← Chris Distefano Presents: Chrissy Chaos
Chris Distefano Presents: Chrissy Chaos
Chrissy Chaos Presents - Christories: The Dark Truth Behind Shirley Temple
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Christopher DiStefano
This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Make visit lifelock.com podcast for 40% off terms apply. What's up, everybody? Welcome to another episode of christeries. I'm Christopher DiStefano, aka Christerie de Stefano, and this is Christeries. You know when you want to go out and have a drink, but you got your kids and you're like, well, I want to drink tequila till I pass out, but what are these little assholes going to drink? Shirley Temples. That's right. Today we are talking about the one and only Shirley Temple. The little girl behind the drink that your little kids drink when you're drinking. Cause you're going through a divorce. Let's talk about your girl, Shirley Temple. This is gonna get d. Okay, so she was born April 23, 1928 in Santa Monica, California. Ooh, is she a Taurus? I don't know my signs. I'm not fully out of the cloud. Oh, yes. In the background, they're giving me a thumbs up. It is a Taurus. Okay. Her name was Shirley Jane Temple. Her mother's name was Gertrude Temple. I want to have another kid and name her Gertrude. So the mom, Vocal coach, stage mom. The thing is, when kids get into Hollywood and acting and all that, it's usually cause their moms didn't make it. Usually when you see a child that got into all this beauty pageant stuff and Hollywood acting stuff, it's cause their moms or dads didn't make it. And now they're gonna try to live vicariously through their children. JonBenet Ramsey's family killed her. So the parents were Gertrude Temple, who, who was a homemaker, who later became the vocal coach and a stage mom, so psycho. Then you have George Temple, the father, who was a loan officer at a bank, alcoholic, hates his wife, doesn't wanna do this anymore. So these two things will come together and make Shirley Temple, who is a great, great, great little girl, who's probably got a good heart, good spirit, but is eventually ruined by the entertainment industry. And her parents, Temples were a middle class family, not wealthy, but relatively stable. And back in the 1920s was good enough. Shirley loved music. She Liked dancing around the house as a toddler, probably doing other toddler stuff, biting people, cursing like my kids do. And Gertrude believed she had natural charisma and charm. And she was right. Gertrude was right. Shirley Temple really was a charismatic little girl. She was really awesome and captivating. She was the original Honey Boo Boo. So when Shirley was just three years old, Gertrude, her mother enrolled her in the Meglins Dance School in Los Angeles. Now, this place that was known for prepping kids in the entertainment industry, this was like a little cult factory that turned these little kids into little stars and also little drug addicts later on in life. This was like the original Mickey Mouse Club, okay? This is where they came from. Like, for example, if today, if Shirley Temple was alive today, she would be testifying at court about being in a freak off. That's just what it is. So Gertrude, the mother had good intentions. She wanted to keep Shirley's, you know, occupied. She wanted to keep her energy good. She wanted to get her kid active, but she also wanted to live vicariously through her. It's just what it is. And she was a fan of show business. Gertrude again, she probably wanted to be an actress herself and couldn't make it because I don't know why. Maybe she was fat, she didn't have sex with enough guys. I don't know what it was, but there was many, many reasons why you didn't make it. Back then, Harvey Weinstein wasn't alive yet, so there was no there. There's no one that sucked to get to the top. Maybe even Gertrude saw this as getting her daughter out of this lifestyle and getting them up to the next level, getting wealthier and all that. So all good intentions. At Meglin's, the dance school I was talking about in la, she was spotted, Shirley was spotted by a talent scout. And then they started putting her in all these short films that were done by educational pictures. So short films been around a long time. It's not just from Instagram. Okay? They had reels in the 1930s, so early 1930s Hollywood, it's in its golden age, but it's still trying to find its rhythm. It doesn't really know who it wants to be yet. Now, at the time, the US was in a great depression. Millions were unemployed. People wanted escapism and all that. So they just were looking for any type of entertainment. It was kind of like a pandy. It was like a little bit of a pandy. Wendy. No one could afford big trips, luxury items. People didn't have money like that. A movie ticket Was cheap, though. They were lowering those prices to get people into the movies. It was about 25 cents for a ticket. That's $5 today. Shout out inflation. While Wall street was collapsing, Hollywood was selling hopes and millions of people were buying. And this is prime time for your girl Shirley Temple Movies back then they were called talkies. They weren't called movies. I want to bring that back. I'm taking you a talkie. They had replaced silent films by the 1920s. Cause remember Charlie Chaplin and those guys, they were all silent. I thought that they were deaf like Helen Keller, but my mom said, no, it's just silent films. I thought everyone in the 1920s had some type of special need. Every film, by the way, back then was black and white. Okay, so the way it worked back then is every film back then was shot in black and white, but every actor and actress was white. Studios were king back then. You had MGM Studios, Warner Brothers, Fox, Paramount. They had full control over actors, directors, theaters. It all went through them. And the studio system was powerful. They had structure. They controlled actors. Strict contracts, no real autonomy. If you work for us, you can't do nothing else, kid. See, you're not doing nothing. And movies were shot quick. Four to eight weeks for a finished film. That's a quickie. That talkie was done in a quickie. And child actors like Shirley were expected to perform as professionals on grueling schedules. But, I mean, four to eight weeks is quick. I mean, think about that. But the entire movie was shot in eight weeks. They shot an entire movie in the whole length of Hawk Tua's career. She's a nice kid, nice girl. She's my Shirley Temple. Now, here's where it gets cute. Okay, 1930, we have a little short film called War Babies, okay? Shirley Temple gets cast in it. It was first known as Baby Burlesques, which is gross, but just little babies doing burlesque. And this is Shirley Temple's first film role. In War Babies, Shirley played Charmaine, not Charlamagne. Charmaine, a flirtatious cabaret singer and literal prostitute. Did I mention she was 3 years old? This girl's playing a literal prostitute, which was parodying romance dramas. Okay, so she's three. The film was a satire of World War I era love stories with toddlers in diapers, heels, makeup, and occasionally bare midriffs performing adult romantic and sexual scenarios. Do you understand why we had to invent the nuclear weapon? We should have just nuked. We should have nuked everyone who ever lived from 1930 to 1950 to start over. Because now those people have grown up and they've all inherited houses and they're not selling them to me for a good price. You're scumbags. Toddlers would sing, dance, flirt and even kiss each other on cue. So this is good. This is good. This is America. In one scene, Shirley Temple's character is courted by a little baby soldier handed a baby cocktail and engages in playful yet sexualized or sometimes racist dialogue. So that's nice. You have a three year old smoking a cigarette, drinking a cocktail, calling everyone the N word. But she was a great actor. And she was only three, okay? And a legit three. Not like she looks like she's three. Like Wilson, she was literally three. Shirley Temple had an unusually advanced ability to mimic speech and tone. I mean, think about a lot of these three year olds. They don't know what to do. They're eating their boogers. This one is acting in a diaper with her nipples out. So directors would feed her lines verbally. She would parrot them back on camera with perfect timing and charm. So that is very difficult to do. I mean, ask her 3 year old to repeat anything. They can't do it. This one is on camera repeating perfectly the lines back. So people are like, okay, this girl's got real talent. Now, she didn't always understand what she was saying because she's three, but she knew how to hit her marks and smile on cue. And that skill, by the way, that was taught to her by Gertrude, who was always on set. Because that's the thing, okay? It's really, you gotta understand, this isn't really about Shirley. It's about Gertrude. Now do I know that for a fact? No. But here at the Christie show, facts aren't important. So Shirley, she got paid 10 bucks a day, okay? So that's $233 in today's money. When her educational pictures, the studio, who I told you, picked her up for her first short film. They didn't give her any royalties or residuals though. So they gave her these 10 bucks a day. And they were like, be happy with this. And they were, because this was during the Great Depression. So her family was like, all right, we're making money, baby, we making money. Despite the low pay, the series was very lucrative for the studio because they were saving money on these non union child actors in cheap sets. And they were having these kids just go out there and be prostitutes. Now, on the baby burlesque set, AKA the war baby set, Shirley Temple and these other toddlers work six to eight hours A day with absolutely no breaks. Okay, no breaks. And there are probably peanuts on that set. I don't even know if peanut allergies were invented yet. Back then, the Chinese hadn't really come into power. That's a thing. China. There's no peanut allergies in China. I digress. Naps weren't allowed. Okay, no naps. If a child cried or got tired or didn't take direction, they weren't comforted. They were punished. Okay, you better listen to me. You better put that cigarette in your mouth, throw on those high heels, and I don't care if you shit in your diaper. I'm not cleaning it again. The most feared consequence, the punishment box. A dark, windowless sound booth where misbehaving children were locked away, sometimes forced to sit on a block of ice to keep them still and compliant. How gross is that? Imagine that, just having your kids sit on a big block of ice. Cause they were bad. I don't like it. I don't like it. But this is the 1930s where there were no rules. Eventually, Shirley Temple gets sent there a few times just for being fussy or slow to follow orders. Because she's three years old and you're having to work with no breaks. You won't even give her an apple juice. This is the way it was back then, okay? So a lot of times when you hear actors and actresses complaining, today you want to be like, well, go live in the 1930s, okay? Go be a prostitute at 3. And then sit at a block of ice when you're bad. Why don't you shut your mouth, okay? Why don't you never yell at another director on set again? Christian Bale, you dummy. Sorry. I don't even know you, but you seem like a nice man. But there was that one video where you yelled at that director. And it really pissed me off because I would have punched you right in the face. But that could have just been a moment for you. We all have moments now. Life on set. How was it? The crew filmed a new Short movie every 5 to 6 days. Film equip. Get him in, get him out. And these children were expected to just power through. Illness, injury, exhaustion. None of this mattered. They were like, you gotta make a movie, kid. You're gonna be a star. Shirley once danced on a badly injured foot. One day she worked after an ear surgery. You know how painful it is when you think about an ear infection? This girl got an ear surgery. Cause she probably had so many infections. And she worked the day after it at age 3 because time is money. Here's the thing. You wanna know the truth? This is why we were the best back then. This is awful and abusive, but this is how American children were raised. So what I like, what I hear. What I hear that a child is being worked to exhaustion, doesn't really have any rights, is three years old enough to work the day after a ear surgery. What I call that is a modern day Chinese schedule. That's what that is. That's how the Chinese are doing it right now. That's why they're number one. So if we want to get back to the power seat, we're going to have to go back to a little Shirley Temple love. So this obviously wasn't a carefree childhood. This wasn't typical. This was a problem for Shirley Temple. I mean, this wasn't good. This is gonna really ruin her later on in life, as it would any of us. She was constantly working, rehearsing, under scrutiny. She's getting famous. You don't wanna listen. Fame is not what you think it is, okay? It's kind of. You don't, especially back then, people pulling at you, doing all that stuff. Do you want that? I don't think you want that. You have no privacy. Everything you do is under a spotlight. And this girl's only three or four years old. I mean, it sucks. Shirley Temple, you know what this is like. Look at her. She's getting bombarded by the press. She's working all these days. She's just a little kid trying to find herself. She's like the Rizzler. Shirley Temple was the original Rizzler. So Shirley Temple becomes an actual national sensation in 1934 at just six years old. Okay? She had the tap dancing, the dimples, the signature curls, and stand up and cheer. If you don't know that, go Google it. This is where you've seen Shirley Temple. Stand up and cheer was meant to lift American spirits during the Great Depression. Kind of like how Kid Rock is lifting our spirits now during this Great Depression. But it was her performance in the short film Bright Eyes that made her a household name. This is where people start to really hear about Shirley Temple. The film was built around her talents. They made a whole movie around her. And it featured the song that most people know called on the Good Ship Lollipop. You know the song on the Good Ship Lollipop, I'm a three year old prostitute. And it was sung to these airline passengers as she skipped down the aisle. And if you go look at the YouTube comments of this, all the comments are about how she is three years old or six years old, I'm sorry, at the time, trying to pull down her dress because all the guys are ogling over her. And it's just really weird and it doesn't hold up. But it became one of the most iconical musical scenes in early Hollywood. Sold over 500,000 copies. It made Shirley Temple a phenomenon overnight. So literally she went viral. If you wanna think about it that way, she was a child that went viral. Okay? She's like the Rizzler. That's who she was. I like to call the Rizzler is my Shirley Temple. But again, even though the song became a smash hit, she did not receive direct royalties from any of this. Remember, these production companies were not giving her royalties or residuals. So she's this big star and she's definitely making some money, but not the money she should be making. After she gets discovered by Fox for Stand up and Cheer, her contract changed. Now she's going to start to come into Nash money. So she first joins Fox in 1934, right? She gets about 150 bucks a week. $3,500 in today's money. That's a lot of Yeezys. And that's going to be what she makes for her films like Stand up and Cheer, Baby, Take a Bow. That's, that's, you know, what she's making. But then in July 1934, she renegotiates. After the Bright Eyes success. She's a household name now. She's getting 1,000 a week. That's $23,350 today. Now that's a lot more Yeezys. And her mother, Gertrude. There she is. Receives 250 bucks a week. About six grand in today's money. As her hairdresser and personal coach, Shirley was granted 15,000 bucks as a bonus per film. 350 grand today. And that was a new seven year contract with Fox, making her their most valuable star. So at least the girl's starting to make some cash. Here's a little fun fact. At the time, Fox Corporation, they were really struggling financially. Great Depression and all that. So Shirley Temple, even though they gave her a lot of money up front, she helped pull the studio back up out of despair because she became such a big star. And then eventually in 1935, they merged with 20th Century Pictures, creating 20th Century Fox, which they still are today. You can watch NFL, 20th Century Fox. Guys, I want to talk to you about Bluechew. You know, nothing makes me happier than seeing your rock hardcocks that's what I want to see. I love a stiff penis. And I know when you guys send me pictures of your erect penises, I know if it's a bluechew boner or not. I want you having sex all summer. What I love about bluechew tablets is they are made right here in the usa. That's right. Freedom boners. 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It was a miniature little, miniature Oscar statuette just 7 inches tall. And it recognized her for her outstanding contribution to screen entertainment during the year 1934. So that's nice. Congrats to Shirley Temple. She was the first ever recipient of the Juvenile Oscar and it was created specially for Shirley. I don't even know if it's still out. Oh, yeah, it would be given. Other child stars made it, like Judy Garland. And it was only around for like 26 more years. But they don't have an award for that anymore. But if they did have an award for that, I would give it to the Rizzler. Shirley Temple. The thing is, with Shirley, she wasn't just a gimmick. She was like a respected icon and showed the world that Hollywood should be taken seriously. And her impact on Hollywood was taken seriously. Like, this wasn't just like, oh, look at this silly little girl. This was like legit. She was helping the country. So in the darkest times, Shirley Temple's joy, innocence and optimism, it became a national symbol for us. And we were. Don't forget, the country at the time were in the Great Depression, where it just came out of World War I. We're going into World War II. So things are not great here in the United States. We're depressed. And we leaned on Shirley Temple to get us out of this depression. Just like now some may say we're in somewhat of a depression. And that's why President Donald Trump had to release Todd and Julie Chrisley to bring us back hope and joy for this nation. Because the Chrisleys are now out and they know best. And by the way, Shirley Temple was everywhere. Dolls, coloring books, lunchboxes, everything. I mean, this girl was selling that merch, her ringlet curls, those signature ringlet curls. National obsession. Mothers across America tried to replicate her hairstyle on their daughters. But a lot of them found out you can't look like that. You ain't gonna do all that. You gotta have that natural curly hair. Your hair gotta be Puerto Rican. My girl's got that natural curly hair. Don't hate. And here's the thing. We started off this episode by saying, you know her as Shirley Temple. How you probably she's come into your life is because you've had her mocktail. When you're going out and getting drunk, you drink a little bit of her drink. And for the children. Now some of you actually put tequila or something like that in the Shirley Temple. And that is not okay because your kids are gonna accidentally sip that when you're texting your whoever you're having an affair with. The non alcoholic cocktail at the Shirley Temple was probably the first, first ever mocktail, probably number one. Now popular lore says the drink was invented by a bartender at Chasen's, which was a Hollywood restaurant to serve to Shirley when she dined out with the adult stars. They were drinking real cocktails. She was drinking mocktails and they named it after her because of that. Now I'm gonna teach you how to make a Shirley Temple. So how do you make a Shirley Temple? It's ginger ale or a lemon lime soda, Grenadine and cherry. So we don't have any grenadine because we just forgot it. So what we're gonna do is woo, pour a little sauce from the maraschino cherries in the grenadine. That's what we're gonna do. So you can make it however you want it. What I like to do personally is I like to just put all the cherries in there. That's what I like to do. I like to go heavy on the cherry. Okay. And then we put a little bit of soda and then boom. And then you just put all the cherries in there. And if your kids are like my kids what they're gonna do is always want more cherries. My kids have never had enough cherries in their life. And they will. What they'll do is the cherries will sink to the bottom, and my kids, half of my kids, Shirley Temples will be all over the table. And my pants, because they're trying to scoop out the cherries at the bottom with their fingers. So that's what we like to do. And then. Yep, there it is. And then what we do is you take a fun little straw, little peppermint straw, and it's paper. We're saving the turtles. And then you take a little sip, and then there it is. And that's what we call early onset diabetes. Here's a little fun fact. Despite its popularity, Shirley Temple herself didn't even like the drink in 1986. She said the drink wasn't for her, that it was too sweet. And I know what you're thinking, because I'm thinking the same thing. She was alive in 1986. I didn't think she was gonna make it past World War II. See, this is where fame gets stupid. Okay, the curls. Her iconic Shirley Temple curls that everyone loved. First of all, she had to set her hair with vinegar rinses. Mmm. So putting vinegar in her hair, 56 pin curls. A routine that caused pain, scalp damage over time just to keep these curls nice. Of course, the process was uncomfortable. She said that later in life. But the vinegar helps set the curls and prevent fizz under those hot studio lights. You know, it was harsh, but it was effective. And back in the. I mean, look, if they're gonna make three year olds be prostitutes, you think they care about your hair? They're like, just get out there, kid. You're a star. And then fans became so obsessed with her that with these curls, that when they would see her in public, they would pull on the curls to check to make sure that they were real. That's fun. She wanted people pulling your hair all day causing discomfort and distress for little Shirley. So this vinegar curl routine, it became prominent, other stars started doing. Everyone just started putting vinegar in their hair. I mean, here's the thing. History didn't smell good. Just know that. I mean, talking about revolutionary times, Shirley Temple and other kids at the Times hair. I mean, nothing smelled good in the past. She needed those signature curls. That was her thing. That was her thing. Like, imagine Carrot Top didn't have red hair. Like, what is Carrot Top gonna do when he eventually gets cancer? I'm kidding. Love you, Carrot Top. Here's the thing About Shirley, too. Was her childhood great? Of course not. She was constantly working, rehearsing, tightly managed. She had some time to play, but not really. Schooling was limited, so she didn't have. Like, she didn't grow up. And like, you know, it's almost like she was homeschooled or she was schooled on a set. Her mother would not let Shirley play with the other kids. Gertrude was not being nice. She didn't want Shirley to catch a cold or anything like that. You know, she was like, I don't want germs to be passed. I was like, get an N95 then maybe you should get your vaccine. She wouldn't let her kids around other kids. Cause she was like, my kid. Shirley Temple. Don't get your little kid near my kid. And studio executives monitored her behavior, appearance, public presence. The film sets were strict, harsh even for kids. Like I said, they just made them work. No breaks. They didn't care. Things were not as they were today. I mean, not everyone. It wasn't like how it is today, where everyone is. These actors and actresses are just having a good time on set, playing by union rules and then going to a freak off. So her public image of this joyful singing kid was not actually her full reality. I think we all know that looking back, like this is kind of a nightmare for this kid. She stopped believing in Santa Claus at the age of 6. 6 years old when her mother took me. So she once said that she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she was 6. Cause her mother took her to get her Christmas pictures. And Santa Claus asked Shirley Temple for an autograph. Believe that. Way to go, Santa. You scumbag. You're working at a Macy's. Fricking you know, you work. You're a Macy's Santa. You're asking Shirley Temple for autograph? God, I hate you. So Shirley Temple was the top box office draw for like four years in a row. She beat out adult stars like Clark Gable, Bing Crosby. Not Bill Cosby, Bing Crosby, Joan Crawford. That was like beating out Clooney, Timberlake and Angelina Jolie. Just this. Imagine if the Rizzlers box office hits were just past all of them. Oh, God. Society is what it is. Just Rizzler. If you see this, just know we support you here, buddy. We're fans, you know? But I don't want to be part of putting you more into the public spotlight. Cause I don't want you to end up like Shirley Temple. Santa Claus is real. Rizzler, okay? He's real and he loves you. You Work hard to take care of yourself. Your hair should be no different. Whether you're noticing early signs of thinning or just want to keep the hair you've got looking sweet. Nutrafol Men is physician formulated for men and clinically tested to improve hair growth and hair quality. 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When you go to nutrafol.com men and enter the promo code CHAOS, find out why Nutrafol is the leading hair growth supplement brand on the market@nutrafol.com men spelled n u t r a f o l.com men promo code chaos. That's nutrafol.com men promo code chaos. You know, and as she got older, too, she still was in movies. Curly Top, Heidi, the Little Colonel, all these are her movies. And they leaned in. Fox Studios leaned into her wholesome image, the optimism, childlike cheer. They played off all that. But again, she really wasn't this ideal American child in real life. She was just playing one on tv. Her songs were promoted. You know, she always had to be clever and cute and it's fricking exhausting. I'm surprised she didn't turn to heroin earlier. Oh, at just six years old, this was a cute one. In the movie the Little Colonel, she played the granddaughter of a former Confederate officer to try to soften racial tensions. And it worked. There's no racism today. She danced in a movie with Bo Jangles, Bill Bojangles Robinson, you know, Bojangles, the chicken and biscuit chain in the South. That was a real guy, Bo Jangles. So that was real. She danced with him, the first interracial dance performance in a Hollywood film. Cute, cute, cute. It was a bold scene for its time. Just the image of a black man and a white child holding hands and dancing together was something that was considered controversial at the time, especially in the segregated South. But it really helped bring some people together. Even if it was short lived. It was cute actually. You know what's crazy about this scene with Bill Bojangles Robinson? Some of the south, cause it was so segregated, they wouldn't even put the film on. They would not play it. Or they cut the scene out of it. Cause they didn't want that being shown, which is just whack. That's why sometimes the south pisses me off. But they developed a strong bond. Shirley Temple and Bojangles were actually really good friends. She loved Robinson. She said he was always so kind to her. He was patient. A true friend that developed a very strong bond. He taught her how to tap dance and all that. So those all great things. And she actually said, he was the nicest man I ever worked with. And they did a few more movies together. So some people didn't like it. But hey, it's what it is. They liked it. And I think they did a good job for race relations at the time. All right, so this is where it gets dark. So here's the thing. Shirley Temple eventually starts to say that Hollywood is crawling with copulating Tomcats. So tomcats are basically cats, male cats who just want to aggressively have sex with everything. Copulation, it's a fancy word to say sex. And so she felt like she was constantly getting harassed, sexually harassed. Unwanted attention, predatory behavior she experienced in the industry as just 10, 11 years old. MGM, the new studio picks up her contract. She's 11 years old. They say, first we get rid of the baby fat and then we get rid of the hair. Ozempic. Now the big time producer at the time, Arthur Freed, allegedly unzipped his trousers and exposed his penis to her, saying, I have something made just for you. There you go. She was 11. She responded by giggling nervously, as any kid probably would. And then he threw her out of the office and yelled at her. He was, by the way, he's an associate producer of the wizard of Oz at the time, yelled at her and said, get out of my office. And dismissed her from the room. So that's a real scumbag right there. At 17 years old, this producer, David O. Selznick, sexually assaulted her. She was warned. Shirley Temple said, if you ever see Selznick in stockings, that Means that he wants a sexual favor from you. So what the kid liked to do is just throw in a pair of stockings and get blowies from minors. It's just what it is. What Hollywood was back then. A 17 year old was just running around an office trying to fight off some disgusting older guy's unwanted sexual advances. But that's what it was back then. There was no cameras and no social media. She endured groping sexual harassment. It was just gross, gross, gross, gross. And she fought through all this and still became the icon that she is. And this was all before there were readily available Krav Maga classes on every corner where she could properly defend herself with Israeli Jiu jitsu. So a Critic in the 1930s, Graham Greene, called Shirley Temple a complete totsy, suggesting that the studio was exploiting her sex appeal even as a child. Harsh accusation at the time, but probably accurate. Night and Day magazine called her dimpled depravity, a shocking phrase implying corruption behind her sweet image, which shocked many fans and parents alike. But it was a truthy wuthie, and they defended their star. 20th Century Fox said Shirley Temple fought back. She sued for libel and they won. They protected her reputation from damaging and false accusations, which again under the COVID we know now to probably be true. But you know, you don't want that info out there. So Shirley Temple wrote her own autobiography called Child Star. Now I quote, she wrote this. Mother's eyes widened in astonishment. In Italy, as in some other countries in Europe, there is a persistent rumor that Shirley is no child at all. Shirley is a midget. Oh, you mean little person. So they actually sent in a priest to examine her in person to make sure that she was in fact 10 years old. And the priest was like, why am I examining her? It's not even a boy I don't care about. By the time Shirley Temple was 12, she earned over $3.2 shmillion dollars, a staggering fortune for a child in the 1930s. And she did it all without opening one toy box on YouTube. She didn't even do it once. So she earned this money, which is about $71 million in today's money. But she was only given $13 a day, about $300 a day in today's money as pocket money, just a small fraction of all the money she earned, showing that she had no control over anything in the finances. The studios had it. And my girl Gertrude, once you reached adulthood, guess what Shirley's like, oh, I only have 44,000 bucks in my bank account. That doesn't Seem good. A drastic drop from what she had actually earned, I'd say. So somebody took your money, girl. Now, this was because her father, good for nothing, was a poor financial manager. Didn't know what the hell he was doing. Over time, Shirley came to forgive him. That's sweet of her understanding. He was just overwhelmed by the pressures and complexities of handling a large fortune on behalf of a child. So, I mean, I do give him that. You don't know what to do with that kind of money, you know? You don't know what to do with that kind of money. So he said, listen, I'm just gonna put it all on the Yankees. She had her very last big hit was the Little Princess in 1939. That was a good one. But then the next year, in 1940, it was called the Bluebird. That one bombed. Didn't really attract a big audience. And then her contract with 20th Century Fox dropped. That's the thing with these studios. They'll drop you, okay? You don't think that you have any friends in this business, okay? Really, the only person that really actually loves you is probably your mother. Unless you're Casey Anthony. Listen, she gets married at 17 to this guy, John Agar. Divorced at 21. Marriage isn't working. I mean, she's kind of crazy. He's kind of dumb and immature. But as she got older, Shirley Temple studios and critics, they couldn't really see her beyond that childhood image. So she just didn't really get that many roles. She just couldn't really do it. It's like she got typecasted, if you will. It's like you're always just going to be that kid from that thing. And we don't see it any other way. Last major film role was called A kiss for Corliss. 1949. And that ended her Hollywood career. 1950s, she does Shirley Temple storybook television show. Kind of didn't really do that well. It was okay. It just highlighted how difficult her life was, you know, losing the career after childhood, fame and all that. So how do we wrap up her life? 1950, she marries a guy, Charles Alden Black, who was a decorated Navy intelligence officer, successful businessman. They wound up staying married for 50 years, moved to San Francisco. Cause he was probably undercover gay. And they raised a beautiful family together. She actually then turns her life. She goes away from Hollywood and goes to public service. She becomes a US Ambassador to Ghana, later to Czechoslovakia. She's there for the transition out of communism in Czechoslovakia after the Berlin Wall, which we'll be doing an Episode about soon. And she became the first female chief of protocol for the US and a delegate to the United Nations. In 1972, Shirley Temple does get diagnosed with breast cancer, underwent a mastectomy. At that time, the disease was still taboo. She had held a press conference from her hospital bed, and she encouraged women to get checkups and talk openly about their health. She's one of the first major public figures to speak out, helping to destigmatize the conversation around cancer. Kind of like Magic Johnson and AIDS. Shirley Temple's quote was, My boobs have AIDS. So Shirley Temple made 29 feature films as a child actor between 1932 and 1940, with the most iconic roles coming between the ages of 5 and 12. So she peaked early. The girl did peak early. But overall, what a great career. What a legend. FDR, the great president during World War II, actually praised her for lifting the nation's spirits during these tough times. And he went to go give her a standing ovation, but then he realized he had polio and he can't move. Shirley Temple received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998. SAG Lifetime Achievement Award, 2005. Two memoirs, including Child Star, which we spoke about. Do you want to know the most surprising fact of all this? Okay. I told you. Shirley Temple, childhood actor, abused, went through all this fame, all these problems, kicked in and out of the studios, worked to death. She died in 2014. Oh, my God. 2014. This girl lived to Adrenochrome. Is real. 85 years old. Shirley Temple made it to 85 years old. Who the hell would have guessed that? I honestly thought because the other ones didn't make it. Judy Garland died young. Amy Winehouse, everyone else dies young. But not Shirley Temple. Wow. All right, maybe portraying a childhood prostitute is the key to life, but, Shirley Temple, we love you. We love your drink. You are more than just a childhood star. You brought joy and prosperity to America when we really needed it. The legacy child icon, survivor of the predatory patriarchal system, ambassador of the U.S. proud defender of freedom. Today, her story reminds us we gotta protect the talent, not just the image. We gotta make sure these kids aren't out there being prostitutes at 3 years old. And do not hire your father to handle your money. Gets a lot of us. Here's to losing a foot. And remember, yesterday was history. Nurse.