A very brief glimpse of the life of Shirley Temple is neatly
explained in this 29-page book by John Bankston, which is geared for both young
and old readers.
This Blue Banner Biography book highlights the beginning
and end to Temple’s movie career. Shirley Temple was born in April of 1928, and
from 1935-1938 she was the biggest box office attraction at the movies.
When Temple was 3-years-old, her mother enrolled her
in The Ethel Meglin Dance Studio. Temple advanced quickly, and with less then
10 months of dance lessons, she harnessed her lessons with her natural skill
and rhythm as a dancer.
The 1930s Baby Burlesk short comedies showcased
children mimicking adults with a combination of innocence and secularism. The
Baby Burlesk movies paid the preschool aged Temple $50.00 a week and her
mother, Gertrude an additional $5.00 a week.
When Temple was 4 years in 1933, she was in feature films earning a $150.00 a week while her mother was making $25.00 per week.
Temple made several movies with Bill “Bojangles”
Robinson who became a famous dancer when he was 8-years-old in the 1880s. Bojangles
and Temple were the first interracial dance duo in American movies. I highly
recommend watching the stair dance Temple and Bojangles did in the 1935 movie, “The
Little Colonel.”
By the time Temple was 21-years-old, she was done
making movies. In 1998, she told Jet
magazine, Bojangles was her favorite star, and she called him Uncle Billy in
the Jet magazine interview, as she did when she acted, danced, and sung with
him in the 1930s.
An easy four star read.
Mark Izzy Schurr
