Anne Edwards - Shirley Temple: American Princess

American Princess

Books by Anne Edwards

BIOGRAPHY

Sonya: The Life of Countess Tolstoy

Vivien Leigh: A Biography

Judy Garland: A Biography

Road to Tara: The Life of Margaret Mitchell

Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor

A Remarkable Woman: A Biography of Katharine Hepburn

Early Reagan: The Rise to Power

Shirley Temple: American Princess

The DeMilles: An American Family

Royal Sisters: Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret

Streisand: A Biography

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The Inn and Us (with Stephen Citron)

Leaving Home: A Hollywood Blacklisted Writers Years Abroad

NOVELS

The Survivors

Shadow of a lion

Haunted Summer

Miklos Alexandrovitch Is Missing

The Hesitant Heart

Child of Night

CHILDRENS BOOKS

P.T. Barnum

The Great Houdini

A Childs Bible

An imprint of Globe Pequot

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright 1988 by Anne Edwards

First Lyons Paperback Edition 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

The Library of Congress has catalogued an earlier hardcover edition as follows:

Edwards, Anne

Shirley Temple: American Princess

Cinema films. Acting. Temple, Shirley, 1928

Title

791. 430280924

ISBN 0-00-217988-1

ISBN 978-1-4930-2691-3 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-2692-0 (e-book)

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

AT THE 1998 KENNEDY CENTER HONORS, where Shirley Temple Black was one of the honorees, President Bill Clinton, grinning mischievously, said: Shirley Temple had the greatest short career in movie history and then retired toas we well knowthe far less strenuous life of public service. It earned a hearty laugh from the stellar audience of diplomats and Washingtonians gathered there, who were all too familiar with the pressured ordeal of public service.

As she rose to generous ovations, the woman who, indeed, had been the most famous child star of all time, smiled and waved to the audience below from the balcony that held the president and the other recipients being honored. Queen Elizabeth could never be more regal or beloved. She was an icon who, during the darkest days of the Great Depression, had brought light to many. As Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared in 1935, As long as our country has Shirley Temple, we will be all right. When the spirit of the people is lower than any other time during this Depression, it is a splendid thing that just for 15 cents, an American can go to a movie, look at the smiling face of a baby and forget his troubles.

She was like no other child performer, an icon throughout her childhood and early youth; so natural a performer she immediately became real. If Little Shirley could persevere and survive for the good of all, so could the country. However, when she flowered into full womanhood her career wilted and fell from the vine. No one wanted to see her, in a sense, lose her purity. Her movies failed and she ostensibly retired.

Only, she did not.

She married twice, had three children, and in her late twenties as Shirley Temple Black (her second husband, Charles Black, was a California businessman known for his work in aquaculture and oceanography) turned all her attention to politics and social issues. Perhaps, to the surprise of many, her knowledge, intelligence, and dedication to public service won her a place early on in her countrys history. It was this dramatic second life, coming from where she did, that made me eager to know more about her. Out of that enthusiasm came this book.

It was said that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger when attending a fund raiser in the early 1970s that Shirley also was at, overheard her speaking passionately about the problems facing the South African country of Namibia whose people were engaged in a bitter guerrilla war for independence. He immediately intervened, speaking with her, and found her knowledge on the situation surprisingly informative. The chance meeting led to her being appointed Representative to the United Nations General Assembly where she acquitted herself well, speaking up and fighting for many difficult issues. President Ford made her United States Ambassador to Ghana; and she served as United States Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) during some of the harshest days of the Cold War and that countrys hard-fought battle against Communism.

She seemed fearless, never at a loss for words to get her ideas over, never backing away from controversy. I am unsure if those in this small African nation knew her back story. She had retained a great likeness to her younger self. But the mature woman that country now dealt with was a politically knowledgeable, rigorous spokesperson. She was a liberal Republican, guided as strongly by her heart as she was by her chosen party. Men were not cowed by her presence, but they certainly respected her as men in Great Britain had (with some reservation) Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Yes, she made some missteps, yet her integrity was never besmirched.

President Clinton, in that tribute at Kennedy Center was to say: She did a masterful job as ambassador [to both Ghana and Czechoslovakia]. In fact (that grin again), she has to be the only person who both saved an entire studio [Fox] from failure and contributed to the fall of Communism! Quite an achievement!

Once my decision was made to write this book, with President Fords letter of introduction, I contacted her by telephone. (All our conversations were conducted in this fashion as I lived in Connecticut and she in Northern California and each of us had our reasons for not traveling at the time.) She was polite, accommodating, but only slowly forthcoming. Before our telephone conversations, I had researched and interviewed those who worked with Shirley during her adult years, and was as amazed as Kissinger had been, not at just how knowledgeable she was, but at her Lets get to it! style. She plowed right into the situation, became engaged with all those around her and with the people of the country in which she was a working guest. My many conversations with President Ford gave me a deep understanding of the woman Little Shirley had become. She had told me, during one phone call that she always saw herself as two peopleLittle Shirley and the person I am now. Little Shirley is buried somewhere in the deep recesses of my brain. She ghost walks at times. But she is no longer me.

The adult Shirley I spoke with possessed a distinct authorial tone. At times I suspected something unsaid stirred within her and she would add an amusing comment on herselfnever at the cost to someone else. I think people are surprised I did not become Baby Jane, (as in the horror movie, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.) In my case, Little Shirley grew up to be a woman who cared about the world and who cant really recall that other young person. Not in depth, anyway. (Pause) I cant think of anyone I ever hated. Disagreed withyes. Lots of those folks. Ive always been determined to win them over. Its not always a win. But its not always a loss either!