What was Shirley Temple like in real life, as an adult?

Very intelligent, supposedly.

She was the US Ambassador to Ghana and to Czechoslovakia.

Terrible problem with flatulence.

People got tired of her always pulling out the ruffled skirt and singing “Good Shop Lollipop” into her 50s.

She was indeed very pretty as she got older. Which is prob lucky for her as she was so doted upon as a cute child.

There is a big difference between Republicans in the 1950-1980s and today.

She auditioned for the role of Veda in Mildred Pierce.

Her pussy stunk

She had done it all, achieved everything by the time she was a teenager. No wonder she wasn't very ambitious as an adult. She deserved a simpler life out of the limelight.

But her fame did have a big resurgence in the 1950s when her movies were shown every Sunday morning to an entirely new generation of children like me. And riding on those new fans she hosted the gorgeously produced Shirley Temple's Storybook, a primetime TV show presenting a different fairy tale every Saturday (or was it Sunday?) night with major guest stars and sumptuous sets and costumes. I remember it well.

Look it up lazy ass. She turned herself into a scholar and great diplomat. Many have credited her with the peaceful transitions in Eastern Europe.

R9 I HAVE NOT TRANSITIONED!!!

R8 A simpler life. As a diplomat?

Really, OP? This is what you think about?

Still short.

When I come to Datalounge I just want to scream:

Grandfather, Grandfather, it’s me! I see more holes in here than Swiss cheese.

r11, you're right. "Simpler life" was not the appropriate characterization of Shirley's adulthood. If anything, I can only assume it was far more complex, raising a family while serving as a foreign diplomat and probably having to constantly prove herself in a whole new way.

It says so much that she avoided scandal all her life, considering the extraordinary and inevitably pampered childhood she experienced. She had good parents.

Not as tight as a two year old.

Or when.

She kept Bill Bojangles locked in her basement and attended diplomatic functions with that monkey on her shoulder. The monkey was an undercover spy.

[quote]She turned herself into a scholar and great diplomat. Many have credited her with the peaceful transitions in Eastern Europe.

When Reagan said in Berlin, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," Shirley piped up from the crowd "I'll do it," and proceeded to tear it apart with a crowbar and sledgehammer while humming "At the Codfish Ball."

She taught slaves how to dance! See, I told you that slaves learned beneficial skills!

In the 1930s, Graham Greene wrote a review of the Shirley temple film "Wee Willie Winkle" where he talked about the peculiar and disturbing eroticism of the very young Temple's performances. He was absolutely correct (just look at the two dances she does above), but he was successfully sued by Temple's parents and had to flee to Mexico.

What's really funny is that if you read the diaries and letters of the other famous writers of the time (like Virginia Woolf) they all feel sorry for Greene and keep referring to "that bitch Shirley temple" (who was only ten years at the time).

I actually wish she had done more acting as a teen/ adult. I think she’s very charming in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer with the incomparable Myrna Loy. It’s a ridiculous premise and completely underbaked (do we ever find out why her sister is her guardian?), but she does well and doesn’t overly cutesy it up beyond what the eke calls for, which a lot of child actors never age out of.

Eh, she was one of the pre-Goldwater Republicans who got involved before ol’ Barry and his buddy Quaker Dick cooked up the Southern Strategy. That whole thing—the Southern Strategy designed to use racism to court voters from the South—was the beginning of the end for rational Republicanism. Shirley’s party affiliation began well before that. I wouldn’t let that be a turn-off.

^eke = role.

Eek!

Shirley's Storybook series had a suicide timeslot. Opposite Dennis the Menace and Lassie, Disney, and the first half hour of Maverick.

She became an alcoholic…..drink

I always found it rather unseemly that she would be dancing with older colored men!

Gave a ready made career to John Agar when they married. He was an alcoholic who beat her.

Talking about Arthur Freed exposing himself to her.

Full interview with Larry King

Sometimes I'm curious about is, since she never made any musicals as a young adult, could she still dance?

As for her performances as an older teen or young adult, I don't think she would have made it if she's started then, rather than as a child. They sort of shoehorned her into a Mr. Belvedere movie with Clifton Webb as a young widow with a baby, and I was bored with her.

I don't believe Shirley's testimony about Arthur Freed and Mayer. The real reason Shirley flopped at MGM was her mother interfering in every project proposed for her. She was originally slated for BABES ON BROADWAY with Mickey & Judy - but in a supporting featured role (played by Virginia Weidler, whoo I love) . MGM sensibly thought it best to re-introduce Shirley in smaller roles before featured ones. But Mrs. Temple thought "Shirley is a Star" and turned down ensemble roles for her in BORN TO SING, BARNACLE BILL (with Wallace Beery) abnd an Andy Hardy movie.

...also "The Youngest Profession" about autograph hounds . Exasperated, MGM threw Shirley into KATHLEEN ad washed their hands of her and her mother. Interestingly Weidler did all the roles at MGM intended for Shirley.

If Mrs. Temple had not been such an annoyance, Shirley might well have had a nice career at MGM.

She seemed like a nice adult lady.

If it wasn't true about Arthur Freed why would she have called him out by name?

I don't think Shirley cared about establishing herself as a star at MGM and that was the reason it never happened. She'd had enough.

I love The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer! Great film and she's superb in it and as r21 states upthread, she beautifully underplays a role that could have easily been saccharine and insipid. Shirley is also great in Since You Went Away as Claudette Colbert's younger daughter.

Shirley did well under contract to David O. Selznick. he put her in Since You Went Away and I'll Be Seeing You (in supporting roles, with star billing). He also packaged The Bachelor And The Bobby Soxer which was made by RKO.

I just looked up the plot of Born To Sing.

[quote] Frank Eastman is a down-on-his-luck show tune composer. He wrote some music while in prison which was subsequently stolen by well-to-do show promoter Arthur Cartwright. When Eastman's teenage daughter Patsy befriends some boys her age who plead with Cartwright to get Eastman the credit he is due. Cartwright calls the police, claiming extortion.

[quote] When the boys are arrested, they are placed in the same paddy wagon as gangster Pete Detroit. Pete's gang frees them all.

[quote] Patsy and the boys decide they can prove Eastman is the true composer if they perform a show before Cartwright's show debuts. They recruit neighborhood children and teens to perform.

Ugh. Sounds like an MGM 40s plot. Shirley was well out of this turkey.

Otoh, it did have Margaret Dumont and Darla Hood.

She was Chief of Protocol at the White House. Twice. I'll have to Gooige it. I have noIdea what it is.

Why would she lie about the Arthur Freed incident? Everybody in the Freed unit adored him. But nobody talks about him being a pervert. But they weren't 10 year old girls.

Judging from the smart and successful turn of her career I'm guessing that she'd really didn't want to have a career in Hollywood

She was Chief of Protocol at the White House. Twice. I'll have to Gooige it. I have noIdea what it is.

Isn't it what Letitia Baldridge was?

I respect her for walking away from movies, but she could have had a good career as an adult actress. Loved that Larry King interview. She’s just wonderful to listen to. What a life. And she married two hunks—too bad the first one was a drunk.

Arthur Freed was known to be a predator

Judging from how intelligent she sounded in that Larry King interview I'm going to really put my money on her not wanting to be in Hollywood anymore and you got to admit it when she cut the cord she cut the cord.

Barrie probably could have handled Freed more diplomatically, or made up some kind of plausible lie about why she couldn't have sex with him, and still have gotten her test without putting out.

She was a great little hoofer, but she couldn't live forever.

Sidewise: we own a ST collection and every Christmas season, we watch one of them.

It's Shirley Temple Black History Month!

"We" own.

R32, why would Shirley go into a supporting juvenile role in a Rooney/Garland film a year after she left Fox and two years after she was the number one box office star on the planet, as a juvenile? Outside of Mary Pickford, Doris Day and Julia Roberts, Temple is the female box office draw of all time and to expect her while within a year or two of her stardom, to play supporting?

R51 I wasn't around at the time, but wasn't her popularity declining? She was a child star, growing older, becoming an adolescent. What happened wasn't that unusual.

Her popularity might have been on the decline, that was inevitable, but unlike so many child stars she kept her looks, and who's to say she couldn't have transitioned from teenaged ingenue into young leading lady roles if that had been her ambition.

[quote]she hosted the gorgeously produced Shirley Temple's Storybook, a primetime TV show presenting a different fairy tale every Saturday (or was it Sunday?) night with major guest stars and sumptuous sets and costumes. I remember it well.

I think I watched every episode. Rapunzel was my favorite, starring Carol Lynley as Rapunzel and Don Dubbins as the prince. I remember her quite well, but not him. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair. So I may climb the golden stair."

she hated the child star life, and her parents swindled her out of her fortune. she did pretty well considering.

She told people to call her surely.

R32, I do believe the Freed story. He was known for this kind of bullshit. Link to follow.

^ R32 again. Freed was disgusting. Link here....

Oops, I see the link was already posted. I was so upset by R32 I swooped to the end of the thread to respond.

Sorry!

R53 She did, for a while. The fact is, she wasn't a very good actress as an adult and even though she was popular, it wasn't like when she was a kid. She did the TV series, also. What do you want? She had two big, successful careers in her life.

Many leading acting careers last only 5 or 6 years, hers lasted a lot longer than that. But most stars don't stay popular for a lifetime.

R32

She would have been terrific in the Andy Hardy movies!

Barrie is the “Mutual, I’m sure” girl from White Christmas and therefore a screen immortal

S. Temple appeared on more than one 700 Club when she really didn't have to (for her job in the Reagan Ad. or anything else) so that tells you all what kind of repub she really was.

R63 Absolutely true. Another line: "Well, I like that! Without so much as 'kiss my foot' or 'have an apple'!"

She also played the girl near the beginning of the original Cape Fear who tells about the experience she had with Max Cady (R. Mitchum).

She really was great dancing with Fred Astaire in those three TV specials (which were fantastic). I think she also was Fred's girlfriend at the time.

Anyone know what’s become of her daughter Lori Black, aka Lorax ?

“So she’s a pretty tough broad, you know? She’ll rip your head off and eat you for breakfast,” said Osborne.

Barrie was the highlight of the movie

I was one of Shirley's dearest friends. She would have been so proud of me for winning my Oscar, which was a real, full-size one, incidentally, not a silly miniature one like Shirley got.

When she became an adolescent, there were already some stars playing teenage roles who far outshone her (Judy Garland anyone?). I think she would have faded out had she continued, and wisely chose to exit rather than face that humiliation. I also think it's difficult for child stars to reignite careers. Mickey Rooney was able to, and Drew Barrymore and Jody Foster, but Haley Osment and Tatum O'Neal, not so much.

Her daughter played bass for the Melvins, which is pretty strange.

R66 She was kicked out of the melvins for her drug problem, then moved back in with her mom after getting busted for possession and got clean. She’s a photographer now.

[quote] In the 1930s, Graham Greene wrote a review of the Shirley temple film "Wee Willie Winkle" where he talked about the peculiar and disturbing eroticism of the very young Temple's performances. He was absolutely correct (just look at the two dances she does above), but he was successfully sued by Temple's parents and had to flee to Mexico. What's really funny is that if you read the diaries and letters of the other famous writers of the time (like Virginia Woolf) they all feel sorry for Greene and keep referring to "that bitch Shirley temple" (who was only ten years at the time).

He basically said that her films were designed to appeal to paedophiles. He wasn’t necessarily wrong. She was choreographed in dances that would make Madonna blush.

To her immense credit, Shirley Temple donated her winnings from the civil suit to British charity.

I saw her once at a mall around the time of the videos at R29 and R30. She was signing books with an instantly recognizable Shirley Temple grin, toothy and chipmunk-cheeked, but with a stiff Atherton-matron bouffant. It was a little surreal.

Graham Greene was one of the prewar fashionable Oxford communists. He was always hostile to the United States so it makes sense he would feel the same to a symbol of American global cinema dominance.

Ms. Temple entered the Palo Alto bookstore where I was working in 1977 and boy was she a pipsqueak. I had to lean over the counter to talk to her. She looked adorably dimpled.

I do not find Shirley Temple’s dancing to be erotic.

r40 = Sunny Davis

I don't doubt that Freed was a predator...but he seems to have specialized on starlets and women in the office. I can't see him doing that to Shirley Temple, who was a huge "catch" for the audio, even after her THE BLUE BIRD (1940) pretty much ended her career at Fox.

I do like YOUNG PEOPLE (1940) her final Fox film as a juvenile.

MGM tried with Shirley. They were the studio who knew how to groom juvenile performers into teenage stars.

r38: BORN TO SING is not all that dissimilar to Shirley;s JUST AROUND THE CORNER (1938).

[quote] She was choreographed in dances that would make Madonna blush.

Ridiculous. And please don’t cite one or two things out of the many.

R80 Scolding like a cunt, drop dead bitch.

We haven't heard from Shirley's on screen nemesis.

[quote]I don't doubt that Freed was a predator...but he seems to have specialized on starlets and women in the office. I can't see him doing that to Shirley Temple, who was a huge "catch" for the audio, even after her THE BLUE BIRD (1940) pretty much ended her career at Fox.

Sexual predators escalate their offending. Freed exposing himself to a child is entirely plausible and a major indicator that he did a lot of other sick shit for which he was never held accountable.

It does seem strange that Freed would expose himself to Shirley with her mother at the studio meeting with Mayer at the same time. But I guess he thought he'd get away with it, and he did get away with it.

Don't forget the Baby Burlesks...

Too bad our Jon-Benet wasn't around then.

[quote] Don't forget the Baby Burlesks...

Don't infer 21st century prudery to the depression era.

[quote]Don't infer 21st century prudery to the depression era.

Oh, dear.

She was so good in "Young People" and "Heidi".

Wasn’t she on the Good Ship Lollipop when it hit the iceberg? You know Dorothy, they made that movie about it, Lifeboat staring Marlene Dietrich.

Not yet mentioned was her adult role in John Ford's "Fort Apache (1948)". Great movie.

Shirley played the daughter of the fort's new commanding officer Lt. Colonel Thursday, played by Henry Fonda. Fonda's character was a nasty SOB. Jealous, stupid and ignorant.

Shirley does a fine job, with a light touch. Her character has her eye on Lt Michael O'Rouke (played by Shirley's husband John Agar) the son of the Sgt Major Michael O'Rouke (played by Ward Bond). Fonda questions Bond to ask how Bond's son got an appointment to West Point.

Here's the dialog...

Lt. Col. Thursday: This Lt. O'Rourke - are you by chance related?

RSM Michael O'Rourke: Not by chance, sir, by blood. He's my son.

Lt. Col. Thursday: I see. How did he happen to get into West Point?

RSM Michael O'Rourke: It happened by presidential appointment, sir

Lt. Col. Thursday: Are you a former officer, O'Rourke?

RSM Michael O'Rourke: During the war, I was a major in the 69th New York regiment... The Irish Brigade, sir.

Lt. Col. Thursday: Still, it's been my impression that presidential appointments were restricted to sons of holders of the Medal of Honor.

RSM Michael O'Rourke: That is my impression, too, sir. Will that be all, sir?

...

That's all that's said but the audience and the new nasty, jealous, suspicious Colonel now know that the senior O'Rourke was the holder of the Medal of Honor.

^ And O'Rourke Sr had no need to brag of his accomplishment to the new CO. He only reveals that he has the MOH through answering Fonda's probing, ignorant questions.

What's always fascinating to me about Shirley Temple is that her cutesy-pie "singing" and acting have aged terribly, but her dancing as a small child is still extraordinary. She could really keep up with great dancers like Bill Robinson and Buddy Ebsen.

Homer Simpson (as King Kong) meeting Shirley Temple makes me laugh every time.