Temple Tuesday: Shirley’s Christmas Quintet

Today for Temple Tuesday we celebrate a quintet of Shirley movies that take place during the Christmas holiday. First up is “Bright Eyes” (1934), one of my favorite Shirley films. There is a very touching Christmas Eve scene where Shirley’s widowed mother (Lois Wilson) confides in her daughter that she misses her husband. The next morning, little Shirley is celebrated by all her aviator friends who used to work with her father before he “cracked up.” She is showered with gifts and love.



Yes, that’s mistletoe in the pilot’s hand. When I attempted to look up the meaning of the branch and berries on Google, this is what it said:

Historically, mistletoe represents romance, fertility, and vitality. Because nothing says love like bird feces and poison. But seriously, the Celtic Druids valued mistletoe for its healing properties and likely were among the first to decorate with it.



Who knew Google has a sense of humor? In “Stowaway” (1936), Shirley is a little girl who must flee her home to avoid being killed, then gets robbed, stows away on a ship, befriends a rich playboy (Robert Young), runs afoul of Alice Faye’s character’s mother-in-law (Helen Westley), almost gets put in an orphanage, and then has to plea to a judge to keep her “new” parents (Young and Faye) from getting a divorce. Doesn’t sound very Christmas-y, does it? Well, that’s what happy endings are for! The final scene has Shirley singing, “That’s What I Want For Christmas,” and judging by all the toys, dolls, and trains surrounding her, she gets everything on her list.



In “Heidi” (1937), Shirley sings “Silent Night” at the Sesemann household with crippled Klara (Marcia Mae Jones), wicked governess Fräulein Rottenmeier (Mary Nash), Herr Sesemann (Sidney Blackmer), and all the household servants.



It is a touching scene as the little girl gazes in wonderment upon the tree, ornaments, and abundance of gifts in the house, followed by a cut to the townspeople, nuns, and law enforcement singing the Christmas carol as well. Pardon the colorization; it was the best clip I could find!



A vintage hand-tinted photo from the same scene in “Heidi”:



“The Blue Bird” (1940) begins on Christmas Eve, as Mytyl (Shirley) and her little brother (Johnny Russell) rush home for dinner after an afternoon of bird hunting. The merriment inside a mansion causes the poor little girl to stop and gawk, wishing she had all the riches that the people inside did. Regardless, she is too proud to accept cookies from the kind gentlemen who works there.



After a long journey in a dream sequence (or was it?), the children awake on Christmas morning to discover that the war has been called off and they can celebrate the holiday with their parents.



Note the festive garland around the door?



In “I’ll Be Seeing You” (1944), the Morgan family celebrates the Christmas holiday by welcoming their niece Mary (Ginger Rogers) for a visit. Mary meets a handsome Sergeant (Joseph Cotten) on the train there. Sounds like the beginning of a beautiful romance, right? Not so fast, folks. Mary is on parole (for accidentally killing the man who tried to rape her) and Zach is on leave from a military hospital, attempting to adjust to his PTSD. Are they honest with each other? Of course not! However, Barbara Morgan (Shirley) inadvertently spills the beans to Zach about Barbara and…well, you’ll just have to watch it yourself. In this scene from the movie, Barbara is about to go on a date with Lieutenant Bruce, played by John Derek, who put the “Derek” in Bo Derek! You’ll note that in both “The Blue Bird” and “IBSY” Shirley’s mother is played by Spring Byington, who would eventually play Major Nelson’s mother in “I Dream of Jeannie.”



“I’ll Be Seeing You” may not be the happiest of holiday movies, but it is still worth a watch and guaranteed to draw a tear from the driest of ducts! 

Which Christmas Shirley movie will you watch this season?

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley in Palo Alto

“Bright Eyes,” the movie that launched Shirley Temple’s signature song, “On The Goodship Lollipop,” was released just in time for Christmas on December 20, 1934. Today’s opening photo shows the Fox Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, and they could not be any prouder that they are featuring a Shirley movie! Check out all the posters, photos, and placards! And who ended up with these?!?



Based on their website, “Bright Eyes” ran from Sunday January 13, 1935 until Tuesday January 15. Not a very long run, but that seemed typical for most of their films. Besides the feature, you got to see a Charley Chase Comedy (“Chases of Wimpole Street”) AND a Technicolor cartoon (“The Discontented Canary”) AND Fox News events. What a value!



A closeup of the photo montage:



Most of these are in my collection, including this one with James “Jimmie” Dunn:



…and this one with Dunn and Judith Allen.



This one is dead center, which is a curious choice since it’s from her previous Fox film, “Baby Take A Bow.”



The theatre (which opened in 1925) is still around, but currently closed for repairs, reopening in July/August.

How the building looks today, according to Google streetview:



The drug store is no more; where can the residents of Palo Alto get their sickroom needs met now?

See more 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.

Temple Tuesday: Once Is Not Enough

For many of Shirley’s costars, one movie was just not enough! This post just covers the headliners, not the supporting players. That would be a post waaaaaaay too long for how much time I have today to put this together. Let’s begin with James Dunn, who played opposite Shirley in her breakthrough film “Stand Up and Cheer” (1934). The two did so well together that Fox put them together again not just once, but twice! “Baby Take a Bow” (1934):

…and again in “Bright Eyes” (1934):

For John Boles, twice was enough, with “Curly Top” (1935):

…and “The Littlest Rebel” (1935):

Guy Kibbee was one of the few to span both childhood and teenage films for Shirley, with a whopping three films. “Captain January” (1936); here’s a behind-the-scenes shot with Shirley and Kibbee’s daughter:

“Miss Annie Rooney” (1942):

…and “Fort Apache” (1948):

Michael Whalen was apparently satisfied with two; “Poor Little Rich Girl” (1936):

…and “Wee Willie Winkie” (1937):

It wasn’t just the men who were part of the repeat pairing process; songstress Alice Faye was in two of Temple’s hits. “Poor Little Rich Girl” (1936):

…and the romantic female lead in “Stowaway” (1936), where she came close to stealing the movie away from Shirley:

Gloria Stuart of “Titanic” fame was content with two; she was not happy about being cast in bland roles that supported the curly haired tot until studio chief Darryl Zanuck pointed out that millions would see her, vs. a juicy lead role in a non-Temple film that would most likely be soon forgotten. Here she is in “Poor Little Rich Girl” (1936):

…and “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938), which also starred Randolph Scott:

…who played again with Temple in 1939’s “Susannah of the Mounties”:

Last one for today is Phyllis Brooks, who had back-to-back roles with Shirley in “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm” (1938):

…and “Little Miss Broadway” (1938):

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: The Two-Timing Dress!

Sometimes when trying to solve a mystery, you already have the answer at your fingertips but are too dense to notice. This is such a case. In 1934, Shirley Temple starred in the Fox picture, “Baby Take A Bow.” For many of the publicity stills, she posed in this cute polka-dot dress. Here she is with costars James Dunn and Claire Trevor, appropriately taking a bow:

There was even a doll produced at the time by Ideal wearing that very same dress:

The odd part about this is that the dress is never seen in the final film. To my knowledge, there are no stills of a deleted scene showing where Shirley might have worn this dress during the film. And yet, it figured prominently in the film’s publicity. Recently, I noticed the below photo on ebay:

The caption on the back reads:

LUNCH FOR THREE - Clara Lou Sheridan, Shirley Temple and Lee Tracy together for lunch in the studio cafe.

What appeared odd was that it was marked as a Paramount still, even though Shirley wore this dress in a Fox movie. Naturally, I contacted Melissa (aka “The Colonel”) who was just as baffled as I was. Moments later, she had purchased the photo as a gift and it was on its way to me. This mystery had to be solved!

The dishes provided no clues, but it was interesting to see The Hollywood Reporter on the table:

I noticed Shirley’s stand-in, Marilyn Granas in the background on the left.

Melissa sleuthed and found out that Clara Lou Sheridan was the one and only Ann Sheridan, voted as “The Oomph Girl” in 1939 by a committee of 25 men who thought the actress had the most "oomph" of any girl in America. I took over from there and noticed that “You Belong to Me” was ta Paramount production with both Lee Tracy and Sheridan (in an unbilled part) and released on September 14, 1934, putting this photo at that time.

Shirley made two films for Paramount: “Little Miss Marker,” released June 1, 1934 and “Now and Forever,” released August 31, 1934. “Baby Take A Bow” at Fox was released June 30, 1934. To say Shirley was a busy girl is an understatement. Then I started looking at the numbering system on publicity stills of the time. “Baby Take A Bow” stills were numbered 158, “Marker” 1491, and “Now and Forever” 1732. Houston, we have a match! Apparently this “mystery” still was intended to promote “Now and Forever.” But why was Shirley wearing a dress from a Fox movie? Most likely this busy little bee was rushing between studios, perhaps doing re-takes or looping “Now and Forever.” Another deduction is that Shirley wasn’t really joining Sheridan and Tracy for lunch, but instead dining with Marilyn. Already in my collection was this photo proving that theory:

What I once “assumed” was the Fox Commissary was really over at Paramount. Again, the numbering system matches “Now and Forever.” Looking further at my collection, I noticed this still. Poor Shirley didn’t get to enjoy lunch very much that day; she was so tired her eyes couldn’t stay open! I have no idea who these other two folks are that surround her.

Final shot for today shows famed pinup artist Alberto Vargas sketching Shirley. What did she pose in? The “Baby Take a Bow” dress of course!

That dress sure got a lot of use, so it’s not surprising that it was MIA during the 2015 “Love, Shirley Temple” auction of Shirley’s movie costumes. The poor thing probably disintegrated.

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.