Temple Tuesday: Sweetheart of the Dance

When Shirley Temple temporarily “retired” from the movies at the ripe old age of twelve in 1940, she still managed to appear in the press. One such occasion was at the California Military Academy Formal Commencement Ball, shown in the photo above. The accompanying caption:

IN PRIVATE LIFE…

Now that Shirley Temple has retired from the screen, she is finding time for real fun. Here she is dancing with Cadet Captain Raymond Berlinger at the formal commencement ball of the California Military Academy. Miss Temple was the honored guest at this affair.

The clipping below is from the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, June 13, 1940:



Shirley Temple Enjoys Self at Ball

Retired from the movies at the age of 11, SHIRLEY TEMPLE would appear from this photo to be turning into a social butterfly. Be that as it may, as an “average little American girl,” the erstwhile film queen did enjoy herself hugely as as guest of honor at the California Military Academy’s Commencement Ball. Her escort, Cadet RAYMOND BERLINGER, took his responsibility most seriously.

This event was still being covered as late as Sunday August 25, in The Los Angeles Times:



Below is another shot from the same evening, which also provides a rare view of the (alleged briefly) adopted son of Jack Haley, the Tin Man from “The Wizard of Oz” (1939):



I say “alleged” because nowhere on the world wide web am I able to find any information about Haley having adopted and then given up a child. When I interviewed William Stillman, author of The Road to Oz: The Evolution, Creation, and Legacy of a Motion Picture Masterpiece, he was kind enough to provide this uneditedd version of a shot of Haley reading The Wizard of Oz to his other son, Jack Haley Jr. Typically when you see this photo, it is tightly cropped around Haley and Haley Jr., eliminating the other children from the California Military Academy.



From the interview:

Q: You mention Jack Haley's adopted/unadopted child who is pictured above, wearing his uniform from the Black-Foxe Military Institute while Haley reads “The Wizard of Oz.” Looks like there is no information about what happened to him after he left Haley’s guardianship. Seems baffling as to why the adoption occurred in the first place...as if some other piece of information is missing. Any thoughts?

A: Jay Scarfone and I did our darndest to trace the whereabouts of Haley’s adopted son but to no avail. As we intimate in “The Road to Oz,” outside of any insider information between Haley and his wife, it’s possible that the adoption was arranged because it was the trendy, philanthropic thing to do in Hollywood at that time. It doesn’t make sense, though, that Haley would’ve added an historically “unplaceable” child to his brood on top of his taxing professional commitments and, as it happened, the adoption was short-lived.

Did Haley actually briefly adopt another child or was the photo above just a publicity shot with a few children from the school? Back to Shirley…

She returned to the Academy almost a year later, at what appears to have been a Valentine’s Day themed dance (note the Cupid and heart decorations on the back wall).



The accompanying blurb:

SHIRLEY THE BELLE OF MILITARY ACADEMY BALL

Shirley Temple, guest of honor at the formal cotillion of the California Military Academy, does the La Conga on the dance floor. The young film star, who recently came out of “retirement” to sign a new contract with MGM, acted like any other girl of her age during the exciting evening. 2/19/41

Sharp-eyed Temple fans will recognize the dress Shirley wore to the cotillion, as it was featured in this MGM publicity session by the famed photographer, Clarence Bull:



…and at the Greek War Relief benefit held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, February 8, 1941. MGM sure knew how to get the most mileage out of their costume department!



If you’re wondering why Shirley would attend two dances at the school, it was most likely because her brother George (aka “Sonny”) attended the nearby Black-Foxe Military Institute, graduating in 1939.

The “La Conga” was a popular dance, thanks to being featured in the MGM Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney musical, “Strike Up The Band,” released September 27, 1940. Once again, MGM rarely missed an opportunity to cross-promote their stars. Below are instructions of how to do the dance, courtesy of the The Jackson Sun in Jackson, Tennessee, Sunday, October 27, 1940. In a touch of irony, Shirley’s last film at 20th Century-Fox, “Young People,” is also featured in this section:



As a bonus, here’s clip of Garland and Rooney exuberantly performing the aforementioned “La Conga” number:



See more teenage Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: A Lot of Bull

When Shirley Temple signed on at MGM in January 1941, the publicity machine wasted little time in promoting its newest star. None other than Clarence Bull was enlisted to give Shirley the glamour treatment, as seen by the portraits shown here. For a bit more about Bull, here’s an excerpt from the 2008 book Glamour of the Gods by Robert Dance and John Russell Taylor:

Clarence Sinclair Bull’s long association as a photographer with the studio that would become Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer began when producer Samuel Goldwyn hired him in 1919. Managing to survive the commotion of the consolidation of Hollywood in the early and mid-1920s, Bull found himself at the helm of MGM’s stills department when the studio was formed in 1924, and stayed there until retiring in 1961. The enormity of MGM’s output of films in the 1920s—they advertised a new feature every week—saw Bull’s domain grow. He was responsible for managing MGM’s staff of photographers and the large support crew of technicians needed to develop, re-touch, print and collate the hundreds of thousands of prints distributed annually by MGM’s publicity department. At least one photograph from the 1920s shows Bull with twelve stillsmen who juggled the task of shooting photos on as many as a dozen films that might be concurrently in production. At MGM, like the other studios, these men—and it was an almost exclusively male profession—worked six days a week and often long hours each day. Generally one photographer was assigned to a production and, as filming was underway, he would document each scene using an 8 x 10 view camera. These cameras not only had lenses with sharp resolution, but contact prints could be made from the negatives quickly and in enormous quantities. The stills made for each film were numbered sequentially and gathered together for a book. Stills photographers also created the images used for poster art, lobby cards and other forms of advertising conceived by imaginative publicity chiefs and their staffs.

The first photo was numbered 5241; the one below 5245:



5257:



5266:



For SJR, I knew you’d want to see this detail:



Often, movie studios would allow their stars to wear gowns provided by the costume department when they were to be seen in public at events. This would ensure that the stars looked their best for the paparazzi! Shirley wore the gown seen above to the February 8, 1941 Greek War Relief Benefit at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Back row: Frank Morgan, Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Dick Powell, and Reginald Owen. Seated: Madeleine Carroll, Samuel Goldwyn, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, and Myrna Loy. , 



Back to Bull…the photo below was stamped #5267:



The accompanying caption is extremely interesting:

SHIRLEY TEMPLE…Young veteran of the screen, poses for her first portrait sitting after signing her contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The youngster will start work on two pictures for the studio “Barnacle Bill,” with Wallace Beery, and “Babes on Broadway,” with Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland. Here the tiny star wears a many-pleated skirt with a pique-collared jacket.

By the time the photo was released, the plans had been changed! Shirley was removed from both films, most likely because the Temples did not feel Shirley should be relegated to supporting roles. Instead, Shirley was made the lead in a low-budget picture (or at least as low budget as MGM could do!) titled, “Kathleen.” MGM’s frustration can be seen on the back of the photo. The portion of the above caption about her two projects AND the description of the outfit were crossed out; in pencil the following simple replacement was written:

The young star is now working in “Kathleen.”

Despite all the initial excitement and publicity about working at Hollywood’s most elite film studio, Shirley’s contract was canceled after the one movie.
   
See more teenage Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Shirley Signs A Contract

Here's a vintage shot of a teenage Shirley Temple, who had finished making movies at 20th Century Fox and was about to embark upon a new journey at MGM.

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. -- SHIRLEY TEMPLE, emerging from a brief "retirement," is shown as she appeared in court here to have a new contract with MGM approved. The contract calls for Shirley to make at least two pictures during 1941.

Shirley ended up posing for a few publicity shots, like this one by Clarence Bull:



and made just one film at Leo the Lion's studio, a less than stellar production called "Kathleen":



It was mutually agreed by both parties that they would part ways soon after.

See more Shirley at MGM photos at my main website.