Temple Tuesday: Rodeo Drive and Howard Greer

In the film “Pretty Woman” (1990), Julia Roberts’ character asks her friend Kit (Laura San Giacomo) where the best place in Los Angeles is for expensive clothes. Her response: “Rodeo Drive, Baby!” In the 1940s, Shirley Temple already knew the answer to that question!



Here she is in her off hours (am guessing 1946/1947), strolling down that legendary street for shopping. Other cities may have a Rodeo Drive, but Beverly Hills has the most famous one! Behind Shirley is the 300 block of Rodeo Drive, which at the time had The London Shop (a British clothing importer for men), Chapman-Pollock tailor, and a Jewelry Store. Shirley is blocking any other details about the jeweler!



Below are two vintage ads for The London Shop:






How that section of Rodeo Drive looks now (from approximately the same angle, thanks to Google Maps!), with the Burberry shop and a completely different structure in its place:



In this previously posted image, Shirley and her mother have just parked at the Rodeo Auto Park lot in Beverly Hills as they go to pick up her wedding dress at designer Howard Greer’s private fashion studio, September 10, 1945. This parking lot was located at 485 North Rodeo Drive, near the corner of Santa Monica Boulevard and Rodeo Drive.



Below, Shirley flashes her engagement ring to Greer, a Hollywood costume and fashion designer, once under contract to Paramount before going on his own:



Shirley’s class mate from the Westlake School for Girls and future sister-in-law, Joyce Agar, was also along for the fitting that day:



Shirley and her mother as they exit Greer’s Beverly Hills fashion studio, reported by the following publicity caption:

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF., SEPT. 10 — SHIRLEY SHOPS FOR WEDDING DRESS. Shirley Temple, accompanied by her mother, Mrs. George Temple, leaves a dressmaking shop here today after picking out her wedding dress. The young screen actress will become the bride of Sgt. John Agar sometime between Sept. 15 and 22, depending on when Agar is granted a furlough.



The LA Evening Citizen News breathlessly described Greer’s creation:

A small crown of corded satin in loops topped Shirley’s famous golden curls. Her dress of white satin, especially designed for her by Howard Greer, had a fitted bodice, short sleeves and a “Little Infanta” skirt held out at the sides by panniers. The round low neck was edged by a looped cord of satin studded with seed pearls, more of which dotted the bodice. The train was full and long. From the headdress coronet fell a silk net veil and a short cape veil of the same material. Shirley’s gloves were of self-satin in wrist length, scalloped and embroidered with seed pearls.



Two shots from the Agar wedding, taken during the reception that followed at the Temple residence:



According to the LA Daily Mirror website, Greer’s shop was originally at 6530 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, moving in 1940 to the 310 N. Rodeo Drive location where Shirley and her mother were pictured. Previously on August 28, gossip columnist Louella Parsons for the LA Examiner mentioned Shirley and Greer:

Don’t let anyone tell you that the Shirley Temple wedding to John Agar isn’t just around the corner. Three dresses for her trousseau were modeled at the Howard Greer fashion show that brought out Loretta Young, Irene Dunne, Dinah Shore, Doris Le Roy, Kay Williams et al. But to get back to Shirley’s little numbers—one was a sky blue cocktail suit with a jacket of Bugle beads shimmering like blue sunshine. Another was a black and white check suit but the “bridiest” of all was a white robe with quilted bodice and sleeves and a full flaring flannel skirt.



I don’t see any bugle beads, but this suit was worn by Shirley as she exited the Temple residence for her honeymoon.



Shirley is holding the same purse; not sure if the interesting pin is buried underneath the gigantic corsage of orchids or not!



Here’s a genuine Howard Greer label, found on eBay:



Didja’ know…Greer also designed this uniform for TWA flight attendants in 1944 with the interesting logo cutout on the shoulder, found on csews.com:



And so concludes this particular Shirley Temple rabbit hole!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

1950s Visit to MGM

This genuine FauxD© image shows two lovely lasses on the MGM lot, posed perfectly in front of the Thalberg Building. Stitching the left and right sides together gives us a wider view:



Zooming in, you can see the MGM lettering and Thalberg name on the right:



By the time I visited in 2018, MGM was gone and Columbia Pictures/Sony had moved in.



A rainbow was installed in the courtyard to acknowledge the filming of “The Wizard of Oz” (1939) on this very lot.



The building still looks like MGM in all its art deco glory…



but it now bears the name of Columbia.



I should be grateful that they kept the light fixtures in front. And I am.



Surprisingly, they also kept the Thalberg name, visible on the nameplate at right:



Thalberg, Vice President of Production, was known as the “Boy Genius” of the lot. Studio head Louis B. Mayer liked glamour; Thalberg preferred more cerebral material for his films. Inside the Thalberg, his portait is on display.



The Oscars on display are all for Columbia films.



Back in 1941, Shirley Temple joined the MGM stable of stars. She was welcomed to the lot by Gable, Rooney, and Garland. What a powerhouse quartet! Here they are in front of the Thalberg building.



See more MGM studio photos at my main website.

New Year’s Eve at the El Mirador

I finally acquired an establishing shot of the long defunct El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs. This March 1963 image was taken just nine years before the property was converted into the Desert Hospital. Ray Ryan bought ownership of the rundown El Mirador in 1960 from his other investment partners and spent over a million dollars refurbishing the property in an attempt to return it to its former glory.



Not sure why there’s a Hans Cristian Anderson sign on the palm tree. Perhaps it was tied to what appears to be the hotel’s “Copenhagen Smorgasbord” listed on the sign.



Below is a March 1960 shot of the hotel. While the rest of California shivered from low winter temperatures, the smart ones flocked to Palm Springs to enjoy the dry heat.



Back in the day, the El Mirador was a haven for Hollywood celebrities, like Spencer Tracy and John Wayne, as seen in this 1934 photo:



From the accompanying caption:

MOVIE LUMINARIES AT DESERT RESORT

Among the colonists recruited from cinema ranks at El Mirador, Palm Springs, California, Desert Oasis, are Spencer Tracy (left) and Mr. and Mrs. John Wayne, shown as they reposed on the brink of the El Mirador Plunge. Wayne is a star of the “horse operas.”

At the time, Tracy was the bigger star and Wayne was still making westerns on skid row before getting his break in “Stagecoach” (1939).

While Shirley Temple typically stayed at the Desert Inn when she visited Palm Springs with her parents, she does have a connection to the El Mirador.



The following gem of a story is from the Palm Springs Life website as told by Frank Bogert, who created many a publicity stunt for the El Mirador:

“We had Governor Herbert Lehman of New York as a guest at the hotel,” Bogert recalls. “He wanted privacy. No interviews. No photos. But he expressed one wish. He said he'd like to meet Shirley Temple who was staying at the Desert Inn with her mother. I said I'd try to arrange it. And I did. Shirley's mother said she'd like to meet the governor. So they met for lunch beside the pool at El Mirador. I took several pictures and thought I was doing pretty well until little Shirley spoke up and said, 'Look, Mr. Bogert, why don't you stand over there with your camera? The governor can sit where he is and I'll cheat a little toward him. I think that will do much better.' . . . Well, I did what she said and got a picture that went all around the nation. By following the advice of a 7-year-old. But what a 7-year-old!

Below are images from the Temple/Lehman get together at the El Mirador from the Palm Springs Historical Society website:



Temple and Lehman crossed paths again in 1938 in New York when the child star took her famous cross-country vacation.



I hope you enjoyed the final rabbit hole post at Daveland for 2025!

See more Palm Springs photos at my main website.

Temple Tuesday: Turkey in the Desert

In 1936, actress Shirley Temple and her family enjoyed turkey in Palm Springs. From the accompanying caption:

Shirley Temple, spending a brief vacation on the desert here (at Desert Inn) is shown whetting a knife to carve a Thanksgiving turkey. While here the child actress is learning new dance routines, is swimming and getting a sun tan for her next picture. Associated Press Photo 11/24/1936

If you want to know what the Desert Inn looked like in 1936, check out the post card below, stamped December 3, 1936. Perhaps this person crossed paths with Shirley!



Below is an ad from 1936 for the Desert Inn. Sun-lazing sounds faaaaaaaabulous!



Local papers were abuzz reporting about Shirley’s visit. From The Desert Sun, November 27, 1936:

Shirley Temple has been resting at the Desert Inn for a few days, accompanied by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Temple. After a few days in the sun Shirley was abloe to start work on several new songs for. her latest picture “Stowaway” which will be released around Christmas time. Gordon and Revel, famous song writers were here to help with the music.



“Stowaway” was filmed from late September 1936 to early December. Most likely, Shirley was working on the “That’s What I Want for Christmas” number which was tacked onto the end of the film at the last minute to coincide with its Christmas day released.



Elsewhere in the paper:

An informal tea was held at the Desert Inn Sunday afternoon [November 22]. Among those in the lounge for the occasion were Mrs. Wm. Warren Card of Paris, France, with her niece, Miss Martha Ann Henderson of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Bert Clark and daughter of Altadena; Mr. and Mrs. Marcus L. Lawrence of Rimrock, Arizona, and Washington, D.C.; Mrs. Albert Allaton, New York City, R. C. Sherriff, author of “Journey’s End,” and his mother from Esher Surrey, England; Mr. Jack Tidball, prominent tennis player; and Shirley Temple with her parents and a party of friends.

The Palo Verde Valley Times reported that Shirley and her mother also attended the 35th annual convention of the Southern Districts’ federation of women’s clubs, held in the Desert Inn. Mrs. Nellie Coffman, proprietor of the Inn, and Palm Springs pioneer, was signally honored at the convention. The paper also carried this ad for the popular Shirley Temple doll, also just in time for the Christmas holiday!



Below is all that’s left to remind Palm Springs tourists of what the Desert Inn once was:



See more Shirley Temple holiday photos at my main website.

The Art of Kapralik

For years, I have been obsessed by the art of Jacques Kapralik. Who? Yes, sadly, this genius is virtually unknown by name, but any film buff of the Golden Age of Hollywood has seen his brilliant work. At top is the promo art he did for “Girl Crazy” (1943), featuring stars Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. His caricatures are brilliant, and perfectly capture the subject with the most simple of lines. On top of that, he made brilliant use of mixed media to create 3D sculptures of sorts that added an extra dimension to the flat art used on posters, flyers, and even on-screen in title credits. Below is the back of the flyer that MGM sent out to promote the Garland-Rooney musical:



Here is his edited bio from the American Heritage Center website:

Kapralik was a commercial artist and caricaturist whose art was used in the promotion of motion pictures throughout Hollywood’s Golden Era of the 1930s-1950s. Born in Romania in 1906, Kapralik first worked for various European newspapers, drawing cartoons and caricatures of famous Europeans and important events. In 1936, Kapralik immigrated to the United States. He first provided celebrity caricatures for various newspaper columns focusing on Hollywood gossip and events. Kapralik was fortunate to work during a time considered the Golden Age of Hollywood and a zenith for celebrity caricatures. Movie studios were putting increased focus and publicity on their stars, attempting to make them household names. Kapralik’s output of celebrity caricatures increased as he left the newspaper world and began working for movie studios such as RKO, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and MGM, creating likenesses of Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, and Lucille Ball, among many others. He developed a distinctive and highly recognizable style for his studio publicity work, much of which was shown primarily in press kits and trade magazines such MGM’s Lion’s Roar Magazine, as well as the weekly Pictorial Review newspaper insert.



While heralded as a master of Hollywood caricature by industry insiders of the time, due to the nature of his work, today he remains relatively unknown to the general public. The caricature style Kapralik became most well-known for involved the creation of miniature models from paper and balsa wood. The models were then photographed and used as promotional posters for motion pictures, predominantly MGM films. These 3-D caricature scenes were incredibly elaborate and detailed, taking up to six weeks complete. Kapralik also created title sequences for films in the 1930s-1950s, an early innovator at a time when title sequences were just starting to evolve from simple text. His title sequence work included 20th Century Fox’s The Three Musketeers (1939) with the Ritz Brothers and MGM’S Presenting Lily Mars (1943) with Judy Garland. Aside from movie publicity, Kapralik also did advertising work for companies such as Nutrilite, S&W, and Squirt.

Below is Kapralik at work:



The 1940 MGM film “Go West” starred the zany Marx Brothers.



Kapralik’s innovative style matched perfectly with the Marx Trio:



Thanks to Shirley Temple expert supreme, Rita Dubas, I learned that the cute caricature of Shirley Temple in the title sequence of “Just Around the Corner” (1938) was done by Kapralik:



I did my best to recreate it in color digitally. Yes. I was obsessed with his work.



His work in the title sequence was significant because it captured Shirley’s new hairdo, with her curls pulled to the side of her head.



A few more pieces of Kapralik’s work, including the 1942 Hepburn-Tracy vehicle, “Woman of the Year”, which captures Hepburn’s haughty profile perfectly:



…and 1941’s “Honky Tonk” with Clark Gable and Lana Turner. This is one of the few misses for Kapralik, as this caricature looks nothing like Turner.



Below is a collage of four Judy Garland movies that Kapralik did the art for. Going clockwise from top left: “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante,” “Babes on Broadway,” “Little Nellie Kelly,” and “Presenting Lily Mars.”


Below is a screenshot of the title sequence from “Presenting Lily Mars” side by side with the original art, which I found at the Raphael Geroni website.



Want to see more of Kapralik’s work? Browse his collection at the American Heritage Center website.

See more photos and pop culture at my main website.