Temple Tuesday: “Heidi” Memories

Marcia Mae Jones, the actress who played Klara (above left) in Shirley’s 1937 film “Heidi,” had fond memories of working on this movie:

I was thrilled that I was going to be with Shirley Temple. I hadn’t even met her yet, but I was very excited. The movie was made during the summer and an enormous tent had been set up on the back lot and inside there was a complete street scene with the Sesseman house and so forth. They used a great big machine to create the snow, and it was very, very hot in there. It wasn’t the best conditions at that time [no air conditioning], and the artificial snow sometimes got in your eyes and your mouth.



I loved the clothes…I wore a royal-blue princess coat with an ermine collar and shoes to match with ermine on the boots—and, oh, my dear, I cried when I had to leave that [at the studio]. I had my own dressing room…but I used to love to eat in the commissary, because at that time I was madly in love with Tyrone Power, and it’s my understanding that they told him, and he would smile and wave at me and my heart would just go pitter-patter.

Allan Dwan—well, he didn’t seem to give any direction. I remember my mother talking to me when I had to get up and pretend like I was trying to walk, and I was told just to get up and do it. I was really quite frightened, because not being crippled I didn’t know how to do it, so I imagined—on my own—what it would be like—which is the key to acting. I was only thirteen when I made “Heidi,” but I had my full height then—I was extremely tall for my age—I was five feet six inches and Shirley was very tiny and very petite. She had to help me out of my wheelchair…my God, if I had really leaned on Shirley, I would have crushed her to the floor. When I saw the film years later as a mature woman, I just seemed to get bigger and bigger as I rose from the chair, and my husband, who was with me, said, ‘My God, it’s a giraffe!’



Poor Jean Hersholt was extremely uncomfortable throughout the film. As I said, the tent was stifling, and he had to wear tremendous padding to make him heavier, and a beard and longish hair to make him look older. Unfortunately, he had a lot of [action scenes] and one day he collapsed from heat exhaustion.



One Saturday, Shirley tripped over an electric wire and fell head first on the ground, which resulted in a cut over her eyebrow. Not wanting to go over budget (the film was already two days behind schedule at that point), the makeup artist covered the bruise and Shirley continued with filming. Shirley’s throat also closed up as a result of the artificial snow; in that case, the crew had to film around her.



On the flip side, Delmar Watson (below left), who played Peter the goatherd, sometimes gave less than flattering interviews about working on the film, blaming Shirley’s mother Gertrude for some of his best (in his own opinion) scenes being deleted. He also felt that Gertrude and the studio were attempting to thwart his performance in order to make Shirley shine more:

I was never given my lines to study in advance. My dad asked Allan Dwan about this, and he said they wanted Peter to be kind of dumb, but it was the only time I was in a picture of that length where they would not give me my lines until the night before I was supposed to do a scene.



Delmar’s father, Coy, would blame the studio and complain to his family about it every night:

They’re not being fair to the boy. They’re changing his dialogue right on the set. It’s almost like they’re making him stumble over his lines to make Shirley look better. ’

Marcia Mae Jones gave a very different (and more professional) viewpoint of Gertrude:

I do remember that Mrs. Temple always had on a hat, gloves and a purse…and that she was always on a stool sitting next to the camera. Mrs. Temple was always lovely to me—she would invite me in the afternoon to come into the dressing room with Shirley, where she would give each of us a piece of Hershey [chocolate] at four o’clock. It was instead of having tea…My mother was on the set at the same time as Mrs. Temple, and they seemed to get along well. But my mother never intruded on anyone—she spoke to Mrs. Temple when Mrs. Temple spoke to her—and I guess they had some conversations together. 

The Swiss Alpine scenes were shot at Lake Arrowhead, east of Hollywood in San Bernardino County, in an area that is now called Switzer Park off Highway 18 in Skyforest. The crew either stayed in Arrowhead Village’s single hotel or had rooms in private chalets. Shirley was given her own trailer home according to Delmar Watson:

[It was] parked on the side of a hill. She was there all the time with Grif [Shirley’s bodyguard and chauffeur] and, of course, her mother. Only a few studio people were allowed up there. She had a stand-in [Mary Lou Isleib, shown below] for the sound and lights. Then, when everything was set, she’d come down at the last minute, we’d do our scene together, and when it was finished, she would be escorted back up the hill and disappear into her trailer.



Once, I was playing horseshoes right after lunch with the lighting guys, and she came out of her trailer. I said, ‘Hi,’ and she greeted me and asked if she could play. Sure, we told her. She picked up a horseshoe and tossed it. I think she missed. She played with us for exactly two minutes, and then her bodyguard came down and took her away, back up the hill into the trailer. I heard him tell her she wasn’t supposed to be there. As she left, I said to her, ‘Bye. Maybe you could do it later.’ Shirley didn’t say anything, but obediently returned to the trailer.

When you have a film riding on your shoulders and a limited amount of work time due to being a minor, it’s easy to understand that Shirley wouldn’t have a lot of time to play. A stray horseshoe that might have injured the star could have shut down the entire production. Obviously, Watson was too young at the time to understand and when he later told the story, too old to remember what the circumstances were. Once again, Marcia Mae Jones’ recollections were a bit different from Watson’s:

[Shirley and I] talked and we laughed…I think most of us children were a little in awe of her because Shirley was always bubbling…I remember that at Lake Arrowhead there was a miniature golf course, and Shirley and I were playing and I think we had about seven or eight bodyguards watching us—and I know that I was uncomfortable and I just wanted them to go away and leave us alone and let us play, but it didn’t seem to bother Shirley.

Director Allan Dwan, who worked frequently with Shirley, remembered filming the “Wooden Shoes” musical number and the original Shirley Police Badge:



We had a lot of kids dressed as little Dutch girls doing a folk dance. One of the steps, a fairly intricate one, called for them to place on leg over the other. Many of them became confused and got it all wrong and would even fall down trying to do it. Shirley would bawl them out and say, ‘Look, you do it this way.’ They would argue back and forth. She was stubborn and would say, ‘No, it’s this way,’ and show them again. Well, the dancing master finally got them all together and straightened them out. Since she obviously wanted to take charge…I had a bunch of little badges made with SHIRLEY TEMPLE POLICE stamped on them. Every kid who came on the set had to wear a badge and join the force and swear allegiance to Shirley, guaranteeing to obey her. Pretty soon, we had almost everyone on the set wearing a badge, with Shirley sporting one labeled CHIEF…She was a little big shot and loved it. If I had to leave the set, I’d tell her, ‘Shirley, now you take charge of things,’ and she did. She strutted around giving orders, like ‘I want you to take that set down and put up a castle.’ The grip would pretend to carry out her instructions, satisfying her, going along with the game.

In an October 1988 interview, Leonard Maltin discussed the making of “Heidi” with Shirley. “I remember hearing you say that the thing you remembered most about Jean Hersholt from “Heidi” was…” “Glue!” Shirley quickly interjected with a laugh. “Well, he had this big beard glued on every morning and I thought it was kind of an interesting smell. I guess I was an early glue sniffer!”



See more Shirley Temple in “Heidi” photos at my main website.