Temple Tuesday: The Coat & Beanie Craze, Pt. 1

One acquisition can end up being the equivalent of a match to a powder keg, like this 1938 autographed photo of Shirley Temple. I have always associated the wearing of matching coat and beanie hats with Shirley’s 1938 era.

I also assumed the photo was taken on the Fox lot during the filming of this scene from “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” when Rebecca (Shirley) is unceremoniously taken away from her Aunt Miranda’s farm when her money-grubbing stepfather realizes her singing can make him a fortune.



Thanks to research by Melissa (aka “The Colonel”), I learned I was wrong on both counts. In the film, this is the dress Shirley (with costar Gloria Stuart) is wearing under her coat in the scene shown above:



The dress Shirley is actually wearing under the coat in my autographed photo can be seen in this rehearsal photo with Shirley, choreographer Nick Castle, and co-star George Murphy during the making of “Little Miss Broadway,” the film Shirley made AFTER doing “Rebecca.” Thanks to Shirley expert supreme Rita Dubas for that tidbit!



Since Shirley kept all of her movie costumes, her personal and movie wardrobe often blended together. The child star was photographed in public wearing outfits that had been seen in her movies, thus making it all the more amazing when the oft-worn dresses came to auction in 2015 looking brand new!

At first glance, one might think that this dress that came up for auction is the same dress Shirley wore in my autographed shot and the dance rehearsal shot. In comparing the two, the polka dot pattern is spaced wider here:



…than what is visible in this detailed view from the autographed photo where the dress is peeking out underneath the coat:



From the auction description of the 1937 auctioned dress:

SILK DRESS WORN BY SHIRLEY TEMPLE ON FAMILY TRIP TO HAWAII
Lot Number: 299



Of robin’s egg blue with pale blue polka dots, the dress has full-length vertical pleats, and is trimmed with an unusual diamond-point edging in cream silk, along with matching sash and with matching panties. The costume has original label of Miss L. Brogan New Orleans. A favorite dress of Shirley Temple, worn on a number of publicity occasions, such as that shown in the accompanying photograph in which Shirley (holding “Jimmie”, #300) is shown with her mother and father arriving for vacation in Hawaii.



Here’s a publicity shot of Shirley with her dog Ching Ching wearing the tighter-pattern polka dot dress:



Perhaps Shirley liked this dress so much that costumer Gwen Wakeling made a copy of it with a different fabric. Snooping around the web, I found a listing on etsy for another “Miss L. Brogan” creation:



According to the listing:

This dress belonged to a lovely lady who was from a wealthy family. She wore it in the 1930s and said it was a gift from her 4 maiden aunts. The dress is custom made by "Miss L Brogan New Orleans" (labeled) and is totally hand sewn. Miss Brogan was apparently a male who made custom children's clothing in the first half of the 20th century and charged a lot for doing it!



These are the details that keep us obsessive nutz in bizness!

As for the rest of the coat and beanie tale, you’ll need to come back next week!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.