Temple Tuesday: A Saddle for Shirley

In 1936’s “Stowaway,” Shirley Temple played an orphan stranded in China who eventually gets rescued by a millionaire playboy and his girlfriend (Robert Young and Alice Faye).



In between takes, Shirley posed with one of the many gifts she received during the time that she was probably the most famous person in the world.



Joseph Schenk, Chairman of the Board at Shirley’s studio, 20th Century-Fox, gave her this leather saddle to go with her Shetland pony (another recent gift!). That’s a pretty darn good likeness of Shirley carved into the leather!



This saddle ended up in the 2015 Love, Shirley Temple auction. How it looked when I saw it on display at the Santa Monica History Museum:



Almost looks brand new! Shirley’s mother sure took good care of her daughter’s possessions.



Edited from the Theriault’s catalog description:

#383 Hand-Tooled Leather Saddle Gifted to Shirley Temple by Joseph Schenk

Of superb leather workmanship, the beautifully engraved hand-tooled saddle was custom made for the young actress, featuring Shirley's hand-tooled image with smiling expression and classic curly locks on each fender, her name in raised lasso-style lettering on the seat back, and a silver plaque inscribed "Presented to Shirley Temple by Joseph M. Schenk 1935".



The saddle was custom made by the prestigious Los Angeles leather firm of Lichtenberger-Ferguson. The saddle includes all accessories including the saddle blanket, and is in excellent condition. Provenance: the saddle was gifted to Shirley by Joseph Schenk, Chairman of the Board at 20th Century Fox, on the occasion of another gift to her which was a Shetland pony. The pony was traveling to America aboard the May 1936 maiden voyage of the SS Queen Mary and then by rail to the Los Angeles train station. Shirley Temple wrote of this in her 1988 autobiography "Child Star". "Burdened with a specially-made western saddle with my face tooled into the leather skirts..., [the pony] was introduced to me in the railroad freight yards in downtown Los Angeles. A welcoming flower garland which it promptly tried to eat, was draped around the pony's neck...'Giddap!' I cried. The pony moved ahead but...the saddle started to slip sideways, me with it...A switch engine tooted just as a line of freight cars came screeching along an adjacent track. The pony whinnied, kicked and reared up, while I held on. “I'm going to call him Spunky', I shouted...'He's not afraid of anything.'”

Estimated price  was $6,000-8,000; sold for $3,200. What a value!



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

Temple Tuesday: Shirley and the Duck Dress

In the 1935 film, “Curly Top,” Shirley Temple has a brief sequence where her character exits the orphanage and is whisked away to a seaside cottage where she will lead a life of luxury with her sister, played by Rochelle Hudson. Costume designer René Hubert created the outfit known as “The Duck Dress” (because of the embroidery detail on the velvet bolero top) for Shirley and the chic outfit that Hudson models. As with anything Shirley did, photographers were on the spot to capture every detail. In the shot below, according to the blurb that accompanied it…

Shirley Temple and her pet pony, “Spunk,” are shown in an affectionate pose. Shirley is being starred in the Winfield Sheehan production, “Curly Top,” at Fox Film studio.



In the film, she refers to the pony as “Spunky.”



In between takes, Shirley and Hudson take a breather with director Irving Cummings. Note the track for a dolly shot at left, and the shot as it appears in the final film (below). The orphanage they are leaving was located on the backlot at Fox.



Zooming in, we can see all the details of Shirley’s adorable outfit, including the purse that appears to be made out of corduroy with a felt and fur Scottie dog attached.



The highlight of the sequence is when Shirley arrives at the cottage, she sashays up to the front door with her hand on her hip, demonstrating that she is now part of high society!



The outfit came up for auction, but the only original part that survived was the velvet bolero top. The skirt belonged to Shirley, but the pleating is different from the one used in the film. The tam hat and purse do not appear to have survived.



From the Theriault’s Catalog:

A short black velvet bolero top is embroidered with yellow ducklings on the bodice and sleeves, with a border of green leaves and flowers, and has a black silk lining. The bolero is worn over a sleeveless dress with pleated skirt. The bolero has studio tag 5943 and the dress has studio tag 4759. The costume was worn by Shirley Temple in the 1935 film "Curly Top" upon leaving the orphanage and arriving at her new home. In various studio promotional photographs of the film, the under-dress appears to have a collar and different pleats, suggesting that this dress was likely an alternate.



In fact, the dress was one used in “Our Little Girl” (1935, pictured above) which also had costumes designed by René Hubert. A detail of the embroidered ducks:



Shirley typically had visitors to the sets of her film. For any dignitaries visiting Hollywood, Shirley was at the top of the “must see” list. From the caption:

Mayor Frank Hague, of Jersey City, N.J., and prominent in Democratic party councils, with Mrs. Hague and Peggy Ann Hague visit with Shirley Temple and Mrs. Temple at Fox Film Movietone City, where “Curly Top,” Shirley’s latest picture, is now in production.



Hague supported F.D.R., who in turn not only supported the Mayor, but helped keep him out of scandal for many years. It was amazing at his lowly salary how he was able to amass quite a bit of wealth during his political career! At his funeral, one lady held a sign that read, “God have mercy on his sinful, greedy soul.” From his January 1956 obituary:

The blustery master-politician, whose temper often was as quick as his speech was ungrammatical, was called by his intimates an efficient executive and a friend of the poor. Some referred to him as a benevolent despot. But others termed him a “machine boss,” an “absolute monarch,” and a dictator.…During his reign, Boss Hague did a lot for the 300,000-population city at New York’s back door. He gave the poor a magnificent medical center and modernized the police and fire departments. He also gave them the highest tax rate in the nation and made a fortune for himself.…Trouble followed him…into his big mansion on his estate at Deal and his place at Miami Beach. Twin final blows were a $15,000,000 suit to make him repay alleged kickbacks from city employees and the death of his nephew and heir-apparent, Frank Hague Eggers, both in 1954.

Back to Shirley, with this color image of her in the duck outfit:



Shirley has a quick chat with beloved humorist Will Rogers, also working on the Fox lot:



Another close-up of Shirley’s purse:



A publicity shot of Shirley in the duck dress, sans hat:



This image served many purposes; anything could be added to the blank wall behind her:



Ideal produced a composition doll wearing a matching outfit; here Shirley poses with a 27" high version:



The designs on the bolero for the dolls varied, as seen here:



Some of them had flowers instead of ducks (the purse and gloves were additions; the rest is all original):



The Danbury Mint put out its own version for a vinyl doll:



It would appear that Shirley (or at least her parents) truly liked this outfit, as she wore it in public on her first visit to Hawaii in 1935, specifically at the Royal Iolani Palace on Saturday, August 10. Below, she sings “On The Good Ship Lollipop” to her throng of fans, which numbered more than 15,000! The dress she wore here matched the one in “Curly Top;” it had not been paired up with the “Our Little Girl” skirt just yet.



In the montage below, you can see middle left, Shirley makes her first salute to the throng. At right she is shown with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Temple. Bottom left, a view of mauka steps of the palace where Shirley held “court.” Center, Miss Helen Poindexter places a lei on Shirley’s father while at lower right Shirley is shown selling a ticket to Governor Poindexter, after her public appearance, for the army benefit ball game for war veterans.



By May 1945, the bolero had been mismatched with the “Our Little Girl” dress, as seen in this LIFE magazine photo when Shirley was sorting through her collection to see what she was going to give away for a clothing drive.



And that’s it today for the duck dress!

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

Temple Tuesday: The Colonel’s Costumes

The 1935 Shirley Temple film, “The Little Colonel,” has a number of iconic costumes that the curly haired child star wore. The first one we see is this military-themed dress that Shirley wears in the opening scene and a Sunday baptism-by-the-river scene. When Shirley’s film costumes came up for auction in 2015, this one did not surface.



The costume was significant enough for the Ideal Toy Company to reproduce it for its best selling 1930s Shirley Temple composition doll (larger versions came with a hat, too!).



According to the story in the movie, Shirley’s family did not have much money, thus, there are a number of her dresses that are very simple. None of them came up for auction, either. Below, she is shown sneaking some cookies while Evelyn Venable watches.



Shirley pelts her grumpy but wealthy grandfather (Lionel Barrymore) with mud. The same dress, which was also worn in her legendary staircase dance with Bill Robinson. The Danbury Mint released a doll set commemorating that scene.



Another basic dress that did not surface and apparently not doll-worthy!



The wardrobe department definitely saved some money on these outfits! Below, Shirley is with John Davis Lodge and Evelyn Venable, wearing a third basic cotton dress.



The Southern Belle costume that Shirley wears is arguably the most famous costume from the film.



The outfit came up for auction in 2015 and its current owner went to great lengths to preserve the delicate silk taffeta for future generations to enjoy.



This pink satin outfit “disappeared” (story in a previous post).



Only the boots and hat surfaced during the 2015 auction.



The elaborate pink ruffled party dress shown below was seen in Shirley’s first Technicolor sequence, tacked on to the end of the film:





Both the dress…



and the boots came up for auction in 2015, looking darn good, considering their age!



The costume is in the collection of the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, hidden away with the rest of the Shirley Temple treasures that they are too cowardly to display.

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

Temple Tuesday: Deleted Broadway

In 1938 Shirley Temple film, ‘Little Miss Broadway,’ there are a few deleted musical numbers that still survive today. Typically, those could be recycled into shorts and were kept in the studio vaults because of that possible re-use. Dramatic numbers usually ended up in the landfill. Thanks to Melissa (aka “The Colonel”), we can get an idea of what was removed. According to a script from February 8, 1938, this is what occurred:

Pop Shea (Edward Ellis) is at the lobby desk of his hotel, The Hotel Variety, looking for his recently adopted daughter, Betsy (Shirley Temple). Flossie the switchboard operator calls upstairs to find Betsy. She calls up to the acrobats’ room, but they haven’t seen her. A man practicing a knife-throwing act gets the call next and says he saw Betsy about 20 minutes ago. Then a call comes to a ballet dancer, and finally to the ventriloquist’s room (photo above). A ventriloquist’s dummy answers the phone. Betsy is holding him on her lap but the ventriloquist is doing the talking. She takes the phone and says she’ll be right down and the dummy says, “Come back and sit on my lap sometime!” As Betsy exits the elevator she’s greeted by a group of performers [photo below]. She stops to talk to a performing dog which jumps over her foot and does a backflip.



In the final film, Shirley descends the stairs, not the elevator, and most likely the idea of a trained dog was rethought, too.



Above is a screenshot that shows Betsy just before the film quickly cuts to her at the lobby desk (below), showing her homework to Pop and his daughter, Barbara (Phyllis Brooks). They have been talking about the overwhelming bills that they owe.



If you ever wondered what color this cute little dress with the embroidered leaves was, don’t rely on this vintage lobby card. These hand-colored promotional items rarely got the color right of the actual costumes and set pieces.



Thanks to the Theriault’s Love, Shirley Temple auction from 2015, we know that the dress was actually red.



From the catalog description:

Red Silk Polka Dot Dress Worn by Shirley Temple in the 1938 film “Little Miss Broadway.” Of fine red silk, the dress features a high-waisted bodice of cream organza, under a faux jacket with puffed short sleeves and embroidered cream flower and leaf trim. The skirt is of alternating flat panels and pleated panels. Included is a vintage photograph of Shirley Temple wearing the costume. The costume was worn by Betsy (Shirley Temple) in the 1938 film "Little Miss Broadway", notably in the first scene at the Hotel Variety as she bounces down the staircase and proudly shows the (completely incorrect!) arithmetic lesson that Mr. Berdini, the magician, has taught her, while greeting (and thus introducing the movie-goers) to all of the zany entertainers who call the hotel home. Sold for $4,750.

The current owner graciously shared an image of the dress in her collection, along with a vintage Cinderella Frock from the same time period that was most likely inspired by this very costume.



Here’s the tag that would most likely have accompanied one of those Cinderella Frocks:



The reverse side:



Next time you watch this movie, you can keep your eye out for what’s left of this scene!

See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.