Shirley Temple was an American heroine who devoted her career to films early on, and later, to public service. She was born on April 23rd, 1928. She was easily one of the most famous movie stars of the 20th century. In 1932, at age 3, she made her debut and skyrocketed to fame, 2 years later in 1934 in, “Bright Eyes”. Shirley Temple brought optimism and hope to Americans during the Great Depression as that “blonde, curly haired little girl”. Americans fell in love with her; flocking to see her tap dance and sing songs such as her popular, “The Good Ship Lollipop”. In fact, she was so popular she won an Academy Award at the age of 6. I thought that was crazy but it really shows the impact she had in this era. I think Shirley Temple’s popularity in the early 1930s can be contributed to Americans wanting to “return the good values” in film and show business that they thought had been corrupted by portrays of sex and violence in Hollywood film. She left the film industry at the age of 12, and retired completely from films at age 22. We all know her as a child television actress, singer, and dancer; however, she was also a writer and someone who was very interested in United States policy and politics. It was really interesting for me to learn that Shirley Temple ran for Congress in 1962, and was also appointed U.S Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia.
I read a great article on Shirley Temple being a symbol of conservative ideology perpetuated by the Hoover Administration, super fascinating...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC02folder/shirleytemple.html
I had no idea Shirley Temple was an ambassador! That's really impressive that she still went on to do interesting things even though she probably had amassed a pile of money from her early fame and as such could have lived comfortably without working. It probably was a pretty smart tactical move, though: who could refuse Shirley Temple?
ReplyDeleteI thought she vanished when her youth did!