Temple Tuesday: Shirley and the Fools

In honor of April Fools’ Day, today’s post shows Shirley getting fooled or her costars portraying a fool, beginning with “Just Around the Corner” (1938). In the plot of this musical comedy, Shirley mistakes wealthy businessman Samuel G. Henshaw (Claude Gillingwater) for the beleagured Depression-weary Uncle Sam.



In order to help poor old “Uncle Sam,” Shirley stages a benefit in his honor, making him the laughing stock of New York City.



When all is figured out, the benefit goes on as planned and Henshaw single-handedly saves the world from the Depression. Sound far-fetched and stretched? It sure is, but somehow Shirley makes it all work out. She may have been fooled, but she was definitely no fool!



In “The Little Princess” (1939), Shirley Temple’s costar, Arthur Treacher, portrays the Court Jester/Fool in a dream sequence.



It is fairly hilarious to see the typically dignifed-butler-portraying Teacher in satin and tights, prancing around with his jester puppet.



He may have portrayed stiffs, but Treacher knew how to do a good turnout, as seen by his pose below!



Treacher’s faded tunic came up for sale in the Debbie Reynolds auction:

Arthur Treacher court-jester tunic designed by Gwen Wakeling from the Shirley Temple movie, "The Little Princess," 1939. SOLD FOR $650. Veteran British character actor Arthur Treacher plays a frustrated ex-vaudevillian forced into subservience to his cruel sister running the girls boarding school which Shirley Temple attends. This humorous split-color satin jester’s outfit by Gwen Wakeling is worn by Treacher to great effect in Shirley’s dream fantasy number in The Little Princess. United Costumers label inside reads, “ARTHUR TREACHER B931”. The special blue dye for costumes in 3-strip Technicolor films is one of the most fragile, and has here faded to aubergine; else, with minor handling and aging, Very Good overall.



His tights appeared at a later date. Hard to believe they survived all this time!



A few screenshots from the lavish Technicolor© production:



My favorite Treacher line from this dream sequence referring to Mary Nash’s evil character:

Listen to the old grand-mommy,
You’re a nasty peeping tommy!



In “Young People” (1940), as Shirley’s father, Jack Oakie portrays the biggest fool of them all.



Blustery and a bit full of himself, he is the butt of every joke. Below, daughter (Shirley) and wife (Charlotte Greenwood) have to remind him that their dressing room is in the opposite direction of where he is heading.



When the family retires from showbiz to settle down in a hick farming community, they are not readily accepted by the conservative townfolk, who appoint Oakie is a one-man-chamber-of-commerce as a joke. The problem is, Oakie thinks it’s for real.



When Oakie’s character helps the kids stage a somewhat raunchy musical number for the townsfolk, the joke is revealed and the town spinster reveals to him exactly what everyone thinks of him.



Sad to find out that her dad has been made out to be a fool, Shirley drowns her sorrows in multiple sodas. 



Fear not, as Shirley never stays down for long. Dad saves the kids from certain death during a hurricane and is hailed a hero. The family ends the film on a high note by entertaining a more receptive community with a musical number.



Remember any other fools from Shirley’s films?

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Details and Deletions

In the 1938 Shirley Temple movie “Just Around the Corner,” her character (Penny Hale) holds a benefit to help save Uncle Sam. The “Programme” lists an opening number by Lottie and Letty (Barbara and Gloria Brewster):



The Brewster Twins also had a bit part in Shirley’s “Little Miss Broadway”. They were born Naomi and Ruth Stevenson in Tucson in 1918 and were under contract to Fox from the late 1930’s to the early 1940’s, making nine films. They were known as the “Most Beautiful Twins in America.” No arguments here! Back to Shirley…

Rehearsal sheet music from “Just Around the Corner” was auctioned off in 2015 and included the songs “London Bridge is Falling Down” and “I Feel Like the Blossoms in the Spring.” This sheet music was written when the movie was still being called “Lucky Penny.”



Neither of the songs made it into the final cut of the movie. It is believed that “Blossoms” was the song that Penny and her gang were to sing at the benefit. This recently acquired image shows what I believe to be the “Penny and her Gang” musical number, which does not show up in the finished film. Something tells me that this number of Shirley singing with the neighborhood toughs may not have been all that spectacular. If only the footage still survived!



The rest of the “Programme” continues as advertised, with a rousing tap number by Bill Robinson and friends, “Brass Buttons and Epaulettes.”



According to an early script, “London Bridge” was being played by the snobby little children in the Riverview’s swanky playroom on the piano. Bennie Bartlett (who played Shirley’s new friend Milton) takes over at the piano and plays a swing version of the classic tune, with Shirley doing the big apple dance to it. It was at this point that Mr. Waters (Franklin Pangborn) was supposed to walk in and catch this disruption in the normally staid playroom. In reality, Bartlett was a bit of a child prodigy himself. At age four he played trumpet, directed and sang with his own dance orchestra, and was featured on the radio. He appeared in a 1935 RKO musical, “Millions in the Air” playing the piano. The next year he appeared in a short for Paramount, performing a composition he had written at the age of nine. I always wondered why his musical talents were not paired with Shirley’s. It would appear that the original intention was to do just that. Below, Milton’s black eye is revealed to his disapproving mother (Cora Witherspoon) and his approving Uncle Sam (Claude Gillingwater).



The cast of the film concerned Mrs. Temple, which she felt consisted of too many has-beens. For the first time, she went directly to Darryl Zanuck to express her concerns about the movie and the overall typecasting of Shirley. She wanted to see some changes in the types of roles that Shirley would play so that audiences wouldn't get sick of her. Zanuck disagreed; he felt that the more stars stayed the same, the more audiences would come to see them. At the point they tired of that star, it was basically time for Zanuck to release a new one for the public to enjoy. Oops. Not a good answer for Mrs. Temple, who could see that Zanuck would have been quite fine to let Shirley get pushed aside if another personality came along to replace her. The next move Mrs. Temple made caused a permanent rift between her and Zanuck: she went over his head to plead her case to his boss, Joseph M. Schenck. Unfortunately for the Temples, Schenck sided with Zanuck. Oops again.



Farrell was one of the "has-beens” that Mrs. Temple was referring to. Even though he had the largest supporting role, he was billed below Shirley and Joan Davis in the film credits. Director Irving Cummings went to Palm Springs to fetch Farrell out of retirement, promising a come-back. Instead, he only made two more films: 1939’s “Tail-Spin” (once again billed below Joan Davis!) and 1941’s “The Deadly Game.” Farrell is shown above with Rock Hudson in Palm Springs, circa 1955.

GOOF DEPARTMENT: When Penny first enters the basement apartment where her father (Farrell) has been demoted to, the door says “HOUSE ELECTRICIAN”:



A little later in the movie, after her father and his girlfriend break-up (temporarily of course!), it says “MR. HALE”:



Phew. That’s a lot of info!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Rock Hudson in Palm Springs

As a follow-up to yesterday's entry on The Colony Palms Hotel, today's post features 50's matinee idol Rock Hudson during a few visits to Palm Springs. Bob Beerman, staff photgrapher for Modern Screen Magazine, shot these images between 1954 & 1955.

Betty Abbott was a script girl at Universal, working on nine successive Rock Hudson pictures at the beginning of his career. At night, the two would get together socially and gab about what had happened during the day at the studio.



The gossip rags of the day claimed that Betty was on her way to being the "second Mrs. Hudson," which would seem fairly believable when looking at these photos taken at the Palm Springs Racquet Club.



As most are aware of now, Hudson was gay and most of the dating fodder published in the rags was for appearance's sake. Whether Betty knew she was being used for publicity purposes or not is unknown.



From much of what I have read though, most in Hollywood knew about Rock and his sexual preferences.



Here the two enjoy a frosty treat at a local ice cream shop.





Rock butches it up for these two photos, as he looks under the hood of the car of Palm Springs resident and actor Charles Farrell.



Farrell was big in the silent era and had a respectable career that spanned into the talkies as well as TV "My Little Margie." Once retired from the screen, he opened up The Racquet Club along with actor Ralph Bellamy.



See more Rock Hudson photos on my Rock Hudson photo web page.