Temple Tuesday: Shirley and N.C.

In the 1934 Shirley classic “Little Miss Marker,” the 1880 book “The Boy’s King Arthur” by Sidney Lanier is a large part of the movie. Marky (played by Shirley) loves to have it read to her, and she renames all the people she meets after characters from the book. Many of the publicity stills show Shirley holding the book. In 1917, N.C. Wyeth, one of my very favorite painters, did the illustrations for Lanier’s book.



Through the magic of Photoshop, Shirley is now holding my vintage edition of this book:



For the 1936 re-release lobby card, artists did a pretty nice colorization of the black and white photo:



Here’s a clear shot of the cover of my 1933 edition; this could very well be the same edition that Shirley used in the film.



The title page:



The title page illustration by N.C. Wyeth:



This original 1917 Wyeth painting for the book (39 1/4" x 31 1/4") sold in 2019 by Heritage Auctions, fetching $615,000. Yowza!



Towards the end of the film, Marky’s friends throw her a King Arthur party, where they dress appropriately for the characters she has dubbed them.



Naturally, the book finds its way into her pretty little hands:



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

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A Brandywine Christmas

My grandmother introduced the family to the Brandywine River museum, which holds a large collection of art by the Wyeth family, from N.C. to Jamie. It was love at first sight. The museum was one of my first experiences with adaptive reuse; built as a gristmill in 1864, it had been creatively adapted into a gallery space.



One of the highlights of my childhood was the annual visit to the museum to see their Christmas displays, including the Christmas trees in the lobby and an entire room of model trains.



This year marked my first visit at the holidays in eight years; it was good to be back!



The trees in the lobby area aren’t your plain run-of-the-mill (intentional pun) Christmas trees. All of the ornaments are made of natural materials.



Each tree this year had a theme, and I marveled over the creative ornaments that hung on each bough.







“How about an apple, dearie?”



The model train layout gets better every year; I could spend days looking at the individual tableaus and watching the trains go by. One of these days I'll get my model train set going again! Note the smoke coming out of the smoke stacks!



N.C. Wyeth lives again:



A carnival:





It looks like aliens have invaded the layout!



The projection of Santa and his reindeer was a favorite part; they were able to use the art of N.C. in the portrait of Santa.



For all those that celebrate, I hope you have a very merry Christmas!

See more Brandywine River Museum photos at my main website.