Shirley Temple: America's Little Darling | The Hollywood Collection

my name is Tommy tune and I'm a big fan of entertainment I guess it's existed as long as people have gathered together to take time out from their everyday lives all that requires is an audience and well maybe some talent today there's entertainment on every side to suit every taste with so many stars one can hardly keep track imagine that a time when for more than five years one small girl could grip the attention of an entire movie-going world could be adored by the high in the mighty and by millions of ordinary folk because of her tens of thousands of kids including yours truly were sent to tap classes it happened in Hollywood and it happened not so long ago it was a matter of being the right person for a very special time and yet it was much more before and since there was never anyone else quite like her she was the child star loved by an entire world her name what Shirley Temple for four years in a row from 1935 to 1938 Shirley Temple was the number one box office star in Hollywood she was even more popular than Clark Gable Robert Taylor and Gary Cooper because of her films her studio Fox was saved from bankruptcy that came out on the screen a lot she was a product of the Great Depression President Franklin Delano Roosevelt recognized her appeal when he said that it was a splendid thing that for just 15 cents Americans could go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a little girl and forget their troubles surely Jane temple was born April 23rd 1928 gertrude temple who already had two sons yearned for a daughter and she said about making her baby special her father george temple worked in a santa monica bank and he indulged his wife's every dream for Shirley Shirley's early training included music and art appreciation and watching her mother dance to a tambourine to instill a sense of rhythm in her shirley was barely three when Gertrude decided she was ready for the next step the Medellin bands studio was known to every ambitious parent as an entryway to show business I kind of snuck in there a few years later fo megman created this school for singing and dancing and I guess learning the beginnings of acting and Shirley was a meddling Kitty the most famous regular today.when directors from a small movie studio visited Meg Lane in search of 10 boys and 2 girls for a series of one real comedies Shirley was selected come and family from Rio the shorts were called baby ballasts which is just what they were children little more than toddlers in diapers and exaggerated safety pins enacted scenes drawn from adult melodrama even then Shirley temple's stood out Oh I played the lead in a series of high school comedies for education pictures called the frolics of youth the first day of production when I showed up on the cell it was just cute little 4 year old girl named Shirley Temple who I learned was going to play my sister the frolics of youth were two-reel comedies and as I recall we made them in five days whereas the baby burlesque's for one reel and they probably only took maybe three days Oh Marilu god mommy kill you happy birthday kill you she saw him right happy birthday son now she didn't know how to read yet so every night after work I guess while her mother was giving her bath she would read her the scenes that were going to be shot the following day so as a result when Shirley showed up on the set the next morning she knew everybody's lines now if any one of us made a mistake in all sweetness nothing precocious she would say oh no you're supposed to say and then she'd tell us what we were supposed to say and you know she was never wrong right there Phyllis you know anything about dog somebody threw it away from me oh shut up how did you ever happen to bring home a thing like that are you gonna let them litter here we've got to give her a bath first stop that married Oh surely really enjoyed being a little actress very low stop that I never did see her pamper and cry on the set like a lot of other little kids did the first time I can ever remember her I remember her with their mother and I was carrying Shirley suitcase and my dad was carrying mrs. temple suitcase and we were going to our separate little cabins there on location for the making of the movie to the last man which was starring Randolph Scott and we played a brother and a sister in the movie gotta get me a kiss but we played together all the time after a location that we just ran all over the place they had all these animals and horses little puppies that was a big deal in the picture they had these cute little puppies and she was actually just like kind of a little sister to me at the time during 1933 Shirley had bit parts in seven feature films one of these was now I'll tell starring Spencer Tracy also in the cast was Alice Faye because I was in all of Spencer Tracy I wasn't hardly thinking about anybody else I mean especially Tracy with this killing me imagine me in a picture with fennekin Tracy and we hadn't heard too much about Shirley Temple and she sort of came out of the blue in the script at red this is the kind of child that every mother would dream of happy she's a beautiful little girl with blonde curls and dimples and I was sitting with my mom in the office and about that time the door open and without a doubt through that door walked the most adorable the most beautiful the most precious little girl I'd ever seen in my whole life and I said well even though my heart sank to my toes I said well Lord I guess it's just not my turn yet cuz I know she's it she's just what that script calls for because she is really precious this film stand up in cheer introduced five-year-old Shirley Temple to the world her part was small but show business would never be the same again audiences and reviewers alike were bowled over by this unheralded little girl who could dance and act up a storm with such disarming ease Shirley could make people believe if only for 90 minutes that there were no problems in the world this little kid put more heart back into people got the people thinking in a positive way and gave this country a lift when we needed the depression cut across American society but Shirley Temple made people feel that eventually everything would be alright you forgot you know that there were men selling apples on the street coming to the back door and asking for food and work or work and food or anything and being at a Shirley Temple film was complete get away we were searching for a sense of love and caring and childlike belief and the fact that she could have fun and sing and dance and give love and affection to whoever what was was something that reminded us that we had that in us too it was 1934 Fox Film corporation signed the five year old to a year's contract at a hundred and fifty dollars a week then quickly lent her out to Paramount Pictures at a sizable profit the picture was Little Miss marker it was to star Adolph manju who did not like to work with children I paid the Lord my soul to take make me a good little girl you don't want to be a little girl oh no dear make you a good little girl make me a put a little girl is Emma that's the works when do I ask for what I want you better do it right now on your prayer still hot please God bye sir sorry a new suit of clothes by the end of filming manju had become another Shirley Temple devotee he even suggested to Paramount that instead of payment for his role he take a percentage of the film's profit paramount refused the offer say no thank you what for well you used to say thank you and no thank you I used to be a [ __ ] now where did you get that and tell me and I don't want no much Maju guessed right Little Miss marker was an instant hit in three weeks it took in half its original cost at just one New York City theater paramount offered Fox $50,000 for Shirley's contract the offer was refused when she made Little Miss marker at Paramount my husband was a writer for the Marx Brothers and he came home one evening and said you know Harpo offered to buy Shirley Temple today was she such a discovery she's a fat darling child he had already adopted four and that was my first knowledge of Shirley Ann and what a genius she was overnight it seemed she had become America's little girl almost everyone wanted to adopt Shirley scripts were tailored to bring this out now it's my duty to decide who is going to adopt you you agree to surrender the child I agreed to adopt her I'm taking legal steps to adopt Shirley why don't you get nice doctor cuz I'm not a young married couple what we're getting married we want to adopt her at Fox Shirley was rushed into a movie named after the song she had sung and stand up and Cheer the picture was maybe taken now Shirley was now an acknowledged star and to prove it she had her own stand-in they needed a dancing class and decided to take us and teach Shirley a dance that we already knew and while we were at the studio the following day they came over and they said everybody stand up and they looked at me and they said you're fine and they took me over and stood me back-to-back with Shirley we were exactly the same size they hired me as her stand-in Shirley and I were best friends we had a wonderful time together we invented all kinds of games and of course when the sets weren't being used you know we go in play house in these wonderful places she had a wonderful rapport with all of the actors that she worked with and they all adored her I'm destroying daddy what do you mean Johnny jokes told you what penny that she stole it please daddy forgive me please well of course of course don't blame down Shirley's acting ability was more being Shirley um in a pretend situation than it was actually acting you always felt that she was that person doing that thing saying that line don't think God I've been standing on my head almost let me do it thank you I'm very glad to meet you guess I should have said that at the station and throw [ __ ] on I'm sorry the studio they had a goal mind in her and they didn't want her to get affected that's probably the best word I could use is they wanted to keep her isolated uh she couldn't she couldn't go out she could she had a bowling alley I know that they built for in her home and a little soda fountain there surely was around adult uh mainly I don't think that she had a great many children to play with there was certainly never any children that we played with on the set I remember when we did a film with Jane withers that we were not allowed to play with Jane she had some kind of magic something that other children simply didn't have she was so different than other child actors who were sort of they all had a sort of professional air about them Shirley never had that that air about it that kind of stilted uh acting actory acting kind of things she was very very natural she was Shirley the little girl was like apple pie and just a normal normal little girl and that interested me I wanted to see the mother and when I met her mother I realized I knew why because she was a great lady and she was always with her and it was just a great combination mrs. temple just adore truly you could see the love there surely loved what she was doing she loved to dance you XI Chu she loved everything and you could see it with the release of bright eyes Shirley Temple had ushered in the era of the child star in studio after studio the search was on Mickey Rooney Jackie Cooper deanna durbin bright wonderful children who were signed up and rushed into picture after picture but in the early 30s none would be more luminous than Shirley Temple with the release of bright eyes over 4,000 letters a week began arriving at Fox all addressed to Shirley Temple the studio had dropped a year from Shirley's age hoping to magically prolong her childhood and their bonanza she appeared in eight films in just one year 1934 but her salary remained one hundred and fifty dollars a week product endorsements with Shirley's name and picture brought the studio large sums every year but surely received no part of it finally at her mother Gertrude's insistence Shirley's salary was raised to $1,000 a week for her role as tutor and advisor Gertrude received 250 dollars Shirley's parents would now control her product endorsements a lot of people thought that Gertrude Temple was tough and Gertrude temple was tough I adored Gertrude temple she was warm and generous to us and to my family and also I sensed in her somebody that wasn't going to be pushed around and I envied that I wish that my parents had been more that way she would see the ultimate stage mother she was there for Shirley at every turn she directed her she really created Shirley Temple the star mrs. temple would sit on a stool and and back at the camera and she loved to see different things that Sherman did and she would always say Sparkle Shirley and Shirley sparkled all the time in 1935 Shirley received a special award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for what was called her monumental achievement that same year Fox merged with century studio and 20th Century Fox came into being Darryl F zanuck became the new studio head an essential job was to maintain the meteoric rise of one of the new company's major assets Shirley Temple I started working for Darryl zanuck uh even before I was under contract to 20th Century Fox he was a powerhouse of the studio he got everything that he wanted everything had to be his way well mrs. temple was a tall lady as I remember at least she seemed that way to me as a child and zanuck was very short I knew that and but irrespective of their relative sizes I can tell you knowing mrs. temple she stood up the Darryl zanuck the Darryl zanuck did not push her around and I think he pushed about everybody else around he didn't push her around Shirley was always a star at 20th Century Fox she didn't have to adjust to up going to a public school and then coming back and doing the movie like I did I always got my schooling on the set and Shirley got her schooling in her bungalow we each had our own private tutor being a child and probably being the biggest movie star in the world she had it in spades I mean she had her own special house um a lot with the slate picket fences beautiful place she had her special dressing room she always had her special teacher she always had special makeup artist she always had special wardrobe artist she always went in a special car to the set she always had a special place to live I remember driving down Sunset Boulevard when I was a kid you could see her house up on the right and there was a little house out in the back which was her like her Playhouse which was a special house for Shirley to have I mean everything in in Shirley's life was special to the nth degree a survey of young girls in 1935 found that Shirley Temple was the person they most wish to be like next on the list was Amelia Earhart followed by Eleanor Roosevelt Shirley temple's birthday and Will Rogers makes a speech we gathered he had a data unveiling a picture of you here now I'm not going to make a speech because I'm so long-winded I make fun speeches where everywhere for no reason whatever and you are the biggest entertainer in the world today and you have arrived at that position by not making speeches so a painting of Shirley is unveiled in the Fox studio dining room in Hollywood Will Rogers was among surely special friends when his plane crashed in the last year 1935 the entire country mourn 20th Century Fox Rogers had been its biggest money-making star now there was only surely at the top to protect its investment the studio assigned a detective to guard around the clock Shelley's films continued to work their magic at the box office as Shirley worked hers on the screen everybody that came to California came to Hollywood and visited the studios no matter who they were they all wanted to meet Shirley Temple the temples were determined to give Shirley a private life but the studio was just as determined to feed the public's hunger for every bit of news about Shirley how gertrude temple maintained her famous daughter's curls where Shirley went on vacation and what she did there Waikiki Beach a new lifeguard ready in case any 300-pounder should get into trouble in the surf inducted into the Beach Patrol sweater decorated with the Beach emblem she'll still do a little acting on the side but right now the little colonel wants to be a little captain she was a very important part of that studio number one she made a lot of money for that studio there were very conscious of the kind of publicity that had to go out about her they protected her in every way a big rally for a little girl they did everything for her and she was publicized they had dolls they had dresses that jewelry everything the Shirley Temple I remember once they bought sure a miniature real automobile and everybody was very excited of going over and seeing it people just fell for all over the place every year the studio gave her a birthday party and she received gifts from all over the world all of Hollywood's children were invited by the publicity Department wanna thank you very much I think it's very nice have a big party Lake hood I remember I brought a handkerchief and I was very self-conscious about that and my mother said she doesn't need a gift that she will give it just embarrass her who wouldn't be appropriate but so many of the other children that we knew were not terribly successful and we're having a difficult time what is lavish lavish then all of them were sent unopened to an orphanage so sure they really never even move it she got for the lovely pic think about how difficult it would be to be a child and sensitive to other people when you're being put on a throne all the time I mean people tend to be that way with celebrities anyway was Shirley Temple it was almost nauseating Shirley Temple was at the top in box office popularity at nine years of age she was still ahead of Clark Gable Robert Taylor and being Crosby in spite of some pessimistic forecasts Shirley's magic remained Shirley Temple was a tremendous star as bigger star as you'd want she was a delightful little girl an extraordinary little girl I worked with him then we will he wink in a little princess Wee Willie Winkie actually was a part of a boy but they made it into a girl for Shirley she would do anything that she was told wee willie winkie she had to run across a road when they were having sort of a stampede of horses and Hindus brought riding around and she ran right through there didn't hesitate at all she had a lot of guts that little girl the same year wee willie winkie was released shirley appeared in a childhood classic heidi it reunited her with an old friend they'd had a call for a kid boy my age about 12 13 years old and there was about eight of us lined up on the set there and they'd go down the line asking yo you know your name so they just wanted to hear your voice really to see if he had any stage presence the director finally turned to Shirley and he says which one of these boys would you like to play Peter the goat boy and she says I like Delma to play on the set and play with the puppies and everything but when we were making Heidi was an altogether different thing she stayed in her trailer she'd practice her lines she come out of the trailer go down and do the scene where her stand-in would be standing in for we would do our lines or whatever we were going to do and then she would with a bodyguard they would take her back up to her trailer and she'd go inside there they for one thing they didn't want her to get sunburned and the other thing was they were very much afraid of kidnapping in those days or what could happen to her and Heidi I played the crippled girl I remember that we were supposed to be in Switzerland we were really in Lake Arrowhead and Shirley wanted to play miniature golf we did play but there was about four or five bodyguards with us and it really bothered me didn't bother Shirley at all she didn't really think that her life was unique in any respect she thought that all children worked that they all went to the studio and she said that the only thing that she really didn't like about it very much was having to get all dressed up in a Santa Claus costume and winter clothes in August when they they shot the Christmas calendar in 1938 MGM's Louie be mayor thought he had the perfect project for Shirley Temple Darryl F zanuck refused to loan her and so the role went to a little-known MGM contract player named Judy Garland the picture was The Wizard of Oz but xaniix competitive spirit had been roused and he made his own plans for Shirley new Bernardin she pleases me she's a very good dancer she's familiar too the little princess with Shirley's highest budgeted film to date and it was her first all color picture in the little princes the one thing I do remember about Shirley is that we we had a scene where she was to dump ashes all over me they had rehearsed us and rehearsed us and rehearsals they also had a extra dress for me in an extra dress for Shirley they wanted to do it in one take you don't why you little liar you haven't even had breakfast hide me but I really have and you'll excuse me were saying though it isn't right to call people like how dare you talk back to me I'm doing that my god everybody was screaming and Shirley just stood there and she looked right and she went over to the director and she said can we do that again when Oh Oh and all day long i document mrs. temple urged zanuck to find stories for Shirley that showed her as a real girl with the problems of a real girl Shirley was growing up but her roles were changing when at last the Bluebird gave Shirley the chance to play a girl who wasn't always perfect audiences were not happy with the change in 1939 when she was 11 years old Shirley presented Walt Disney with one small Oscar for each dwarf and Snow White in the Seven Dwarfs Shirley's popularity was still high by 1940 the studio had starred her in 1915 six years her pictures had been among its highest grocers ETSU Shirley's contracted 20th Century Fox would be coming to an end young people her last film of 20th Century Fox yes I was there and I remember her being very sweet on the set a little bit remote because she went to school by herself the rest of the kids went to school in a school room and then Shirley had her dressing room where her teacher worked with her but she was very she was very sweet with all the kids on the set and I remember I felt a certain respect and I think the other kids did too because she was very gentle and very professional and so it was it would be very hard not to like her even though Shirley was fifth in the box-office ratings her contract with 20th Century Fox was not renewed but she was becoming more like other girls her age the reason shortly before she left Fox a happy Shirley had enrolled in Westlake a private girls school in Beverly Hills it was her first school outside the studio she had a very normal life from then on and she went to WA dances and parties I had a party at my house one time and she came to the to the party I'll be it with bodyguards outside but she came to my house Shirley was now free to work in any studio in 1942 she appeared in Miss Annie Rooney she was 14 years old cast as Shirley's boyfriend Dickie Moore was called upon to give Shirley her first screen kiss it was a traumatic experience for me by my super soak with perspiration and there was a wall of news photographers lining the set they wanted to record my peck on her cheek which was a very timid self-conscious pick and that those photos appeared on the front page of virtually every newspaper in the country we're really the symbolic Ross of the world's most famous and beloved child the following year Shirley was signed by David O Selznick to be one of a group of players contracted to him it included some of the top stars of Hollywood the first film Shirley appeared in for Selznick was since you went away even though Selznick saw Shirley is the ideal American teenager he feared audiences were not ready to accept their Shirley in in row that showed her into sexy alight but Shirley refused to tone down her youthful looks or clothes motion picture critics apparently approved they voted her as giving the best juvenile performance of the year America had declared war and Shirley visited hospitals army bases and war plans she appeared on radio comedy shows and her own radio series Junior Miss more and more she was taking charge of her own life surely had worked well with a goodly number of handsome leading man Gary Cooper James Dunn Joel McCrea it was no surprise when Shirley started dating a handsome marine sergeant what was a surprise was when seventeen-year-old Shirley Temple the actress no one believed would ever grow up decided to marry the sergeant his name was John agela their wedding drew thousands of fans and meant instant news and disbelief around the world it was her life she had a right to she'd been entertaining people what how many years 10 15 years that little girl was in curlers and memorizing lines and working to playbacks and making everybody happy and doing everything she was told to do it was time she broke out matter whether it went or whether it went wrong or it was right it was her she had a right to do that The Bachelor in the bobby-soxer gave Shirley the chance to play a love smitten teenager hello she was 18 and married but producers were not yet ready to play Shirley in a totally adult role Shirley was a very healthy creature she was sexy and she was funny and she was vulnerable and she was full of fun very interesting girl and I think that that people tried to keep her in the mold of the goody two-shoes even as she was growing up and trying to become a woman well if you're leaving home you might take something more practical in the doll I hate you Susan you can't mean that I do my sister stealing the mirror well good you're not being fair the other woman it's not like that at all why don't you send me to prison and get me out of the way I'm old enough to fight my own happiness anyway I saw him first the same year 1947 Shirley made a picture that Hagin girl co-starring a man she would one day work with in other fields Ronald Reagan the film gave Shirley a chance to act and not just be cute the fans were disappointed with the results why'd you tell him there's pressures in DZ thanks mom but audience is still flocked to see a picture with Shirley Temple and now her new husband John agar I'm sorry Pema I thought it was gone I beg your pardon Fort Apache directed by John Ford was part of his John Wayne cavalry trilogy but for Shirley Temple fans it was a romance with a happy ending Colonel Thursday sir what I've been trying to tell you sir is that I love your daughter and I asked her now in your presence to be my wife yes Michael I see Philadelphia I ask you to reconsider no father I tell you this is not a proper or suitable marriage for you I can't believe that few knew that for surely and John agar their romance had taken a different turn she was lovely but she lost something I mean as a child she had that little tiny tyke and beautiful little body and her curls and her expressions and as she grew up she grew up to be a beautiful beautiful young lady but she lost something and I don't know what that was I heard Spielberg say something one said he enjoyed directing children so much more than adults because there was so much freer than adults and that's really the basic thing a child by I had no acting technique I don't think Shirley had any acting technique I don't think most of us had any real technique what we had was a pure heart and the heart spoke and and people responded they also remembered in a national poll in 1947 Shirley Temple tied with June Allyson for the title America's girlfriend Elizabeth Taylor was runner-up the birth of Shirley's daughter the following year prompted Selznick to offer the baby a picture contract sight unseen Shirley was not interested in October 1949 after just three years of marriage 21 year-old Shirley Temple announced she was divorcing John agar Selznick's publicity staff pleaded for a delay she had just been voted mother of the year Shirley replied that at least they had not selected her wife of the year it was a time of endings in April of that year Selznick had put his whole company up for sale another ending a kiss for Corliss proved to be Shirley temple's last feature film when the picture was completed Shirley went on vacation to Hawaii with her daughter and her parents there she met Charles black a young businessman from San Francisco who seemed unique he had never seen a film starring America's little darling within months Shirley became mrs. Charles black her commitment to other goals began to take hold yet she still remained in the public eye and no one has matured more gracefully or beautifully with Hollywood than Shirley Temple well Ronnie there's only one bad thing about growing up in Hollywood as you go to why everybody else grows older too and well all the wonderful people here in Hollywood that have contributed so much to our industry when they grow too old to work why they they can live out here at this home and their guests here and it's really wonderful and I'm proud that I grew up in Hollywood who wouldn't be from time to time she appeared on television and had her own series but eventually she turned away from her career as an actress I really feel that Shirley Temple by the time she was a grown woman had had it not that she was turning her back on the business I think she had fulfilled herself that's my best instinct I think Shirley went on to have another life my picture was in a book about Shirley and a reporter from the school newspaper came over and said there's a picture of a girl in here with the same name as you and this person was Shirley Temple stand-in and I looked at the picture and I said now that must be some other Marilyn Graham said it's not me I wasn't Shirley Temple standing I didn't want to be known as Shirley temple's stand-in I wanted to be Marilyn Grannis me and I think Shirley wanted a life of her own - I guess if you have a fantasy you'd want to grow up and be Shirley Temple on the other hand you have to pay the price for it and I think if mrs. temple hadn't been as formidable as she was I think that surely would have turned out not the way she turned out I've known a lot of child actors who grew up in a lot less advantageous ways we're not dead because they could not survive for five years from 1934 to 1939 Shirley Temple had been America's little darling her smile had given smiles to audiences everywhere and her tears had reached into every heart her love had transformed the grouchiest of skin Flint's into the most amiable Souls no person was unredeemable are immune to Shirley special charm that charm also helped promote a new career when she entered the political arena her fame became an asset and gave her the chance to do what she had always done well relate to people Shirley Temple doesn't hurt Shirley Temple black Shirley Temple helps Shirley Temple black because Shirley Temple is remembered with love with affection I'm thought of as a friend which I am Shirley Temple black Cecchi vement said been many a long-standing and happy marriage mother of three children and now a grandmother u.s. chief of protocol special envoy to the United Nations ambassador to Ghana ambassador to Czechoslovakia these are formidable entries on any resume and she is much prouder of them than she was of being a child sir she'd much rather talk about these things as she says my life is now I refuse to live in the past and she does refuse to live in the past but what a past that was a past that will never be forgotten Gertrude's message has endured throughout her life Shirley Temple has sparkled your mommy there's no one that can come up to the greatness in the popularity of this little girl she's in a class by herself and always will be she was just a a bright um glittering little star it gave everybody a lot of hope I've lived a good many years and I've worked with a lot of people but I've never ever worked with anybody like her Shirley's gift to show business to the United States and to the movie-going public was a revelation of the creativity and the sense of joy and fun of child that is in each of us I don't think any child ever did that better than my love Oh God you you

Channel: The Hollywood Collection

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Keywords: actor, michael caine, hollywood collection, biography, star, movie, filmmaker, actress, steve mcqueen, stage, marilyn monroe, theatre, theater, clint eastwood, audrey hepburn, biopic, shirley temple, bio, documentary, charlton heston, cinema, hollywood, free, director, film, lassie

Id: 8tAuQ9FZl08

Length: 48min 34sec (2914 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 23 2016