Her first big film break came when she was six years old. She danced her little self, all across the big screen, and won the hearts of America. Heck, the whole world. Little Miss Shirley Temple.
As a sidebar, I have to say — this is how my drinking career began, probably when I was about her young age. At Christmas time, or at a big family party, my dad, aunts, and uncles would have a few drinks. None to excess. Sometimes, we kids were allowed to have “Shirley Temples.” Boy, what a treat that was. I can remember walking around my Aunt Doty’s house acting like I was big stuff, with my “Shirley Temple” in hand.
The guy who came up with the very first “Shirley Temple” was a bartender at Chasen’s in Beverly Hills. He invented the cocktail in the late 1930s and made the drink for the young actress during the pinnacle of her fame. Of course, it later took hold as a hip drink for all kids. Asking for it by name.
Back to the real Shirley. I won’t go into all the details of her career. Most of us know her big films, like “Bright Eyes” (1934), “Curly Top” (1935), “Heidi” (1937). She became a superstar for 20th Century Fox.
But that is the thing with a lot of kids that age. When they are ages three through seven, they can be adorable. But then, those eights hit. Something about the eights. And by ten years old, kids are in that pre-teen awkwardness, in which many of us borderlines on just plain ugly. I think that’s what happened to old Shirley. Because by 1938, when she was ten years old, her career started to slump. And by 1941, she was a complete wash at the box office.
She had a rough time of it, really. There were fake news stories about her. One of the biggest, especially throughout Europe, was that Shirley Temple was not a child, but an adult dwarf. It was so serious, even the Pope sent one of his Cardinals to investigate, finding that Shirley was indeed a child. Over the years, she received death threats and other negative slurs. At one point, a sleazy Hollywood producer attempted to seduce Shirley when she was 12 years old, exposing his genitals to her. Her “people” never reported these dangers, saying they feared making those threats public would cause copycatting.
But one guy who liked her was J. Edgar Hoover. Yes, the man who founded the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and all it entailed.
Apparently, Hoover also felt it his duty to protect Shirley Temple, somehow. Along with everything else, she had received several kidnap and extortion threats as a result of fame, from the very earliest of years.
All of this out of the public eye, the FBI was called in to investigate. And wouldn’t you know? J. Edgar Hoover and Shirley Temple struck up an unlikely friendship.
And this is the thing that struck me. On today’s date, on January 20, 1949, when Shirley was around 20 years old, Hoover gave her a fountain pen that emitted tear gas. Here you go, kid. Squirt somebody with this thing. He told her it was to defend herself if a producer ever again tried to get fresh. Too little, too late, I’m afraid.
A little tear gas for a young woman who probably has plenty of tears.
There were some moves to try to revive her career, but nothing panned out for Miss Temple. By the age of 22, she had completely retired from films. She did some stints in TV for a while but eventually moved her way toward politics.
She became very active in the Californian Republican Party. Temple became a diplomat, serving as United States Ambassador to Ghana, and later to Czechoslovakia.
All of this just reminds me, once again, there is so much more to see, than what we see, in all facets of life. For every story we think we know, there are a dozen stories beneath it. For every person, a thousand folds underneath.
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“Life’s under no obligation to give us what we expect.”
― Margaret Mitchell
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“Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.”
― Jeffrey Eugenides
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“No amount of regretting can change the past, and no amount of worrying can change the future.”
― Roy T. Bennett
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Seven-up, marischino cherry, and tap dancing.
