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Shirley Temple — news, coverage & facts — IJR

1938–1940

The Independent Theatre Owners Association paid for an advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter in May 1938 that included Temple on a list of actors who deserved their salaries while others' (including Katharine Hepburn and Joan Crawford) "box-office draw is nil".

In 1939, she was the subject of the Salvador Dalí painting Shirley Temple, The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time, and she was animated with Donald Duck in The Autograph Hound.

In 1940, Lester Cowan, an independent film producer, bought the screen rights to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Babylon Revisited for $80. Fitzgerald thought his screenwriting days were over, and with some hesitation, accepted Cowan's offer to write the screenplay titled "Cosmopolitan" based on the short story. After finishing the screenplay, Fitzgerald was told by Cowan that he would not do the film unless Temple starred in the lead role of the youngster Honoria. Fitzgerald objected, saying that at age 12, the actress was too worldly for the part and would detract from the aura of innocence otherwise framed by Honoria's character. After meeting Temple in July, Fitzgerald changed his mind, and tried to persuade her mother to let her star in the film. However, her mother demurred. In any case, the Cowan project was shelved by the producer. Fitzgerald was later credited with the use of the original story for The Last Time I Saw Paris starring Elizabeth Taylor.

As her contract with 20th Century-Fox was coming to a close, Temple's mother applied her for entrance into the Westlake School for Girls in September 1939. There, Temple would enroll as a seventh-grader. Temple noted that she had difficulty adapting to a school environment after having spent much of her youth with adults and private tutors. However, her classmate June Lockhart described her as having "integrated herself right away" and seeming "delighted to be there". Temple frequently attended school dances and extracurricular activities, and according to Lockhart, "students did not treat her differently despite her successful film career." Temple graduated from the school in May 1945.

Speculations and rumors

At the height of her popularity, Temple was the subject of many speculations and rumors, with several being propagated by the Fox press department. Fox publicized her as a natural talent with no formal acting or dance training. As a way of explaining how she knew stylized buck-and-wing dancing, she was enrolled for two weeks in the Elisa Ryan School of Dancing.

False claims circulated that Temple was not a child, but a 30-year-old dwarf, due in part to her stocky body type. Temple claimed in her autobiography that the Vatican dispatched Father Silvio Masante to investigate whether she was indeed a child; no further evidence was given to corroborate her claim as newspapers of the time simply reported that she was interviewed by the priest who worked as a correspondent for the L'Osservatore Romano. The fact that she never seemed to miss any teeth led some people to conclude that she had all her adult teeth. Temple was actually losing her primary teeth regularly through her days with Fox—for example, during the sidewalk ceremony in front of Grauman's Theatre, where she took off her shoes and placed her bare feet in the concrete, taking attention away from her face. When acting, she wore dental plates and caps to hide the gaps in her teeth. Another rumor said her teeth had been filed to make them appear like baby teeth.

A rumor about Temple's trademark hair was that she wore a wig. On multiple occasions, fans yanked her hair to test the rumor. She later said she wished all she had to do was wear a wig, bemoaning the nightly process she had to endure in the setting of her curls as tedious and grueling, with weekly vinegar rinses that stung her eyes.

Rumors spread that her hair color was not naturally blonde. During the making of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, news spread that she was going to do extended scenes without her trademark curls. During production, she also caught a cold, which caused her to miss a couple of days. As a result, a false report originated in Britain that all of her hair had been cut off.

Diplomatic career

Temple became active in the California Republican Party. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully in a special election in California's 11th congressional district after eight-term Republican J. Arthur Younger died of leukemia. She ran in the open primary as a conservative Republican and came in second with 34,521 votes (22.44%), behind Republican law school professor Pete McCloskey, who placed first in the primary with 52,882 votes (34.37%) and advanced to the general election with Democrat Roy A. Archibald, who finished fourth with 15,069 votes (9.79%), but advanced as the highest-placed Democratic candidate. In the general election, McCloskey was elected with 63,850 votes (57.2%) to Archibald's 43,759 votes (39.2%). Temple received 3,938 votes (3.53%) as an independent write-in.

Temple was extensively involved with the Commonwealth Club of California, a public-affairs forum headquartered in San Francisco. She spoke at many meetings throughout the years, and was president for a period in 1984.

Temple got her start in foreign service after her failed run for Congress in 1967, when Henry Kissinger overheard her talking about South West Africa at a party. He was surprised that she knew anything about it. She was appointed as a delegate to the 24th United Nations General Assembly (September – December 1969) by President Richard M. Nixon and United States Ambassador to Ghana (December 6, 1974 – July 13, 1976) by President Gerald R. Ford. She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the United States (July 1, 1976 – January 21, 1977).

In 1976, Temple was considered a potential running mate to Gerald Ford in that year's presidential election. While staying in Kansas City for the Republican National Convention, Temple and her husband were given a room with a White House telephone in it. Temple recalled that she speculated to her husband that the phone had been installed as Ford was about to ask her to be his running mate at the convention; however, the phone was disconnected. Bob Dole was instead chosen as the Vice Presidential nominee.

Temple had hoped after Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 presidential election that she would be given a cabinet position or another ambassadorship. Reagan did send Temple as his representative to Paris as part of American inaugural celebrations abroad; however, she was not given any new diplomatic posting during the Reagan administration. Writer Anne Edwards suggested that this was because Temple had supported Reagan's rival, George H. W. Bush, in the 1980 Republican primaries. When rumors circulated that Reagan was planning to reappoint Temple as chief of protocol after Lenore Annenberg's resignation, Temple remarked that she didn't "believe in looking back". While the role was not a posting, Temple was appointed Foreign Affairs Officer within the Reagan State Department, responsible for training new diplomats. In 1987, George Shultz appointed her as an Honorary Foreign Service Officer, the first in the State Department's history.

She served as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992), having been appointed by President George H. W. Bush, and was the first and only woman in this job. Temple bore witness to two crucial moments in the history of Communist Czechoslovakia. She was in Prague in August 1968, as a representative of the International Federation of Multiple Sclerosis Societies, and was going to meet with Czechoslovak party leader Alexander Dubček on the very day that Soviet-backed forces invaded the country. Dubček fell out of favor with the Soviets after a series of reforms, known as the Prague Spring. Temple, who was stranded at a hotel as the tanks rolled in, sought refuge on the roof of the hotel. She later reported that it was from there she saw an unarmed woman on the street gunned down by Soviet forces, the sight of which stayed with her for the rest of her life.

Later, after she became ambassador to Czechoslovakia, she was present during the Velvet Revolution, which brought about the end of communism in Czechoslovakia. Temple openly sympathized with anti-communist dissidents, and assisted their efforts. She was ambassador when the United States established formal diplomatic relations with the newly elected government led by Václav Havel. She took the unusual step of personally accompanying Havel on his first official visit to Washington, traveling on the same plane.