Temple Tuesday: LIFE can be cruel!

At first glance, the above photo is a charming shot of Shirley Temple, former child star and darling of the 1930s, and Mary Pickford, a “child” star from the teens and 1920s. At the time this 1943 photo was taken, Shirley was poised for a comeback under the direction of producer David O. Selznick. Mary had gone behind the camera, producing films for United Artists, which she was one of the founding members back in 1919. LIFE Magazine typically was kind to movie stars and often got exclusive photos and stories as a result; for this particular image, they were rather cruel. It ran full page in the October 4, 1943 issue with the headline, “TWO GREATEST HAS-BEENS.” From the rest of the feature:

Shirley Temple and Mary Pickford are seen here on a Hollywood movie set. Miss Temple is 15. Mary Pickford is 50. They are almost of a size. Their combined careers almost span the history of the motion picture industry. Mary Pickford has appeared in 60 full-length movies, Shirley Temple in 28. They are Hollywood’s two greatest has-beens. They are has-beens in the same peculiar way. Both of them have finished great movie careers. Mary Pickford as “America’s Sweetheart”; Shirley Temple as the screen’s greatest child actress. Miss Temple, for many years a top box-office draw as a curly-headed moppet, is now taking on her first real dramatic role. When Mary Pickford was her age she was appearing in David Belasco’s “Warrens of Virginia.” The occasion for their meeting was an on-the-set party to celebrate the first of shooting on Shirley Temple’s new picture, United Artists’s “Since You Went Away.” Miss Pickford, a part owner of United Artists, is also beginning a new movie career. Recently she paid $410,000 (the top price for a Broadway play) for the screen rights to “Junior Miss,” which she will soon produce. It is rumored that Shirley Temple will have one of leading roles in the movie.

There were so many other ways LIFE could have chosen to describe these two legends, all of which would have been more respectful. Below is another shot of Temple and Pickford from the party:



From the accompanying caption:

In the friendly, informal atmosphere of a typical American home, Claudette Colbert and Producer David O. Selznick recently entertained a group of Hollywood notables at a “housewarming.” Scene of the unusual gathering was the “Hilton Home” set, on which will be shot some of the footage for Selznick’s “Since You Went Away,” story of a typical American home in wartime. Present at the party were Producer Selznick, Director John Cromwell and members of the all-star cast, Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Robert Walker, Hattie McDaniel, Neil Hamilton, Eric Sinclair, Rhonda Fleming, Christopher Adams and Vicci Styles. Left to right: Commander Garcia, Shirley Temple and Mary Pickford.

A detail of the pin Mary is wearing:



Below are cast members Robert Walker, current wife Jennifer Jones, Selznick (who would eventually marry Jones), Shirley, and Joseph Cotten. Ingrid Bergman, smiling in the background, was a visitor to the set party.



Another shot with Bergman, Selznick, Temple, and Jones. That’s some purse Jones has tucked under her arm!



Below is a shot of Shirley getting ready. The accompanying blurb:

LADY’S TIME OUT to fix up before returning in front of the cameras. Shirley Temple has her hair done by Cleo, the hair stylist, for a scene in David O. Selznick’s “Since You Went Away.” Others in the all-star cast are Claudette Colbert, Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Monty Woolley and Robert Walker.



Poor Cleo; no credit or last name could be found for her on imdb. In an attempt to make up (pun intended) for that, below is a color shot of Shirley in the same outfit on the cover of Modern Screen Magazine, circa April 1944:



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

85 Years Ago In Atlanta…

Today marks the 85th anniversary of the Atlanta premiere of “Gone with the Wind,” produced by David O. Selznick. Starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara and Clark Gable as Rhett Butler, it is a tale of survival, growth, and loss, filmed in glorious Technicolor. The art shown above and below are by Wilbur Kurtz and were used in the trailer for the film.



Below is a 1939 storyboard of Tara, Scarlett O’Hara’s home, by Dorothea Holt & Mac Johnson which I was able to see at the Margaret Mitchell Museum in Atlanta:



The production team faithfully recreated the art for the movie, as seen by these shots from the opening scenes of the film:



Leigh with Thomas Mitchell, who played her blustering land-loving father, Gerald O’Hara:



Storyboard art for the Atlanta Bazaar sequence, where Scarlett scandalously broke with the conventions of widowhood by dancing with Rhett Butler.



When Scarlett flirts with Rhett saying that she is dancing her reputation away, he replies: “With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.”



At the Atlanta History Center, a photo of the premiere accompanies a first edition of the book, with dust jacket cover art by George Carlson. Author Margaret Mitchell felt that the cover should convey a “Southern sensibility”; Carlson was from New England his mother had once served as a housekeeper for northern Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. Oops.



In the film’s dramatic final shot, we see Scarlett silhouetted against a burning sunset sky:



Here’s what her costume looked like:



See more “Gone with the Wind” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley Signs A Contract

By 1943, Shirley’s last four films had been box office disappointments. “The Blue Bird” (1940), “Young People” (1940), “Kathleen” (1941), and “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942). Careerwise, she needed a quality boost, and that’s exactly what David O. Selznick (pictured above with Shirley) provided her. From the Ogdensburg Advance-News, Sunday, July 11, 1943:

HOLLYWOOD BY ERSKINE JOHNSON

A fifteen-year-old high school junior with three million dollars in the bank will spend her vacation this summer in her third motion picture comeback attempt in as many years. Maybe you remember the lady. Her name is Shirley Temple and not so long ago she was the top money making star in Hollywood—box-office champion from 1935 to 1939. The man who is betting he can return her to box-office favor—with her career now entirely in his hands —is the Hollywood producer who takes chances only when he knows he can’t lose—shrewd David O. Selznick. As carefully planned  by her mother, Shirley survived the awkward age so dreaded by child stars But mama and everyone else forgot to count on "awkward pictures’’ and Mr. and Mrs. Movie-goer. Two comeback attempts—“Kathleen” in 1941 and “Miss Annie Rooney” last year—made little impression on the public. They were not good pictures, and they convinced Hollywood that Shirley was washed up. The public was tired of her after seven years of stardom. Her name didn’t mean a nickel at the box office. For a year Shirley did nothing on the screen, made an unsuccessful foray into radio, but her mother’s hopes were not dimmed. While attending school, Shirley continued singing and dancing and music lessons, studied dramatics and took a course in charm.

SELZNICK STEPS IN

Then, three weeks ago, Producer David O. Selznick purchased the screen rights to a soon-to-be-published first novel, “Since You Went Away.” He could see only Shirley Temple in the role of Brig, 15-year-old daughter of a father who joins the Army, leaving his wife and another daughter faced with financial problems. Selznick telephoned Mrs. Temple. No, he didn’t want to star Shirley in the picture. There would be an all-star cast. Claudette Colbert would play the mother, Jennifer Jones the other daughter and Monte Woolley as a boarder in their home who helps pay the rent. Mrs. Temple needed no reminding that Selznick had produced “Gone With the Wind,” “Rebecca” and other great films. A week later Shirley - signed a contract, to play the role. “Since You Went Away” definitely is not “another Temple picture.” It is based on a series of letters written by Margaret Buell Wilder, Dayton, Ohio, newspaper-woman and mother of two teenaged daughters, to her husband in the Army. It is the every-day story of their problems and efforts to make ends meet by taking in boarders. And it is definitely not another Temple role. Shirley plays a straight dramatic part. No dancing and no singing. In many scenes. she will wear blue jeans and a boy’s shirt.



TYPICAL TEENSTER

At 15, Shirley is a typical, adolescent Miss America. She’s interested in boys, likes to swim, worries about her tan, is an ardent film fan, likes to “cut a rug,” enjoys boogie woogie music and hot bands. She’s healthy, active and alert. At Los Angeles, swank Westlake School for Girls she is an above-average student, taking subjects which will prepare her for college. The famous 55 blond Temple curls have been replaced by naturally wavy, golden brown hair. But the familiar dimple and the wrinkle at one corner of her mouth and the Temple smile are still there.

Just nine years earlier, Shirley made headlines when she signed a contract for “Stand Up and Cheer” (first called “Fox Follies” during its production).



From the January 31, 1934 publicity blurb:

YOUNGEST FOLLIES PLAYER. Baby Shirley Temple, 4, made her first court appearance when she had her contract approved by Judge Marshall F. McComb, left, in Los Angeles. She is the youngest in the cast of the “Follies” now being produced.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Memos and Letters

Producer David Selznick was known for his prolific memos; a rather large book was published in 1972 filled with his correspondence titled Memo from David O. Selznick. Two of the memos from the compilation include our gal Shirley. In a June 15, 1943 memo the producer wrote to his Director of Advertising and Publicity, Joseph Henry Steele:

When we’re ready, the story on “Since You Went Away” should be built on the following:

David O. Selznick today announced that…“Since You Went Away” will mark the return to production of Selznick, and be his first picture since “Gone With the Wind” and “Rebecca.” At the same time, Selznick confirmed previously published reports that Claudette Colbert will play the role of the young wife and mother in the film, which is based upon the Whittlesey House and Ladies’ Home Journal story of the same title…

With Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Monty Woolley, and Shirley Temple, the cast looms as one of the most important of recent years. Selznick also stated that there would be other important players cast shortly, to give the film a cast rivaling that of the producer’s famous production of “Dinner at Eight.”

Rewrite the above as much as you want to, but please be careful to: (a) handle the mother and sister angles almost exactly as above; (b) use the casting in the recapitulation as stated above, i.e., Colbert first, Jones second, Woolley third, and Temple fourth; (c) I’m anxious to get the accent off this as a Temple vehicle and start hammering away at its tremendous cast.…I’m getting tired of being referred to solely as the producer of Gone With the Wind and Rebecca, and would like to get some of the other pictures alluded to as often as possible (I can see my obituary now: ‘Producer of Gone With the Wind dies!’)…



The above shot of Shirley taken in October 1943 was accompanied by this publicity blurb:

Fresh Start for Shirley Temple

Brentwood, Calif. – Now 15 and a typical teen-age girl, Shirley Temple is launching a “second” career. As a child actress, she was at the top as film box office drawing card from 1935 to 1939, under a 20th Century-Fox contract. Since 1941, she has made only two movies, and in 1942 she starred in a radio series, “Junior Miss.” At the same time she gave more attention to her school work at the Westlake School for Girls, and to growing up as a normal girl.



Now, under a new contract with David O. Selznick, a new program is being worked out, with adult stardom as the aim for the future. For the present Shirley will continue her schooling and make occasional pictures in which she will have important roles but not be starred. She is at work now on“Since You Went away,” in which she plays the tomboy daughter. These photos were made at the Temple home here. Shirley is seen with her new friend Abby Wilder, whose mother, Margaret Buell Wilder, wrote the novel “Since You Went away.” Shirley plays Brig Hilton, who in real life is Abby Wilder.

The below image shows Ingrid Bergman visiting Selznick (who she was under contract to at the time), Shirley, and Jennifer Jones on the set of “Since You Went Away.” Selznick may have been looking at Shirley, but his romantic attentions were about to be focused on Jones, who he would eventually marry.



This November 3, 1944 memo from the Producer was to Reeves Espy, a Selznick executive:

Shirley is exceedingly hot at the moment. We can”t commence to fill demands for interviews and other press material on her from newspapers and magazines; and this is, of course, an indication of the interest of the public. At the preview of “I’ll Be Seeing You,” costarring Ginger Rogers, Joseph Cotten, and Shirley Temple, Shirleys name was received with the biggest applause of all three, despite the fact that the Gallup poll shows that Cotten is the great new romantic rage, and that Ginger is one of the top stars of the business.

Shirley’s publicity in the New York press, both in connection with this appearance and in connection with her prior trip East to sell bonds, received more publicity_including, astonishingly, big front-page breaks in the middle of a war—thank I think has been accorded the visit of any motion-picture star to New York in many, many years. Indeed, it is said (and I believe a check would confirm it) that her visit received more space than that of General de Gaulle! She has made a great hit in Since You Went Away; and in her first grown-up part, that in “I’ll Be Seeing You,” is a sensational success. Her fan mail is great than that of any other star on our list—actually exceeding by a wide margin that of Ingrid Bergman, Jennifer Jones, and Joan Fontaine, who are the next three, in that order.

If Shirley was so hot, why didn’t her teen career flourish more? You can probably chalk it up to Selznick’s obsession with promoting Jones. All the choice lead roles for a young woman went to her, as the Producer ended up loaning Temple out to other studios while he focused on building up Jones’ career.



See more teenage Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Don’t Mess With Shirley!

I know, that’s a lot of acronyms. This behind-the-scenes (aka BTS) shot from Shirley’s 1944 film, “Since You Went Away” (aka SYWA) shows everything the audiences WOULDN’T see when watching the film. This is truly a “Lights! Action! Camera!” image. From the accompanying publicity blurb:

A director affixes his signature of a scene from David O. Selznick’s forthcoming “Since You Went Away.” With straw hat and cigar is John Cromwell, director of the picture, who saved this scene for one of the last of the production. Standing beside him are three of the film’s stars, Jennifer Jones, Claudette Colbert, Shirley Temple. The scene will be just a flash in the finished product.



But what about the guy on the left, the actor who portrayed the hotel desk clerk? Poor Theodore von Eltz got left out of the description. Here are two publicity stills showing the scene where the Hilton family finds out that they have missed seeing their father on leave during World War II.



Von Eltz is nothing but a background blur in this one:



Shirley fans will recognize him as the snooty J. Wellington Smythe, who couldn’t wait to dump poor little orphaned Shirley into the streets in “Bright Eyes” (1934) once her Mom (played by Lois Wilson), his maid, got run over by a car.



Shirley finally got her revenge ten years later; don’t mess with our gal Shirley, or you’ll wind up doing bit parts! And if you think I’m kidding, look at his film roles after “Bright Eyes”; the majority are uncredited.

See more photos at my main website.

Screen Gem Saturdays: Meet Robert Moseley

I am sure that in Hollywood, nobody knows who Robert Ozell Moseley was. However, the name Guy Madison might still bring back a few memories for movie fans of the 40's and 50's. Robert Moseley was just one of the many good-looking slightly-wooden acting gents represented by Hollywood Agent Henry Willson. Willson was the head of talent at David O. Selznick's newly formed Vanguard Pictures and is "credited" for renaming Roy Scherer (Rock Hudson), Arthur Kelm, (Tab Hunter), Merle Johnson, Jr. (Troy Donahue), Raymon Lee Cramton (Chad Everett), Orison Whipple Hungerford Jr. (Ty Hardin), and Francis McCown (Rory Calhoun).

Moseley was discovered by Willson in 1944 while he was on leave from the U.S. Coast Guard, visiting Hollywood. The renamed Guy Madison was given a bit part in Selznick's "Since You Went Away" and a deluge of fan mail hit the studio shortly thereafter, resulting in a contract with RKO Pictures. Here's Madison with Shirley Temple at Grauman's Chinese Theatre for the March 15, 1945 Oscars:



This publicity still is from the 1946 movie, "Till The End of Time," starring (left to right) Guy Madison, Robert Mitchum, and Bill Williams.



It is the tale of three former U.S. Marines and the difficulty they have readjusting to civilian life. This was Madison's second film and first starring role. Here you can see the mob scene in San Francisco with Guy Madison & Bill Williams getting some lovin' from their adoring fans.



This rather odd photo, also taken in San Francisco, is most likely supposed to represent the two heartthrobs recovering from the mob scene. The shot does nothing to stop the rumors about Henry Willson and his stable of male stars.



Despite a promising start, Madison's less-than-natural "acting" style hindered him from having a stellar movie career. He eventually achieved his 15 minutes of fame though by starring in the TV series "The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok," which ran from 1951-1958.

Last one for today shows Guy Madison with costar Shirley Temple in the somewhat stale romantic comedy, "Honeymoon."



To see more Guy Madison photos, visit my main website.