- Screenshot from a public domain film The Little Princess (1939) starring Shirley Temple and Richard Greene (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Shirley Temple died today. She was 85, which is hard to imagine.
I watched her darling performances when I was a child, and loved her, wanted to be her.
She was about 35 years old, then, older than my mom.
I never knew it.
When my own children were small, I searched out these amazing movies, for their viewing pleasure.
They also fell completely in love with the little cute-pie.
As an adult, I read her autobiography, Child Star. That broke my heart.
All the time she was smiling for us, it was because she feared being locked into a black box.
And all the money she made went to her mom, who used it to build luxury houses for self.
And her hair was naturally straight. Every kink came at quite a cost, for a tiny one.
- Cover of Captain January
But she really was that sweet and when she attended school she got in trouble for smiling all the time.She couldn’t not smile.
She just missed Valentine’s Day. Ironic, for everyone’s sweetheart, eh?
Probably my favorite of her movies are The Little Princess, because of the graciousness of the queen, the great scenes in the attic, and that thing with the ash bucket. Especially that thing with the ash bucket.
But I also love Captain January for the fairly true picture it gives of home school, and for the site of her tap dancing a hornpipe with a young Jed Clampett.
I shall miss her.
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All photos: Wikipedia
Home's Cool! 
Seemed very sad the little I know about her.
Her life would have made me sad, indeed, but she seemed to be able to rise above it, unlike some of her peers.
I marked her book as “Want to Read” on GoodReads. I haven’t seen very many of her movies, honestly, but I wouldn’t mind renting a few now.
One amazing thing we never realized about her movies until we’d seen them all: She always played an orphan or half-orphan. One thing to watch out for, if you intend to show these to your children–in all but one, there is a second plot of love-at-first-sight. The exception is in Captain January, where there is a romantic vein, but it is a long-going acquaintance. Have fun. 🙂
I agree, Kathy, The Little Princess is my favorite movie that she played in.
Karen
We watched it last night, along with Captain January. Laughed and cried as if I’d never seen them before.
Did you, like me, experience an inordinate rejoicing at the ash bucket scene? 😉
Naturally!!
Oh, my goodness–as Shirley would say…There’s a new “Hate Shirley” group fast-forming, because she was a Republican, politically, as an adult, so many years ago?
Nothing like a little tolerance, eh?
shirley temple is an icon. 🙂 you got me noting down that i need to get that book and read it.
It’s a good book and easy to read, but sad. Worth the trouble, but very expensive. Many libraries have it…
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.! 🙂
i’ll be checking the nearest bookstore here for it. 🙂
🙂