Temple Tuesday: I'll Be Seeing You…Again

In 1944, Shirley Temple and Ginger Rogers costarred in the war-time drama “I’ll Be Seeing You.” Apparently, according to Shirley’s autobiography Child Star, Rogers was not a fan:

Very early I gained an impression that she had wheedled some sort of cast-approval from [Producer Dore] Schary, for I was told she flatly demanded I be taken off the film. Apparently irritated by all this, [studio chief David] Selznick sent me off to vacation at Palm Springs, presumably to resolve the impasse with me absent. Hardly unpacked, I was summoned back the next workday, a Monday. Rogers was absent.…I brooded a bit, but the propitious moment came and went without her appearance. Down a long staircase I came dressed in a good-looking negligee and speaking dialogue that set the theme for the whole film story. Selznick had shrewdly resolved the controversy before it became a fight.…the film was locked in, and so was I.



It was Wednesday before Rogers returned to the set, noticed me with what I sensed as surprise, and left immediately in search of Selznick. Later I was told she had protested my presence. Too late. Our filming momentum was irreversible. From that point Rogers and I regarded each other cautiously. Although several times I attempted to establish some offstage rapport, at every point she seemed to resist intimacy. Usually she regarded me silently, if at all, with her eyes narrowed, and occasionally she needled me before others. “Why, little Shirley,” she scoffed one day, pointing at my bosom, “you’ve grown up.” What could I say but, “Yep, couldn’t stop myself.” “And those false eyelashes. They do NOTHING for you.”

Over a ritual sixteenth birthday cake on the set, some cast members gave me little remembrances of perfume or flowers. Roger’s gift was a hat, elegantly boxed—a straw Chinese coolie affair surmounted by a tepee of multicolored rooster tail feathers. “There,” she said, plopping it down on my head, “it does wonders!” Unlikely, I thought, peering out from beneath the feathery brim like some jungle animal. Although Rogers and I later became friends, the reason for her antipathy eluded me.

Forty years later, they were reunited at the April 9, 1984 Oscar Ceremony. I wonder how many birds went into Ginger’s outfit? Perhaps it was an homage to the hat she gave Shirley forty years before.



That night at the Oscars, Shirley was given a lovely tribute that was introduced by Sammy Davis, Jr. Here’s Shirley holding her miniature Oscar from 1934:



…and a closeup of the smaller-sized statue, which she quipped if she only had one more, the two would make a lovely pair of earrings:



A color shot of Shirley from that evening. Did that gold bag have her Oscar inside?



…and a clip of the tribute from YouTube:



See more Shirley Temple Black photos at my main website.