">[note 10] MGM signed Temple for her comeback. Plans were made to team her with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney for the Andy Hardy series, but her comeback film became Kathleen (1941), a story about an unhappy teenager, her busy, rich Dad, and her female psychologist. The film flopped and her MGM contract was cancelled after mutual consent. Miss Annie Rooney (1942, United Artists) followed, but it bombed.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-73">[note 11] The actress retired for almost two years from films, throwing herself into school life and activities.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-74">[64]

In 1944, David O. Selznick signed Temple to a personal four-year contract. She appeared in two wartime hits for him: Since You Went Away and I'll Be Seeing You. Selznick however became involved with Jennifer Jones and lost interest in developing Temple's career. She was loaned-out to other studios with Kiss and Tell (1945, Columbia), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947, RKO),<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-75">[note 12] and Fort Apache (1948, RKO) being the few good films among a string of duds.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-76">[65]

Although her 1947–9 films did not lose money, most had a cheap B look about them and her performances were colorless and apathetic.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP71_77-0">[66] Selznick suggested she move to Italy with her daughter, study the culture, gain maturity as an actress, and even change her name.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP71_77-1">[66] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-78">[67] He made it clear she had been detrimentally typecast in Hollywood and her career was in perilous straits.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP71_77-2">[66] After auditioning (and being rejected) in August 1950 for the role of Peter Pan on the Broadway stage,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-79">[68] Temple took stock, admitted her recent movies had been poor fare, and announced her official retirement from films on December 16, 1950—the same day she married Charles Alden Black.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-WindelerP71_77-3">[66] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-80">[69]