Temple Tuesday: Shirley and Leroy rabbit holes

A few “new” recent acquisitions of Shirley and Baby Leroy have initiated today’s rabbit hole post, tying together a few odds and ends in my collection. Although I have other shots from this series of the two toddlers in a toy car on the Paramount lot, I’d never noticed that Leroy appears to be wearing one of Shirley’s coats! In the photo below from “Stand Up and Cheer” (1934) with Warner Baxter, you can see Temple wearing the coat in one of her opening scenes.



I adore these photos of the two peering into the mirror:



Leroy seems more excited about this shoot than Shirley, which is not surprising since he is a bit younger than her.



In this publicity still, Leroy is offering Shirley a cold beverage. She is wearing what is known as the Sailboat Dress:



A better shot of the same dress in this Otto Dyer portrait from Shirley’s days at Fox Studio:



I don’t know the occasion for this 1934 Fox publicity shot, but Shirley is again wearing the Sailboat Dress. The gal in the gray suit/dress in the front row at left is Toby Wing; on the right in the white dress is June Knight:



A rare shot of Shirley with a less than photogenic expression, most likely because the sun was in her eyes. I love how it candidly captures her!



Claire Trevor is also in this image with the Naval Officers:



The Sailboat dress was recreated by the Ideal Toy Company for their popular 1930s composition Shirley Temple doll, available in a variety of colors:



In the 1990s, the Danbury Mint did a series of Shirley Temple dolls holding a miniature version of the Ideal doll, mimicking the publicity stills from the 1930s that Shirley posed for:



At least the miniature doll is adorable! I’ll leave it at that…



Shirley’s Sailboat Dress came up for sale in 2015 at the Theriault’s Love, Shirley Temple auction. From the catalog description:

Of crisp white cotton poplin, the middy-style dress has inset bands of navy blue, short puffed sleeves with navy blue banding, and an applique blue sailboat on the front enhanced with embroidered blue "waves". The dress has the cloth label of "De Betty Alden Shoppe Los Angeles". Generally excellent condition. Included is a studio photograph of Shirley Temple wearing this dress and holding a Shirley Temple prototype doll wearing a similar dress. Shirley Temple appeared in various publicity photographs wearing the dress, including one with Spencer Tracy, indicating a connection with the 1934 film "Now I'll Tell" in which both Temple and Tracy appeared. The dress was also used in doll costuming with variations of construction, but always with the same sailboat theme.



This outfit that Shirley wore in the final scene for “Bright Eyes” (1934) also came from “Ye Betty Alden Shoppe” (a typo on Theriault’s part) as did the coat worn by Baby Leroy in the first image from this post:



From the Miracle Mile LA website I found this image of Betty’s store, located in the Wilshire Tower, which is still located at 5514 Wilshire Boulevard:



The R. John Wright Company released a felt version of the Shirley doll wearing the Sailboat dress (shown below at left) in 2018:



Phew! That’s it for today’s rabbit hole - I need a nap!

See more Shirley Temple 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.

Screen Gem Saturdays: Shirley Temple and the Mystery Caption

This 1934 photo is one from my collection that has an odd caption. Well, probably not so odd if you aren't one of those semi-nitpicky detail freaks like me (aka anal retentive).

Here's the accompanying caption for this Otto Dyar photo:

Here is something new in dancing — SHIRLEY TEMPLE is taught a modern development of the old-time soft shoe dance, brought up to date and executed with taps. The five-year-old motion picture star is being taught by JACK DONOHUE, the new dance director at the Fox Film studios. With a week of training and rehearsals, Shirley has worked out this intricate dance exceptionally well and it will be introduced in her new picture, "Bright Eyes." This dance was originated by the late George Primroses and was in later years carried on by William Rock and Eddie Leonard. This rehearsal is shown being conducted in the kitchen of Shirley's new bungalow on the Fox Film studio lot.

What's so odd? "Bright Eyes," known as the movie where Shirley first introduced "On the Good Ship Lollipop" has no dance number in it. In addition, the dress that Shirley is wearing in this photo is one she wore for the movie "Baby Take A Bow," released in June 1934. In between "Baby Take A Bow" and "Bright Eyes" (released in December 1934), Shirley cranked out "Now And Forever" over at Paramount (released August 1934).

Here she is on the set of "Now and Forever" with costar Gary Cooper:



Either the caption is a lot of publicity hooey, or "Bright Eyes" has a deleted dance number. Or, the publicity department screwed up and meant to reference a number for "Baby Take A Bow" instead of "Bright Eyes." Either way, Sammy Lee is listed as choreographer for "Baby Take A Bow" and "Bright Eyes." No Jack Donohue. In fact, Donohue isn't listed on the credits for a Temple movie until 1935's "Curly Top."

Here's another publicity still of Shirley from "Baby Take A Bow," showing her in the same polka dot dress, posing between costars James Dunn & Claire Trevor:



What does this mean? Well, probably not a heckuva lot, other than Shirley Temple was one busy 6 year old in 1934! She had the lead role in 4 feature films and a key supporting one in at least 4 more. Just what did YOU do at age 6?

To see more Shirley Temple photos, visit my regular website.