Temple Tuesday: A Date with Shirley

Inspired by a comment from my most devoted reader, Fifthrider, today’s post takes a look at what was said:

Any time I see a pic of Shirley on a date, she's always smiling and the guys always look like someone off camera has a gun pointed at them. I've no idea what the backstory on any of those are, only that no one seems to be willing to smile at a camera for being out on the town with Shirley.

Let’s take a look at the photographic evidence from the Daveland archives, shall we? Exhibit A, the first photo above, with Cadet Captain Raymond Berlinger and Shirley at the California Military Academy formal commencement ball, November 1940. One point for Fifthrider. Below is Exhibit B, with Shirley and date at the California Military Academy Formal Cotillion, February 1941. Both boys are smiling; they realize the perq of being out with Shirley! Sorry, Fifthrider!



Uh oh…Fifthrider goes into the lead again with Exhibit C, a 1942 shot of Shirley and Earl Miller at the Alpha Sigma pledge dance at Santa Monica junior college. This guy looks like he’s mentally preparing his tax returns.

 

Back to ground zero with Exhibit D, a February 1944 image of Craig Flanagan and Shirley at the premiere of “Lady in the Dark” starring Ginger Rogers. At least Craig manages to muster a bit of a smile. This one counts in Shirley’s favor!



Exhibit E shows Shirley at the “Since You Went Away” premier on July 18, 1944, with her favorite beau at the time, Private Andy Hotchkiss. He appears to be saying, “Let’s ditch your parents and have a REALLY good time!”



In her autobiography, Child Star, Shirley refers to him in the index as Andrew D. “Hotch” Hotchkin, and in the text solely as “Hotch.” The publicity blurb on the above photo lists him as Hotchkiss. According to various other news items of the time, his name was Hotchkiss. From Ed Sullivan’s column in the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News on August 16, 1944:

Shirley Temple and Air Cadet Andrew Hotchkiss are an item.

Maybe Shirley was attempting to “protect the innocent.” Here’s what Shirley had to say about Hotch on page 335:

At one of those punch-and-cookies school exchanges with Harvard Military Academy, a tall, uniformed senior with straw-blond hair and blue eyes cut in on the dance floor. “I’m Hotch,” he said, leading me in a series of swooping turns, which immediately gained covetous attention from my schoolmates. Not only a superb dancer, he was the most handsome boy I had encountered, someone whose conversation revealed a personality of high energy and bright humor. The austere veneer I had been cultivating was dropped flat and I invited him somewhere at the first opportunity, which happened to be Smart Girl’s Thanksgiving barn dance, complete with blue jeans, checked shirts, and a punch bowl secretly laced with gin, rum, and whiskey. Having no experience with alcohol, let alone such a weird concoction, I sipped away and flirted with Hotch. Suddenly I needed fresh air. Fleeing unsteadily outside into the night, I skidded on something mushy, lurched, and slid sideways into a shallow depression, landing on my hands and knees. Even in the darkness I recognized the odor of richly decomposed manure, a perfectly good place to vomit. Having followed me in perhaps romantic anticipation, Hotch witnessed my performance from the bank above. When I had finished he reached down and hauled me up from the gluey clutch of the pit. Using a nearby hose, he washed me off, spread newspapers on his car seat, and drove me home. A charming date, for sure, and an unusual start to enduring love.

By page 369, Shirley had grown weary of Hotch:

Hotch showed up at our hotel on a twenty-four-hour pass from his Madison, Wisconsin, air base. Either from pining away or eating serviceman’s chow, he had grown lean and hollow-eyed. Although older on the calendar, he seemed younger in fact. From a playful, resourceful partner in puppy love, he now seemed to plead for repeated affirmation that he still rated number one. Perhaps what I saw was a junior airman trained to being bossed. However, the more subservient he seemed, the more I lost interest. The more obsequious, the less my affection. Obviously, we were two young people growing up in a different directions at different rates. It was our first reunion, but I realized absence had helped snuff out the love light.

I don’t quite know how to count Exhibit F below; is the guy smiling? Is he high?



Exhibit G is from August 1944. Shirley is with opera singer/auto nut James Melton. He had romantic intentions for Shirley, but her mother blocked them. From Child Star:

Thirty-year old James Melton, houseguest at ZaSu Pitts’ next door, occupied a room facing my bathroom window. My first clue to his presence came on morning while brushing my teeth. Suddenly a love song came belting across from his open window. Looking up from my basin I saw both his arms extended in a romantic finale. In addition to boasting a magnificent outdoor singing voice, he was an antique car buff. Inviting me to accompany him on a ride in one of his heirlooms, he managed, between gearshift, rubber squeeze horn, and ratchet brake, to suggestively cling to my hand. Mother soon saw he was hanging around too much for someone twice my age and sweetly suggested that henceforth I would probably be too busy with rehearsals to see him.



While the relationship was torpedoed, this guy is clearly smiling! Exhibit H is the photo that inspired today’s post. Shirley’s date is modeling the expression one would wear once the ex-lax starts kicking in. Circa 1944.



In 1945, Shirley’s dating career as a teen ended when she said “yes” to Sergeant John Agar after he popped the question. In Exhibit I, both are all smiles.



Based solely on the Daveland collection (including the engagement photo above), it appears Shirley is the winner in the make-your-date-smile department. In all seriousness, most of the guys at the time were probably in awe of being out on the town with Shirley Temple. Considering the majority of them were military, they were not trained on how to relax for the cameras. Anybody out there have photographic proof to tip the scales one way or the other?

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Lady in the Dark

Going to movie premieres was all in a day’s work for a Hollywood star, and Shirley Temple was no exception. From the vintage publicity blurb below:

2/12/44 — Younger crowd in the audience at the “Lady in the Dark” premiere was well represented by Shirley Temple and her escort, Craig Flanagan. Shirley looked lovely in a short ermine jacket over a white net gown sprinkled with sequins. She wore an orchid in her hair and a similar corsage on her shoulder. “Since You Went Away” is her current picture, a Selznick production for United Artists release.

While Shirley looked beautiful in her ermine coat, her outfit did not begin to compare to Ginger Rogers’ onscreen wardrobe from “Lady in the Dark.”



“Lady in the Dark” was based on the 1941 Broadway musical of the same name (book by Moss Hart, words and music by Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill) about psychoanalysis and career women. Paramount purchased the screen rights in February 1941 for Rogers and Fred Astaire, but negotiations with Rogers’ former dance partner failed, and Ray Milland was cast instead. Released on February 10, 1944, the film was a critical and commercial success, nominated for three Oscars (Best Cinematography, Best Music, and Best Art Direction).



Now about the film’s most infamous costume (shown above). From the Victoria and Albert Museum website:

Rogers wore this costume for the ‘The Saga of Jenny’ sequence in the musical, which was staged in a circus. In 1944, this single costume was the most expensive ever produced in Hollywood. Legendary designer Edith Head is credited as the designer, with strong influence and a design concept from Mitchell Leisen, a former costume designer turned film director. Rogers wore two versions of the dress, one for singing and static close-ups and a lighter version for dancing [shown below, the one in the V&A collection].



According to Edith Head in Edith Head’s Hollywood, ‘as Liza Elliott in Lady in the Dark, Ginger was the fashion-editor of the world’s greatest fashion magazine. Her costumes were superlative. She was constantly having daydreams that she was a glamorous sexpot instead of a tailored-editor type and the dreams created a perfect plot excuse for fabulous gowns. It has come to be known as the mink dress, but actually it was a mink over-skirt that was lined with sequins, worn over a matching sequined bodysuit. It cost about thirty-five thousand dollars to make in those days and couldn’t be made today without a limitless wardrobe budget’.



Recently, I acquired Jay Jorgensen’s 2010 Edith Head: The Fifty-Year Career of Hollywood's Greatest Costume Designer coffee table book. There is some interesting information about the original costume that the V&A Museum left out:

Initially, Edith wasn’t even supposed to be working on the project, and Rogers’ clothes were to be designed by the New York couturier Valentina. When Ginger rejected Valentina’s designs, Edith was asked to step in because of her good working relationship with the actress. There is almost no doubt that left to only her own devices, the budget-conscious and conservative Edith would have never come up with the dress that is considered by many to be the most expensive costume ever designed for a film. But Leisen was always asking Edith to push herself creatively, and under his supervision, a gown was designed that was encrusted entirely of faux rubies and emeralds in a paisley design, lined in mink, with a matching jacket, also lined in mink. At the time, it was estimated to cost around $35,000, with $15,000 being spent on the mink alone. When building the dress, Edith covered the floor of her salon with mink skins and she and Leisen selected the most photogenic ones. When Rogers tried the gown on, the faux stones proved to be too heavy for her to dance the routine that had been choreographed…A second gown was created with sequins in the same paisley pattern. Both gowns are seen on screen. The dress with the stones is seen in close-up as Ginger unpacks it and wears it to the nightclub, and the sequined version is seen in the dance number. The gown with the faux stones was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution and kept on display for several years; Edith used the sequined version in her fashion shows that would be developed later.

The 1984 photo below shows Ginger Rogers presenting her 'Piccolino' dress from "Top Hat" (1935) with Fred Astaire to the Smithsonian. Whether or not they still have the “Lady in the Dark” mink dress in their possession is unknown.



Shirley and Ginger starred together in “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which was her next film assignment after “Lady in the Dark.” This time, since Rogers portrayed a woman on parole, Shirley had the flashier wardrobe!



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.