Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple;While Temple occasionally used "Jane" as a middle name, her birth certificate reads "Shirley Temple". Her birth certificate was altered to prolong her babyhood shortly after she signed with Fox in ...
(1928–2014) was an American
child actress
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...
, dancer, and singer who began her film career in 1931, and continued successfully through 1949. When
Educational Pictures
Educational Pictures, also known as Educational Film Exchanges, Inc. or Educational Films Corporation of America, was an American film production and film distribution company founded in 1916 by Earle (E. W.) Hammons (1882–1962). Educational pr ...
director
Charles Lamont
Charles Lamont (May 5, 1895 – September 11, 1993) was a prolific filmmaker, directing over 200 titles and producing and writing many others. He directed several Abbott and Costello comedies and many Ma and Pa Kettle films.
Biography
A Calif ...
scouted Meglan Dancing School for prospective talent, three-year-old student Temple hid behind the piano. Lamont spotted her and immediately decided she was the one he was looking for. Starting at $10 a day, she was eventually under contract for $50 per film. The production company generated its ''
Baby Burlesks
''Baby Burlesks'' was a series of short films produced by Educational Pictures in the early 1930s. The series featured three-year-old Shirley Temple in her first screen appearance. In her autobiography, Temple describes the ''Baby Burlesks'' ser ...
'' one-reeler film short satires of Hollywood films in 1931–1933, produced by Jack Hays and directed by Lamont. Temple made eight ''Baby Burlesks'' films, and 10 other short films, before being signed to star in feature-length motion pictures.
The role that launched her feature film career was a short song-and-dance sequence in the 1934 movie ''
Stand Up and Cheer!
''Stand Up and Cheer!'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code musical film directed by Hamilton MacFadden. The screenplay by Lew Brown and Ralph Spence was based upon a story idea by Will Rogers and Philip Klein. The film is about efforts undertaken du ...
'' for
Fox Film
The Fox Film Corporation (also known as Fox Studios) was an American Independent film production studio formed by William Fox (1879–1952) in 1915, by combining his earlier Greater New York Film Rental Company and Box Office Attractions Film C ...
, with
James Dunn as her father. Her performance impressed studio executives so much that they immediately cast the duo in a follow-up film, ''
Baby Take a Bow
''Baby, Take a Bow'' is a 1934 American comedy-drama film directed by Harry Lachman and is one of the earliest Hays code Hollywood films (its MPAA certificate marks it as the third ever code-approved film). The screenplay by Philip Klein and Edwa ...
'', with Temple again playing Dunn's daughter. Following the release of that film, Temple's parents negotiated two 7-year Fox contracts, one for Shirley as the performer, and the other for her mother as her guardian. Her parents had stipulations inserted to protect their daughter's privacy, while Fox retained control of all her public appearances. The bulk of the financial recompense went into revocable trusts. Later that same year, the film ''
Bright Eyes'' was written as a starring vehicle for Temple, teaming her once again with Dunn. In this film, Temple sang the song most identified with her: "
On the Good Ship Lollipop
"On the Good Ship Lollipop" is a song composed by Richard A. Whiting with lyrics by Sidney Clare. It was the signature song of child actress Shirley Temple. Temple first sang it in the 1934 film, '' Bright Eyes''.
In the song, the "Good Ship ...
".
![Bill Robinson and Shirley Temple stair dance (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Bill_Robinson_and_Shirley_Temple_stair_dance_%28cropped%29.jpg)
In addition to Dunn, Temple danced in her films with some of the most famous and accomplished entertainers of her era:
Buddy Ebsen
Buddy Ebsen (born Christian Ludolf Ebsen Jr., April 2, 1908 – July 6, 2003), also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS ...
,
Jack Haley
John Joseph Haley Jr. (August 10, 1897 – June 6, 1979) was an American actor, comedian, dancer, radio host, singer and vaudevillian. He was best known for his portrayal of the Tin Man and his farmhand counterpart Hickory in the 1939 Metro-G ...
,
Alice Faye
Alice Faye (born Alice Jeanne Leppert; May 5, 1915 – May 9, 1998) was an American actress and singer. A musical star of 20th Century-Fox in the 1930s and 1940s, Faye starred in such films as ''On the Avenue'' (1937) and ''Alexander's Ragtime B ...
,
George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American dancer, actor, and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild fro ...
,
Jimmy Durante
James Francis Durante ( , ; February 10, 1893 – January 29, 1980) was an American comedian, actor, singer, vaudevillian, and pianist. His distinctive gravelly speech, Lower East Side accent, comic language-butchery, jazz-influenced song ...
,
Charlotte Greenwood
Frances Charlotte Greenwood (June 25, 1890 – December 28, 1977) was an American actress and dancer. Born in Philadelphia, Greenwood started in vaudeville, and starred on Broadway, movies and radio. Standing almost six feet tall (some sour ...
, and
Jack Oakie
Jack Oakie (born Lewis Delaney Offield; November 12, 1903 – January 23, 1978) was an American actor, starring mostly in films, but also working on Theatre, stage, radio and television. He portrayed Napaloni in Charlie Chaplin, Chaplin's ''T ...
.
Bill "Bojangles" Robinson
Bill Robinson, nicknamed Bojangles (born Luther Robinson; May 25, 1878 – November 25, 1949), was an American tap dancer, actor, and singer, the best known and the most highly paid African-American entertainer in the United States during the f ...
was her favorite partner. "It was kind of a magic between us", she later reminisced, and said he taught her how to execute her dance moves by syncing with the rhythm of the music, as opposed to watching her steps.
In 1935's ''
The Little Colonel'', the first of their four films together, they made history as the first interracial couple to dance on screen.
Temple's films, made for between $400,000 and $700,000 each, earned millions of dollars in gross receipts in the United States and Canada. Her films ranked number-one at the box office in 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1938.
The success of her films was also credited with saving her studio,
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, from bankruptcy during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.
[
At the ]7th Academy Awards
The 7th Academy Awards, honoring the best in film for 1934, was held on February 27, 1935, at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, California. They were hosted by Irvin S. Cobb. As of this ceremony, the Academy's award eligibility period coinc ...
in 1935, Temple was honored with the first Academy Juvenile Award
The Academy Juvenile Award, also known informally as the Juvenile Oscar, was a Special Honorary Academy Award bestowed at the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) to specifically recogni ...
. That same year, her hand prints and bare foot prints were immortalized in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Grauman's Chinese Theatre (branded as TCL Chinese Theatre for naming rights reasons) is a movie palace on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States.
The original Chines ...
. At previous hand and foot print ceremonies, other celebrities traditionally left hand and shoe prints in the cement. The bare feet distraction was her idea to divert attention away from a gap in her smile left by a baby tooth that had fallen out. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
on February 8, 1960. Following the end of her film career, Temple had a two-season run of ''Shirley Temple's Storybook
''Shirley Temple's Storybook'' is a 1958-1961 American children's anthology series hosted and narrated by actress Shirley Temple. The series features adaptations of fairy tales like Mother Goose and other family-oriented stories performed by well ...
'' anthology on the NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
television network.
During the years 1974–1989, she served in the United States diplomatic corps under her married name of Shirley Temple Black.
Features
Baby Burlesks
Other short films
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
The American Creed (1946)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple, Shirley
Actress filmographies
American filmographies
Filmography
A filmography is a list of films related by some criteria. For example, an actor's career filmography is the list of films they have appeared in; a director's comedy filmography is the list of comedy films directed by a particular director. The t ...