Temple Tuesday: Leading Men and the Couch

In this publicity shot from 1939, Shirley is shown in her 20th Century-Fox bungalow with her future costar, Martin Good Rider. From the accompanying blurb:

HOLLYWOOD, JAN. 26 — SHIRLEY GETS HER FIRST LEADING MAN - Shirley Temple gets her first leading man in her screen career in her new picture (Susannah of the Mounties). He’s 13-year-old Martin Goodrider, full-blooded Blackfoot Indian boy. Shirley and Martin are shown after their first meeting at Miss Temple’s dressing room in a studio here.

As so often happens with publicity stories, this one is not entirely true. Just a year before, Shirley had her first on-screen romantic pairing with Bennie Bartlett in “Just Around the Corner.” Shirley’s character uses her womanly wiles to get the young boy to cut off his curls and adopt a more sophisticated hairdo. Ah, young love. No, I don’t count the “Baby Burlesks” as far as a “leading man” for Shirley goes. At the tender age of four, that ventures into “ick” territory.



Always looking at the details, I noticed the fabric on the couch that Shirley and Martin are sitting in. I immediately contacted Melissa, aka “The Colonel” for the 411. She filled in the deets on the decor for Shirley’s Fox Bungalow, where the young girl held court for a plethora of celebrities, dignitaries, and politicians. “The wallpaper in the living/reception room was originally ivory with a conventional tree design in jade green,” Melissa told me. “The couch was described as a ‘small davenport upholstered in linen printed in bright colors with a kindergarten design.’” The couch print looks like it was inspired by the buildings in Colonial Williamsburg, which had finished restoration in the late 1920s.



Of course “The Colonel” had more! “At some point between April and September 1936, the kindergarten print couch was reupholstered in a striped velvet fabric - the wallpaper remained the same.” The striped couch is visible in the corner of the photo below:



“Both the living/reception room and schoolroom were updated some time in 1937, possibly when the Temples were vacationing in Hawaii. The living room wallpaper was changed to the leaf pattern seen below in the image with J. Edgar Hoover, as well as the first image with Good Rider. The couch was redone a third time (flowers and bow pattern). The curtains in that room were changed as was the lamp.”



And there you have it; yet another Shirley rabbit hole to enjoy! See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.