Saturdays with the Stars: Shirley Temple

Each month of 2024 we are taking a look at an actress who bore the title "America's Sweetheart" during the peak of her film fame, and what she did with the title (including when it was passed on to the next Hollywood princess).  Last month, we talked about Mary Pickford, an actress whose stardom lasted most of the Silent Era & who established the title of "America's Sweetheart" before spending decades dealing with addiction & tragedy.  This month, we're going to do something unique, the only time this season (and indeed, I believe the only time in six seasons of Saturdays with the Stars we've done this): we're going to focus on a child star.  Like Pickford, she was for a time the biggest name in Hollywood, and the biggest box-office draw throughout much of the Depression, before struggling to establish herself as an adult actress.  This month's star is Shirley Temple.

Temple was born in Santa Monica, California, the only daughter of George & Gertrude Temple.  From an early age, Gertrude Temple pushed her daughter to get into the performing arts, taking her to singing, dancing, & acting classes, and styling her with what would be a signature of the star: ringlet hair.  She was discovered by Educational Pictures, and put in a series of "Baby Burlesks" where preschoolers imitated famous movies of the day (which is why there's video of Shirley Temple doing an impression of Mae West in She Done Him Wrong).  This brought her to the attention of Fox, where she began making movies like Curly Top, The Little Colonel, and Stand Up and Cheer, all major hits for the studio at a time when they were struggling to keep up with MGM.

Shirley Temple's career was a bit of a supernova, unlike Pickford's where her stardom lasted for decades.  While she spent most of the 1930's as the #1 box office draw in America, the country didn't want the little girl on the screen to grow up, and didn't accept her as she moved into teenage roles, though she did briefly work as an adult in films.  We're going to talk about her career at the top, and the terrible working conditions she was forced to work in (and the way her father burned through her fortune).  But we're going to also discuss the unusual second act Temple would take hundreds of miles away from Hollywood, when Shirley Temple went to Washington.