Temple Tuesday: Shirley & Eleanor

At the peak of her childhood fame, visitors flocked to the 20th Century-Fox soundstages to meet Shirley Temple. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was not exception to the rule. She visited Shirley in March 1938 during the filming of the courtroom scenes from “Little Miss Broadway.”

“FIRST LADY” VISITS SHIRLEY TEMPLE

HOLLYWOOD, CALIF.: The “First Lady of the Land” met the “First Lady of Hollywood” and discussed such important subjects as geography and grandchildren. The meeting came when Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, touring the film capital, expressed her desire to see Shirley Temple, 8-year-old 20th Century-Fox star. Mrs. Roosevelt stopped at a set to watch the child star do a dance number with comedian Jimmy Durante — after which the “First Lady” and Shirley chatted for ten minutes. 3-17-38

The number Temple and Durante was filming, “Hop, Skip, Jump and Slide” was ultimately deleted from the movie.



Amazingly enough, the footage still exists today:



A previously posted shot of another visitor to the courtroom set, Joan Crawford. Her meeting with Shirley occurred while the grand finale/title song was being filmed.



It’s amazing Shirley got all her work done with all of these famous people interrupting filming!

See more Shirley Temple photos 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.