Temple Tuesday: “Mother” Survives!

In the 1936 film “Captain January,” one of orphaned Star’s (Shirley Temple) beloved possessions is a doll that represents her mother, who was killed in a shipwreck. Here’s a closeup of the prop that 20th Century-Fox created just for this movie:



Star knows very little about her dead mother, other than what she sees in a scrapbook found in a trunk from the wreck.



Apparently mama was an opera singer. Star covets the dress that she once wore on stage, which gets altered to fit the young girl for a comic musical number with costars Guy Kibbee and Slim Summerville.



In a miracle of survival, this fragile prop survived, thanks to a prop man who was allowed to take it home with him. Now you can see what the doll looks like in color:




The beloved doll (known as “Mother”) that was key to the plot in “Captain January” now resides in the hands of an avid Shirley fan.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.