While Shirley Temple was not part of the “Gone with the Wind” (1939) cast, she did work with a significant number of the actors from the Oscar winning David O. Selznick production, starting with Clark Gable. Who toured Shirley around the MGM lot in 1941 during her brief stint at the Tiffany of film studios? Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney, and Judy Garland. Not a bad group of guides!
Shirley also participated in the Greek War Relief Benefit at Grauman’s on February 8, 1941, which included Gable. In the photo below you can see Frank Morgan (aka “The Wizard of Oz”), Melvyn Douglas, Charles Laughton, Dick Powell, and Reginald Owen in the back row. Seated in front: Madeleine Carroll, Samuel Goldwyn, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard, Shirley, and Myrna Loy. What a lineup!
Hattie McDaniel (shown below with Olivia DeHavilland and Vivien Leigh) won an Oscar for her portrayal of Mammy in “Gone with the Wind.”
Shirley worked with McDaniel a number of times, beginning with “The Little Colonel” (1935):
…and in another Selznick production, “Since You Went Away” (1944). Below is a still from a deleted scene:
Victor Jory (at left) played Jonas Wilkerson, the disgraced overseer at Tara who was fired for his illicit doings with “the white trash Slattery girl” (Isabel Jewell at right):
Jory (at left) costarred with Shirley in “Susannah of the Mounties” as yet another character with compromised morality:
When Scarlett’s famous drapery dress fails to get the money she needs from Rhett to save Tara, she focuses her attentions on her sister’s beau, Frank Kennedy (Carroll Nye, at left):
In the 1938 film, “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” Shirley feigns laryngitis to get out of a radio gig with her conniving stepfather:
Carroll Nye played the station radio announcer in that film:
Laura Hope Crews portrayed the scatter-brained Aunt Pittypat, hostess to Scarlett while she stayed in Atlanta.
In “The Blue Bird” (1940), Crews played the snooty Mrs. Luxury.
Harry Davenport was Dr. Meade, who left Scarlett to her own devices when it came to helping Melanie give birth. Apparently he was a doctor who did not make house calls!
In Shirley’s 1947 comedy, “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer,” he played her great uncle, Judge Thaddeus Turner.
Leona Roberts was Mrs. Meade (the doctor’s wife) in “Wind.” As you can see by her withering look, she was not a fan of Scarlett’s!
In “The Blue Bird,” Roberts’ character warmed up to Shirley when she brought her daughter the gift of the blue bird.
Jane Darwell was the town gossip, Dolly Merriwether, in “Wind”:
Darwell had prominent roles in five Shirley movies: “Bright Eyes” (1934), “Curly Top” (1935), “Poor Little Rich Girl” (1936), “Captain January” (1936, pictured below), and “Little Miss Broadway” (1938).
Ward Bond was the gruff Yankee Captain Tom who kept his friend Rhett out of trouble:
He and Shirley worked together in John Ford’s “Fort Apache” (1948):
Irving Bacon was one of Rhett’s guards when he is detained in “jail”:
In “Young People” (1940), Bacon over-serves Shirley at the soda fountain. Bacon also had minor parts in “Since You Went Away” and “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer”
When Rhett and Scarlett have to evacuate Atlanta, they are surrounded by wounded Confederate soldiers doing the same.
Junior Coghlan had an uncredited part as a collapsing soldier.
Six years earlier, he played Shirley’s older brother in the Frolics of Youth short, “Merrily Yours” (1934).
UPDATE: I just realized that actor Paul Hurst is another Shirley/GWTW connection! In “Gone with the Wind,” Paul plays the Union deserter who attempts to rob a destitute Scarlett of the few items she has left from the already pillaged Tara.
Bad choice on his part, as his efforts yielded a bullet in the forehead from Scarlett.
In “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938), Paul plays a grumpy stage-father (below center) who is attempting to get his daughter (Mary McCarty) discovered on a radio show which Rebecca (Shirley) eventually gets instead. In real life, the actor took his own life on February 27, 1953 as a result of ill health.
Wow! That’s a lot of “Wind” connections. According to legend, Shirley was briefly considered for the part of Scarlett’s sisters, Careen. A role that minor for Shirley in 1939 would have been out of the question, especially for a loanout.
See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.
