50 Fun Facts About Shirley Temple

In which years was Shirley Temple Hollywood's number-one box-office draw?

She was a child star through the whole run, retiring from film in 1950.

Where was Shirley Temple born on 23 April 1928?

Her father was a bank employee and her mother a homemaker who styled her hair in ringlets.

How old was Temple when she began her film career in 1931?

A casting director spotted her at dance school, where she hid behind a piano.

What was the name of the series of 10-minute shorts that used preschool children in every role, in which Temple got her start?

They satirised recent films; she played a saloon singer in a parody of Mae West.

Which 1934 film, with the song 'Baby, Take a Bow', was Temple's breakthrough at Fox?

She had auditioned on 7 December 1933 and won a $150-a-week contract.

What was Temple's weekly salary under her first Fox contract in 1933?

By the end of 1935 she was earning $2,500 a week.

Which 1934 film, written specifically for her, contains her signature song 'On the Good Ship Lollipop'?

It was her third film with James Dunn.

What special honour did the six-year-old receive in February 1935?

The miniature Oscar recognised her contribution as a juvenile performer during 1934.

Which tap dancer, her favourite co-star, performed the famous staircase dance with her in The Little Colonel?

They made four films together.

How many blond curls was Temple famously said to have?

Setting them each night was tedious, with weekly vinegar rinses that stung her eyes.

Which president said it was 'a splendid thing that for just 15 cents, an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles'?

Her films were seen as a natural balm for the Depression.

Which 1935 film gave her the signature song 'Animal Crackers in My Soup'?

It was her last film before 20th Century Pictures merged with Fox.

At which famous filming location in Chatsworth was a rock feature eventually named after her?

Elaborate sets for her films were built there in Chatsworth.

Which surrealist painted her in 1939 as 'The Youngest, Most Sacred Monster of the Cinema in Her Time'?

That same year she was animated alongside Donald Duck in The Autograph Hound.

Which novelist wrote a screenplay based on his story Babylon Revisited that a producer insisted must star the 12-year-old Temple?

He first thought her too worldly for the part, then changed his mind after meeting her; her mother said no.

Which producer, at MGM, allegedly exposed himself to Temple at a preliminary interview?

When she responded with nervous giggles he threw her out and ended the contract.

Temple's only film for MGM was which unsuccessful 1941 picture?

MGM feared Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland would upstage her in Babes on Broadway and dropped her from it.

Which 1947 film paired Temple with Cary Grant?

It was one of her few hits of the 1940s.

Which future US president appeared with Temple in That Hagen Girl (1947)?

Decades later she was disappointed not to receive an ambassadorship from him.

What was the title of Temple's last film, released in 1949?

She formally announced her retirement from films in 1950.

An audience member pointed a handgun at the star during her 1939 radio debut, believing what?

The daughter had died on the day the woman wrongly believed Temple was born.

Temple's 1942 CBS radio series, based on Sally Benson's stories, was called what?

Sponsored by Procter & Gamble, it ran from March to August.

From 1958 she hosted a television anthology of fairy tales called what?

It moved to NBC in 1960 as The Shirley Temple Show, now in colour.

Ideal Toy Company's Shirley Temple dolls accounted for roughly what share of all dolls sold in the US by the mid-1930s?

Her only rival as a merchandising star was Mickey Mouse.

A false rumour claimed Temple was not a child at all but what?

She claimed the Vatican even sent a priest to investigate.

Why did fans sometimes yank Temple's hair?

She said she wished all she had to do was wear a wig, given the nightly curling ordeal.

How did Temple hide the gaps from her lost baby teeth on screen?

At her Grauman's Chinese Theatre ceremony she put her bare feet in the concrete to distract from her face.

In 1967 Temple ran unsuccessfully for what office?

She came second in the open primary for California's 11th district behind Pete McCloskey.

Who overheard Temple discussing South West Africa at a party, sparking her diplomatic career?

He was surprised she knew anything about it.

Which president appointed Temple a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly in 1969?

She worked at the US Mission under Ambassador Charles Yost.

To which African country was Temple appointed US ambassador in 1974?

She was later made an honorary deputy paramount chief of the Oguaa people there.

Temple was the first woman to hold which US post, from July 1976 to January 1977?

She was even considered as a possible running mate for Gerald Ford in 1976.

Temple believed a White House phone in her Kansas City hotel room in 1976 meant Ford would ask her to be his running mate. Who was chosen instead?

The phone was disconnected before any call came.

Temple served as US ambassador to which country from 1989 to 1992?

She was the first and only woman in the job and witnessed the Velvet Revolution.

Temple was in Prague in August 1968 to meet Alexander Dubček on the very day of what event?

Stranded in her hotel, she watched from the roof as tanks rolled in and saw an unarmed woman shot.

Whom did Temple personally accompany, on the same plane, on his first official visit to Washington?

She had openly sympathised with the anti-communist dissidents.

Whom did Temple marry at 17 in 1945?

She divorced him in 1950 on the grounds of mental cruelty; he also appeared with her in Fort Apache.

Temple's daughter Lori became a bassist for which rock band?

Lori was one of two children from her marriage to Charles Alden Black.

Temple's public disclosure of which illness in 1972 was a milestone in reducing stigma?

She was 44 at the time, when cancer was rarely discussed openly.

What was Temple's cause of death in 2014, at age 85?

She had been a lifelong smoker but hid the habit so as not to set a bad example.

How many times was Temple Grand Marshal of the Rose Parade?

She held the honour in 1939, 1989 and 1999.

What did Temple think of the non-alcoholic drink named after her?

In 1988 she sued to stop a bottled soda from using her name.

What was the title of Temple's 1988 autobiography?

Two further unpublished autobiographies are to appear posthumously.

Where did Temple rank on the AFI's 1999 list of the greatest female American screen legends?

She had received the Kennedy Center Honor the year before.

Temple's classmate at Westlake School for Girls, who said she 'integrated herself right away', went on to fame in which TV series?

June Lockhart played the mother on Lost in Space and Lassie.

What did Temple leave in the wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in March 1935?

Her Hollywood Walk of Fame star followed in 1960.

The 2001 TV film of her life, with Ashley Rose Orr in the title role, was filmed where?

Temple served as a consultant on the production, directed by Nadia Tass.

Which secretary of state made Temple the first Honorary Foreign Service Officer in State Department history, in 1987?

Under Reagan she trained new diplomats but received no new ambassadorship.

Which casting director for Educational Pictures spotted Temple at dance school, where she hid behind a piano?

Lamont signed her in 1932; it was Fox songwriter Jay Gorney who later saw her dancing in a theater lobby and arranged her Stand Up and Cheer! screen test.

In 1975 Temple was installed as an honorary deputy paramount chief of which people of Ghana?

The honour came a year into her posting as US ambassador to Ghana, her first ambassadorship.