Think of a girl
with curly bouncy blond hair tap dancing and singing and your mind always goes
to Shirley Temple. No matter what age, whether you are 10, 30, 60 or 80 you have been
somehow touched by her image or her talent.
The fact that there are DVDs out again in 2014 illustrates that point. I could easily speak of her movies but I’d like to share the other Shirley Temple who was
hidden from the public eye but who leaks out of the pages of books and stories written about her. Shirley was more than that
talented child that director
Allan Dwan was quoted saying, ''With Shirley, you'd just tell her once and
she'd remember the rest of her life," ''Whatever it was she was supposed
to do - she'd do it. ... And if one of the actors got stuck, she'd tell him
what his line was – she knew it better than he did”, the director of Heidi said"
As Shirley matured her life changed remarkably but each of her new experiences
made her an impressive woman. When she found her film career was not going well
she made a surprising announcement that she would retire. At age 17 she married John Agar Jr who had starred with her in Fort Apache. She found out quickly that he could be a mean
drinker and philander. She was forced to drive herself to the
hospital when she went in to labor with her daughter Linda Susan. With the reality
of her life she divorced and decided to retire from her film career to give her daughter all her time. A year later she fell madly in love with
Charles Alden Black a California businessman.
He was also interested in world economics and politics. Shirley found she had a real interest in
it. She and her new husband had two
children, Chuck and Lori. Her next focus was helping others doing
community service. When her brother developed multiple sclerosis she involved
herself in learning all she could about the disease. She went to the doctor with George to learn
as much as she could. She found that more people needed to be doing research on
the disease so she became co-founder of the international Multiple sclerosis
Society. She could be seen visiting at
the hospital doing things like serving
meals and visiting tirelessly. Her focus was on them, never herself. Later she was asked to be a UN delegate. She saw that her film reputation helped her
to be able to speak to many political figures and she took advantage of that fact
and became an asset to the UN. Later she became the Ambassador to Ghana. She was able to help with the crisis
there, Her next appointment was as Ambassador to
Czechoslovakia. After arriving in Czechoslovakia
she and her husband heard a group of youth demonstrating. They followed the noise and ended up right in
the center of the start of a revolution.
After escaping to the hotel 61 yr.
old Shirley took a seat on the upstairs window
ledge as the Ambassador and watched the event. She was spotted by the
newspaper and she again became a new kind of leader. The area of Prague was a political hot spot
and she fought a huge battle trying to
free prisoners , fighting for human
rights and working for democracy behind
the scene. She worked for 20 years in
service starting with Nixon and ending with Carter when he came into
office. Her ability to see and work
through the complex issues of a foreign power showed the abilities she
had. One day she discovered a lump in
her breast and returned to the US for a mastectomy. She decided that she should use this recent
crisis to make women aware of the need to take care of themselves. She was the 1st celebrity to speak
of her mastectomy and cancer publically.
She helped to promote self -
breast exams. Over the years she received
many film awards including a mini Academy Award but she lovingly said at age 80 that her greatest
roles were as wife, mother and grandmother. "There's nothing like real
love. Nothing." Her husband of 55 years, Charles Black, had just died a few months earlier. That curly topped singing dancing little girl
changed the morale of the US during the
Great Depression and gave us so much
more in her 85 years that sadly is not often recognized. Thank you Shirley, you
sure did do what your mother said “Sparkle Shirley Sparkle” in your life.
