History Creator / ShirleyTemple

* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: With the exception of ''The Little Princess'', all of Shirley Temple's 1930s films were shot in black-and-white. Almost all of them are available in color now. Some were colorized twice, first in the 1980s and again in the early twenty-first century, the latter handled by Legend Films. Typically, the DVD/Blu-Ray lets you choose between watching the original black-and-white version and a colorized version presumably as a way to appease purists who aren't exactly pleased with colorized footage.

She became Shirley Temple Black in 1950 when she married businessman Charles Alden Black. They remained married until he died in 2005.

[[caption-width-right:350:Left, her Hollywood Years. Right her Ambassador years.]]

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[[caption-width-right:315:Hollywood Years]]

%%USAF photo: https://www.usa.gov/government-works
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[[caption-width-right:350:DC Years]]

** Darryl F. Zanuck at Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox wanted to buy the rights to ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'' from Samuel Goldwyn, possibly with the intention of making a starring vehicle for her. However, they were outbid by Creator/{{MGM}}, which went on to produce the classic [[Film/TheWizardOfOz version of the story]].

* CuteButCacophonic: She couldn’t carry a tune and her singing voice was rather mediocre. She also had a harsh accent when speaking normally (it's noticeable in ''Film/BrightEyes'').

* CuteButCacophonic: She couldn’t carry a tune and her singing voice was rather mediocre.

A triple threat at age ten, Temple was most often paired with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, one of the few times that a black male actor got a free pass during the days of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode (which didn't allow interracial pairings). You'd be hard-pressed to find a more winning picture of ValuesDissonance than these two. Temple and Robinson became close friends and were considered something of a DreamTeam in their day, yet the on-screen relationship was [[UncleTomfoolery clearly not an equal one]]. Poor Shirley also had a memorable {{blackface}} scene in ''The Littlest Rebel'', a film which manages to out-cringe even [[Creator/AlJolson Al "My Mammy in Alabammy" Jolson]]'s ''Film/TheJazzSinger'' for its offensiveness to modern sensibilities.

For some reason, [[ShirleyTemplate any character based on her]] is nearly always a SpoiledBrat despite Shirley not really being prone to misbehaving in films or real life. Her mother wanted her to be cast in bratty or snarky roles, but the closest she ever got was Mytyl in ''Theatre/TheBlueBird''. She was, however, chided by her mother for being "brattish" in 1938 when she [[BratsWithSlingshots hit Eleanor Roosevelt in the rear with a slingshot.]] Her own preference would have been ActionGirl roles.

Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was one of the most famous child actors in film history. During UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, she was the top box-office draw for four straight years (1935–38), a record no other child actress has come close to challenging. To be fair to the little ladies who came later, it must be pointed out that subsequent generations of child actresses didn't have the advantages and opportunities that Shirley's era of child actresses did.

* ''Film/CurlyTop'' (1936)

Temple died at the age of eighty-five in February 2014 as a result of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from a lifetime of smoking (The same thing that killed [[Creator/LeonardNimoy Spock]]). She was among the last of the stars from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood to pass on.

Temple died at the age of eighty-five in February 2014 as a result of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from a lifetime of smoking. She was among the last of the stars from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood to pass on.

* CuteButCacophonic: A mild example: she couldn’t carry a tune and her singing voice was rather mediocre, but she didn’t sound much worse than your average child, and it just made her come off as adorable.

* PublicDomain: ''The Little Princess'', due to Fox failing to renew the copyright. As a result, it can be seen for free on the internet. The same goes for ''[[Film/CaptainJanuary1936 Captain January]]'', reportedly due to a legal loophole. All of her other movies still have their copyrights.

While Temple was very popular during the desperate times of TheGreatDepression, her brand of sugary goop is likely to cause [[TastesLikeDiabetes diabetic overload]] for viewers today. Her specialty: tap-dancing orphans who strike it rich. (Rarely do her characters' parents actually die onscreen as in ''Bright Eyes'', which is [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids ironically one of her darker films]] despite introducing her iconic song "On the Good Ship Lollipop".) Expect a [[TheCasanova suave man about town]], a [[EvilMatriarch lemon-faced aunt]], and a {{cool teacher}} to also make an appearance in one of her films. So successful was the formula that Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox changed the title character of Creator/RudyardKipling's ''Wee Willie Winkie'' [[GenderFlip to a girl]] just so they could cast her in the lead for their film adaptation.

In later years, she talked about the child abuse that occurred on the set of the ''Baby Burlesk'' short films: misbehaving children would be locked in a cupboard with a big block of ice, and left to freeze. When she was 12 (and considered for the part of Dorothy in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''), an MGM producer exposed himself to her in his office; [[ChildrenAreInnocent not knowing]] what was going on, she just laughed. When she told her mother about the incident, it was decided that 20th wouldn't loan her to MGM and the role went to Creator/JudyGarland.

* ''[[Literature/ALittlePrincess The Little Princess]]'' (1939)

Shirley Temple Black (born Shirley Jane Temple; April 23, 1928 – February 10, 2014) was one of the most famous child actors in film history. During UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, she was the top box-office draw for four straight years (1935–38), a record no other child star has come close to challenging.

* ShoddyKnockoffProduct: Besides licensed products featuring Temple's likeness, her popularity had also spurred tons of unauthorised goods with her face on it, such as "an army of unlicensed dolls, clothing and oddities came marching onstage" and even cigars with her likeness printed on the bands. While she was in retrospect appalled by the "elusive commercial scoundrels" unfairly cashing in on her childhood fame, she concluded that it made no financial sense to go after the counterfeiters considering the costs of litigation and the economy of the time. They did however go after a few high-profile cases, one of them being Ideal filing a $100,000 patent infringement suit against a certain Lenora Doll Company. Temple herself was named as a co-plaintiff befitting her celebrity status during the height of her popularity.

Temple died at the age of eighty-five in February 2014 as a result of COPD from a lifetime of smoking. She was among the last of the stars from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood to pass on.