Temple Tuesday: Shirley at the Bowl, 1943

In April 1943, Shirley Temple and a slew of other celebrities (including left to right Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich, Mary Pickford, Loretta Young, Rita Hayworth, and Barbara Stanwyck) welcomed Madame Chiang Kai-shek to the Hollywood Bowl. The pictures accompanying this post were shot by John Florea, LIFE staff photographer. There was plenty of coverage for the event, including a story in the April 19, 1943 issue of LIFE magazine:

MADAME CHIANG IN HOLLYWOOD
She finishes nationwide tour with stirring speech to 30,000 at Bowl

To the tinseled home of make-believe last week went a realistic star of the first magnitude. Under the serene blue California skies Madame Chiang Kai-shek concluded her nationwide tour at a spectacular mass meeting held in the Hollywood Bowl. All Hollywood had contributed talent toward making this event a triumph of showmanship. But it was Madame Chiang’s gracious charm, her indomitable spirit and her deeply stirring account of China’s six-year war against Japanese aggression which made the dramatic climax of the afternoon. Her fists clenched, emotion welling in her voice, China’s First Lady reviewed the unforgettable, “ghastly memories” which have been burned into her mind and heart. She began her historical summary by picturing the insuperable obstacles which confronted her as secretary-general of the Chinese Air Force at the war’s start in 1937.…As Madame Chiang spoke, her sympathetic audience listened in grave silence, tears springing to many eyes. No Hollywood-conceived pageant could match the awesome “nightmares” which Madame Chiang recreated with the magic of her words.…Madame Chiang closed her speech with the pledge that China and the other United Nations would not permit “aggression to raise its satanic head and threaten man’s greatest heritage: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all peoples.”



Note the pin that Shirley is wearing; it came up for sale at the “Love, Shirley Temple, Take Two: From Schoolgirl to Storybook” auction in 2015. From the Theriault’s catalog description:

SHIRLEY TEMPLE’S DIAMOND AND RUBY VICTORY PIN FROM WWII

Formed as the letter "V" for Victory, the famous symbol of the Allied Forces during WWII, the 1.5" 14Kt pin has incised initials of S T, and a crossbar decorated with three round-cut rubies and a 0.10 diamond baguette which are the letter "v" in morse code. A favorite pin of Shirley Temple during the early 1940s. Presale Estimate: $600+; Realized Price: $1,700



Melissa (aka “The Colonel”) tracked down a number of other vintage articles that gave more information about the program at the Bowl:

With the audience requested to be seated by 2:45 p.m. promptly, the program will be opened by Spencer Tracy presenting Henry Fonda, actor, who is now a seaman in the U.S. Navy, and Dr. C M. Wassell, Commander, Medical Corps, U.S.N.R., and hero of the evacuation of Java.…A committee of 19 actresses will receive Madame Chiang. Mary Pickford will present her with roses. Others serving on the committee will be Joan Bennett, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich, Irene Dunne, Deanna Durbin, Kay Francis, Judy Garland, Janet Gaynor, Rita Hayworth, Dorothy Lamour, Ida Lupino, Ginger Rogers, Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, Barbara Stanwyck, Shirley Temple, Lana Turner, and Loretta Young.

Not too shabby; that is DEFINITELY an “A” List of stars! Below is Madame Chiang addressing the audience at the Bowl, between red (left side of the shell) and blue panels (right side) decorated with the official seals of the United States and China. This event was the first time since Pearl Harbor that the Hollywood Bowl had been filled to capacity.



Madame Chiang, in a black silk gown decorated with the silver wings of the Chinese air force, received a bouquet of pink roses from Mary Pickford and a guard of honor comprising almost every top feminine movie star in Hollywood. She sat quietly through the pageant that the picture industry conceived and then delivered her 45-minute address.





Another shot of Shirley and friends:



David O. Selznick (“Gone with the Wind”) staged and produced the pageant. Shirley was under contract to Selznick and filming “Since You Went Away” at the time, which is most likely why she was in attendance.



See more Shirley Temple photos at my main website.

Remembering Pearl Harbor

In the Woody Allen film, “Radio Days” (1986), Mia Farrow plays a scatterbrained cigarette girl who yearns to be on the radio, circa 1941. Just as she gets her first big break and is about to utter her first line, the Pearl Harbor attack interrupts the broadcast and she misses her opportunity. As all the actors rush out of the studio, Farrow’s character asks with total innocence, “Aren’t we going to do the show? What do we do now? Come back Monday? Who is Pearl Harbor?!?” Eighty-one years later, there are probably those who ask the same question…or at least have no idea of the significance of what happened in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Today, visitors can take a boat to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, which was built over the sunken battleship where more than 900 bodies were unable to be recovered. As eloquently put on the wwiifoundation website:

But the USS Arizona was more than just a battleship. Her oil tears still leaked from below. Tears of those who never lived a full life. Never had kids or grandkids who would sit on their lap. Many would never be married. Many would never live to see their full potential.



Little known fact: it was Elvis Presley who helped make this monument a reality. The fundraising campaign began well, but was still short of the goal. Elvis performed a benefit concert at Bloch Arena in 1961 (while filming “Blue Hawaii”) and raised more than $60,000 towards completing the monument. Even more importantly, Elvis’ concert helped increase the awareness of the memorial fund, which made possible the May 30, 1962 dedication.



The Visitor Center is where tourists begin their journey to get to the Monument. 



Inside you can see the bell recovered from the U.S.S. Arizona after the attack. A similar bell was removed from the ship a year earlier and resides at the University of Arizona, Tucson.



The highlight of the visitor center was being able to hear the stories told by Everett Hyland, who was a crew member of the battleship U.S.S. Pennsylvania. He immediately reported to his battle station when the attack began. In writing this post, I learned that the veteran passed away July 24, 2019.



From his obituary:

“If we ever go to war, the last place in the world I wanted to be trapped was down in the bowels of the ship,” the longtime Honolulu resident said in a Navy interview. “I wanted to be top side, so if something happened, I could get off it. So I volunteered for antenna repair squad. I was with the radio division.” When general quarters sounded, he realized there was nothing to be done at his battle station, so he and others began collecting ammo for a 3-inch 50-caliber anti-aircraft gun. The “Pennsy” was in Drydock No. 1 at the time. “We took one hit. The one that hit our ship just happened to be where we were,” Hyland recalled. The 18-year-old was so badly wounded by the aerial bomb that his own friends did not recognize him, the park service said. Flash burns covered his body. He had an ankle wound, a chipped bone in his right leg, his right hand was ripped open, he had a bullet hole through his right thigh, five pieces of shrapnel in his left leg, a chunk blown out of his left thigh — among other injuries. He spent nine months in recovery, and then went back to sea, the park service said. Since 1995, Hyland had volunteered at the visitor center weekly, sharing his story with visitors. “Uncle Ev” had a dry sense of humor and heard a lot of sea stories from the Dec. 7 attack but always “took great pride in telling what he knew and what he actually saw rather than enlarging the story,” said Daniel Martinez, chief historian for the Arizona Memorial.

Also nearby is the U.S.S. Missouri, which was the site of the surrender of the Empire of Japan, which ended World War II.



The plaque on the deck:



Just in case you need to see it closer:



As we get further in time away from each of these historic events, the meaning and ramifications diminish over the years. It is difficult today to imagine how the bombing of Pearl Harbor rallied our nation together, especially now at a time when this country is so divided.
 
See more Hawaii photos at my main website.