Temple Tuesday: Rebecca Restored!

Very quietly, it was revealed that Shirley Temple’s 1938 musical comedy, “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” has been restored. Those that live near the Orinda Theatre can view it on the “big” screen on September 5 at 1pm, according to the theatre’s website:

A new chapter unfolds for cinema enthusiasts: We have secured an extraordinary partnership to showcase a Disney Restorations Series. Starting in 2026, the first Saturday of each month will bring an amazing opportunity to experience some of cinema's most treasured classics on the big screen, right here at the Historic Orinda Theatre. This series celebrates a milestone in film preservation, with the Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures' Restoration and Library Management Department sharing their remarkable work, including restored classics from Disney, Selznick International, 20th Century-Fox, Fox Film Corp., and 20th Century Pictures. Many of these cinematic gems have been absent from theaters for years, making this year-long showcase a groundbreaking event for Northern California, with numerous premiere presentations of these restored masterpieces. We will be opening the series with the 1950 Animated Classic, Cinderella! Hosted by Film Critic, Matias Bombal

The Orinda, just under seventeen miles outside of San Francisco, was designed by architect Alexander Aimwell Cantin, are right up my alley. If only it were closer! Photos below were found online:



From the exterior signage:

The Orinda Theatre opened its doors in 1941 and is the city’s most prominent visual landmark with its signature dorsal fin marquee. It is a textbook example of Streamlined Moderne Architecture, a late type of Art Deco design inspired by structures built for the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island. The building includes Carrara glass and stainless steel finishes, with the interior theatre walls and foyer ceiling painted in classic murals.

Back to Shirley…I was curious what “restoration” meant in this case. No information was given as to whether the efforts sourced the original negative, a vintage print, or…? Due to “vault fires” and the natural aging of nitrate film, many of Shirley’s early films don’t look so good. “Rebecca” has always looked pretty decent in its VHS and DVD releases, so for this one to be the first chosen for a restoration effort seems like Disney (who now owns her childhood catalog) was seeking some low hanging fruit, or perhaps because it is one of Shirley’s least controversial movies. Whatever the reasoning is, I am very happy that Disney is actually doing something positive with Shirley, who has been buried since they took over the 20th Century-Fox classic catalog of films. Below, Shirley helps “Titanic” dish Gloria Stuart bake some cookies in “Rebecca”:



Kevin Schaeffer, the current Director of Restoration & Library Management for the Walt Disney Corporation, posted this on his LinkedIn account:

Incredibly proud and excited that our restoration of the Shirley Temple classic "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm" (1938) is premiering at the Venice International Film Festival today. Congratulations to our Restoration Manager Nikki Jee, Natalie Altounian, our partners at The Film Foundation, and the artists at Cineric Inc and Audio Mechanics for their great work.

When using AI to find more information, I learned just how faulty it can be. It apparently mixed up information for the Mary Pickford version, and also freely takes information about negative restoration and haphazardly paired it with “Rebecca.” One should ALWAYS check the sources for AI and follow-up with more questions. Below, Shirley’s “Rebecca” costars Randolph Scott and Jack Haley (best known as the Tin Man in “The Wizard of Oz”) have a discussion:



Franklin Pangborn (below) has a memorable bit towards the end of the film. Few played the prissy/fussy comedic characters like he did; he was often a foil for W. C. Fields (“International House,” “The Bank Dick,” and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break”).



Below is a still from a deleted musical number with Shirley, Slim Summerville, Bill Robinson, and some of the other fieldhands from Sunnybrook Farm. If only this sequence survived!



In other Shirley news, it appears that the rest of her autobiography might finally see the light of day. Hollywood gossipy Deadline, quietly broke this story last October (which was briefly regurgitated this March on the official Shirley Temple website):

Marty Tudor has been working with the family estate of Shirley Temple and will have access to the rights of the child actress-turned Ghana and Czechoslovakia ambassador across streaming, film, stage and more. There are also two unpublished autobiographies by Temple which Tudor is helping the estate get published. Tudor is an industry vet, who managed the careers of Paula Abdul and Jon Cryer, and of late has been behind a series of Hologram concert shows starting in 2018 with performances by the late Maria Callas, Roy Orbison, and Whitney Houston. His Orbison-Buddy Holly hologram tour was booked for 58 dates while Houston’s was a 36-date tour in Europe. Tudor’s credits include the Cryer movie Hiding Out, the 1995 TV movie Sahara, the 2004 TV special Carol Burnett: Let’s Bump Up the Lights, and the 2005 Disney TV movie, Once Upon a Mattress starring Burnett, Zooey Deschanel and Tracey Ullman. “There’s so much more to American icon Shirley Temple’s life that people aren’t aware of. She was the U.S. delegate in the United Nations, a female Ambassador to Ghana and Czechslovakia, she was a breast cancer survivor, she fought sexism as the first female U.S. Chief of Protocol. What appeals to me, as a father of a daughter, is that Shirley continues to be an amazing inspiration and role model for young girls. We see a lot of kid actors who go the wrong way, she did not. There’s an amazing human being here with a big story who gave back as opposed to a pop star in it for the glory,” Tudor tells Deadline. The Temple Black family tells Deadline in a statement: “As the 100th anniversary of our Mom’s birthday approaches, we are so pleased at the idea of sharing with the world the lesser-known second half of her incredible life story. She often observed that ‘the Little Girl opened the door’, but then our Mom stepped through it, confident, courageous, authentic – all grown up.”

This is a curious story as Disney/Fox owns the rights to most of Shirley’s well-known childhood titles. Most likely the movies the story refers to are her Baby Burlesks and the 1950s/1960s Storybook anthology television series. Below, a 32 year old Shirley plays a little girl magically transformed into a boy in “The Land of Oz” (1960) segment of “The Shirley Temple Show.” She is shown with Jonathan Winters:



A brave Shirley even tackled the role of “The Little Mermaid” on her series. In a bad blonde wig, Shirley was very miscast in this part. Below, Shirley and costar Torin Thatcher: 



The one comment left on the Deadline story was hilarious:

They’re gonna AI Shirley age 10.

A hologram concert with Shirley? Oh my…

See more photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Will Rogers, A Plaque, and City Hall

One new photo in the collection has resulted in yet another Shirley Temple rabbit hole. Many of you have seen these previously posted shots of two of the biggest stars back in 1935, Will Rogers and Shirley Temple.





Rogers died tragically in a plane crash on August 15, 1935.  His home studio, Fox, dedicated a plaque and a $250,000 soundstage to him on November 14, 1935. Louis B. Mayer, Rupert Hughes, Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph Schenck, Shirley, Governor Frank F. Merriam, and Irvin Cobb assembled for the unveiling:



More than 300 people participated in the dedication and luncheon. Rogers’ son, Will Rogers, Jr., attended the event but did not make a presentation.



Favorite songs of the late actor were sung by Gladys Swarthout and John Boles, including “Old Faithful.” Shirley was quoted as saying, “I loved him, too.” She was the first star to shoot on the newly dedicated stage which had been built back in 1933. The building, Stage 8, still stands today.



Fred Stone (who played the Scarecrow on stage in “The Wizard of Oz” and was a close friend of Rogers), Shirley, Irvin Cobb, and Shirley’s mother, Gertrude Temple:



On December 1, 1935, Bill Robinson and Shirley donned their costumes from “The Littlest Rebel” and performed their famous stair dance routine at a Will Rogers memorial “Show of Shows” held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, which also helped raise funds for the Will Rogers Memorial Fund. The show raised $15,000 and attracted more than 6000 spectators, with hundreds more waiting outside, hoping to hear the show over the loud-speakers.



Madame Ernestine Schumann-Heink opened the show with a rousing rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” The opera singer is buried here in San Diego at Greenwood Memorial Park. Her portrait hangs in the mausoleum. Yes, Melissa - she has a Shirley connection!



Also performing that night were Sophie Tucker, Mickey Rooney, and Judy Garland.

Below is an image of Shirley with the Will Rogers Plaque, almost thirty years later on January 6, 1965, when she returned to her home studio to film the pilot for a proposed TV series, “Go Fight City Hall”:



Frances Klamt, Shirley’s childhood teacher, was there for Shirley’s return:



The Los Angeles Times, Friday, January 8, 1965

A Curly Comeback: Shirley Temple Taps at TV Door

Shirley Temple came home Wednesday. Home to 20th Century-Fox, the studio where she once reigned as the moppet queen of cinema, the incomparable Curly Top. They gave her a grand welcome. There was a banner across the studio gate proclaiming Welcome Home, Shirley! And a champagne luncheon with studio brass and many an old friend she knew 30 years ago and more—including Frances Klant[sp], her personal schoolteacher in those early days and still resident teacher on the lot. The welcome was certainly her due, for it has been said, and truly, that without Shirley Temple there would not be a 20th Century-Fox — Curly Top built the studio. She’s now before the cameras on those same sound stages where she sang “The Good Ship Lollypop[sp]” and danced with Bill Robinson in films that packed theaters in every nook and cranny of the world. Only things have changed—her work now will be for television. She’s making the pilot film for a new series for the ABC network next season in which she will play a young social worker. Costarring with her are Jack Kruschen and Bill Hayes. If all goes well, the series will swing into full production in May and Shirley said she has been promised she can complete her year’s work by September. She will either commute from her home in Atherton and her quiet life as Mrs. Charles Black, housewife and mother, or take a house here for the summer. “Susan is nearly 17 and graduates from high school in June and I know I have to be home for that and to see her off to college in September,” said Shirley. “But the young ones (Charles Jr., 12, and Lori, 10) love the ocean and maybe we can find a place on the sea for the summer.” At the luncheon, Shirley was flanked by Bill Self, head of Fox’s burgeoning TV division, and ABC president Tom Moore. Nostalgia flowed with the champagne. Self brought out Shirley’s original contract when the studio signed her on Dec. 9, 1933, at the age of 5, for $150 a week. Shirley recalled that by the time she left the studio (at 12) she’d left all her baby teeth behind and had celebrated each birthday in the studio commisssary where the luncheon was held. But things had changed. As she stepped out of the commissary, she was in the square of Peyton Place amid phony snowdrifts glistening in the sun of another era of snow business.



Shirley was also quoted as saying, “I feel right at home here. This is where I lost most of my baby teeth, and this is where I went to school. Almost nothing has changed.” A few test frames shot for the pilot:



In the pilot, Shirley wore a truly unflattering blonde wig. Below she poses with Jack Kruschen.



Kruschen was to play the lead of a public assistance department and Shirley was his supervisor. Vincent Sherman produced and directed the show which was written by Nate Monaster (“The Donna Reed Show” and “The Milton Berle Show”). From Rita Dubas, Shirley expert supreme:  “I’m not sure if the pilot ever aired. I remember that Shirley’s children didn’t want a bleached-blonde mom, so the producers found a wig for her to wear instead.”

Rita also sent me this blurb from TV Guide, February 6, 1965:

The title of Shirley Temple’s comedy pilot may change from “Go Fight City Hall” to “The Shirley Temple Show.” She starred as a social worker with Jack Kruschen as her supervisor and Cloris Leachman as a co-worker. [The pilot was eventually produced under the title “The Shirley Temple Show” but failed to sell.]

Rita questioned the accuracy of “The Shirley Temple Show” being the final title of the pilot, as that would have risked confusing people with her storybook anthology series from 1960 of the same name.



Was it the writing? Was it the wig? Whatever it was, the pilot failed to sell the series and has been buried ever since. And so ends another rabbit hole excursion.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: No Jitterbug for Shirley

As soon as she hit the silver screen, Shirley Temple was known for both singing and dancing, as seen above in “War Babies” (1932). In “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942), her first teenage romantic role, it was only natural that Shirley’s footwork kept up with the times. Below, she can be seen getting coached by choreographer Nick Castle and costar Dickie Moore.



Fortunately for Dickie, for this jitterbug dance sequence he was able to get by with just standing still while Shirley did all the work.



Later in the film, wrong-side-of-the-tracks Annie (Shirley) finds favor with the rich kids by teaching them how to cut a rug. “Drizzlepuss” Stella Bainbridge (June Lockhard) refuses to join the fun and stands off to the right. 



When Shirley returned to the screen a little over a year later in David Selznick’s “Since You Went Away” (1944), the producer was adamant against Shirley doing any singing or dancing. According to publicity of the time, the movie “…definitely is not ‘another Temple picture.’ It is based on a series of letters written by Margaret Buell Wilder, Dayton, Ohio, newspaper-woman and mother of two teenaged daughters, to her husband in the Army. It is the every-day story of their problems and efforts to make ends meet by taking in boarders. And it is definitely not another Temple role. Shirley plays a straight dramatic part. No dancing and no singing.” In one of his famous memos, Selznick wrote, “I’m anxious to get the accent off this as a Temple vehicle and start hammering away at its tremendous cast.” Selznick would even go so far as to admonish Shirley against singing and dancing on her War Bond Tours. What a fink! Below is Shirley with costar Claudette Colbert who played her mother, Anne Hilton.



As in Selznick’s “Gone with the Wind,” a military dance plays a central part to the story of the film. Here, Jennifer Jones (playing Shirley’s older sister) arrives to the thrill of the soldiers who get a temporary break from World War II to dance with some pretty girls.



Shirley is not even in this scene at all; instead, the focus is on the romantic leads (Robert Walker and Jones) and their chaperones, Colbert and Joseph Cotten, who plays a close friend of the Hilton family.



According to the AFI website, the hangar dance was shot in a reproduction of an Army aviation hangar that encompassed two sound stages, over 20,000 sq. ft. of floor space and utilized 100 electricians. Below, director John Cromwell coaches Cotten and Colbert as they dance and recite their dramatic dialogue.



Colbert and Cotten rest between takes:



With Cromwell watching at right, Jones and Walker (married at the time the film was being made) perform their scene:



Silver Screen Magazine shot a series of dance photos during filming of the movie. From their publicity blurbs:

Jitterbugs Elsie Peritz and Jack Arkin warm up their motors, so to speak for an aerial take-off in the hangar dance sequence of “Since You Went Away,” first picture made by David O. Selznick since his Academy Award winning “Gone with the Wind” and “Rebecca.”



Peritz also had an uncredited role in the Robert Benchley Paramount Technicolor short, “Boogie Woogie” (1945). Arkin had a few small uncredited roles, including the Judy Garland film, “The Clock” (1945) and “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” (1944) where he also danced the Jitterbug.

Below: Jack gives a spin and—oops!—we got something in our eye, so we didn’t see that.



Now Elsie is really getting up in Hollywood. The lady in the background, if she had it to do over again, would never learn how to knit but would concentrate on jitterbugging, as Elsie has, so that she too could be the life of the party.



Don’t feel bad for Shirley; she continued to dance for her fans, including in Central Park with former dance partner and close friend, Bill Robinson, Summer 1944:



She gave Franchot Tone Jitterbug lessons in “Honeymoon” (1947):



In the 1970’s, Shirley performed the Jitterbug with talk show host Mike Douglas. I have yet to find a clip of it on YouTube. From what I recall she was magnificent!

See more “Since You Went Away” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Let Them Eat Cake

Based on the many publicity photos released of Shirley Temple during her heyday, you’d think she was Marie Antoinette, always indulging in cake! In the photo above, she attends the fifth birthday of Harold Lloyd Jr., January 25, 1935. Jane Bannister, daughter of actress Ann Harding, is on the right. What a cake! It would be difficult to decide, should you eat it or play with it?



Above, Shirley is celebrating friend and costar Bill Robinson’s birthday held at Fox Studio, May 25, 1935.



Although FDR was not in attendance, a birthday celebration was held at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles on January 30, 1937 in the President’s honor. Shirley Temple and Eddie Cantor are pictured below in front of the spectacular cake!



Arthur Treacher, Anita Louise, Shirley, Mary Nash, and Marcia Mae Jones on set for the filming of Sara’s lavish birthday party.



Shirley convinced her mother that the other child actors in “The Little Princess” (1939) weren’t satisfied with the “fake” birthday party called for in the film. As a result, they were given a “real” party in the studio’s Café de Paris afterwards. The children sat at a decorated table, gorging themselves on cake and ice cream. The only “casualty” of the occasion was that one little girl spilled a plate of ice cream over her dress, and the production was held up until it was cleaned. Among those present at Shirley’s party in the photo below were Sybil Jason Marcia Mae Jones, Deidre Gale, and Ira Stevens.



Shirley can be seen at the top right, next to Marcia Mae Jones. Deidre Gale is front left, Ira Stevens has her mouth full with a roll on the right.



In April 1942, Shirley shared birthday cake with her fellow cast members of the radio show, “Junior Miss.” A “V” for Victory on the patriotic themed cake.



Instead of eating cake at her 1945 wedding to first husband John Agar, Shirley seemed to take greater pleasure in shoving a piece into the mouth of her future ex-husband.



The public also shared in Shirley’s simple meals, such as this basic breakfast of toast and fruit at her Santa Monica home.



A bowl of Quaker Oats Puffed Wheat:



A quick snack between takes of “Little Miss Broadway” (1938).



Ready for lunch?

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.