Temple Tuesday: Dating Shirley

Shirley Temple was probably one of the most photographed people in the world during the 1930s and 1940s. Photoplay Magazine photographer Hyman Fink went out to Shirley’s Rockingham manse to do a photo shoot of the teenage star right about the time she was making a comeback in David O. Selznick’s epic drama, “Since You Went Away.” This first photo shows Shirley at her Steinway piano:



When acquiring vintage photos of Shirley, even without any publicity captions or notations on the back, it’s fairly easy to date them based on her appearance. My initial guess was that this session took place in 1943/1944. Below, Shirley reverently holds her special Oscar from 1935, sitting on the fireplace mantle.



In this shot, she pretends to arrange a vase of fresh cut gladiolas.



These two photos show her playing a game of Backgammon with her father, George. Based on the weary head in the hand pose, I would guess he isn’t winning.



Yup - Shirley appears to be going in for the kill!



This image shows Shirley relaxing on the couch reading the Funnies. You youngsters out there probably aren’t aware that one of the highlights of Sunday mornings back in the day was going through the COLOR comic pages that were inserted into the paper. Yes, paper.



Zooming in for a closeup, we can see the Seein’ Stars feature, created by illustrator Feg Murray, written about in a previous post:



I was able to find this item on eBay, which dates the photos to January 9, 1944:



It doesn’t appear that Photoplay Magazine did any kind of feature with these shots; the only use I could find was from the June 1944 issue, where just one of the photos was part of a double-page collage spread:



In this day and age of instant gratification and people obsessed with posting a plethora of photos immediately, it’s hard to fathom that it took five months for only one shot to be shared with the public. And there you have it folks - an inside peek at how I “date” my vintage photos.

See more photos of Shirley Temple at home at my main website.

Shirley Steps Out

The two photos in today's post show Shirley Temple and her husband at the time, John Agar, painting the town red. I believe these images are from 1948 or 1949, when the couple were on the verge of divorce...and it shows. John does not seem too thrilled to be out with his legendary spouse. The first image shows them at The Tropics on Vine Street, opened by Harry "Sugie" Sugarman in 1939. His first location opened in 1936, on 421 North Rodeo Drive. His bars were the earliest of the Pre-Polynesian Pop spots that catered to the motion picture industry. Guests came to see the stars, drink the strong cocktails, and soak up the tropical atmosphere (bamboo, palm trees, and Beverly Hills' first outdoor patio).

Filipino bartenders whipped up drinks named for Sugarman's movie star friends, such as Thin Ice (Sonja Henie: "If your girlfriend is frigid, one of these will break the ice"), Samoa of Samoa (Bette Davis: "Liquid Lightning…sets you on fire!"), Untamed (Lana Turner: "One drink and you're tighter—than Lana Turner's sweater"), Deep Purple (Cesar Romero: "Colorful as the 'Cisco Kid' himself"), and Zulu (George Brent). Sugarman is also the man who came up with the idea for the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Beverly Hills Tropics was sold to Harry Arnheim in the mid 1940's, and then purchased by Steve Crane (former husband of Lana Turner) and turned into the Luau in 1953. In December 1979, the Luau was torn down and replaced by the Rodeo Collection shopping mall.

This photo was taken by Hollywood Fan Magazine photographer Hyman Fink. Zooming in for a closeup you can see the photo of Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian competition swimmer, actor, lawman, early beach volleyball player, and businessman who made surfing famous. Kahanamoku was also a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming.



This other image from the same evening shows the not-so-happy couple down the street at the Brown Derby Restaurant. Maybe the awful hat Shirley is wearing was the real cause of the problems between the two!



Jimmy Durante's signature can be seen in this closeup; the Derby was famous for the caricatures on the wall of famous celebrities. The ones in this photo were by Eddie Vitch, who had approached Derby owner Robert Cobb in 1931 and offered to draw caricatures of the famous guests who dined there.



Here's Shirley with The Great Schnozzola himself in a still from a deleted musical sequence filmed for 1938's "Little Miss Broadway" called, "Hop, Skip, Jump and Slide":



The 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz" opens nationwide in theaters today for a limited engagement in a brand spanking new 3D version;



The reviews so far have raved about how fantastic the (almost) 75 year old film looks; I can't wait to check it out.



See more Shirley Temple photos on my Shirley Temple web pages.