Back to the Shirley Temple exhibit at the Santa Monica History Museum! I took a ton of photos, but will do my best to keep it to the highlights. "The Little Princess" (1939) was represented by this beautiful velvet costume. You can see Shirley modeling it here.
How about a detail of that lace:
The Holy Grail stuff for me: costumes and memorabilia from "The Blue Bird."
The shoes look brand new. Incredible. The care that Shirley took in storing these outfits show that she could have had a future as a museum curator!
How Shirley looked wearing this outfit in the 1940 film:
These shoes were worn by Shirley when she visited the Land of Luxury:
The best I could do for a corresponding photo:
The very rare "Blue Bird" doll; thanks Woolsey Ackerman for being so generous in sharing these treasured pieces from your collection!
An original script from the movie:
Woolsey poses with his items on loan to the museum:
The highlight of the visit to the museum was to get to meet Charlie Black, Shirley's son. Here he is with entertainment reporter Amanda Champagne and Shirley expert supreme, Melissa Tonnessen.
I have always wondered what happened to part two of Shirley's autobiography. This volume which Shirley announced that she had completed long before she passed would have covered her political career. Charlie explained that since most of the people talked about in her first book had died, Shirley had no problem publishing that volume. However, with many of the people still alive and kicking from her days as an Ambassador to Ghana and Chief of Protocol, she thought it best to wait. The family is moving forward and hopefully it will be available in the next year or two. He was very gracious in answering my questions and flashed a smile that showed he was definitely the offspring of the world's most famous child star.
One last item to post for today, and this one really made me laugh when I saw it. I was amazed that Shirley had kept these spectacles that she wore in "Curly Top" (1935) during the "When I Grow Up" sequence. The corresponding photo can be seen in the background. This gal kept EVERYTHING; and I'm so glad she did.
Want to see more? Check out the Santa Monica History Museum photos at my main website.
I have been meaning to thank you for posting this, otherwise I would have never known about this exhibit or that there is even a history museum in Santa Monica! Thanks to your post two friends and I made a day of it taking the Expo train into Santa Monica, having lunch and visiting and taking photos of the exhibit. It was so well done! We are part of the Metro Riders Club which helps seniors navigate the rail and bus system. We hope to take a group to Santa Monica later this year to the museum. Just sorry the Shirley Temple exhibit won't be there. So glad we at least got to see it right before it closed.
ReplyDeleteHi Irene - so glad you were able to see the exhibit. It really was incredible!
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