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She got her start in the movies at the age of three in the 1932
film 'War Babies' and soon progressed to super stardom, and by
the age of six won a special Academy Award for her "outstanding
contribution to screen entertainment" in 1934. Shirley could
do it all, act, sing and dance and all at the age of five!. She
learned her trade at Meglin's, a popular talent school. Judy
Garlandwas once a fellow 'Meglin
Kiddie'. Shirley's first appearance on film was was in
Educational comedies. Her first dance number on the screen was
with James Dunnin 'Stand Up and
Cheer' when she was only six years old. While
filming Baby Takes A Bow, Temple was asked 'what if the movie
is not a success,' her response 'Then we will name it Baby Takes
a Flop'.
---Temple would be teamed up with many leading men as
Dance Partners
with Buddy Ebsenbeing one of her
best, however Bojangles
and Temple danced in many of her movies and were an unbeatable
combination. By
1939, her popularity was declining, She
was supposed to play 'Dorothy' in The Wizard of Oz (1939,) but
20th Century Fox refused to lend her to MGM, so Judy Garland got
the role. Although, she starred in movies like 'Since You Went
Away,' and the 'Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer,' her movie career
was coming to a close as a teenager. The movie $
Young People, was Shirley's last movie for Fox and as a child
actress, in it she does one of her best Tap dance numbers and
at the end says a heart touching farewell to her fans.
--- In
her later years she would become involved with Politics. I n
1969 she would become a Delegate to the United Nations, in 1974
U.S. Ambassador to Ghana, in 1976 was the U.S. Chief of Protocol,
in 1989 became the U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia and in 1998
she was the Recipient of Kennedy Center Honors.
England
had it's own version of Shirley Temple, her name was Hazel
Ascot.
