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To think that I would have lived to see the death of Shirley Temple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She was the Eternal Child Of The Twentieth Century. She personified the carefree joy and innocence of childhood for her generation, and others after. Baby boomers, especially those, like me, drawn to the arts, grew up, watching her movies, and wanting that kind of childhood for ourselves. I know I did, girls!!!!!!!!!!!! A non-alcoholic drink was named after her. And then there were her political activities as an adult.
That she became an adult was something of an amazement to everyone. Something happened to Shirley Temple that was inevitable to all child performers--puberty. And things were never the same. Many said she was not the same the day after she bought her first brassiere. And, once she put on that sanitary belt, honeys, I am telling you, that was it, as far as here career was concerned.
But she tried. She made one great post childhood film, "Since You Went Away," with a Heaven sent cast--Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Robert Walker, Joseph Cotten, Agnes Moorehead, Alla Nazimova, Monte Wooley--could such a cast be affordable today???? I doubt it.
As Bridget, known as Bree, the teenage kid sister to Jones, she came as near as achieving the kind of adult performance stature that she wanted. She even screen tested for the role of Veda, in "Mildred Pierce," but lost out to Ann Blyth. But that test, girls, if it is somewhere, would be one hell of a thing to see!
Did you know that, according to Jennifer Jones' confidante, Anita Colby, Shirley Temple had the best breasts in Hollywood???? She was attractive by Hollywood standards, the tragedy was, she could not surpass the standard of her magnitude set forth, by her childhood!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ironically, it was "The Wizard Of Oz." that acme of screen perfection, which marked the demise of Shirley's career, and the rise of another--Judy Garland. MGM actually thought Shirley, of age, and box-office stature, would make the ideal Dorothy. Many held their breath. An incensed Roger Edens had to audition her for the role. But she was not adept enough to sing so sophisticated a score, so Judy stepped in, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Twentieth Century-Fox decided to produce an equivalent--Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Blue Bird," about a wandering little girl, who concludes everything she needs is in her own back yard. As she herself said, "'The Blue Bird' laid an egg."
But she endured. Teen films, a sort of precursor to Shelley Duvall's "Fairy Tale Theater," entitled "Shirley Temple's Storybook," in the 50's, and then.....marriage and suburbia. Prior to that
was a teen marriage to B-Actor John Agar, who, not being able to handle being "Mr. Shirley Temple," went from a minor actor in the Ford Western Company, to the leading man of many of Universal's 50's sci-fi films, like "The Mole People," and "Tarantula!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Speaking again of breasts, it was Shirley, who courageously shared her fight with breast cancer with others, opening the floodgates for many women to do the same, and lose the shame over this illness.
And her political work. Though her movie career lasted a mere 18 years, it seemed as though Shirley Temple never stopped working. That little girl enabled her to be Shirley Temple full time long past puberty and into old age.
Alas, she is gone. Hard to imagine. But the films, the artistry will always be available to us. Rest In Peace, Shirley!!!!!!!!!!!!! You earned it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And I still want that career, and the polka dot dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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