The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America (41 page)

37
“Biography of Shirley Temple,” Fox Film, March 1935, Clippings File—Shirley Temple, MHL. On the legend of Lana Turner’s discovery, see Jib Fowles,
Starstruck: Celebrity Performers and the American Public
(Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992), 60.

38
“The Story behind Shirley Temple’s Amazing Career,”
Screen Book
, August 1934, 42, 63, 67; Gladys Hall, telegram to Lester Grady, May 20, 1936, Gladys Hall Papers, MHL.

39
Rosalind Shaffer, “The Private Life of Shirley Temple, Wonder Child of the Screen,”
Chicago Daily Tribune
, September 9, 1934, G1ff.; Black,
Child Star
, 55–57. On breaches of requisite rest and instructional periods for child film actors, see Diana Serra Cary,
Hollywood’s Children: An Inside Account of the Child Star Era
(Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1997), 224.

40
Ida Zeitlin, “A Day on the Set with Shirley,”
Screenland
, September 1936, 78; Thornton Martin, “Miracle Moppet,”
Ladies’ Home Journal,
February 1938, 22.

41
“More Fun,”
Modern Screen
, May 1935, 51; “Summer’s the Time for Fun,”
Modern Screen
, July 1936, 8; “From Eight to Eight with Shirley,”
Modern Screen
, March 1936, 42–43; “[Shirley] Temple’s Physical Condition,”
Screen Guide
, n.d. 1938, in Shirley Temple scrapbook, vol. 1, Constance McCormick Collection, USC.

42
Joshua Gamson,
Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 28–32.

43
See, for example, Temple, “Bringing Up Shirley,” 22–27, 92–94; Gertrude Temple, as told to Mary Sharon,
How I Raised Shirley Temple
(Akron, OH: Saalfield, 1935, first pub. in
Silver Screen
); Gertrude Temple, “Shirley Temple” (excerpted version of “How I Raised Shirley Temple” trans. into Spanish),
Bohemia
[Havana, Cuba], March 3, 1935, 6, 7, 59, 60, 64; Constance J. Foster, “Mrs. Temple on Bringing Up Shirley,”
Parents Magazine
, October 1938, 22–23. In one national survey in the early 1930s, 91 percent of mothers and 65 percent of fathers from professional classes reported reading child-rearing advice in newspapers and magazines. Lisa Jacobson,
Raising Consumers: Children and the American Mass Market in the Early Twentieth Century
(New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 174.

44
Helen Hunt, “Is Hollywood Spoiling Shirley Temple?”
Movie Mirror
, October 1934, 94; Temple, “Bringing Up Shirley,” 92; Dixie Wilson, “The Answer to Shirley Temple’s Future,”
Photoplay
, November 1937, 26.

45
Dorothy Cocks, “Beauty Secrets of a Star,”
Pictorial Review,
May 1936, 65; Lindeman, “Real Miss Temple,” 6.

46
Black,
Child Star
, 145.

47
David and David,
Shirley Temple Story
, 100–101; Black,
Child Star
, 48. Black says that Hall tried to trick her into thinking that her mother was truly gone.

48
Black,
Child Star
, 517, 7; Robert Windeler,
The Films of Shirley Temple
(Secaucus, NJ: Citadel Press, 1978), 38.

49
Hunt, “Is Hollywood Spoiling Shirley Temple?” 11.

50
Benzion Liber,
The Child and the Home: Essays on the Rational Bringing-up of Children
, 2nd ed. (New York: Rational Living, 1923), 74; Temple, “Bringing Up Shirley,” 22–27, 92–94; Temple,
How I Raised Shirley Temple
, 14; Foster, “Mrs. Temple on Bringing Up Shirley,” 22; “Peewee’s Progress,” cover (
Time
), 37. For Shirley’s memory of her first spanking by her mother, see Black,
Child Star
, 58. Only several years later did Gertrude Temple profess not to remember ever spanking her daughter. On theories and practices of punishing children in this period, see Grant,
Raising Baby by the Book
, 150–52.

51
Hurrell and Stine,
Hurrell Style
, 127.

52
Zeitlin, “Day on the Set with Shirley,” 78; Joseph F. Dinneen, “Shirley Acclaimed by Boston,”
Boston Globe
, July 30, 1938, 1. For similar views, see, for example, Ruth Biery, “We Disagree with Shirley’s Mother,”
Modern Screen
, September 1935, 26–27ff.; Michael Jackson, “Protecting the Future of the Greatest Little Star,”
Photoplay
, March 1937, 26–27, 99–100.

53
Norman J. Zierold,
The Child Stars
(New York: Coward-McCann, 1965), 23.

54
David Emblidge, ed.,
My Day: The Best of Eleanor Roosevelt’s Acclaimed Newspaper Columns, 1936–1962
(New York: Da Capo Press, 2001), 27–28; Black,
Child Star
, 236–37 (emphasis in original).

55
Theodore Taylor,
Jule: The Story of Composer Jule Styne
(New York: Random House, 1979), 67, 69, 71.

56
“George F. Temple, Father and Manager of Shirley Temple,”
Washington Post
, October 2, 1980, C4; Black,
Child Star
, 83.

57
Black,
Child Star
, 156–57.

58
Black,
Child Star
, 52; Cary,
Hollywood’s Children
, 142. “You Are the Ideal of My Dreams” was written by Herbert Ingraham and published in 1910. Oliver Hardy popularized it in Laurel and Hardy’s 1931 film
Beau Hunks
.

59
Cary,
Hollywood’s Children
, 134.

60
Wilson, “Answer to Shirley Temple’s Future,” 69.

61
Foster, “Mrs. Temple on Bringing Up Shirley,” 23.

62
Viviana Zelizer,
Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994), 97–112; Jacobson,
Raising Consumers
, esp. 56–92.

63
Cary,
Hollywood’s Children
, 242–43.

64
“Coogan a ‘Bad Boy,’ His Mother Testifies,”
New York Times
, April 19, 1938, 24; “Cinema: Kid,”
Time
, May 2, 1938, 41; “Coogan Says Stepfather Bet $100 as He Risked $2,”
New York Herald Tribune
, April 13, 1938, 16.

65
Black,
Child Star
, 80–83; Ben Maddox, “What Insiders Know about Shirley,”
Screenland
, August 1939, 91. For reassurances of George Temple’s careful stewardship of Shirley’s earnings, see, e.g., Temple, “Bringing Up Shirley,” 93–94; Temple,
How I Raised Shirley Temple
, 30; Sargent, “New Slant on Shirley,” 82; “Peewee’s Progress,” 44; “Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood,”
Los Angeles Times
, April 25, 1940, 12. Jackie Coogan’s father had made similar assurances as early as 1923. Diana Serra Cary,
Jackie Coogan: The World’s Boy King: A Biography of Hollywood’s Legendary Child Star
(Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2003), 99.

66
Gladys Hall, “Is Shirley Temple Going to Leave Us?”
Movie Mirror
, May 1940, 83.

67
Arlie Russell Hochschild,
The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983), 7; Hochschild,
Managed Heart
, 20th anniv. ed. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003), 199–207.

68
Milton Berle with Haskel Frankel,
Milton Berle: An Autobiography
(New York: Delacorte, 1974), 44, 67; Tom Goldrup and Jim Goldrup,
Growing Up on the Set: Interviews with 39 Former Child Actors of Classic Film and Television
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2002), 65.

EPILOGUE: SHIRLEY VISITS ANOTHER PRESIDENT

1
Shirley Temple Black,
Child Star: An Autobiography
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1988), 324–26, 340, 347–50; Gladys Hall, “Mrs. Temple Tells What Shirley Will Do,”
Movie Mirror
, October 1940, 48.

2
During production of
Since You Went Away
in 1943, for example, David Selznick wrote, “I’m anxious to get the accent off this as a Temple vehicle and start hammering away at its tremendous cast.” Rudy Behlmer, ed.,
Memo from David O. Selznick
(New York: Viking, 1972), 327.

3
T.S. [Theodore Strauss], review of
Miss Annie Rooney
,
New York Times
, June 8, 1942, 11.

4
Bosley Crowther, review of
Kiss and Tell
,
New York Times
, October 26, 1945, 16; Crowther, review of “
Honeymoon
,
New York Times
, May 19, 1947, 27; Crowther, review of
That Hagen Girl
,
New York Times,
October 25, 1947, 13. Reagan testified before the committee on October 23, 1947. Cooper also testified on October 23, and Menjou on October 21, 1947.

5
Bosley Crowther, review of
Adventure in Baltimore
,
New York Times
, April 29, 1949, 27.

6
Black,
Child Star
, 377–79, 381, 383–84.

7
“And They Lived Happily,”
Newsweek
, October 1, 1945, 32; Black,
Child Star
, 382, 385, 446; Dan Ford,
Pappy: The Life of John Ford
(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979), 217.

8
“Remembering Charles Alton Black,”
Stanford Magazine
, November–December 2005, http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2005/novdec/classnotes/black.html; Black,
Child Star
, 449, 458–60, 475.

9
Black,
Child Star
, 479–87.

10
Black,
Child Star
, 486.

11
“Shirley Temple Pays a Call on President,”
New York Times
, May 15, 1953, 19; Black,
Child Star
, 514; John Updike, “How to Love America and Leave It at the Same Time,” in
Problems and Other Stories
(New York: Knopf, 1979), 44. The story first appeared in the August 19, 1972, issue of
The New Yorker
. Among the many books on postwar mass consumption, see esp. Lizabeth Cohen,
A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
(New York: Knopf, 2003). Philip Rieff, review of
The Organization Man,
by William H. Whyte Jr.,
Partisan Review,
Spring 1957, 305.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND PERMISSIONS

Many individuals and institutions helped to make this book possible. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, my professional home for more than forty years, provided support of numerous kinds, including a Spray-Randleigh Fellowship, research and travel funds, library services, and encouraging colleagues in the Departments of History and American Studies, especially Lloyd Kramer. I advanced this project considerably at the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, supported in part by a John Medlin Jr. Senior Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. For scholars, the center is, quite simply, the happiest place on earth, made especially so because of its immensely helpful staff and stimulating fellows. To enumerate all of their individual contributions would be impossible, so let me simply express my profound gratitude to each and every one.

In conducting research for this book, I benefited greatly from the help of Michael Beck, Sara Bush, Angelica Castillo, Jennifer Donnally, Joey Fink, Rosalie Genova, Elizabeth Gritter, Rachel Hynson, Greg Kaliss, Jason Kauffman, Kimberly Kutz, Pamella Lach, Elizabeth Lundeen, Blake Sloanecker, Sarah Thomson Vierra, and Jessica Wilkerson. Rachel Hynson also translated Spanish-language articles, and Emily Taylor translated Japanese newspapers. Alison Robins gave me the benefit of her dance scholar’s eye in analyzing Bill Robinson’s numbers with Shirley Temple. Wanda Wallace lent me her cache of Shirley Temple films, and Charlene Regester called my attention to other films and essays. For other kindnesses and suggestions, I am indebted to James W. Cook, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Lawrence Glickman, Elliott Gorn, Karen Halttunen, Michael Hornblow, John Howard, Mary Kelley, Lary May, Michael O’Malley, Sharon O’Brien, Joel Pfister, and Charles Weinrab.

I wish also to thank the crucial aid of archivists at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, the Harvard Theatre Collection, the Lilly Library at Indiana University, the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the National Portrait Gallery, the Stanford University Library, the State Library of New South Wales, The Strong, and the Cinema Arts Library Special Collections at the University of Southern California, where Ned Comstock was especially obliging. The staffs at Corbis Images, Culver Pictures, and Photofest considerably eased the process of obtaining illustrations.

This project began as an essay in honor of Lawrence W. Levine, and his memory and example have propelled me along the way. At every opportunity I have pelted audiences with the fruits of my research, and, instead of flinging back fruit of their own, they have consistently responded with thoughtful questions. Such generous listeners include faculty and students at American Studies Association annual meetings, the College of William and Mary, Doshisha University, Indiana University, the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, King’s College London, the National University of Singapore, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Sydney, the University of Ulster, Virginia Tech, and public audiences in Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

I contributed early versions of portions of this book as essays in “Behind Shirley Temple’s Smile: Children, Emotional Labor, and the Great Depression,” in James W. Cook, Lawrence Glickman, and Michael O’Malley, eds.,
The Cultural Turn in U.S. History: Past, Present, and Future
(©2008 by the University of Chicago, all rights reserved) and “Shirley Temple’s Paradoxical Smile,”
American Art
25, no. 3 (Fall 2011): 16–19 (©2011, Smithsonian Institution). I am grateful for permission from the University of Chicago Press and the Smithsonian Institution to republish them here.

As I drafted this book, several people gave me their discerning criticism, including my good friends William Leuchtenburg, a prodigious scholar of twentieth-century political history, and Peter Filene, a sensitive historian, novelist, and photographer. My brilliant editor at W. W. Norton, Alane Salierno Mason, vastly improved the book by her many discerning suggestions. As editorial assistant, Anna Mageras guided the process from manuscript to book. My meticulous copy editor, India Cooper, saved me from numerous slips and stumbles, as well as a few pratfalls. Another good friend, Richard Hendel, devised the book’s spirited design. My daughter, Laura, first brought Shirley Temple movies into my life, and as adults both she and my son, Peter, have cheered me onward. My wife, Joy S. Kasson, helped most of all, from her initial idea that I write about Shirley Temple through numerous archives, many drafts, and much handwringing to the very end. I cannot imagine writing this book—or, indeed, so much of my life—without her. Needless to say, the imperfections that remain are all my own.