R.I.P., Maureen Robinson

I am late to the game, but I still wanted to honor actress June Lockhart, who went to that great freezing tube in the sky last week on the 23rd (photo above from the pilot episode of “Lost in Space”). As Dr. Maureen Robinson, she was just about the coolest TV mom that any kid could want for their own. Aerodynamic red hair, intelligence, compassion, and a rockin’ bod — she had it all!



With Guy Williams, the two portrayed an ideal set of parents that raised their three children with the perfect recipe of love, discipline, and encouragement.



Readers of this blog know that she also had a supporting role in Shirley Temple’s teen film, “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942) as Stella Bainbridge, a snooty little thing who gets tossed aside when rich boy Marty White (Dickie Moore) meets Shirley.



The face says it all…left in the dust.



Also in the movie were Noel Neill (Lois Lane in “The Adventures of Superman”) and Shirley’s stand-in, Mary Lou Isleib.



Yup…left in the dust. How can you compete with Shirley?



In the book, Lost (and Found) in Space 2, Bill Mumy had this to say about his TV mom, June:

June is a brilliant woman. Super smart. She devoured books and newspapers like I devoured cheese and crackers. June kept our fertile young minds awake by playing word games with me and Ange [Angela Cartwright] whenever there was a lull in filming and we weren’t in school. Password, Scrabble, Boggle. What people don’t really know about her is she’s a rock ‘n’ roll gal. Truly. They think of her as this perfect, traditional, family values mother on television. But June is a bold and rebellious rocker.

Angela Cartwright chimed in:

Wordsmith… game player… yoga enthusiast…extremely intelligent with a wicked sense of humor and a very distinctive laugh. Every year since I have known June she has sent birthday and Christmas card wishes to me and my family. June loved a good time. She always knew what was going on in the world and in outer space thanks to her voracious reading habits and NASA contacts. In my opinion she was a perfect Maureen Robinson. Strong, wise, smart. America’s favorite mom is a potpourri of contradictions.

This clip of June on a 1970 episode of “The Virginia Graham Show” shows June pushing back on the obnoxious Graham about homosexuality with both intelligence and wit.



A class act. You will be missed, June.

See more “Lost in Space” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: From Riches to Rags and Back Again!

In the 1939 Shirley Temple Technicolor classic, “The Little Princess,” when Sara Crewe’s father (and fortune) is lost during the Boer War, evil schoolmistress Miss Minchin (Mary Nash) removes the child from her luxurious suite of rooms and sends her up to the attic. Besides dust, dirt, and cobwebs, the little girl only has her doll, Emily, to keep her company.



Don’t feel bad for Shirley; she still had the use of a plush limo to take her to the set every day!



Below is a still from a deleted scene, showing Sara cleaning Miss Minchin’s office while the old bag watches.



Once jealous of Sara’s former coveted position with Miss Minchin, rich bitch Lavinia (Marcia Mae Jones) delights in bossing around the poor little girl who is now forced to work off her debt as a scullery maid.



After one of her many failed hospital searches and a fight with the old bag, Sara goes to sleep in tears. We are treated to a dream sequence where she becomes a princess.



AND a ballerina!



In this still, we see both Shirley as the princess AND Shirley as the ballerina. How can this be?



If you look closer, you can see that it’s Mary Lou Isleib, Shirley’s stand-in, on the throne.



When Sara wakes up from her fantasy, her room has become a den of luxury! Since it’s a Shirley movie, there is no explanation of how her benefactor was able to lift the bed, put a fur rug, change the linens, and redecorate the entire room without little Sara waking up. Don’t be a curmudgeon, it’s a Shirley Temple movie!



Once she rubs the surprise from her eyes, little Sara invites her friend and next door neighbor Becky (Sybil Jason) to enjoy a delicious breakfast.



Renewed and refreshed, Sara delivers some much needed revenge in the form of an ash bucket dumped on Lavinia.



One take was enough for Marcia Mae Jones!

See more Shirley Temple “Little Princess” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Shirley behind the lens!

In this 1946 images, Shirley Temple is between takes of the movie, “Honeymoon” for RKO studios, sitting on the stoop of her dressing room. It looks like Shirley was taking photos that day; her photo was shot by Rod Tolmie (1902-1980), a still photographer and cameraman during the golden age of Hollywood. I was curious to see what kind of camera Shirley used.



We have a match! Shirley was using a Contax. Edited from Wikipedia:

Contax began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Zeiss interchangeable lenses. The final products under the Contax name were a line of 35 mm, medium format, and digital cameras engineered and manufactured by Japanese multinational Kyocera, and featuring modern Zeiss optics. In 2005, Kyocera announced that it would no longer produce Contax cameras. The rights to the brand are currently part of Carl Zeiss AG, but no Contax cameras are currently in production, and the brand is considered dormant. They became very popular among professional photographers, such as Robert Capa and Phil Stern, especially photojournalists who demanded high-performance, large-aperture lenses for available-light work and a workhorse. The vertical shutter had both variations in speed, slit and a brake at the end of travel that was again a Zeiss first.

Shirley had good taste! Below is a photo I found online of the camera in glorious color:




The other detailed shot shows a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes. Yes, Shirley smoked. You can even see a lit cigarette smoldering on the edge of the table.



Here’s what that pack of death said on the side:



“Protects your throat”? Yes, one of the many reasons you should be wary of advertising! On the same day, Shirley posed behind what I am “assuming” (very dangerous!) was Tolmie’s camera with her stand-in, Mary Lou Isleib.



“Say cheese!”

See more Shirley Temple “Honeymoon” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: 96th Birthday Bonanza!

Today marks the 96th “Heavenly Birthday” for Shirley Temple Black, actress, diplomat, wife, mother, and author. One of the most infamous tales about Shirley was how her movie studio, Fox, got her mother to agree to shave a year off of her birthdate to make her antics appear all the more precocious. Above, you can see her original Santa Monica Hospital birth certificate, with the true year of 1928. Below is a shot of Shirley at age one.



For the earliest deep dark secrets about Shirley, look no further than this Important Event card, diligently recorded by her mother, Gertrude:



Gertrude also charted Shirley’s growth progress:



Shirley’s studio birthday parties at Fox were legendary. Here’s the first one, from April 1934. Is that little boy on the right actually using a toothpick while the camera is snapping his photo? Such poor manners - bet he wasn’t invited back again!



By the time of her 1936 birthday, Shirley looks a little bored with it all, despite the spectacular cake! Shirley would later recall:

Fox would have (a party) for a large number of people I didn’t know, a lot of children I’d never seen in my life and never saw again. And I was hostess. It was kind of strange. I figured it was part of the job. Fox would pay h alf the cost of the parties and my mother and father - or I - would pay the other half. Why I had to pay for the parties at all is a mystery, but that’s how it went. And there’d be two hundred kids, maybe more. I thought those parties were a big bore.



Shirley’s first stand-in, Marilyn Granas, had this recollection about the parties:

They always had lovely food and lovely prizes. Everybody got a favor and I remember one of the favors was a beautiful leather autograph book that Shirley had autographed. I’ve still got mine.

Shirley’s last studio birthday at Fox was held during the filming of “Young People.” Stand-in Mary Lou Isleib is two over from Shirley’s left.



For 1940, Shirley got not one, but TWO incredible birthday cakes! That’s what happens when you’re the most beloved child star of all time. The shot below was from her party at the studio commissary, which had a Dutch theme. Dickie Moore, Shirley’s first on-screen kisser in “Miss Annie Rooney” (1942), recalled this birthday celebration in his autobiography,  Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star:

The day of Shirley’s party all guests parked their cars in the main parking lot and were met by buses and driven to the commissary. There Shirley stood at the head of a long reception line, gravely shaking hands with all arrivals, telling each of us how glad she was we had come, and thanking us for the presents we had brought, which were passed along to join the growing mountain of unopened packages, most of which were later sent to an orphanage. Everyone ate cake, while mothers tried to get Hymie Fink to take their children’s pictures. There were many party favors, including a pen with a magnifying glass on one end and Shirley’s name inscribed on it.



If you’re wondering about the art on the wall, here’s a closeup:



By 1944, Shirley was working for Producer David O. Selznick. Her sweet sixteen birthday party was attended by her costars from “I’ll Be Seeing You.” L-R: Dorothy Mann, Tom Tully, stand-in Mary Lou Isleib, Guy Madison, Shirley, and John Derek.



In 1946, Shirley turned eighteen and celebrated the milestone birthday on the set of “Honeymoon” with then husband, John Agar.



Shirley’s last movie-birthday party was held during the filming of “The Story of Seabiscuit” (1949). At left is co-star Barry Fitzgerald, Director David Butler, Shirley, and John Agar.



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: “Heidi” Memories

Marcia Mae Jones, the actress who played Klara (above left) in Shirley’s 1937 film “Heidi,” had fond memories of working on this movie:

I was thrilled that I was going to be with Shirley Temple. I hadn’t even met her yet, but I was very excited. The movie was made during the summer and an enormous tent had been set up on the back lot and inside there was a complete street scene with the Sesseman house and so forth. They used a great big machine to create the snow, and it was very, very hot in there. It wasn’t the best conditions at that time [no air conditioning], and the artificial snow sometimes got in your eyes and your mouth.



I loved the clothes…I wore a royal-blue princess coat with an ermine collar and shoes to match with ermine on the boots—and, oh, my dear, I cried when I had to leave that [at the studio]. I had my own dressing room…but I used to love to eat in the commissary, because at that time I was madly in love with Tyrone Power, and it’s my understanding that they told him, and he would smile and wave at me and my heart would just go pitter-patter.

Allan Dwan—well, he didn’t seem to give any direction. I remember my mother talking to me when I had to get up and pretend like I was trying to walk, and I was told just to get up and do it. I was really quite frightened, because not being crippled I didn’t know how to do it, so I imagined—on my own—what it would be like—which is the key to acting. I was only thirteen when I made “Heidi,” but I had my full height then—I was extremely tall for my age—I was five feet six inches and Shirley was very tiny and very petite. She had to help me out of my wheelchair…my God, if I had really leaned on Shirley, I would have crushed her to the floor. When I saw the film years later as a mature woman, I just seemed to get bigger and bigger as I rose from the chair, and my husband, who was with me, said, ‘My God, it’s a giraffe!’



Poor Jean Hersholt was extremely uncomfortable throughout the film. As I said, the tent was stifling, and he had to wear tremendous padding to make him heavier, and a beard and longish hair to make him look older. Unfortunately, he had a lot of [action scenes] and one day he collapsed from heat exhaustion.



One Saturday, Shirley tripped over an electric wire and fell head first on the ground, which resulted in a cut over her eyebrow. Not wanting to go over budget (the film was already two days behind schedule at that point), the makeup artist covered the bruise and Shirley continued with filming. Shirley’s throat also closed up as a result of the artificial snow; in that case, the crew had to film around her.



On the flip side, Delmar Watson (below left), who played Peter the goatherd, sometimes gave less than flattering interviews about working on the film, blaming Shirley’s mother Gertrude for some of his best (in his own opinion) scenes being deleted. He also felt that Gertrude and the studio were attempting to thwart his performance in order to make Shirley shine more:

I was never given my lines to study in advance. My dad asked Allan Dwan about this, and he said they wanted Peter to be kind of dumb, but it was the only time I was in a picture of that length where they would not give me my lines until the night before I was supposed to do a scene.



Delmar’s father, Coy, would blame the studio and complain to his family about it every night:

They’re not being fair to the boy. They’re changing his dialogue right on the set. It’s almost like they’re making him stumble over his lines to make Shirley look better. ’

Marcia Mae Jones gave a very different (and more professional) viewpoint of Gertrude:

I do remember that Mrs. Temple always had on a hat, gloves and a purse…and that she was always on a stool sitting next to the camera. Mrs. Temple was always lovely to me—she would invite me in the afternoon to come into the dressing room with Shirley, where she would give each of us a piece of Hershey [chocolate] at four o’clock. It was instead of having tea…My mother was on the set at the same time as Mrs. Temple, and they seemed to get along well. But my mother never intruded on anyone—she spoke to Mrs. Temple when Mrs. Temple spoke to her—and I guess they had some conversations together. 

The Swiss Alpine scenes were shot at Lake Arrowhead, east of Hollywood in San Bernardino County, in an area that is now called Switzer Park off Highway 18 in Skyforest. The crew either stayed in Arrowhead Village’s single hotel or had rooms in private chalets. Shirley was given her own trailer home according to Delmar Watson:

[It was] parked on the side of a hill. She was there all the time with Grif [Shirley’s bodyguard and chauffeur] and, of course, her mother. Only a few studio people were allowed up there. She had a stand-in [Mary Lou Isleib, shown below] for the sound and lights. Then, when everything was set, she’d come down at the last minute, we’d do our scene together, and when it was finished, she would be escorted back up the hill and disappear into her trailer.



Once, I was playing horseshoes right after lunch with the lighting guys, and she came out of her trailer. I said, ‘Hi,’ and she greeted me and asked if she could play. Sure, we told her. She picked up a horseshoe and tossed it. I think she missed. She played with us for exactly two minutes, and then her bodyguard came down and took her away, back up the hill into the trailer. I heard him tell her she wasn’t supposed to be there. As she left, I said to her, ‘Bye. Maybe you could do it later.’ Shirley didn’t say anything, but obediently returned to the trailer.

When you have a film riding on your shoulders and a limited amount of work time due to being a minor, it’s easy to understand that Shirley wouldn’t have a lot of time to play. A stray horseshoe that might have injured the star could have shut down the entire production. Obviously, Watson was too young at the time to understand and when he later told the story, too old to remember what the circumstances were. Once again, Marcia Mae Jones’ recollections were a bit different from Watson’s:

[Shirley and I] talked and we laughed…I think most of us children were a little in awe of her because Shirley was always bubbling…I remember that at Lake Arrowhead there was a miniature golf course, and Shirley and I were playing and I think we had about seven or eight bodyguards watching us—and I know that I was uncomfortable and I just wanted them to go away and leave us alone and let us play, but it didn’t seem to bother Shirley.

Director Allan Dwan, who worked frequently with Shirley, remembered filming the “Wooden Shoes” musical number and the original Shirley Police Badge:



We had a lot of kids dressed as little Dutch girls doing a folk dance. One of the steps, a fairly intricate one, called for them to place on leg over the other. Many of them became confused and got it all wrong and would even fall down trying to do it. Shirley would bawl them out and say, ‘Look, you do it this way.’ They would argue back and forth. She was stubborn and would say, ‘No, it’s this way,’ and show them again. Well, the dancing master finally got them all together and straightened them out. Since she obviously wanted to take charge…I had a bunch of little badges made with SHIRLEY TEMPLE POLICE stamped on them. Every kid who came on the set had to wear a badge and join the force and swear allegiance to Shirley, guaranteeing to obey her. Pretty soon, we had almost everyone on the set wearing a badge, with Shirley sporting one labeled CHIEF…She was a little big shot and loved it. If I had to leave the set, I’d tell her, ‘Shirley, now you take charge of things,’ and she did. She strutted around giving orders, like ‘I want you to take that set down and put up a castle.’ The grip would pretend to carry out her instructions, satisfying her, going along with the game.

In an October 1988 interview, Leonard Maltin discussed the making of “Heidi” with Shirley. “I remember hearing you say that the thing you remembered most about Jean Hersholt from “Heidi” was…” “Glue!” Shirley quickly interjected with a laugh. “Well, he had this big beard glued on every morning and I thought it was kind of an interesting smell. I guess I was an early glue sniffer!”



See more Shirley Temple in “Heidi” photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Back to the Commissary

In November 1948, Shirley Temple returned to 20th Century-Fox to make the movie, “Mr. Belvedere Goes to College.” Unsatisfied with the films that Darryl Zanuck was picking for their daughter, Shirley’s parents bought out the rest of her Fox contract in 1940 and left the studio. A “Welcome Back” party was held at the Fox Commissary for Shirley where many of her former coworkers popped up to celebrate. In the first photo on the far left is Frances Klamt, Shirley’s teacher. You can see her much better in this next shot, which also features Shirley’s stand-in, Mary Lou Isleib:



How Shirley and Frances looked in 1938 as they left her Fox Bungalow to commence filming on “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.” Where do the years go?



In ten years, Shirley’s career had seen a few changes. “Belvedere” was all about Clifton Webb’s character, Lynn Belvedere, and Shirley was the supporting character this time around. In this photo from the party, Clifton fiddles while director Elliott Nugent looks somewhat bored smoking his cigarette.



Note the mural behind Nugent:



Still there!



This publicity still for “Belvedere” sums up the situation: Clifton in the lead, Shirley in the background.



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.