Shirley Temple Biography The Perfect Life Of The Child Star Shirley Temple During The Great Depression

You are about to discover the astonishing and quite unusual success of Shirley Temple during the harsh times the United States has ever known - The Great Depression of the 1930s. While people struggle for survival, food, shelter, and money, Shirley Temple rocked the entertainment industry and prevented many of the film companies like Twentieth Century Fox from bankruptcy. Shirley Temple was shining light in the hearts of people during the difficult times in the United States and this turned her into a true icon, a child star. In this book, you'll learn how Shirley Temple was able to reach the hearts of so many people, how she shaped the entertainment industry and how she was able to become a star during the most dangerous and scarce times in the American history where I doubt people were on the mood for films and entertainment, yet, she was able to influence so many people and bring light in the darkness. Shirley Temple remains the most famous child star of all time, but even this designation fails to reflect the magnitude of her popularity during The Great Depression. While it is true that she was not the first child actor to reach Hollywood fame, she was the first - and to this day, perhaps the only - star who rose to the very pinnacle of the Hollywood elite before she even turned 10 years old. Grab your copy now!

“[An] elucidating cultural history of Hollywood’s most popular child star . . . a must-read.”—Bill Desowitz, USA Today Her image appeared in periodicals and advertisements roughly twenty times daily; she rivaled FDR and Edward VIII as the most photographed person in the world. Her portrait brightened the homes of countless admirers: from a black laborer’s cabin in South Carolina and young Andy Warhol’s house in Pittsburgh to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s recreation room in Washington, DC, and gangster “Bumpy” Johnson’s Harlem apartment. A few years later her smile cheered the secret bedchamber of Anne Frank in Amsterdam as young Anne hid from the Nazis. For four consecutive years Shirley Temple was the world’s box-office champion, a record never equaled. By early 1935 her mail was reported as four thousand letters a week, and hers was the second-most popular girl’s name in the country. What distinguished Shirley Temple from every other Hollywood star of the period—and everyone since—was how brilliantly she shone. Amid the deprivation and despair of the Great Depression, Shirley Temple radiated optimism and plucky good cheer that lifted the spirits of millions and shaped their collective character for generations to come. Distinguished cultural historian John F. Kasson shows how the most famous, adored, imitated, and commodified child in the world astonished movie goers, created a new international culture of celebrity, and revolutionized the role of children as consumers. Tap-dancing across racial boundaries with Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, foiling villains, and mending the hearts and troubles of the deserving, Shirley Temple personified the hopes and dreams of Americans. To do so, she worked virtually every day of her childhood, transforming her own family as well as the lives of her fans.

Shirley Temple-Black, the popular child star of the 1930s and 1940s, tells of the ups and downs of life as a Hollywood prodigy. She writes of her relationship with her parents, how her finances were controlled, two attempts on her life, her first marriage at 17 and her second, happier marriage to Charlie Black.

*Includes pictures of Shirley Temple and important people, places, and scenes. *Includes Temple's own quotes about her life and relationships. *Includes a Bibliography for further reading. "I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph." - Shirley Temple A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known. Shirley Temple remains the most famous child star of all time, but even this designation fails to reflect the magnitude of her popularity during the era in which she worked. While it is true that she was not the first child actor to reach Hollywood fame, she was the first-and to this day, perhaps the only-star who rose to the very pinnacle of the Hollywood elite before she even turned 10 years of age. For this reason, it is no exaggeration to view Shirley as the progenitor for all of the child actors that succeeded her. Moreover, her cultural importance constitutes an even more important barometer through which to measure her overall significance. Not only was Shirley a film star, but she had a monumental impact on a generation of children who grew up during the Great Depression, with her plucky optimism representing an invaluable calming presence for an American public struggling both financially and emotionally. She was not only a young actress but also a brand name, someone who offered fathers and mothers hope for their children to achieve the same success as the famous child star. For all of Shirley Temple's fame, it is no doubt surprising to many that her actual films received scant critical acclaim. Her films were never mentioned on critical "best of" lists, nor did they regularly appear on the list of nominees for the Academy Awards. In fact, even though most everyone has viewed at least one of her films, it is unlikely that most people could name many of her films. This is not mentioned to degrade her films but instead to identify the way in which the significance of the child star far outshined that of her films. It is worth considering, therefore, what the relationship was between Temple and her films, and how she was framed within the narratives. How exactly did Temple first reach Hollywood fame, and how did the many films she appeared in between 1934 and 1938 - the height of her career - build her fame to its lofty peak even as they were quickly forgotten? Yet another stark difference in Temple's career was the way in which it declined as quickly as it rose. With most famous actresses, a relatively unremarkable childhood precedes an extraordinary film career, but with Temple, the opposite dynamic took place; she led a childhood whose fame has never been equaled, and it has overshadowed the rest of her adult life. Regardless, Shirley Temple remains a household name today, not only for the way in which her career shaped America during the Depression but for the path she blazed for other child stars. American Legends: The Life of Shirley Temple profiles the life and career of Hollywood's most famous child star. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Shirley Temple like you never have before, in no time at all.

Just when you thought you've heard everything about Hollywood comes a totally original new book - a special blend of biography, history and lore. Hollywood Stories is packed with wild, wonderful short tales about famous stars, movies, directors and many others who have been part of the world's most fascinating, unpredictable industry! Full of funny moments and twist endings, Hollywood Stories features an amazing, icons and will keep you totally entertained!

In the 1930s, Shirley Temple was heralded as “America’s sweetheart,” and she remains the icon of wholesome American girlhood, but Temple’s films strike many modern viewers as perverse. Shirley Temple and the Performance of Girlhood examines her early career in the context of the history of girlhood and considers how Temple’s star image emerged out of the Victorian cult of the child. Beginning her career in “Baby Burlesks,” short films where she played vamps and harlots, her biggest hits were marketed as romances between Temple and her adult male costars. Kristen Hatch helps modern audiences make sense of the erotic undercurrents that seem to run through these movies. Placing Temple’s films in their historical context and reading them alongside earlier representations of girlhood in Victorian theater and silent film, Hatch shows how Shirley Temple emerged at the very moment that long standing beliefs about childhood innocence and sexuality were starting to change. Where we might now see a wholesome child in danger of adult corruption, earlier audiences saw Temple’s films as demonstrations of the purifying power of childhood innocence. Hatch examines the cultural history of the time to view Temple’s performances in terms of sexuality, but in relation to changing views about gender, class, and race. Filled with new archival research, Shirley Temple and the Performance of Girlhood enables us to appreciate the “simpler times” of Temple’s stardom in all its thorny complexity.

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