Temple Tuesday: Shirley at Shugie's

This November 1944 image shows Shirley Temple at Sugie’s Tropics in Beverly Hills, with owner Harry Sugarman in the center, sitting next to her good friend, Betty Jean Lail. The soldiers on the ends of the booth are their dates, Bob and Brown (no last names!). Betty Jean’s copy of the photo had this written on the back:

This date was all on the spur of the moment. I had been out with Gertrude [Shirley’s mother] all day long and while I was out Shirley called mother and they made the date. It was fun to go with them, but I couldn’t stand the Lt. I was with. We went to the Pladium [sp] and it was awful. It certainly isn’t my idea of a place to dance. Besides he couldn’t dance.

Shirley and Betty Jean met at the Westlake School for Girls. The photo below shows them circa 1940; Shirley is in the first row, third from right; Betty Jean is next to her, center of the row.



Their meeting was detailed in Shirley’s autobiography, Child Star, where Betty Jean was referred to as “Plump Girl”:

Struggling under an armload of seventh-grade texts, I was assigned an unoccupied seat at a broad wooden desk in the rear row, one already shared by a plump girl with red. hair. Smiling briefly, she slid sideways along our common bench to ake room, then stared fixedly into her book.…Any alien celebrity suddenly plopped into a class of eleven ordinary girls could hardly expect effusive greetings.…It was difficult to see where I fitted, let alone worm my way in.…Sole exception in this isolation was my seatmate, Plump Girl. Enforced proximity probably evoked common ground, a jolly, extroverted view of things. From the outset her companionship saved me from being a complete loner.

Shirley became President of the Camp-Fire Girls and is shown at home in this October 1940 image folding Christmas Seals which would be mailed as part of an annual appeal for funds to fight tuberculosis. Betty Jean is the smiling girl second from right:



The 1942 photo below shows Betty Jean standing above Shirley:



Betty Jean was one of Shirley’s bridesmaids in her 1945 wedding to John Agar. By this time, Betty Jean (far left) had dropped the excess pounds.



The two remained life-long friends, as can be seen in the photo below:



Back to Sugie’s…a little more than three years later after the first photo in this post was taken, Shirley and then husband John Agar were back at Sugie’s “celebrating” their third wedding anniversary, September 1948. 



A vintage Sugie’s menu:



Shirley even had a drink named after her: “Adolescence,” which was described as “Not a kick in a carload.”



The previously posted image below shows the couple a year later, inside the Vine Street location of Sugie’s. At least Shirley is smiling this time, on the occasion of their fourth anniversary!



Over at Tiki Central, I found this image of the exterior of the Vine Street Tropics:



The Beverly Hills location closed on August 21, 1953, as seen in this clipping from The Los Angeles Mirror:



Oh, to have been able to go to this sale, advertised in December of 1952!



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.