Look up early bird in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Early Bird may refer to:

• A "lark", or "morning person", who usually gets up early in the morning and goes to bed early in the evening (The early bird catches the worm.)
• Dinner served earlier than traditional dinner hours, particularly at a restaurant is often referred to as early bird dinner
• Intelsat I, a 1965 communications satellite nicknamed Early Bird
• Early Bird 1, a 1997 earth observation satellite launched for EarthWatch, Inc.
• Early Birds of Aviation, an organization devoted to the history of early pilots
• The U.S. Department of Defense early morning newspaper.
• The Early Bird, a 1965 British comedy film starring Norman Wisdom
• Birdie the Early Bird, a McDonalds mascot
• The Early Bird a play by Leo Butler

Music

• The Earlybirds, pop-rock band from New Zealand.
• Early Bird Records, Jazz record label

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Sir Norman Wisdom
Norman Wisdom, Peel, Isle of Man, 2005
Birth name	Norman Joseph Wisdom
Born	(1915-02-04)4 February 1915 Marylebone, London, England
Died	4 October 2010(2010-10-04) (aged 95) Ballasalla, Isle of Man
Medium	Comedian, actor, singer-songwriter
Nationality	British
Years active	1948–2005, 2007–08
Spouse	Doreen Brett (1941–46, divorced) Freda Simpson (1947–68, divorced)
BAFTA Awards
Most Promising Newcomer to Film 1954 Trouble in Store Other awards: London Film Critics Circle: Special Achievement Award 1996: For services to comedy

Sir Norman Joseph Wisdom,^[1] OBE^[2] (4 February 1915 – 4 October 2010) was an English actor, comedian and singer-songwriter best known for a series of comedy films produced between 1953 and 1966 featuring his hapless onscreen character Norman Pitkin. These films initially made more money than the James Bond film series.^[3] Wisdom gained a celebrity status in lands as far apart as South America, Iran and many Eastern Bloc countries, particularly in Albania, where his films were the only ones by Western actors permitted by Enver Hoxha to be shown.^[4] Charlie Chaplin once referred to Wisdom as his "favourite clown".^[5]

Wisdom later forged a career on Broadway in New York and as a television actor, winning critical acclaim for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the television play Going Gently in 1981. It was broadcast on 5 June that year. He toured Australia and South Africa.^[3] After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, a hospice was named in his honour.^[4] In 1995 he was given the Freedom of the City of London and of Tirana.^[4] The same year he received an OBE.^[4] Wisdom was knighted in 2000 and spent much of his later life on the Isle of Man. Some of his later appearances included roles in Last of the Summer Wine and Coronation Street,^[4] and he retired from acting at the age of 90 after his health deteriorated.

Early and personal life[link]

Norman Joseph Wisdom was born in the Marylebone district of London. His parents were Frederick, a chauffeur, and Maud Wisdom (née Targett), a dressmaker who often worked for West End theatres. The couple married in Marylebone on 15 July 1912.^[6] Wisdom had an elder brother, Frederick Thomas "Fred" Wisdom (13 December 1912 – 1 July 1971). The family resided at 91 Fernhead Road, London W9, where they slept in one room.^[7] Wisdom quipped, "I was born in very sorry circumstances. Both of my parents were very sorry."^[8]

Wisdom was married twice. His first wife was Doreen Brett, whom he married in 1941. By 1944 they had separated when Doreen gave birth to a son, Michael (born 1944), fathered by Albert Gerald Hardwick, a telephone engineer.^[9] The marriage was dissolved in 1946.^[10]

He married his second wife, Freda Isobel Simpson, a dancer, in 1947; they had two children: Nicholas (born 1953, who later played first-class cricket for Sussex) and Jacqueline (born 1954). The couple divorced in 1969^[4] and Wisdom was granted full custody of the children.^[11] Freda Wisdom died in Brighton in 1992.^[12]

Wisdom was a lifelong supporter and a former board member of football team Brighton and Hove Albion. He also liked Everton and Newcastle United,^[13] first declaring his support for the Merseyside club when appearing in the matchday programme in an interview in 1974. He enjoyed golf^[14] and was a member of the Grand Order of Water Rats. Popular in the Isle of Man, he lived for 27 years in a house in Andreas named Ballalough (Manx language for "place of the lake", though really a humorous corruption of the English "belly laugh"). He was an Honorary Member of the Winkle Club, a famous charity in Hastings, East Sussex.^[15]

A lover of cars, he owned a 1987 Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and a Jaguar S-Type, until his age and declining mental health meant he failed a Department of Transport fitness-to-drive test, and they were sold in September 2005. A supporter of various charities including Mencap, in 2005 Wisdom starred in a video for the Manx girl group Twisted Angels, for their single "LA", in support of the local charity Project 21.^[16]

During the 1960s he was involved in a famous legal case (Wisdom v Chamberlain)(1968) in which he was pursued by the Inland Revenue for tax on profits made from the sale of silver bullion he had bought when concerned about the further devaluation of sterling. He contended that it was an investment, but the court held that it had been a trading venture and was duly chargeable to income tax.^[17]

Armed forces[link]

Norman Wisdom
Born	4 February 1915 (1915-02-04) London, United Kingdom
Died	4 October 2010 (2010-10-05) (aged 95) Ballasalla, Isle of Man
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Merchant Navy British Army
Years of service	1930–46
Unit	10th Royal Hussars Royal Corps of Signals
Battles/wars	World War II
Other work	Actor

After a period in a children's home in Deal, Kent, Wisdom ran away when he was 11 but returned to become an errand boy in a grocer's on leaving school at 13. In 1929, he walked (by his own account) to Cardiff, Wales, where he became a cabin boy in the Merchant Navy. Wisdom had been kicked out of his home by his father. He also worked as a coal miner, waiter and page boy. He first enlisted into the King's Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster), but his mother got him "unenlisted" as he was under age. He later re-enlisted as a drummer boy in the 10th Royal Hussars of the British Army and in 1930 was posted to Lucknow, in the United Provinces of British India, as a bandsman. There he gained an education certificate, rode horses, became the flyweight boxing champion of the British Army in India^[4] and learned to play the trumpet and clarinet.^[7] While performing a comedy boxing routine in an army gym, Wisdom discovered he had a talent for entertainment^[18] and began to develop his skills as a musician and stage entertainer.^[5] After leaving the army, he learned to drive and worked as a private hire car driver. Having improved his diction in the army, he also took a job as a night telephone operator.^[7]

World War II[link]

At the outbreak of World War II, Wisdom was sent to work in a communications centre in a command bunker in London where he connected telephone calls from war leaders to the prime minister. He met Winston Churchill on several occasions when asked for updates on incoming calls ^[7]and once was disciplined for calling him Winnie.^[19] He joined the Royal Corps of Signals and performed a similar function with a military unit based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. After Wisdom appeared at a charity concert at the Cheltenham Town Hall, the actor Rex Harrison came backstage and urged him to become a professional entertainer.^[20]

Theatre[link]

Leaving the army in 1946, Wisdom made his debut as a professional entertainer at the age of 31; his rise to the top was phenomenally fast. Initially the straight man to the magician David Nixon^[5], he had already adopted the costume that would remain his trademark: tweed flat cap askew, with peak turned up; a suit at least two sizes too tight; a crumpled collar and a mangled tie. The character that went with this costume—known as "the Gump"—was to dominate Wisdom's film career.

A West End star within two years, he made his TV debut the same year and was soon commanding enormous audiences. Charlie Chaplin called Wisdom his "favourite clown".^[5]

Film career[link]

Wisdom made a series of low-budget star-vehicle comedies for the Rank Organisation, beginning with Trouble in Store in 1953.^[21] This film earned him a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Film in 1954^[22] and being voted by exhibitors as the tenth biggest star at the British box office the same year.^[23] Their cheerful, unpretentious appeal make them the direct descendants of the films made a generation earlier by George Formby.^[24] Never highly thought of by the critics, they were very popular with domestic audiences and Wisdom's films were among Britain's biggest box office successes of their day. They were also successful in some unlikely overseas markets, helping Rank stay afloat financially when their more expensive film projects were unsuccessful.

The films usually involved the Gump character, Norman Pitkin, in a manual occupation in which he is barely competent and in a junior position to a straight man, often played by Edward Chapman (as Mr Grimsdale) or Jerry Desmonde. They benefited from Wisdom's capacity for physical slapstick comedy and his skill at creating a sense of the character's helplessness. The series often contained a romantic subplot; the Gump's inevitable awkwardness with women is a characteristic shared with the earlier Formby vehicles. His innocent incompetence still made him endearing to the heroine.

In 1960 he was still the tenth most popular star at the British box office.^[25] However despite a move to filming in colour, by the mid-1960s Wisdom's commercial film appeal was in eclipse. The obvious incongruity of a fifty-year old man playing the prime minister's grandson in Press for Time (1966) counted against him; Wisdom's age was inaccurately reported for many years.

Later career[link]

In 1966, Wisdom went to the United States to star in a Broadway production of the James Van Heusen and Sammy Cahn musical comedy Walking Happy. His performance was nominated for a Tony Award.

On 31 December 1976, Wisdom performed his theme song "Don't Laugh At Me ('cause I'm a Fool)" on BBC1's A Jubilee of Music, celebrating British pop music for Queen Elizabeth II's impending Silver Jubilee.^[26] Wisdom had performed in front of the Queen at many Royal Command Performances, the first being in 1952.^[27]

He also completed his first American film as a vaudeville comic in The Night They Raided Minsky's. After a typical performance on the Ed Sullivan Show,^[5] further US opportunities were denied him when he had to return to London after his second wife left him. His subsequent career was largely confined to television, and he toured the world with a successful cabaret act. He won critical acclaim in 1981 for his dramatic role of a dying cancer patient in the television play Going Gently.

Wisdom became prominent again in the 1990s, helped by the young comedian Lee Evans, whose act was often compared to Wisdom's work.^[28] His classic Rank films were playing to new audiences on television screens and DVD, with a growing number of new young fans in the United Kingdom and abroad. The high point of this new popularity was the knighthood he was awarded, for services to entertainment, in the 2000 new year's honours list.^[29] During the ceremony, once he had received his knighthood, he walked away and again performed his trademark trip which the Queen smiled and laughed at.^[30]

From 1995 until 2004 he appeared in the recurring role of Billy Ingleton in the long-running BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine. The role was originally a one-off appearance, but proved so popular that he returned as the character on a number of occasions. In 1996, he received a Special Achievement Award from the London Film Critics.^[31]

Wisdom was a guest on a This Is Your Life special in the year 2000 for actor and director Todd Carty. He appeared as a half-time guest at the England vs Albania 2002 World Cup qualifier at St James' Park, Newcastle upon Tyne, and scored a penalty at the Leazes End.^[32]

In 2002 Wisdom filmed a cameo role as a butler in a low budget horror film. In 2004, he made a cameo appearance in Coronation Street, playing fitness fanatic pensioner Ernie Crabbe. In 2007 he came out of retirement to take a role in a short film called Expresso.^[33]

Popularity in Albania[link]

Wisdom was a cult figure in Albania, where he was one of the few Western actors whose films were allowed in the country during the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. In Hoxha's view, proletarian Norman's ultimately victorious struggles against capitalism, personified by Mr Grimsdale and the effete aristocratic characters played by Jerry Desmonde, were a Communist parable on the class war. The Albanians, in their turn, simply found Norman Wisdom's slapstick comedy hilarious. He was known as "Mr Pitkin" after the character from his films. In 1995, he visited the post-Stalinist country where, to his surprise, he was greeted by many appreciative fans, including the then President of Albania, Sali Berisha. During this trip, Wisdom was filmed by Newsnight as he visited a children's project funded by ChildHope UK.^[34] On a visit in 2001, which coincided with the England football team playing Albania in the city of Tirana^[35] his appearance at the training ground overshadowed that of David Beckham. He appeared on the pitch before the start of the Albania v England match wearing a half Albanian and half English football shirt. He was well-received by the crowd, especially when he performed one of his trademark trips on his way out to the centre circle.^[36] Wisdom was made an honorary citizen of Tirana.^[37]

In his book and TV series One Hit Wonderland, Tony Hawks united with Wisdom and, along with Sir Tim Rice, released a single, "Big In Albania", in an attempt to enter the Albanian pop charts. It reached Number 18 on the Top Albania Radio chart.^[38]

Songwriting[link]

Whilst Norman's stage performances often involved musical numbers, he wrote few of them. He has seven songs attributed to him in the ASCAP database, which were: Beware, Don't Laugh at Me ('cause I'm a Fool), Falling in Love, Follow a Star, I Love You, Please Opportunity, and Up in the World.^[39]

Retirement[link]

Wisdom announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on his 90th birthday (4 February 2005). He announced that he intended to spend more time with his family, playing golf and driving around the Isle of Man, where he was living.^[14]

In 2007, Wisdom returned to acting in a feature film directed by Kevin Powis, Expresso. The film, which Wisdom later announced (reported BBC/ITV News) was to be officially his last film role, is set during one day in a coffee shop and was funded by the UK Film Council and ScreenWM. Shot in January, it premièred at the Cannes Film Festival on 27 May 2007. It was later adopted by the UK charity Macmillan and released on DVD in aid of the charity. In the film Wisdom plays a vicar plagued by a fly in a café. Producer Nigel Martin Davey gave him only a visual role so he would not have to remember any lines, but on the day Wisdom was alert and had his performance changed to add more laughs.^[40]

Health decline[link]

In mid-2006, after he suffered an irregular heart rhythm, Wisdom was flown by helicopter to hospital in Liverpool and was fitted with a heart pacemaker.^[41]

In August 2007, newspapers of the Daily Mail group and the Isle of Man Newspapers reported that Wisdom was in the Abbotswood nursing home in Ballasalla, where he had been resident from 12 July 2007.^[42]

On the release of Expresso to DVD in the same month, BBC News confirmed that Wisdom lived in a care home, due to his suffering from vascular dementia.^[40] It was also reported that he had granted his children power of attorney over his affairs and having sold off his flat in Epsom, Surrey, they were now in the process of selling his Isle of Man home to raise money to fund his longer term care.^[43]

In an exclusive interview on 27 August 2007 with the News of the World, journalists were given access to Wisdom's room at the home. He claimed to be happy and content in a routine which his family and carers considered kept him safe in spite of the memory losses associated with his condition.^[44]

On 16 January 2008,^[45] BBC2 aired Wonderland: The Secret Life Of Norman Wisdom Aged 92 and 3/4.^[46] The documentary highlighted the dilemma of coping with an aging parent. His family said that Wisdom's memory loss had become so severe that he no longer recognised himself in his films.^[47]

Death[link]

In the six months prior to his death, Wisdom suffered a series of strokes, causing a decline in his physical and mental health. He was also diagnosed with dementia. He died on 4 October 2010 at Abbotswood nursing home on the Isle of Man at the age of 95.^[48]

According to his publicist, Phil Day, "I have never met anyone in the profession who didn't like him, right up to royalty".^[49]

His funeral took place on 22 October 2010 in Douglas, Isle of Man and all of the Isle of Man were invited.^[50][51] His trademark cloth cap was placed on the coffin in the church.^[51] The funeral was attended by a large number of showbusiness personalities and, at Wisdom's request, Moira Anderson sang "Who Can I Turn To,"^[51] which was specially arranged for the occasion by Gordon Cree.^{[citation needed]}

Tributes and other references[link]

• In 1981, Norman Wisdom was listed (along with the members of the punk band the Ramones) in The Human League's song "The Things That Dreams Are Made Of," off their album DARE. Wisdom is cited in the song as an example of one of life's great pleasures, one of the best things worth experiencing in life: the "things that dreams are made of."
• In 2007, a Norman Wisdom-themed bar opened at the Sefton Hotel, Douglas, called Sir Norman's. It has stills from his many films on the walls and TV screens playing some of his old films. The bronze statue of Wisdom, which used to be on a bench outside Douglas Town Hall, has been moved to the steps leading into the bar.^[52][51]

• The 2011 film My Week with Marilyn features an actor (Glenn Michael Ford) playing Norman Wisdom in a background scene.
• In September 1991 a French speaker in an agriculture committee in the European Communities called for the communities to show "la sagesse des Normands" (the wisdom of the Normans), which was translated into English as calling for Norman Wisdom to sort out Europe's problems.^[53]

Filmography[link]

• A Date with a Dream (1948)
• Wit and Wisdom (1948–50, TV)
• Trouble in Store (1953)
• One Good Turn (1954)
• As Long as They're Happy (1955) (cameo)
• Man of the Moment (1955)
• Up in the World (1956)
• Just My Luck (1957)
• The Square Peg (1958)
• Follow a Star (1959)
• There Was a Crooked Man (1960)
• The Bulldog Breed (1960)
• The Girl on the Boat (1961)
• On the Beat (1962)
• A Stitch in Time (1963)
• The Early Bird (1965)
• The Sandwich Man (1966)
• Press for Time (1966)
• Androcles and the Lion (1967, TV)
• The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968)
• What's Good for the Goose (1969)
• Norman (1970, TV)
• Music Hall (1970, TV)
• Nobody Is Norman Wisdom (1973, TV)
• A Little Bit of Wisdom (1974, TV)
• BBC Playhouse: "Going Gently" (1981, TV)
• BBC Bergerac: "Almost Like a Holiday" (1983, TV)
• The 1950s: Music, Memories & Milestones (1988, TV)
• Double X: The Name of the Game (Double X, Run Rabbit Run) (1992)
• Last of the Summer Wine (1995–2004)
• Where on Earth Is ... Katy Manning (1998, TV)
• Casualty episode "She Loved the Rain" (1998, TV)
• Junfans Attic (2001)
• Dalziel and Pascoe episode "Mens Sana" (2002, TV)
• The Last Detective episode "Lofty" (2003, TV)
• Coronation Street (2004, TV)
• Five Children and It (2004) Played Nesbitt.
• Last of the Summer Wine episode "Variations on a Theme of the Widow Winstanley" (2004, TV)
• Expresso (2007) [www.expressofilm.com]
• Wonderland: The Secret Life Of Norman Wisdom Aged 92 and 3/4 (2008, TV) (his last appearance)

Audio recordings[link]

• I Would Like to Put on Record
• Jingle Jangle
• The Very Best of Norman Wisdom
• Androcles and the Lion
• Where's Charley?
• Wisdom of a Fool
• Nobody's Fool
• Follow a Star
• 1957 Original Chart Hits
• Follow a Star/Give Me a Night in June
• Happy Ending/The Wisdom Of A Fool
• Big in Albania – One Hit Wonderland

Books[link]

• Lucky Little Devil:Norman Wisdom on the Island He's Made His Home (2004)
• Norman Wisdom, William Hall (2003). My Turn. Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-944676-7. 
• Don't Laugh At Me, Cos I'm a Fool (1992) (two volumes of autobiography)
• Trouble in Store (1991)

Box Office Rankings[link]

Exhibitors frequently listed Wisdom as one of the most popular stars at the British box office:

• 1954 - 10th most popular star (3rd most popular British star)^[23]
• 1955 - 6th most popular star (3rd most popular British star)^[54]
• 1956 - 5th most popular British star^[55]
• 1957 - 9th most popular star (5th most popular British star)^[56]
• 1958 - 7th most popular British star^[57]
• 1959 - 3rd most popular British star^[58]
• 1960 - 10th most popular star^[25]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Pathe News clips of Wisdom from the 1950s
• Norman Wisdom at the Internet Movie Database
• Norman Wisdom at the Internet Broadway Database
• Obituary: Sir Norman Wisdom BBC Retrieved 4 October 2010
• Wisdom of Norman
• Norman Wisdom Tribute at British Classic Comedy

Shirley Jane Temple
Sixteen-year-old Temple in 1944 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, at a ceremony to raise money for Canadian Victory bonds.
Born	Shirley Jane Temple[note 1] (1928-04-23) April 23, 1928 (age 84) Santa Monica, California
Residence	Woodside, California
Other names	Shirley Jane Temple
Education	Tutors; Private high school
Alma mater	Westlake School for Girls (1940-1945)
Occupation	Film actress (1932-1950) TV actress/entertainer (1958-1965) Public servant (1969-1992)
Years active	1932-1950 as actress
Known for	Juvenile film roles
Notable work(s)	Bright Eyes; The Little Colonel; Curly Top; Wee Willie Winkie; Heidi; The Little Princess; Since You Went Away; The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer; Fort Apache; Shirley Temple's Storybook; Child Star; et. al. Often confused for playing in Annie although she was not a part of that production.
Home town	Los Angeles, California
Television	Shirley Temple's Storybook (1958-1958); The Shirley Temple Show (1960-1961)
Political party	Republican
Religion	Methodist
Spouse	John Agar (m. 1945-1950; divorced) Charles Alden Black (m. 1950-2005; his death)
Children	Linda Susan (Linda Susan Agar) Charlie Jr. (Barton Sunday) Lori Alden Black
Parents	George Francis Temple, Gertrude (nee Krieger) Temple
Relatives	Brothers John Stanley, George Francis, Jr.
Awards	Academy Award Kennedy Center Honors Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award
Website
www.shirleytemple.com

Shirley Jane Temple (born April 23, 1928), later Shirley Temple Black, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia. She began her film career in 1932 at the age of three, and in 1934, found international fame in Bright Eyes, a feature film designed specifically for her talents. She received a special Juvenile Academy Award in February 1935, and film hits such as Curly Top and Heidi followed year after year during the mid-to-late 1930s. Licensed merchandise that capitalized on her wholesome image included dolls, dishes, and clothing. Her box office popularity waned as she reached adolescence, and she left the film industry at the age of 12 to attend high school^{[clarification needed]}. She appeared in a few films of varying quality in her mid-to-late teens, and retired completely from films in 1950 at the age of 22. She was the top box-office draw four years in a row (1935–38) in a Motion Picture Herald poll.^[1][2]

Temple returned to show business in 1958 with a two-season television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations. She made guest appearances on various television shows in the early 1960s and filmed a sitcom pilot that was never released. She sat on the boards of many corporations and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte Foods, and the National Wildlife Federation. In 1967, she ran unsuccessfully for United States Congress, and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana in 1974 and to Czechoslovakia in 1989. In 1988, she published her autobiography, Child Star. Temple is the recipient of many awards and honors including Kennedy Center Honors and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

Early years[link]

Shirley Jane Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California. She is the daughter of Gertrude Amelia Temple (née Krieger), a homemaker, and George Francis Temple, a bank employee. The family was of German, Dutch, and English ancestry.^[3][4] She had two brothers, George Francis, Jr. and John Stanley.^[4][5][6] Mrs. Temple encouraged her infant daughter's singing, dancing, and acting talents, and in September 1931 enrolled her in Meglin's Dance School in Los Angeles, California.^[7][8][9] About this time, she began styling Shirley's hair in ringlets similar to those of silent film star Mary Pickford.^[10]

In January 1932, Temple was signed by Educational Pictures following a talent search at the dance school. She appeared in a series of one-reelers called Baby Burlesks,^{[11][12][13][14]} and a series of two-reelers called Frolics of Youth playing Mary Lou Rogers, a youngster in a contemporary suburban family.^[15] To underwrite production costs at Educational, Temple and her child co-stars modeled for breakfast cereals and other products.^[16][17] She was loaned to Tower Productions for a small role in her first feature film Red-Haired Alibi in 1932,^[18][19] and, in 1933, to Universal, Paramount, and Warner Bros. for various bit parts.^[20][21]

Fox films[link]

Temple's hand and foot prints at Grauman's Chinese Theater

Educational Pictures declared bankruptcy in 1933 and Temple signed with Fox Films in February 1934.^[22][23] She appeared in bit parts and was loaned to Paramount and Warner Bros for bit parts.^[24] In April 1934, Stand Up and Cheer! became Temple's breakthrough film. Her charm was evident to Fox heads and she was promoted well before the film's release. Within months, she became the symbol of wholesome family entertainment.^[25] Her salary was raised to $1,250 a week, and her mother's to $150 as coach and hairdresser.^[26] In June, her success continued with a loan-out to Paramount for Little Miss Marker.^[27][28]

On December 28, 1934, Bright Eyes was released. It was the first feature film crafted specifically for Shirley's talents and the first in which her name appeared above the title.^[29][30] Her signature song "On the Good Ship Lollipop" was introduced in the film and sold 500,000 sheet music copies. The film demonstrated Temple's ability to portray a multi-dimensional character and established a formula for her future roles as a lovable, parentless waif whose charm and sweetness mellow gruff older men.^[31] In February 1935, Temple became the first child star to be honored with a miniature Juvenile Oscar for her 1934 film accomplishments,^{[32][33][34][note 2]} and added her foot and hand prints to the forecourt at Grauman's Chinese Theatre a month later.^[35]

Twentieth Century Fox[link]

Fox Films merged with Twentieth Century Pictures to become Twentieth Century-Fox in 1934. Producer and studio head Darryl F. Zanuck focused his attention and resources upon cultivating Temple's superstar status. With four successful films to her credit, she was the studio's greatest asset. Nineteen writers known as the Shirley Temple Story Development team created 11 original stories and some adaptations of the classics for her.^{[36][note 3]}

Biographer Anne Edwards writes about the tone and tenor of Temple films under Zanuck, "This was mid-Depression, and schemes proliferated for the care of the needy and the regeneration of the fallen. But they all required endless paperwork and demeaning, hours-long queues, at the end of which an exhausted, nettled social worker dealt with each person as a faceless number. Shirley offered a natural solution: to open one's heart."^[37] Edwards points out that the characters created for Temple would change the lives of the cold, the hardened, and even the criminal with positive results.^[37] Edwards quotes a nameless filmographer: "She assaults, penetrates, and opens [the flinty characters] making it possible for them to give of themselves. All of this returns upon her at times forcing her into situations where she must decide who needs her most. It is her agony, her cavalry, and it brings her to her most despairing moments ... Shirley's capacity for love ... was indiscriminate, extending to pinched misers or to common hobos, it was a social, even a political, force on a par with democracy or the Constitution."^[38] Temple films were seen as generating hope and optimism, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt said, "It is a splendid thing that for just fifteen cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles."^{[39][note 4]}

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Shirley Temple in July 1938

Most films Temple starred in were cheaply made at $200,000 or $300,000 per picture and were comedy-dramas with songs and dances added, sentimental and melodramatic situations aplenty, and little in the way of production values. Her film titles are a clue to the way she was marketed—Curly Top and Dimples, and her "little" pictures such as The Little Colonel and The Littlest Rebel. Temple often played a fixer-upper, a precocious Cupid, or the good fairy in these films, reuniting her estranged parents or smoothing out the wrinkles in the romances of young couples. She was very often motherless, sometimes fatherless, and sometimes an orphan confined to a dreary asylum.^[40] Elements of the traditional fairy tale were woven into her films: wholesome goodness triumphing over meanness and evil, for example, or wealth over poverty, marriage over divorce, or a booming economy over a depressed one.^[41] As Temple matured into a pre-adolescent, the formula was altered slightly to encourage her naturalness, naïveté, and tomboyishness to come forth and shine while her infant innocence, which had served her well at six but was inappropriate for her tweens (or later childhood years), was toned down.^[40]

1935–1937[link]

At Zanuck's request, Temple's parents agreed to four films a year from their daughter (rather than the three they wished), and the child star's contract was reworked with bonuses to sweeten the deal. A succession of films followed: The Little Colonel, Our Little Girl, Curly Top, and The Littlest Rebel in 1935. Curly Top and The Littlest Rebel were named to Variety's list of top box office draws for 1935.^[42] In 1936, Captain January, Poor Little Rich Girl, Dimples,^{[note 5]} and Stowaway were released.

Based on Temple's many screen successes, Zanuck increased budgets and production values for her films. In 1937, John Ford was hired to direct the sepia-toned Wee Willie Winkie (Temple's own favorite) and an A-list cast was signed that included Victor McLaglen, C. Aubrey Smith, and Cesar Romero.^[43][44] The film was a critical and commercial hit,^[43] but British film critic Graham Greene muddied the waters in October 1937 when he wrote in a British magazine that Temple was a "complete totsy" and accused her of being too nubile for a nine-year-old:

Her admirers—middle-aged men and clergymen—respond to her dubious coquetry, to the sight of her well-shaped and desirable little body, packed with enormous vitality, only because the safety curtain of story and dialogue drops between their intelligence and their desire.^[45]

Temple and Twentieth Century-Fox sued for libel and won. The settlement remained in trust for Temple in an English bank until she turned twenty-one, when it was donated to charity and used to build a youth center in England.^[46][47]

The only other Temple film released in 1937 was Heidi, which, according to Edwards, was a story suited to Temple's "slightly more mature personality".^[46] Edwards points out that Temple's hair had darkened and her ringlets brushed back into curls. Temple's theatrical instincts had sharpened, Edwards observes, and she suggested the Dutch song and dance dream sequence.^[48] After minor disagreements about the dance steps with the other children in the scene, director Allan Dwan had badges made reading 'Shirley Temple Police'. Every child was issued one after swearing allegiance and obedience to Temple. Shirley wore one reading 'Chief'.^[49]

1938–1940[link]

Temple in The Little Princess

In 1938, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Little Miss Broadway, and Just Around the Corner were released. The latter two were panned by the critics, and Corner was the first Temple film to show a slump in ticket sales.^[50] The following year, Zanuck secured the rights to the children's novel, A Little Princess, believing the book would be an ideal vehicle for Temple. He budgeted the film at $1.5 million (twice the amount of Corner) and chose it to be her first Technicolor feature. The Little Princess was a 1939 critical and commercial success with Temple's acting at its peak. Convinced Temple would successfully move from child star to teenage actress, Zanuck declined a substantial offer from MGM to star Temple as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz and cast her instead in Susannah of the Mounties, her last money-maker for Twentieth Century-Fox.^[51][52] The film was lackluster and dropped Temple from number one box-office favorite in 1938 to number five in 1939.^[53]

In 1940, Temple starred in two consecutive flops at Twentieth Century-Fox, The Blue Bird and Young People^[54][55] Temple's parents bought up the remainder of her contract and sent her at the age of 12 to Westlake School for Girls, an exclusive country day school in Los Angeles.^[56] At the studio, Temple's bungalow was renovated, all traces of her tenure expunged, and the building reassigned as an office complex.^[55]

Last films and retirement[link]

Within a year of her departure from Twentieth Century-Fox,^{[note 6]} MGM signed Temple for her comeback, and made plans to team her with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney first for the Andy Hardy series, and then when that idea was quickly abandoned, teaming Temple with Garland and Rooney for the musical Babes on Broadway. However, realizing that both Garland and Rooney could easily upstage Temple, MGM replaced Shirley in that film with Virginia Weidler. As a result, Temple's only film for Metro became Kathleen in 1941, a story about an unhappy teenager. The film was not a success and her MGM contract was canceled after mutual consent. Miss Annie Rooney followed for United Artists in 1942, but it too was unsuccessful.^{[note 7]} The actress retired for almost two years from films, throwing herself into school life and activities.^[57]

In 1944, David O. Selznick signed Temple to a personal four-year contract. She appeared in two wartime hits for him: Since You Went Away and I'll Be Seeing You. Selznick however became involved with Jennifer Jones and lost interest in developing Temple's career. She was loaned to other studios with Kiss and Tell, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,^{[note 8]} and Fort Apache being her few good films at the time.^[58]

According to biographer Robert Windeler, her 1947–49 films neither made nor lost money, but "had a cheapie B look about them and indifferent performances from her".^[59] Selznick suggested she move abroad, gain maturity as an actress, and even change her name. She had been typecast, he warned her, and her career was in perilous straits.^[59][60] After auditioning for and losing the role of Peter Pan on the Broadway stage in August 1950,^[61] Temple took stock, admitted her recent movies had been poor fare, and announced her official retirement from films on December 16, 1950.^[59][62]

Temple-related merchandise and endorsements[link]

Temple leaving the White House offices with her mother and her bodyguard Grif, 1938

Many Temple-inspired products were manufactured and released during the 1930s. Ideal Toy and Novelty Company in New York City negotiated a license for dolls with the company's first doll wearing the polka-dot dress from Stand Up and Cheer!. Shirley Temple dolls realized $45 million in sales before 1941.^[63] A mug, a pitcher, and a cereal bowl in cobalt blue with a decal of Temple were given away as a premium with Wheaties.

Successfully-selling Temple items included a line of girls' dresses and accessories, soap, dishes, cutout books, sheet music, mirrors, paper tablets, and numerous other items. Before 1935 ended, Temple's income from licensed merchandise royalties would exceed $100,000, doubling her income from her movies. In 1936, her income would top $200,000 from royalties. She endorsed Postal Telegraph, Sperry Drifted Snow Flour, the Grunow Teledial radio, Quaker Puffed Wheat,^[63] General Electric, and Packard automobiles.^{[31][note 9]}

Marriages and children[link]

In 1943, 15-year-old Temple met John George Agar (1921–2002), an Army Air Corps sergeant, physical training instructor, and a member of a Chicago meat-packing family.^[64][65] On September 19, 1945, when Temple was 17 years old, they were married before 500 guests in an Episcopal ceremony at Wilshire Methodist Church.^[23][66][67] On January 30, 1948, Temple gave birth to their daughter, Linda Susan.^[23][68][69] Agar became a professional actor and the couple made two films together: Fort Apache (1948, RKO) and Adventure in Baltimore (1949, RKO).^[69] The marriage became troubled,^[69][70] and Temple divorced Agar on December 5, 1949.^[31][69] She received custody of their daughter and the restoration of her maiden name.^[69][71][72] The divorce was finalized on December 5, 1950.

In January 1950, Temple had met Charles Alden Black, a WWII United States Navy Silver Star hero and Assistant to the President of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.^[73][74] Conservative and patrician, he was the son of James B. Black, the president and later chairman of Pacific Gas and Electric, and reputedly one of the richest young men in California.^[74] Temple and Black were married in his parents' Del Monte, California home on December 16, 1950, before a small assembly of family and friends.^[23][74][75]

The family relocated to Washington, D.C. when Black was recalled to the Navy at the outbreak of the Korean War.^[76] Temple gave birth to their son, Charles Alden Black, Jr., in Washington, D.C. on April 28, 1952.^[23][77][78] Following the war's end and Black's discharge from the Navy, the family returned to California in May 1953. Black managed television station KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and Temple became a homemaker. Their daughter Lori was born on April 9, 1954.^[23] In September 1954, Black became director of business operations for the Stanford Research Institute and the family moved to Atherton, California.^[79] The couple remained married for 54 years until his death on August 4, 2005, at home in Woodside, California of complications from a bone marrow disease.^[80]

Television[link]

Between January and December 1958 Temple hosted and narrated a successful NBC television anthology series of fairy tale adaptations called Shirley Temple's Storybook. Temple acted in three of the sixteen hour-long episodes, and her children made their acting debuts in the Christmas episode, "Mother Goose".^[81][82] The series was popular but faced some problems. The show lacked the special effects necessary for fairy tale dramatizations, sets were amateurish, and episodes were telecast in no regular time-slot, making it difficult to generate a following.^[83] The show was reworked and released in color in September 1960 in a regular time-slot as The Shirley Temple Show (also known as Shirley Temple Theater).^[84][85] It faced stiff competition from a popular western and a Disney program however, and was canceled at season's end in September 1961.^[86]

Temple continued to work on television, making guest appearances on The Red Skelton Show, Sing Along with Mitch, and other shows.^[84] In January 1965, she portrayed a social worker in a sitcom pilot called Go Fight City Hall that was never released.^[87] In 1999, she hosted the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars awards show on CBS, and, in 2001, served as a consultant on an ABC-TV production of her autobiography, Child Star: The Shirley Temple Story.^{[citation needed]}

Motivated by the popularity of Storybook and television broadcasts of Temple's films, the Ideal Toy Company released a new version of the Shirley Temple doll and Random House published three fairy tale anthologies under Temple's name. Three hundred thousand dolls were sold within six months and 225,000 books between October and December 1958. Other merchandise included handbags and hats, coloring books, a toy theater, and a recreation of the Baby, Take a Bow polka-dot dress.^[88]

Life after Hollywood[link]

Shirley Temple Black, United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1990)

Political ambitions[link]

Following her venture into television, Temple became active in the Republican Party in California, where, in 1967, she ran unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in a special election to fill a vacant seat.^[89][90] She ran as a conservative and lost to liberal Republican Pete McCloskey, a staunch opponent of the Vietnam War.^[91]

She was appointed Representative to the 24th United Nations General Assembly by President Richard M. Nixon (September – December 1969),^[92][93] and was appointed United States Ambassador to Ghana (December 6, 1974 – July 13, 1976) by President Gerald R. Ford.^[94] She was appointed first female Chief of Protocol of the United States (July 1, 1976 – January 21, 1977), and was in charge of arrangements for President Jimmy Carter's inauguration and inaugural ball.^[94][95] She served as the United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (August 23, 1989 – July 12, 1992), having been appointed by President George H. W. Bush.^[31]

Breast cancer[link]

In the autumn of 1972, Temple was diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumor was malignant and removed, and a modified radical mastectomy performed. Following the operation, she announced it to the world via radio, television, and a February 1973 article for the magazine McCall's. In doing so, she became one of the first prominent women to speak openly about breast cancer.

Corporation commitments[link]

Temple has served on numerous boards of directors of large enterprises and organizations including The Walt Disney Company, Del Monte, Bank of America, the Bank of California, BANCAL Tri-State, Fireman's Fund Insurance, the United States Commission for UNESCO, the United Nations Association, and the National Wildlife Federation.^[96]

Awards and honors[link]

Temple is the recipient of many awards and honors including a special Juvenile Academy Award,^[23] the Life Achievement Award from the American Center of Films for Children,^[94] the National Board of Review Career Achievement Award,^[97] Kennedy Center Honors,^[98][99] and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.^[100] On September 11, 2002, a life-size bronze statue of the child Temple by sculptor Nijel Binns was erected on the Fox Studio lot.^[101]

On March 14, 1935, Temple left her footprints and handprints in the wet cement at the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

Notes[link]

Footnotes[link]

Works cited[link]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	United States portal
	Film portal

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• Shirley Temple at the Internet Movie Database
• Shirley Temple at the TCM Movie Database
• Shirley Temple Movies List
• Photographs of Shirley Temple