Christmas Eve: Anticipation

In 1939, Shirley Temple posed for her final Christmas photos at 20th Century-Fox. She would be temporarily retired by the time the next winter holiday rolled around. Even in the day before digital photography made it easy to take hundreds of photos without worrying about cost, the studio shot an abundance of the little girl in this session that attempted to capture the anticipation of awaiting Santa Claus’ visit on Christmas Eve. Taken at the studio, a staircase from props along with a wreath and some gifts gave a slight air of authenticity. I truly love the first one of Shirley pretending to be asleep while the silhouette of Santa looms behind her. Below, the wonder of seeing the tree and presents on Christmas morning is perfectly captured by Shirley’s expression:



A small candle in her hand lights the way:



Four additional shots of Shirley descending the steps are in my collection, showing that the studio liked giving the movie magazines options to choose from:








Hunting through the internet, I found three more:







Had enough Shirley yet? That’s ok, because we are moving on to Christmas 1970. Were my brothers and I dressed for a fancy dinner? No. This was the typical attire for a plane trip from Philadelphia to San Diego. Back in the day, plane travel was a luxury and one was expected to dress for the occasion. I was reading a book on the zodiac, and my oldest brother was apparently planning to practicing his clarinet while we visited our Grandmother in San Diego for Christmas.



Our United Airlines flight had actual curtains on the window!



Eldest brother was reading The Mystery of the Coughing Dragon, part of the Alfred Hitchcock mystery series:



Ah, to recall a time when plane travel was fun and you had room to squirm around in your seat.



The first order of business in San Diego was to visit Santa Claus at the May Company department store in Mission Valley. This modernist building had opened in February 1961. It is currently empty, most likely awaiting demolition.



Christmas Eve at my Grandmother’s fireplace shows our stockings (I still have mine) as well as the annual plate of Christmas cookies and note to Santa.



Note Marlboro 100s box in the background. No Christmas tableau is complete without it.



Christmas morning shows the genuine smiles as we were finally allowed to enter the living room to see what Santa had brought.



I hope you are all able to experience this form of happy anticipation and joy over the holidays and can disconnect from the stressors of 2025.

See more Shirley Temple at the holidays photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley’s Narrow Escape!

Eighty years ago, Shirley Temple narrowly escaped an attempt on her life when she appeared on radio for the very first time. December 24, 1939, Nelson Eddy was the host and narrator for the Screen Guild presentation of “The Blue Bird.” As Shirley recalled the incident in her autobiography “Child Star”:

“In a rare exception to Mother’s policy, I was permitted to appear on a Christmas Eve benefit radio broadcast of the Screen Guild Theatre, featuring me in a half-hour dramatic except from the film and a ‘Silent Night’ due with Nelson Eddy. An untimely sore throat worried me a little, but I knew Eddy could carry me if my voice weakened. My upstairs theatre dressing room faced directly onto a parking lot. Standing at the window I looked out while Mother fussed around with the back of my hair, and I saw a scruffily dressed woman carrying a large handbag come along below, peering up into each window as if searching. When she saw me, her face lit up with recognition. Scowling, she raised her fist and shouted something unintelligible. “What is she doing?” I asked Mother, who simply dropped the venetian blind, and urged me to concentrate on my lines. As a general precaution, however, she reported the odd event to a theatre official. Jumpy about possible public disturbance, he in turn passed the word to local police, who upgraded the incident to a possible kidnapping and involved the local FBI.”



Midway through Shirley’s performance of “Someday You'll Find Your Bluebird,” she looked into the audience and saw the same woman, seated in the front row.

“Slowly the woman rose, like one transfixed, raising her gun until it pointed directly at me. [Two security men] had spotted the woman, and both came crowding and stumbling past the extended legs of seated patrons...I just shrank down behind my microphone, my voice locked on another ‘oo-oo-oo.’ Why the woman did not pull the trigger before being roughly seized by the two men is hers to answer and mine to bless. Disarmed and lifted bodily, she made no sound audible over the orchestra music, nor did the orchestra leader, his back to the disturbance, miss a beat...Next day an FBI agent called. The woman’s gun had been loaded and she had indeed intended to kill me, for stealing her daughter’s soul. Several hours before my birth, she had borne a girl, and at the very hour of my birth, her baby had died. My soul was in fact her daughter’s, she claimed. To avenge the theft, she had set out to kill my body. Although the tale seemed understandable to me, Mother would have known its crucial fallacy. My birthday the woman was using was 1929, the one fabricated long before by Winfield Sheehan [of Fox studio]. In truth it was by one year, so somebody else had stolen the soul.”



At the end of the show, Nelson and Shirley sang a duet of “Silent Night.” Smiling for the cameras, they hugged each other, masking the very serious incident that had occurred just moments before. Shirley’s parting words to the radio audience held more meaning than any of the listeners that night could have been aware of: “This has been a very exciting Christmas Eve for me!”



As the saying goes, the show must go on!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Christmas Memories, Pt. 2

Christmas day was always wonderful, but the anticipation of the night before was even more magical. Of course, there would be lots of photos taken, and my grandmother was typically on hand as well. The highlight of Christmas Eve was the reading of "The Night Before Christmas." At the feet of my brothers is the book that was brought out annually for the traditional reading.



Many years later, when I saw the same distinctive edition illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, I was overcome with a wave of nostalgia and immediately bought it (not sure what happened to the copy that my mom had).



Here's one of mom reading us Clement Moore's famous story:



There were stockings to be hung; my brother Jim's had been knitted by a family friend. Eventually, all three of us would have our own.



Zooming in, you can see the vintage reel-to-reel tape recorder that my dad had set-up to capture a few unscripted "kids say the darndest things" moments.



Here, my dad is attempting to explain to my brothers about my impending birth. I think they were more excited about the presents under the tree.



Naturally, my brothers were very angelic the night before the gift distribution occurred; the threat of coal in the stockings was very real from my parents!



Most of the presents were put out the night before, and all three of us would attempt to guess what was inside the wrapped boxes. There were a few gifts that magically appeared after we went to bed; those were the REALLY special ones...the ones that Santa would leave. Perhaps Bobo the Clown was one of those; I'm sure the wagon and scooter were.



My brothers were still looking angelic the next morning, sporting matching Santa outfits. Another tradition was that each person would take turns playing Santa and handing out the gifts. Mom was pretty careful to make sure that there were an equal amount for all under the tree.



My brother's reaction to the phonograph would be typical of what little kids today would have; what the heck is that contraption?!?



Once the unwrapping began, things got a little crazier. You could see wrapping paper and ribbon for days!



Most of the gifts were hits, especially these toy automobile dashboards.



Wow...my brothers were the envy of the neighborhood with these!



Just look at those delighted faces!



These teddy bears were a big success, too; have you ever seen another bear get so much lovin'?



And then there were the gifts that didn't go over so well. Take a look at the pitiful expression on my brother's face.



A few years after we moved back east, the family traveled back to San Diego to spend Christmas with my grandmother. Despite the plane trip, the stockings and other annual traditions were upheld. Note the plate of cookies for Santa with the accompanying note. I still remember the wonderment I felt when I noticed that there ashes from the fireplace on the carpet. Santa must have found us!



One of my favorite gifts was the matching Winnie the Pooh and Piglet set. They were a wonderful souvenir from my very first trip to Disneyland just a few days before!



Don't forget to put out your plate of cookies tonight!

See more vintage & current Daveland photos on my main website.