Shirley Temple (1928–2014)

Despite her many associations, Ms Temple does not fall into the trap of a story told in the guess who I know and you don’t format. Too classy for that. Yet, a life so interesting, I argue, someone else should have written this book. It would have been more revealing and honest. She is both protected and self protective. The constant risks to her person suggest why.

It is in our nature to look at life’s tragedies and brighten them to the point of saying how one wasn’t affected. I feel, though, a neutral author wouldn’t have glossed over her rape as an adult actor in a train car on the way to a shoot. She excuses her father for bad fortunes and her mother for bad scripts. She hints at color blindness but I doubt she made friends among the brown and gay actors of the times. She led a culturally sheltered life, at times acknowledging how she was overprotected, so maybe that is in part the cause. But kudos to her for her foreign service, at best a thankless for role, at worst an inconsequential one.

Between the lines, beneath the surface lies an injured soul who made the best of the happiness available to her. And not too late, a la Brittany Spears, staking her claim on her own fortune, a happy marriage, a stable household. That is as much a life lesson as stardom. A career mother/woman ahead of her time.

As an aside, a trained writer would have avoided her penchant for SAT words. They stick out like sore thumbs amidst her text, add little to the store other than to suggest she was a tad bit self conscious about her educational attainment. A life well loved offers as much merit as a life book-spent. A good editor would have won that argument.

I enjoyed learning more about life behind the scenes of this fantastically experienced talented actor. She is an American treasure, after all, and time has been kind to her accomplishments. I can no more imagine a child’s life without Shirley Temple Black’s films as I can without the books a Beatrix Potter. She validated the lives, experiences, and emotions of small children for us all, sensitizing us to the relevance of kindness in childhood.… (mer)

I wanted and expected to give this five stars, but it only just made it to four. Reasons for this include too much time devoted to Shirley’s teenage years and beyond; too much focus on financial matters; too many political asides.

Shirley’s 1930s’ films are like anti-depressants to me. I always feel better whilst watching one. Shirley was a remarkable little actress, and it’s her life during the 1930s that interested me most. I would’ve liked more anecdotes relating to her films from this period.

I know numerous people she worked with were dead by the time “Child Star” was written, but it would’ve enhanced the narrative if Shirley could’ve interviewed some people who knew her as a girl to give more insights regarding what went on during the films and backstage. For example, June Lang – a stunning actress who co-starred with Shirley in two films – lived until 2005, so it’s a shame Shirley didn’t approach her to contribute some memories.

Also, with a title like “Child Star”, and with Shirley's fame being it its peak in the mid-to-late 1930s, I hoped the majority of the book would focus on these years, followed by only the most noteworthy events from the 1940s, and perhaps concluding with a summary of starting her own family in the ’50s. Instead, we only get about half the book focusing on her early life, followed by a lot of material from 1940 through to the mid-1950s.

I appreciate that she wanted to write about her second husband, and that it seemed fitting to end with the birth of her final child, but this isn’t the life of the child star that her fans want to read about. Touching on her post-acting career is fine, but to sacrifice material from the ’30s to leave space for what follows is – for an early Shirley fan – disappointing.

On the plus side, much of the info on the 1930s' period is mostly good, and of passages from the early ’40s, Shirley enrolling at an all-girls’ school makes an engaging read. I expected the other girls to treat her like a little princess, but they all but shunned her. It's amazing and sad that they behaved that way towards her. This section almost reads like one of her films.

Overall, I found the book entertaining in parts, but on the whole, not as good as hoped for. The material from around 1945 onwards dilutes what should’ve been a classic autobiography. Most importantly, however, I remain an early Shirley fan, and respect the grown-up Shirley. Her loss in 2014 saw the passing of a screen legend.… (mer)