EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS
Shirley Temple was born on Monday April 23, 1928, in Santa Monica, CA to George Francis Temple, a bank employee and Gertrude Amelia Krieger, a housewife. Early in 1931, Mrs. Temple convinced her three-year-old daughter had exceptional talent, and, at the prompting of her husband, enrolled the youngster in the highly competitive Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles, California on the Mack Sennett lot (leased at the time to Educational Pictures, a Poverty Row studio) for twice weekly dance lessons. Shortly after Temple's third birthday, Educational Pictures planned a series of one-reelers called Baby Burlesks to compete with the popular Our Gang comedy shorts. Charles Lamont, a film director with Educational,encouraged her to audition for the series. She did, and was signed to a two-year contract.
B. 1928
Stats:
Bith Name:
Shirley Jane Temple
Height: 5' 2"
Eye Color: light brown
Hair Color: light brown
Nickname: "Curly Top"
Quote: "I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."
Bith Name:
Shirley Jane Temple
Height: 5' 2"
Eye Color: light brown
Hair Color: light brown
Nickname: "Curly Top"
Quote: "I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph."
Temple made her screen debut in April 1932 with Runt Page, a spoof of the play and film The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. It was the only film in the series dubbed by adults. The remaining films in the series would by voiced by the children themselves. Temple's first spoken screen line was "Mais oui, mon cher" in War Babies, and her first on-screen tap dance and song, "She's Only a Bird in a Gilded Cage", occurred in Glad Rags to Riches.In February 1934, she signed a contract with Fox Films after Educational declared bankruptcy in September 1933.
In April 1934, Stand Up and Cheer! became Temple's breakthrough film. Fox became aware of her charisma while the film was in production and began promoting Temple well before the film's release. She received widespread critical acclaim and truckloads of fan mail. In June, Temple garnered more critical and popular acclaim for her performance in Paramount's Little Miss Marker. She finished 1934 with the December 28 release of Bright Eyes-the first feature film crafted specifically for her talents and the first in which her name was raised above the title. In 1934, Fox Films faced serious financial difficulties and merged with producer Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures to become Twentieth Century-Fox.
For more information about Shirley Temple please visit: Wikipedia
Shirley Temple's Selected Filmography
1932 The Red-Haired Alibi
1933 Out All Night
1933 To the Last Man
1934 Carolina
1934 As the Earth Turns
1934 Stand Up and Cheer!
1934 Change of Heart
1934 Little Miss Marker
1934 Now I'll Tell
1934 Baby Take a Bow
1934 Now and Forever
1934 Bright Eyes
1935 The Little Colonel
1935 Our Little Girl
1935 Curly Top
1935 The Littlest Rebel
1936 Captain January
1936 Poor Little Rich Girl
1936 Dimples
1936 Stowaway
1937 Wee Willie Winkie
1937 Heidi
1937 Ali Baba Goes to Town
1938 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
1938 Little Miss Broadway
1938 Just Around the Corner
1939 The Little Princess
1939 Susannah of the Mounties
1940 The Blue Bird
1940 Young People
1941 Kathleen
1942 Miss Annie Rooney
1944 Since You Went Away
1944 I'll Be Seeing You
1945 Kiss and Tell
1947 Honeymoon
1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
1947 That Hagen Girl
1948 Fort Apache
1949 Mr. Belvedere Goes to College
1949 Adventure in Baltimore
1949 The Story of Seabiscuit
1949 A Kiss for Corliss
1933 Out All Night
1933 To the Last Man
1934 Carolina
1934 As the Earth Turns
1934 Stand Up and Cheer!
1934 Change of Heart
1934 Little Miss Marker
1934 Now I'll Tell
1934 Baby Take a Bow
1934 Now and Forever
1934 Bright Eyes
1935 The Little Colonel
1935 Our Little Girl
1935 Curly Top
1935 The Littlest Rebel
1936 Captain January
1936 Poor Little Rich Girl
1936 Dimples
1936 Stowaway
1937 Wee Willie Winkie
1937 Heidi
1937 Ali Baba Goes to Town
1938 Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm
1938 Little Miss Broadway
1938 Just Around the Corner
1939 The Little Princess
1939 Susannah of the Mounties
1940 The Blue Bird
1940 Young People
1941 Kathleen
1942 Miss Annie Rooney
1944 Since You Went Away
1944 I'll Be Seeing You
1945 Kiss and Tell
1947 Honeymoon
1947 The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
1947 That Hagen Girl
1948 Fort Apache
1949 Mr. Belvedere Goes to College
1949 Adventure in Baltimore
1949 The Story of Seabiscuit
1949 A Kiss for Corliss
Full Movie: The Little Princess (1939)
A little girl is left by her father in an exclusive seminary for girls, due to her father having to go to Africa with the army. - Taken from IMDB
The studio's top priority became developing projects, vehicles, and stories for Temple, and, to that end, the "Shirley Temple Story Development" team of nineteen writers went to work creating eleven original stories and adaptions of the classics. In the midst of the depression Temple films were seen as generating hope and optimism, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "It is a splendid thing that for just a fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles."
In 1938, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Broadway, and Just Around the Corner were released. The latter two were critical duds with Corner the first Temple film to falter at the box office. Her next film, The Little Princess was a 1939 critical and commercial success with Temple's acting at its peak. In 1940, Temple starred in two consecutive flops at Twentieth Century-Fox (The Blue Bird and Young People). Zanuck preferred to disassociate himself and the studio from a child star whose career was clearly finished. Temple's parents were furious but bought up the remainder of her contract. At the studio, Temple's bungalow was renovated, all traces of her tenure expunged, and the building reassigned as an office complex. After a small comeback in the mid-1940's Shirley Temple officially retired from films on December 16, 1950.
Early Days Productions: Shirley Temple 04/10/2012
