Temple Tuesday: Shirley for Halloween!

Today’s Temple Tuesday celebrates the upcoming “holiday” of Halloween. Although Shirley is typically associated with all things sugar and spice, nobody liked a good scare better than Miss Temple! While there are no specific Halloween sequences in any of Shirley’s films (that I can recall, at least), she does have a few that could qualify for today’s post. In her early Fox film, “The Little Colonel” (1935), Shirley’s character must reach her grandfather at night to enlist his aid in saving her parents. To get to him, she has a terrifying run through a forest and encounters an owl with glowing eyes. Keep in mind this sequence pre-dated similar ones found in Disney’s “Snow White” (1937) and “The Wizard of Oz” (1939). Shirley was always a trailblazer!



In “The Blue Bird” (1940), siblings Tyltyl and Mytyl (Johnny Russell and Shirley) take a frightening journey through the graveyard with their evil cat, Tylette (Gale Sondergaard), just before the stroke of midnight.



Not wanting to return to her feline form, Tylette attempts to trap the little children in the cemetery… FOREVER!



Later in the same movie, Tylette tries to have the children scared off by arranging to have the trees in the forest attack them…



AND THEN BURN THEM! Instead, karma bites Tylette in the ass and she’s the one who gets incinerated. As I often say, don’t mess with Shirley!



In her private life, Shirley also loved to dress up, such as this costume party at Ciro’s nightclub on Sunset Boulevard, with then husband John Agar. Shirley came as Alice in Wonderland.



For this 1948 party, Shirley recycled a movie costume from seven years before (“Kathleen”), but added a period wig for some Marie Antoinette flair.



Agar most likely borrowed his wardrobe from “Fort Apache.” 



In her 1950’s Fairy Tale Anthology series, “Shirley Temple’s Storybook,” there were plenty of witches, but typically they were portrayed by other actresses. The Halloween episode of “Rapunzel” was first broadcast on October 27, 1958. Carol Lynley played the title role and Agnes Moorehead was the witch. This pre-dated her role of Endora in “Bewitched.”



“The Shirley Temple Show” 1960 episode of “Babes in Toyland” allowed Shirley to gleefully play the role of Floretta, the gypsy witch. Shirley relished the opportunity to be almost unrecognizable in her makeup and costume!



I hope you all have a fun Halloween this week!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Strolling Down Sunset Boulevard

On my recent trip to Hollywood, I decided to stroll down Sunset Boulevard for a variety of reasons: get some updated photos (it had been almost two years since I last did this), check out the Viper Room, and most importantly, get some exercise for Willis! First stop on my photo tour was Carneys Restaurant, famous for its hamburgers and hot dogs. While the exterior looks like it has seen better days, the interior was doing a rocking business!



The Comedy Store had a RIP tribute on its sign to the recently departed Gilbert Gottfried:



Back in the day, this building was home to the glamorous Ciro’s Nightclub:



Two more shots of the Comedy Store:





The Mondrian Hotel was built in 1959 as an apartment building, then converted to a hotel in 1985. Ian Schrager of Studio 54 fame took over the property in 1996 and that’s when it became a celebrity haven. When I first moved back to Southern California in 1999, the Skybar was the hottest nightspot in town. From a 1997 L.A. Times article:

Finally, L.A.'s coming of age—even New Yorkers are beginning to take this town seriously. East Coast club entrepreneur Rande Gerber, known for his Whisky Bars and Armani Cafes, just gave L.A. a tremendous gift—the Sky Bar at the Mondrian Hotel. It’s the most gorgeous nightspot this town’s seen in years—from its spectacular view of L.A., which you see while lounging poolside in the club’s patio, to the intimate bar area, which is softly adorned with sheer white curtains and open to the night. The club requires all guests to phone prior to arrival to be included on an advance guest list. Once inside, you feel as if you’re part of a sexy cocktail party. The music is soft and European, with sensuous, mid-tempo beats providing a backdrop to the L.A. night. In the Sky Bar’s one-month existence, the crowd has been a mix of mature, confident Hollywood players, young stars and starlets, and basically anybody who can weasel his or her way in.



Today, one would barely notice the sad looking little entrance that used to have people lining their way up and down the block, hoping that they would be allowed to go beyond the velvet rope to hob-nob with the celebrities from the rooftop lounge.



The Sunset Plaza shopping center is still around (first built in 1924), but the tenants and façades have obviously changed through the years. Famous former tenants include photographer George Hurrell, fashion designers Don Loper and Adrian, the Elizabeth Arden salon, and former actor turned interior designer William Haines.



The Rocky and Bullwinkle statue still stands at its new location near Sunset and Holloway Drive:



When it resided across from the Chateau Marmont, the statue rotated. Today, the pair stand still.



Looking like a space ship ready for take-off, the Mutato Muzika building was built in 1967 for Dr. Richard Alan Franklyn, a well-known Hollywood cosmetic surgeon and author of books like "The Art of Staying Young" and "Developing Bosom Beauty."

From the L.A. Conservancy site:

Franklyn wanted a building designed expressly for doing plastic surgery, with natural light streaming in through central skylights to illuminate the operating room. He got it, with a circular UFO-like building lit not only by skylights, but by elongated arched windows separated by simple concrete pilasters covering the entire circular façade. The architect Franklyn hired to design the building is said to be none other than Oscar Niemeyer, the world-famous Brazilian architect who designed the Mid-Century Modern buildings of Brasilia, as well as many others that changed the face of modern architecture around the world. Niemeyer was known for his love of curves over straight lines, so by that token the Beauty Pavilion certainly fits with the rest of his oeuvre. The architect was living and working primarily in Paris in the late 1960s, however, and most of his designs were monumental civic and institutional complexes around the world.



Fred Segal has a branch on Sunset; my heart still belongs to the one on Melrose:



Having grown up in the Watergate era and being familiar with the outspoken Martha Mitchell’s attempt to get the word out, I may have to check this one out:



Last stop on Willis’ long walk down Sunset Boulevard was the Viper Room, which is apparently in danger of being torn down and replaced by yet another mixed-use monstrosity.



While I hate to see historic buildings erased, I can’t say the exterior cries out for salvation. Maybe a good power wash would help.



I also can’t say I’ve ever been inside, either, so one way or the other I don’t have any personal ties to this one.







I had never noticed this side entrance before:



Willis was very glad to get back to the hotel for a beverage and snacks:



See more Sunset Boulevard photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley, James Dean, and Gone with the Wind

I would not have imagined a post where there is a common thread for all three, but here it is! The backstory: when I acquired the first image from today’s post, I realized I also had another shot of Shirley from the same evening. At this point, I had zero context. No date of the shots or anything. So...I reached out to Melissa (aka “The Colonel”). Within minutes, she had figured out through Mr. Google that the photos were from August 10, 1954 when Shirley and husband Charles attended the re-premiere of “Gone with the Wind.” That was all I needed; I was off to the races and falling down a rabbit hole of six degrees of separation.

The photo below was found online with this vintage caption:

Shirley Temple was only 11 years old when she saw first premiere of "Gone With the Wind," 15 years ago. She is shown arriving with husband, Charles Black, for second premiere last night at the Egyptian Theatre. “I know I will enjoy and understand it a little better,” she said.

Although the press crossed Charles out from the published shot, I can assure you that Shirley NEVER crossed her beloved husband out of anything. Don’t they look stunning?

Here’s the backstory on the re-premiere: Selznick liquidated his company in 1942 for tax reasons, and sold his share in “Gone with the Wind” to his business partner, John “Jock” Whitney, for $500,000. In turn, Whitney sold it to MGM for $2.8 million. MGM re-released the film in 1942 and 1947. I THINK the shot below is from the night of the re-premiere; on the left is Kay Gable (Clark’s wife). In the middle I am fairly certain we have “Jock” Whitney, with Herman Hover the owner of Ciro’s on the right (thanks Beachgal for the ID!).

From the 1977 book Scarlett Fever by William Pratt:

In February 1954, fireworks had exploded after a televised tribute to MGM’s Thirtieth Anniversary. It seemed that on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” a film clip of GWTW had been shown along with some other MGM films produced over the previous three decades, and David O. Selznick was enraged by the studio’s taking credit for the production. By August—after apologies all around—the Hollywood “premiere” actually became a personal testimonial to the producer as Oscars representing the film’s Academy Award triumph were on display in the Egyptian’s lobby along with David’s own Thalberg Award for the August 10 grand gala event. MGM publicists informed the press that “the gala event marked the first time in history that any picture ever had been given a second Hollywood premiere.” The 125 stars who held reservations for that big night included most of MGM’s remaining contract players, a selection of the town’s Old Guard (Joan Bennett, Gary Cooper, Joan Crawford, Merle Oberon, Tyrone Power, Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck, Norma Shearer, Shirley Temple, and Spencer Tracy) and several surviving members of Gone with the Wind’s cast (Mary Anderson, Jane Darwell, Clark Gable, Cammie King, Thomas Mitchell, and Ona Munson, six months before her suicide). 

How did the film look after 15 years had gone by? The version shown in 1954 was the first time the film had been shown in widescreen. Since the film was not originally shot in that format, MGM cropped the top and bottom to an aspect ratio of 1.75:1. In doing so, a number of shots were optically re-framed. What do I think about that?

More from Scarlett Fever:

While viewers throughout America appreciated the film’s new panoramic scope that year, many wondered why the color had faded so drastically in certain segments. The cause was simple: in projecting the 1939 image onto a wide screen, crucial portions of some scenes were cut off and, to compensate, MGM had actually rephotographed those sequences with a black mask at screen bottom to raise the affected footage. In so doing, the original color was significantly drained from those moments and their new appearance was limited to a near tint-like quality.…The 1954 presentation also offered a novelty that was a distinct advantage for those theatres equipped with the latest sound systems. Despite is original one-channel, optical (or monaural) sound track, MGM technicians did a difficult and splendid job of dividing it onto a new multiple=channel magnetic tape which broadcast the film in “Perspecta stereophonic sound.” The effect was brilliant: conversations were actually divided line by line (only in certain scenes) and the voice of a character out of camera range could be heard over a viewer’s shoulder—from the back of the theatre. This was particularly well used for Ashley’s reminiscences at the lumber mill and in the finale. Stereophonic sound lost its popularity fairly quickly int he following years and this particular divided sound track was never employed again.

Based on the version available on blu ray, somehow the film has been restored back to its original glory. You can fiddle-dee-dee but don’t fiddle with the film, thank you.

As if all this weren’t exciting enough, guess who else was at the re-premiere event? JAMES DEAN! The thought of Shirley actually meeting my other favorite actor truly boggles my mind. Dean attended the event because he was dating actress Pier Angeli, who was under contract to MGM at the time. Note the Oscars behind them from “Gone with the Wind.”

Here they are with Jane Powell and then-husband Patrick Nerney. If Dean looks uncomfortable, you can bet he was. These types of events were not his type of thing, especially having to wear a tuxedo.

I have no idea if Shirley actually met James Dean. But, on the right side of the photo in the background, it looks like it could be Shirley. For the sake of this post, I’m going to say it is. Don’t burst my bubble, please.

Back to Shirley; this is HER post, after all. Let’s zoom in for a closer look at her in all her gala finery:

A closer look at the table tells us the after-party/dinner was held at Ciro’s nightclub on Sunset Boulevard.

In my collection, I just happen to have a shot of the exterior of the Club from 1954:

Franchot Tone and Zsa Zsa Gabor seem to be having a deep conversation at the party:

Parliament cigarettes were apparently the smoke of choice that evening:

Here are Betsy Blair (wife of Gene Kelly at the time) and “Gone with the Wind” star Evelyn Keyes (who played Scarlett’s sister Suellen):

I’m not sure who the gal on the right is, but she has a big old pack of Parliaments, too. Maybe they were a sponsor for the evening.

Other guests that evening included Debbie Reynolds:

…and MGM musical favorites Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen:

Phew…that was a long one! I hope you enjoyed all the six degrees of separation going on here!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.