Shirley Temple, one of the greatest stars ever produced in Hollywood, and certainly THE greatest child star of them all, died yesterday at the age of 85.
She was the leading box office attraction in American movies from 1935 through 1938, and is often credited with saving, not only 20th Century Fox Studios, but perhaps the entire American film industry from bankruptcy during the throes of the Great Depression.
Unlike many child stars, Miss Temple's life did not slink into depraved tales of drug and alcohol problems or of having all her money leeched away from her by unscrupulous family members and managers. However, like many child stars, she never quite made the impact in the movies as an adult that she did as a child. She did make several movies as a teenager, but without the astounding success that she had as a child, so she pretty much retired as an actress, making her last feature film in 1949 at the age of 21.
On a personal note, I happen to be a big fan of a 1947 comedy called "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" in which Temple co-starred with Cary Grant and Myrna Loy. She was 19 years old at the time, and she was quite good in it. I guess that too many people still wanted to see the six year old curly-topped moppet, though, and Temple saw that writing on the wall, and moved on.
On another personal note, the passing of Miss Temple is being felt particularly hard by Mrs. Grandstander, who still owns her Shirley Temple doll from her youth.
After one brief marriage that ended in divorce, Temple married Charles Black in 1950, a marriage that lasted 55 years and ended with Black's death in 2005.
She returned to public life in the 1960's and served in various diplomatic positions, including a couple of ambassadorships in the Nixon, Ford, Carter, and George H.W. Bush administrations. Curiously, she did not serve in the administration of President Reagan, with whom she co-starred in a 1947 movie called "That Hagen Girl".
A victim and survivor of breast cancer in 1972, Mrs. Black became one of the first prominent American women to speak publicly of this disease.
An Academy Award winner, a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1998, and a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Awardee in 2005, Shirley Temple Black lived one terrific life.
RIP Shirley Temple.
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