February 22, 1935: The Little Colonel premieres. It turns Shirley Temple, only 6 years old, into America's Sweetheart.
Shirley Jane Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California, outside Los Angeles and not far from the early Hollywood studios. She made her first film in 1931, only 3 years old. The 1934 film Little Miss Marker, based on a story by Damon Runyon, made her a star. Later in the year, she starred in Bright Eyes. The film is all but forgotten now, but a song from it is remembered: Her performance of "On the Good Ship Lollipop." (The "ship" was actually an airplane.)
The Little Colonel was adapted from the 1885 children's novel of the same name by Annie Fellows Johnston, about the reconciliation of an estranged father and daughter after the American Civil War. Shirley played the daughter, and Lionel Barrymore, one of the greatest living actors, played the father.
Also in the film was Bill Robinson, the black dancer known as Bojangles, and Hattie McDaniel, who would later win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Gone with the Wind. The film is best known for Bill and Shirley performing a tap dance scene on a staircase. It was the first interracial dance pairing in Hollywood history, and it was so controversial that it was cut out when shown in the South.
Bojangles and Shirley
The same month that The Little Colonel was released, she was given a special Juvenile Academy Award, because her popularity had helped to "save" Hollywood during the Great Depression. Later in 1935, Curly Top was released, and it featured Shirley singing "Animal Crackers in My Soup." Along with "On the Good Ship Lollipop," it became her best-known song. Her image of wholesome childhood innocence helped to sell pretty much anything that could have her picture put on it: Dolls, dishes, clothes, lunch boxes.
She appeared in 29 films from the ages of 3 to 10, but in only 14 films from the ages of 14 to 21. In 1945, at age 17, she married Sergeant John Agar, a physical training instructor in the U.S. Army Air Corps, whose family were wealthy Chicago meat-packers. They had a daughter, Linda, in 1948. But John was an alcoholic, and they divorced in 1949.
By that point, her film career was already in serious decline. By the time she starred in That Hagen Girl in 1947, alongside Ronald Reagan, she had become a curvy 19-year-old woman. The film's plot, which featured Reagan, then 36, as a man trying to date Temple's character while the small town they're in is spreading the rumor that she was actually his illegitimate daughter, turned a lot of people off.
She made her last film in 1950. That same year, she met Charles Alden Black, a fruit company executive who had served in Naval Intelligence in World War II. They got married, and had son Charles Jr. in 1952 and daughter Lori in 1954. The Blacks moved to the San Francisco Bay Area after Charles Sr. got a job at the Stanford Research Institute. Shirley and Charles Sr. were happily married until his death in 2005.
From 1958 to 1961, she hosted Shirley Temple's Storybook on NBC. It was an anthology series, teleplays based on fairy tales. Each of her 3 children appeared in at least 1 episode.
She was a Republican, and in 1969, President Richard Nixon, trying to shore up his "Middle America" (or, as he would later call it, "Silent Majority") credentials, appointed her to represent the U.S. at a session of the United Nations General Assembly. By this point, she was using her married name: Shirley Temple Black.
In 1973, in an article for McCall's magazine, she announced that she had been successfully treated for breast cancer. A shocked nation realized that Shirley Temple had breasts. Well, she was 45 years old with a husband and 3 grown children. But her admission, at a time when cancer -- and breasts, for that matter -- was something not talked about in polite society helped to raise awareness of the disease and what could be done about it. She probably saved thousands of lives from the effects of various forms of cancers, by convincing people to get checked early.
In 1974, President Gerald Ford appointed her to be the U.S. Ambassador to the African nation of Ghana. In 1976, he appointed her to be Chief of Protocol of the United States, a diplomatic advisor to the President with the rank of Ambassador. She was the 1st woman to serve in that office. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed her to be the U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
A "Shirley Temple" is a non-alcoholic drink made with ginger ale and a splash of grenadine, and garnished with a maraschino cherry. It is served to children at parties where alcoholic drinks are served. When served with rum or vodka, the drink is called a "Dirty Shirley." If dark rum is used, it's called a "Shirley Temple Black."
Its origin is disputed. In a 1986 interview, Shirley said, "Those were created, probably in the middle 1930s, by the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood, and I had nothing to do with it. But, all over the world, I am served that. People think it's funny. I hate them. Too sweet!"
In 1998, she received a Kennedy Center Honor. In 2005, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Screen Actors Guild. The ceremony was broadcast on CBS, and, at age 77, she was far from the little girl with the curls, but she was still recognizable. She said, "I'm going to give you the secret of success in show business: Start early!"
She was a lifelong smoker, but she never smoked in public, because she didn't want her fans to see her smoking. The habit caught up with her, though, and she died as a result of it, on February 10, 2014, at her home in Woodside, California, in the Bay Area. She was 85, although she did live long enough to see the birth of a great-granddaughter.
Her elder daughter, who goes by her middle name, Susan Agar, also dropped out of acting as she approached adulthood, and has stayed out of the spotlight. Charles Black Jr. is a real estate agent. Lori Black, a.k.a. "Lorax," joined the rock bands Clown Alley and The Melvins as bass guitarist. She beat a drug addiction, and became a photographer. As of February 22, 2022, all are still alive, and have stayed close throughout their lives.
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February 22, 1935 was a Friday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. And while the NHL was in season, no games were scheduled. So there were no scores on this historic day.
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