Temple Tuesday: Two Cakes for Shirley

Shirley’s home studio, Fox, celebrated her seventh birthday at least twice. In the photo above, Shirley is seen at the party given in the studio commissary on Friday, April 26. The accompanying publicity blurb calls it her sixth birthday, as a year had been shaved off her life to make her appear more remarkable to the public.

SHIRLEY TEMPLE CELEBRATES SIXTH BIRTHDAY

Shirley Temple, Fox Film Star, was hostess to 25 children today at a birthday party given on the studio lot. The youngsters entertained by the diminutive actress are the children of Los Angeles newspaper men. Shirley celebrated her sixth birthday and cut into a cake weighing 14 pounds. 4/27/35



I was hoping the child seen below was Spanky, from the “Our Gang” comedies, but alas, it is not.



On the same day, Shirley posed in front of the recently unveiled Alberto Vargas mural in the Fox Commissary.

Shirley Temple points with pride to her picture on the wall of the Café de Paris at Fox Film studio. Fox stars who have made five successful pictures are honored in this Mural Hall of Fame. Shirley has the honor of representing Hollywood in the collection. The portrait is by Alberto Vargas, noted Peruvian artist.



The party was supposed to be held ON her birthday, Tuesday, April 23, 1935, as reported by the Los Angeles Citizen News on April 22:

Shirley Temple Will Give Birthday Party

Being six years old is the occasion for Shirley Temple, child screen star, to celebrate tomorrow at the Fox Studio. She has invited 25 friends, some of them playmates from Santa Monica.

A day later, the plans were changed, as reported by the Daily Breeze:

‘Sniffles, Keep Shirley Abed on Sixth Birthday

Shirley Temple, the screen’s tiny but mighty star, observed her sixth birthday anniversary today in bed in her Santa Monica home, confined, according to her own diagnosis, by “sniffles.” A studio party to which 35 guests had been invited was postponed by personal messages the little actress dispatched over telegraph wires. The message read: “My birthday party has been postponed because I have the sniffles and have to stay at home. We will have the party in a few days and I will let you know about it and hope to see you there.” The child’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. George P. Temple, said Shirley was not seriously ill and that the party was deferred until probably Friday merely to safeguard her guests from possibly contracting the “sniffles.” Meanwhile, more than 100 birthday remembrances from fans, friends and relatives remained unopened, a pleasure to be reserved for Shirley at her party. At Shirley’s own request, the party is to be devoted principally to playing. To assure the little star of what she regards as a good time, Mrs. Temple said she had invited two of Shirley’s old-time friends who “play with her instead of staring at her.” The rest of the guests will be children of Southern California newspapermen. “Many of the children Shirley meets nowadays and wants to play with stand and stare at her,” Mrs. Temple said. “They seem awed by her presence. For this reason two of her old playmates will be at the party. They consider her merely another girl and not a novelty.” In addition to ice cream and cake and games, Shirley’s party will boast a Punch and Judy show and an act by trained animals. A motion picture show also will be presented and the movie will be the kind Shirley and all other children prefer, a comedy.

By April 29, the L.A. Times reported concerned readers that “Shirley Temple all better after a bad cold.” The party ended up occurring on Friday, April 26, and made the Daily News on the 29th:



One tiny mystery remains. If Shirley had the “sniffles” on the day of her birthday and the Fox party had to be postponed, then what is the backstory of the photo below and the accompanying caption?



Shirley Temple, who is starred in “Our Little Girl,” is shown looking at a fine cake Nick Janios, manager of the Fox Film Café de Paris, had made for her. Nick took the cake 55 miles to the baby star, who is working on location at Sherwood Forest, California.

Possibly Shirley filmed on the morning of her birthday where a cake was delivered to Sherwood Forest, and decided to postpone the party at the studio. Either way, it looks like Shirley scored TWO cakes! Janis can be seen again at Shirley’s April 1940 20th Century-Fox birthday with another one of his amazing creations:



See more Shirley Temple birthday photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: The Two-Timing Dress!

Sometimes when trying to solve a mystery, you already have the answer at your fingertips but are too dense to notice. This is such a case. In 1934, Shirley Temple starred in the Fox picture, “Baby Take A Bow.” For many of the publicity stills, she posed in this cute polka-dot dress. Here she is with costars James Dunn and Claire Trevor, appropriately taking a bow:

There was even a doll produced at the time by Ideal wearing that very same dress:

The odd part about this is that the dress is never seen in the final film. To my knowledge, there are no stills of a deleted scene showing where Shirley might have worn this dress during the film. And yet, it figured prominently in the film’s publicity. Recently, I noticed the below photo on ebay:

The caption on the back reads:

LUNCH FOR THREE - Clara Lou Sheridan, Shirley Temple and Lee Tracy together for lunch in the studio cafe.

What appeared odd was that it was marked as a Paramount still, even though Shirley wore this dress in a Fox movie. Naturally, I contacted Melissa (aka “The Colonel”) who was just as baffled as I was. Moments later, she had purchased the photo as a gift and it was on its way to me. This mystery had to be solved!

The dishes provided no clues, but it was interesting to see The Hollywood Reporter on the table:

I noticed Shirley’s stand-in, Marilyn Granas in the background on the left.

Melissa sleuthed and found out that Clara Lou Sheridan was the one and only Ann Sheridan, voted as “The Oomph Girl” in 1939 by a committee of 25 men who thought the actress had the most "oomph" of any girl in America. I took over from there and noticed that “You Belong to Me” was ta Paramount production with both Lee Tracy and Sheridan (in an unbilled part) and released on September 14, 1934, putting this photo at that time.

Shirley made two films for Paramount: “Little Miss Marker,” released June 1, 1934 and “Now and Forever,” released August 31, 1934. “Baby Take A Bow” at Fox was released June 30, 1934. To say Shirley was a busy girl is an understatement. Then I started looking at the numbering system on publicity stills of the time. “Baby Take A Bow” stills were numbered 158, “Marker” 1491, and “Now and Forever” 1732. Houston, we have a match! Apparently this “mystery” still was intended to promote “Now and Forever.” But why was Shirley wearing a dress from a Fox movie? Most likely this busy little bee was rushing between studios, perhaps doing re-takes or looping “Now and Forever.” Another deduction is that Shirley wasn’t really joining Sheridan and Tracy for lunch, but instead dining with Marilyn. Already in my collection was this photo proving that theory:

What I once “assumed” was the Fox Commissary was really over at Paramount. Again, the numbering system matches “Now and Forever.” Looking further at my collection, I noticed this still. Poor Shirley didn’t get to enjoy lunch very much that day; she was so tired her eyes couldn’t stay open! I have no idea who these other two folks are that surround her.

Final shot for today shows famed pinup artist Alberto Vargas sketching Shirley. What did she pose in? The “Baby Take a Bow” dress of course!

That dress sure got a lot of use, so it’s not surprising that it was MIA during the 2015 “Love, Shirley Temple” auction of Shirley’s movie costumes. The poor thing probably disintegrated.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.