Temple Tuesday: Name That Dress!

It was one of those Shirley mysteries that has haunted us (meaning me and Melissa, aka “The Colonel”) for years. What did she wear underneath her René Hubert designed cap, coat, and capelet at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre ceremony on March 14, 1935? The one publicity shot that I owned from the evening (above) shows absolutely nothing, other than cement artist Jean “Mr. Footprint” Klossner pushing Shirley’s tiny little hand into the wet concrete slab. Recently, I added this alternate shot to my library, and the mystery began to unravel!



From the publicity caption:

“Love to the world,” in solid concrete. On the floor of the Chinese Theatre forecourt in Hollywood went the famous handwriting of the world’s greatest baby film star, Shirley Temple. “The Little Colonel,” her latest Fox Film production, opened at the famous Hollywood theatre, and Shirley left her name, her footprints and hand-prints in the concrete for future generations to see.

The wardrobe shot below shows Shirley wearing the beret, white ermine cape, and wool coat without any clue as to the garment underneath. Melissa had previously told me that she thought this coat and hat were created for “Our Little Girl” (1935), but either never used or part of a scene that was deleted before release.



Many have surmised that the dress Shirley wore under the Grauman’s coat was the same one she wore to the Oscars on February 27, 1935 (seen below with Claudette Colbert).



This theory came about because of this porcelain Shirley Temple doll released by the Danbury Mint, which was a recreation of the Grauman’s ceremony…



and came with the Oscar dress underneath. Shirley herself authorized this doll, so it was assumed that the two went together.



Back to my recent photo acquisition: I zoomed in to see if the edge of the dress underneath showed at all, and sure enough: I saw what appeared to be a stripe in the fabric! 



The dress also appeared to have a bit of a sheen to it. Two clues! I sent the pics to Melissa and immediately called her.



In the game of “Name that dress in 20 pixels or less…” Melissa succeeded brilliantly. Within seconds she said, “Well, that could be the pom-pom dress from ‘Our Little Girl.’” Yup. Houston, we had a match.



Shirley fan Connie M. weighed in with a few photos from her archives, such as the wardrobe shot below for “Our Little Girl,” showing the pom-pom dress.



For confirmation, I reached out to the great Rita D., Shirley expert supreme. Not only did she confirm, but she also dropped another nugget of gold. The coat worn at Grauman’s was also used in a number of publicity photos, minus the ermine cape. Why had I never noticed this before?





From Rita:

I checked everything I have on the coat and the negative numbers line up to the filming of “Our Little Girl” (production dates according to the AFI Catalog database for the film were February 11 – March 23, 1935; retakes/added scenes: April 1935). I’m sure the coat was intended for “Our Little Girl” as well, since it was designed by René Hubert, the designer for the film. The shots above are the same coat without the ermine cape but with an added bonnet, used just in time for Easter 1935 and “Heaven’s Gate” (the original title of “Our Little Girl”) publicity. This may have been the way it was going to be used in the film. Here’s an example of a birthday layout from Photoplay, May 1935, using one of the alternate coat photos when the production was still called “Heaven’s Gate.”



There might have been a planned (and squashed) Easter scene in “Our Little Girl,” since there are a few photos of Shirley in the bolero dress with an Easter egg candy container, bunnies and a basket tagged for the film (photo below). It would make sense with this coat/bonnet outfit and those props, if so. It could also have been advance Easter publicity since the film was released in May, after the holiday.



At the 2015 Theriault’s ‘Love, Shirley Temple’ auction, the coat, beret, and ermine cape came up for sale. I was able to see them at the Santa Monica History Museum beforehand:



The pom-pom dress also came up for auction:



From the catalog description:

SHIRLEY TEMPLE'S SILK POM-POM DRESS FROM THE 1935 FILM "OUR LITTLE GIRL" Lot Number: 264. Of robin's egg blue and ivory silk crepe, the simply cut dress has alternate panels, softly draping short sleeves, and is trimmed by blue woolen knit pom-poms. Generally excellent. The dress has the original studio inventory tag "4753". Included with the doll are two vintage photographs of Shirley wearing the costume in her role of Molly in “Our Little Girl.” The dress is worn by Molly (Shirley) in the scene where she admits to her mother that she told Rolf that "we don't like him" and "we want him to go away and never come back".

In an amazing case of serendipity, luck, good fortune, you name it…the same person just happened to buy both the coat set AND the pom-pom dress…without knowing that they went together that historic evening at Grauman’s. Melissa immediately notified her and she was thrilled with the information!

And there you have yet another Shirley mystery solved by the trio of Daveland, The Colonel, and Rita D!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.