I chose Shirley Temple because we are a lot alike! We both have dimples and like to sing and dance. Shirley was a great actress and she served as ambassador of Ghana and ambassador of Czechoslavakia. Shirley Temple Black had a very interesting life!!

                                        Shirley Temple Full Report                                                        

          Famous Americans are people who contribute to other people’s lives. Some famous Americans have lived through slavery or are very good athletes, but there is one person who is far different than any of those famous Americans! She is very inspiring and exciting. Her singing and dancing were so vibrant and elegant that she became the most popular child star and movie star of the entire 1930’s! She was even inspiring as a congresswoman and as ambassador of Ghana. If a baby girl can do all that she did as an actress and dancer than anybody can! That wonderful woman and used-to-be wonderful girl is the one and only Shirley Temple!

Shirley Temple was born on April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California. Her parents were Gertrude and George Temple. Shirley had two older brothers, so she was her mother’s last hope for a girl. When Shirley took her first steps she started out on her toes like a ballerina! Whenever Gertrude would turn on music Shirley would sway in her crib. Shirley’s mother wanted to be an actress but failed. She had dreams that her daughter would go through what she wanted to go through, but didn’t!

 Shirley was home schooled because her mother was afraid of sending her to public school. Shirley started real school later in her life.

In 1931 Shirley started lessons at Ethel Meglin Dance Studio. She started here when she was only three years old, and that is pretty young to be a great dancer.

She wanted to star in lots of movies because it was both her dream and her mother’s dream. It was her dream since she was two, but her mother had that dream for her since before Shirley was even born! In 1931 Shirley gained her first acting job in a film series called “Baby Burlesks”. She was so good in Baby Burlesks that Fox Studios her for a seven year contract! She was paid only $50 dollars a week when she was in Baby Burlesks and that was only on the weeks that they shot film. When Shirley signed with Fox studios her wage went up from $50 to $150 a week. Shirley started out playing extra roles in movies at Fox studios before they realized that she was a golden actress!

Whenever Shirley would walk into an audition she would say, “I’m Shirley Temple. I take good direction. If you want me, please tell me what time and what to wear.” It was very hard to pass up!

Every night instead of a story, Gertrude would go over Shirley’s lines with her so that she was prepared for the next day of filming.

When she was five in 1933 she cast her first film, “Stand up and Cheer” and signed a seven year contract with Fox Studios.

 She did the famous staircase dance with Billy “Bojangles” Robinson in the movie “The Little Colonel”.

 In 1935, when Shirley was 6, she was awarded an Oscar, but it was smaller than all the other Oscars, so she was disappointed. The Oscar was smaller because she was younger than everyone else.

 In 1936 she was the top box office star for three years and she earned more money than any other movie star ever! In 1936 when Shirley was eight she started the Westlake School for Girls.

In 1937 Shirley cast her movie “Heidi”, which was based on a popular book. In 1939 Shirley was asked to be in the movie “The Wizard of Oz” but refused and the movie ended up being a hit with Judy Garland, instead of Shirley!

Shirley had a very interesting childhood!!

Shirley Temple had a very interesting adulthood as well as her childhood!

In 1945 Shirley graduates from Westlake School for Girls, and then marries John Agar. Shirley and John’s wedding was on September 19, 1945. When they were married they lived in a small cottage behind Shirley’s parent’s house. In 1948 Shirley’s first daughter was born, Linda Susan. John was an alcoholic so he was drunk a lot and Shirley left the dinner table crying very often. John Agar soon became an actor too so him and Shirley were extras in a movie once together. Then in 1949 John and Shirley got sadly divorced.

In 1949 Shirley made her last movie, A Kiss for Corlisss. Then she retired from the movie business, because her last movies were not good, in 1950 to marry Charles Black after their meeting in Hawaii. They got married on December 16, 1950. Shirley’s first and only son, Charles Jr. was born in 1952. In 1954 Shirley and Charles’s second child, and Shirley’s second daughter, is born. Her name is Lori Alden. They all lived together as a family in Washington D.C. Shirley soon had a TV show about her called Shirley Temple’s Storybook.

  In 1967 Shirley runs for the congress woman of California, but she loses the election. President Richard Nixon chooses Shirley to be the representative of the United Nations in 1969.

In 1972 Shirley is diagnosed with breast cancer, she has a mastectomy and recovers. Now Shirley is fine and does not have breast cancer.  

Shirley becomes the U.S. ambassador to Ghana in 1974. She helped Ghana through their times of misery. In 1976 she was promoted to the U.S. Chief of Protocol.

She published her autobiography, Child Star, in 1988. Child Star was a successful book because everyone that wasn’t alive to see Shirley’s movies got a taste of what she was like in the movies.

 In 1989 Shirley became the ambassador of Czechoslovakia. George Bush asked Shirley to be the Ambassador of Czechoslova.

 That is the amazing adulthood of Shirley Temple!

                   Shirley also had a lot of significance too! First of all, she helped Fox Studios out of bankruptcy. She made everyone that lived through the great depression feel better with her awesome movies and music. She made the movies a more exciting place during the 1930’s. Shirley was the actress that people through the great depression with her great acting skill and uplifting movies that boosted spirits.

As she grew older she had many bigger accomplishments such as, helping Ghana out of their times of misery. In 1998 she was a recipient of the Kennedy Centers Honors.  Her bronze statue by Nigel BPC is unveiled at Fox Studios during the dedication of their Shirley Temple Child Care Center. Shirley Temple is a very significant woman and girl!

          So as you see Shirley Temple is an all out good actress, congresswoman and overall a good person!          

WORKS CITED

Fiori, Carlo. The Story of Shirley Temple Black, Hollywood’s Youngest Star. Milwaukee: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 1990.

Bankston, John. Shirley Temple. Hockessin, Delaware: Mitchell Lane Publishers, 2004.

“Shirley Temple”. 3 Mar. 2008. http://www.biography.com/search/article.do?id=9503798&page=print.