Charles Black
the San
Francisco businessman she married after divorcing John Agar admitted to her while they were courting that he had never seen any of her movies.
In recent
years she openly admitted to a mastectomy operation, perhaps the first public figure ever to do so, and she encouraged other
women who required the surgery to follow her example without fear.
Her daughter
"Lorax" (Lori Black) was the bass player for the rock band The Melvins.
When
Shirley Temple was to play the part of the Beauty, in a production of "Beauty and the Beast", she was amused when her then,
very young, daughter remarked: "Gee, Mom, you'll make a swell Beast!".
She was supposed
to play Dorothy in The Wizard of
Oz (1939), but 20th Century Fox refused to lend her to MGM, so Judy Garland was cast in the role.
When
7-year-old Shirley Temple's life was insured with Lloyd's, the contract stipulated that no benefits would be paid if the child
film star met with death or injury while intoxicated.
Has
three children: Linda Susan Agar (1948), 'Charles Black Jr' (1952) and Lori Alden Black (1954).
Her
mother, Gertrude, did her hair in pin curls for each movie... every hairstyle had exactly 56 curls.
Breast
cancer survivor.
Became
a Dame of Malta, although NOT from the officially recognized Roman Catholic order -- but rather from a non-Roman Catholic
unaffiliated entity.
Actresses
Shirley Jones and Shirley MacLaine were both named after her.
Has
a soft drink named after her
She learned
her trade at Meglin's, a popular talent school. Judy Garland was once a fellow `Meglin Kiddie'.
From
the 70s onward she has been active in politics for almost 30 years, she served as ambassador to Ghana
and Czechoslovakia and held other government-related positions in the U.S.
Appears on
sleeve of The Beatles's "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
Measurements:
35-24-35 (as an adult), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine)
Auditioned
twice to be in "Our Gang" / "The Little Rascals." She apparently failed the first audition, and made the second while she
was appearing in the "Baby Burlesks" series. "Our Gang" director Robert F. McGowan refused to agree to Shirley's mother's request that Shirley receive star billing
with "Our Gang," so she didn't get in.
Briefly considered
for the role of Dorothy in The Wizard of
Oz (1939), but it was determined that her singing limitations were "insurmountable," and
Judy Garland, MGM's first choice, was cast instead.
She
was voted the 38th Greatest Movie Star of all time by Entertainment Weekly.
When
she was a teenager her body guard was Louis Dean Palmer, who she called 'Palmtree'.
Aged
six became the youngest person ever to be presented with an Oscar
Premiere
Magazine ranked her as #33 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature (2005).
Was
named #18 Actress, The American Film Institutes 50 Greatest Screen Legends
According
to Gary Wills' "John Wayne's America"
director John Ford had serious issues with women, which carried over onto his sets. When he made Wee Willie Winkie (1937) with Shirley Temple, she was a child as well as the top box office star in America and he treated her well. When she was cast in Fort Apache (1948), she was a young woman and he did not. Like her role in Wee Willie Winkie (1937), she played the "cute but unmanageable troublemaker at the post" who is befriended
by and relies on an avuncular sergeant, both times played by Victor McLaglen. McLaglen had been blackballed by Ford for the previous seven years, but was brought
back into the Ford stock company with Fort Apache (1948). When Ford met Shirley, whose husband John Agar he had also cast in the picture, he rudely asked her, "Now where did you go to
school, Shirley? Did you graduate?".
Is portrayed
by Ashley Rose
Orr and by Emily Hart in Child Star:
The Shirley Temple Story (2001) (TV)
Husband
#2 Charles Black was a businessman and maritime issues consultant. He served on a Commerce Department advisory committee and
several National Research Council panels. H also co-founded a Massachusetts-based company that developed unmanned deep-ocean
search and survey imaging systems. He died of bone marrow disease at age 86. It had been diagnosed three years earlier.
She
calls it corny but she admitted that she fell in love with Charles Black at first sight. They met while she was in Honolulu. He was working for a shipping company there at the time.
Presented
Walt Disney with his special Academy Award for Snow White and
the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It was a standard sized Oscar with seven little Oscars.
Says
that she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she went to a department store to have her picture taken with him, and he asked
for her autograph.
Broke
her wrist in a fall at her North California home [November 1, 2006].
As a
child Bill "Bojangles" Robinson was her idol, she got to work with him on four different pictures.
At the age
of 6, she was the youngest presenter at the Oscars ever. She presented the "Best Actress" award in 1935. The winner was Claudette Colbert.