Temple Tuesday: Shirley Smokes!

Often thought of as a “goody goody” in her film roles, Shirley Temple smoked a peace pipe in “Susannah of the Mounties” (1939) at the age of eleven! The film was supposed to be directed Walter Lang (thus the name on the costume test clapboard above), but he had to be replaced due to a bout of the flu by William Seiter.



In her 1945 book, “My Young Life,” Shirley recalled smoking the peace pipe:

Fox was kind of worried…about the scene…where I smoked a pipe. The way they played it first, I didn’t get sick, but the Indian boy I was smoking with [played by Martin Good Rider, above] got “sick as a dog.” They then decided that if I smoked without getting sick it would set a bad example to the country’s children, so in order to discourage young people from filthy weed, they had me get sick after all.



Apparently, once was not enough, as Shirley smoked again at the end of the film. As you can see from the production shot below, she was all smiles about it! From left to right: Maurice Moskovich (who played Chief Big Eagle), Moroni Olsen, Shirley and Good Rider, a fourteen-year-old Blackfeet Indian from Montana.



Moskovich’s last film, “The Great Dictator” (1940) was released four months after his June 18th death. In Charlie Chaplin’s masterpiece, Moskovich played Mr. Jaeckel, an elderly Jew who befriends Chaplin’s character. Below is a scene from the movie with Chaplin, Moskovich, and Paulette Goddard.



But I digress…as always. Just remember kids, in the words of South Park’s Mr. Mackey, “Smoking is bad, m’kay?”

See more Shirley Temple “Susannah of the Mounties” photos at my main website.